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Free is the eighth track on Prince’s fifth album 1999, and, in late 1982, an edited version was included as the second track on a US promo 12" release of 1999, the album’s first single.
In 2002, a live version was included as the thirteenth track on the second disc of Prince’s first live album One Nite Alone... Live! (along with recordings of One Nite Alone..., Starfish & Coffee and Sometimes It Snows In April from the same show).
Basic tracking for Free took place on 25 April 1982 at Sunset Sound in Hollywood, California, (five days after D.M.S.R., three days before How Come U Don’t Call Me Anymore).
An acoustic version of Free recorded in early 2008 (with Prince accompanying himself on guitar) was released as a digital standalone single on 6 June 2025 as FR33 (Acoustic). The release was part of the 2025 Prince Celebration activities, although the release was not accompanied by a press release, nor an announcement as part of the program. An excerpt from this specific version of Free had previously been used on the Prince’s estate social media accounts when - five months earlier - the end of the partnership between The Prince Estate and Netflix was announced. With this announcement the 9-hour documentary The Book of Prince, directed by Ezra Edelman, was shelved. It was implied that the end of the Netflix deal allowed the Estate to be 'free' again. This acoustic version from 2008 may be the one recorded for the abandoned Songwriter project but this has not been verified.
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