Jailbait is an instrumental track originally recorded as 19 (Jailbait) on 8 December 1988 at Paisley Park Studios in Chanhassen, Minnesota during sessions for Madhouse’s third album 24 (three days after recording 17 (Penetration) and 18 (R U Legal Yet?), two days before adding vocals and instrumentation to 21-24 (The Dopamine Rush Suite)). The track was included as the third track on the album 24, before the album was abandoned.
Prince revamped the track on 15 February 1989 (just two days after the end of the Lovesexy Tour in Japan, on the same day as recording 200 Balloons), also at Paisley Park Studios, and renamed it Batman Theme for use in the Batman movie project (and accompanying Batman album), and the track was used in the background of an early unreleased trailer for the movie. A portion of We Got The Power is included at the end of the Batman Theme. The track was ultimately discarded as the project moved on, however.
On 21 January 1991, Prince submitted the track (now re-titled Jailbait) to Miles Davis, along with Penetration, Are U Legal Yet? and A Girl And Her Puppy, for his consideration. Prince wanted Davis to record additional trumpet parts before sending them back. Davis instead taught the four tracks to his band, and they recorded new versions of the tracks on 27-28 March 1991 at Bauer Studios (Studio 1), Ludwigsburg, Germany. The band also played them regularly on Davis’ 1991 tour. After Davis died in 1991, Warner Bros. asked Prince to add some post-production to the studio version of this track (as well as Can I Play With U?, Penetration and A Girl And Her Puppy) to include on Davis’s first posthumous album, Doo-Bop, but Prince was not interested in contributing to tracks that he felt didn’t show Davis at his best. The studio version (remixed by Bob Power) was planned for release as the 31st track on a 2001 box-set of Miles Davis’ Warner Bros. work, entitled The Last Word, but the track was not included on the eventual 2-disc 2010 release, titled Perfect Way.
In 2021, a live version recorded on July 1st 1991 at Théâtre Antique in Vienne, France was included as the fourth track on the posthumous Miles Davis live album Merci Miles!, Live At Vienne.
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