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1000 X's & O's has been announced as the tenth track on Prince's forthcoming 38th album Hitnrun.The history of the track goes back 23 years, however.
The track was originally recorded (as A 1,000 Hugs And Kisses) in late April - early May, 1992, at Studios 301, Sydney, Australia, while in Sydney on the Diamonds And Pearls Tour (during the same set of sessions as Goldnigga, Deuce & A Quarter, Goldie's Parade, Everybody Get On Up and Baby Doll). At the time of recording it was intended for Rosie Gaines, who sung lead vocals on the recording. Prince had planned on recording a rap by Carmen Electra to include in the song, but he decided against it on the advice of his bandmembers.
In late 1993 or early 1994, Rosie Gaines' vocals were replaced by Nona Gaye at Paisley Park Studios, Chanhassen, MN, USA, and her version (still known as A 1,000 Hugs And Kisses) was intended for a planned project titled MPLS, but this project remained unfinished. Around the same time, however, it was considered for inclusion on a proposed album by Nona Gaye, but this was also left unfinished.
During Prince's 2007 21 Nights In London : The Earth Tour, he unexpectedly played the track during a solo piano set at the 31 August, 2007 show, marking its only live performance to date, over 15 years after its initial recording.
A new recording of the track was premiered over the PA prior to an unannounced Prince show at Paisley Park Studios on 16 November, 2014 (am) (along with Revelation, The X's Face, a new recording of If I Could Get Your Attention, Ain't About 2 Stop and a remix of Pretzelbodylogic), following a show by FKA twigs in a different room. On 24 July, 2015 the track was announced on BBC News as inclusion on Prince's 38th album Hitnrun due 7 September, 2015 on Tidal. It is assumed that the version planned for inclusion on Hitnrun is the re-recording from Autumn 2014 at Paisley Park Studios, but this is unconfirmed. The revised title for the track was only revealed when the album's tracklist was posted on Amazon.fr's CD preorder page.
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