Cosmic Day is a song recorded at Sunset Sound in Hollywood, California on 15 November 1986 (ten days after Prince had completed the Camille album and shortly before he began to compile the Crystal Ball album).
With it lyrics mentioning mermen swimming in the sky, as sure as an elephant will see and every sky in the star, it is one of the most psychedelic songs Prince has done.
The song is recorded with the sped up Camille voice, and while this is unconfirmed, it's possible the song was initially considered for Crystal Ball, but never made it on a configuration, because a week later Prince recorded Play In The Sunshine, which has a similar feel, and perhaps works better on the collection of songs that ultimately became Sign O' The Times
It was sent to Clare Fischer for an orchestral treatment in early December 1986, after the Crystal Ball 3LP was already pared down to Sign O' The Times and finalized, indicating that at that point Prince no longer considered it for inclusion.
When it was ultimately released in September 2020 on one of the discs with previously unreleased tracks included with the Sign O' The Times Deluxe set it was the version without the Clare Fischer arrangement, but the standalone Fischer orchestration was later re-used to create Intermission.
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