Difference between revisions of "Album: Vanity 6 (1984)"

Revision as of 19:01, 21 October 2021

{{Unreleased-Album| |album name = Untitled second Vanity 6 album |album image = |date = 1984 |label = Warner Bros. |studios = Kiowa Trail Home Studio, Chanhassen, MN, USA
Sunset Sound, Hollywood, CA, USA |previous year = 1982 |previous album = Album: The Hookers (1982) |previous album link = Untitled The Hookers album |next year = 1986 |next album = Album: The Flesh (1986) |next album link = The Flesh |introduction = This entry details a planned sophomore album by Vanity 6 recorded between Late 1982 and Summer 1983 before Vanity decided not to participate in the Purple Rain movie and left the group. The release of the album was supposed to be tied in with the release of the movie and its soundtrack (like The Time’s Ice Cream Castle).

Following the end of 1999 Tour in Spring 1983, Prince committed himself fully on the Purple Rain album and Purple Rain movie but still also found time to record songs for The Time and Vanity 6. In the initial script of Purple Rain, when it was still called "Dreams", Vanity 6 was supposed to sing only one song Sex Shooter in the movie. So the songs that Prince wrote for their second album weren’t specifically tailored for the film but more a continuation of their previous effort.

The earliest track known to have been recorded for this project dates back to late 1982 with Wet Dream Cousin, titled so because of the musical similarity to Wet Dream, but the title would likely have changed if vocals were added (it was only recorded as an instrumental). Between Spring and Summer 1983, Prince wrote at least six songs intended for Vanity 6: Velvet Kitty Cat, Promise To Be True, Sex Shooter, Moral Majority, G-Spot and Vibrator. Wonderful Ass has allegedly been discussed for the project but the song was never re-recorded by the band.

A seventh song, 17 Days was initially recorded with Brenda Bennett on vocals. It was recorded around the time of the departure of Vanity camp and Apollonia was yet to be cast as her replacement. This song may never really have been intended for either Vanity 6 or Apollonia 6, but perhaps Prince had a solo project with Brenda Bennett in mind. However, a new version was re-recorded by Prince and the Revolution and released as the b-side of When Doves Cry the following year.

None of the left-overs of the first Vanity 6 record ( Extraloveable, No Call U, Too Much) or The Hookers project (Jealous Girl, Mink Kitty Cat, Pizza, I Need A Man, Gym Class and Money Don’t Grow On Trees) are known to have been considered for this album, although Mink Kitty Cat may have been revised as Velvet Kitty Cat.

The planned album was canceled before being completed when Vanity left the band and Prince’s camp. Of the songs recorded, only Sex Shooter was kept and re-recorded by the new incarnation of the band, Apollonia 6 with Apollonia replacing Vanity. The song appeared in the Purple Rain film, their eponymous album and was released as a single in 1984.

Some of the other songs intended for the second Vanity 6 were re-recorded for other projects: Promise To Be True was recorded with Dez Dickerson on lead vocals in May 1983 and again in 1987 with Bonnie Raitt (along with other Hookers songs Jealous Girl and I Need A Man), during a short-lived collaboration. Dickerson’s and Bonnie Raitt’s versions remain unreleased but the updated 1987 version with Prince on vocals was released in 2020 on Vault Tracks part 3, one of the discs with previously unreleased tracks included with the Sign O’ The Times Super Deluxe Edition[[ Both versions remain unreleased.

Vanity’s moaning from Vibrator (which segued into G-Spot on the planned Vanity 6 album) was sampled various times over the years by Prince: on Madhouse’s Seven and 24 (Orgasm) and on Orgasm. Vibrator, along with Wet Dream Cousin, was proposed to Eric Leeds in 1989 for consideration when he embarked on an album which became Times Squared. Leeds decided to not use this songs. The sampled moans on 24 (Orgasm), originally planned to be included as part of 21-24 (The Dopamine Rush Suite) were edited out for the track’s release as The Dopamine Rush on Times Squared. The full song remains unreleased as do Wet Dream Cousin and Moral Majority. G-Spot was released in 1987, in a re-recorded version by Jill Jones on her eponymous album. Velvet Kitty Cat was discussed for the Apollonia 6 album before being remade by Prince in a rockabilly version in 1985. The initial 1983 version was released as a bonus track on the Purple Rain Deluxe Expanded Edition album.

|format = LP |tracklisting = The album was never completed but was believed to include:

• Promise To Be True
• Vibrator
• G-Spot
• Wet Dream Cousin
• Velvet Kitty Cat
• Moral Majority
• Sex Shooter

|credits = All tracks written by Prince (assumed) |* comment = |musicians = Vanity - lead vocals

• Brenda Bennett – vocals
• Susan Moonsie – vocals
• Jill Jones – spoken vocals on Vibrator
• Jamie Shoop – vocals on Moral Majority
• Roy Bennett – vocals on Moral Majority
• Prince – all instruments and background vocals
• Other performance details unknown

|production = Prince - producer (assumed) |see also = ! colspan="2" align="left" style="font-size:100%;color:#AB3E00"| See also

|- |colspan="2" |

Apollonia 6 (album)	Jill Jones (album)

|trivia =

|alternative = |references = The Vault: The Definitive Guide to the Musical World of Prince (2004)

• Prince and the Purple Rain Era Studio Sessions 1983 and 1984 (Expanded Edition, paperback), Duane Tudahl (2018)

|categories = }}