New Position is the second track on Prince’s eighth album Parade, the third to be credited to Prince and the Revolution. The track also is also played in Prince’s second feature film, Under The Cherry Moon.
Basic tracking took place in Spring-Summer 1982 at Prince’s Kiowa Trail Home Studio in Chanhassen, Minnesota, along with several other tracks that would re-appear over the next several years. This original 1982 recording remains unreleased. Prince also recorded a song called New Position for Vanity 6 around the same time, but both songs are different despite having the same name.
The track was re-recorded on 17 April 1985 at Sunset Sound in Hollywood, California, with Prince recording the drum track in sequence of Wendy’s Parade, New Position, I Wonder U and Under The Cherry Moon, all in one take. He then layered other instruments over all four tracks. Clare Fischer arranged and recorded orchestration for the song at some point in mid-late 1985 at Monterey Sound Studios in Glendale, California. but Prince preferred the track without orchestration, and chose to use the track without orchestration for the final release. A short portion of the discarded Fischer arrangement was later sampled by Prince in Rave Un2 The Joy Fantastic.
Wendy and Lisa created a slower variation of the song called Soul Sister in November 1985, by adding overdubs, new lyrics. The re-written chorus contains a chant of Big ol’ soul sister that was sung by occasionally sung by Prince and the Revolution in concerts between 1984 and 1986.
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Recording Information
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Recording Sessions
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Date
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Studio
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Additional info
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17 April 1985-19 & 23 April 1985
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Sunset Sound Studio 3, Hollywood, CA, USA
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Tracking, overdubs, mix (17th); overdubs (18th), overdubs, mix (19th), overdubs (23rd)
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1 May 1985
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Sunset Sound, Hollywood, CA, USA
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Mix (likely)
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July 1985 (assumed)
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Monterey Sound Studios, Glendale, CA, USA
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Orchestra recording by Clare Fischer
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11 or 12 November 1985 (estimate)
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Advision Studios, London, England
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Overdubs (guitar) and reworking with (Wendy & Lisa (including creating Soul Sister version)
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18 November 1985 (estimate)
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Pumacrest Mobile Recording Unit (from Advision Studios) in Nice, France
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Mix (Wendy & Lisa, probably with Prince)
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16 December 1985
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Sunset Sound, Hollywood, CA, USA
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Strings only mix and additional work on Soul Sister
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27 January 1986
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Sunset Sound - Studio 3, Hollywood, CA, USA
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Orchestra only mix for Under The Cherry Moon (Susan Rogers, sans Prince)
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Recording Personnel
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Parade version
Unreleased 1985 version
- Orchestral Players:
- Violins - Isabelle Daskoff, Francine Walsh, Mari Botnik, Pam Gates, Janice Gower, Karen Jones, Betty Moor, Irma Neumann, Assa Drori, Bill Hymanson, Oscar Chasow, Ron Clark, Henry Ferber, Erne Granat, Ed Green, Bill Hybel, Reggie Hill, Pat Johnson, Don Palmer, Sheldon Sanov, Joe Schonbrun, Terry Schonbrun and Harold Wolf
- Violas - Pam Goldsmith, Margot Maclaine, Carol Mukagawa, Myer Bello, Alan Deverich, Norman Forrest, Alan Harshman, Jorge Moraga and David Stock
- Cellos - Jim Arkatoff, Ray Kelley, Ray Kramer and Fred Seykora
- Basses - Chuck Dominico and Arni Egilsson.
- Woodwinds - Gene Cipriano, Don Ashworth, John Clarke, Dave Edwards, Gary Foster, Jim Kanter, John Lowe, Dick Mitchell, Jack Nimitz, Joe Soldo and Bob Tricarico
- Trumpets - Ray Brown, Rich Cooper, Bob Findley, Larry Ford, Bob O’Donnell and Al Vizutti
- Trombones - Garnett Brown, Charles Loper, Morris Repass and Bill Watrous
- French Horns - Marni Johnson, David Duke, Joe Myer, Brian O’Connor, Calvin Smith and Jim Thatcher
- Tuba - Tommy Johnson
- Tympani and percussion - Brent Fischer
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Versions
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Released Versions
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Video Versions
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Sampled, Referred to, Quoted in...
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Unreleased Versions
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Title
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Version
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Additional Info
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New Position
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Studio
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Original 1982 recording
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New Position
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Studio
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1985 recording with unused orchestral overdubs
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Soul Sister
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Studio
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with additional recording and lyrics by Wendy and Lisa
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Soul Sister
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Studio
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Instrumental version
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New Position
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Studio
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Strings only mix
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