Nine is the first track on Madhouse’s second and final album 16. The Track was written and performed by Prince (credited as Madhouse), with saxophone by Eric Leeds.
While specific recording dates are not known, basic tracks were recorded in March 1987 at Prince’s Galpin Blvd Home Studio in Chanhassen, Minnesota. With the exception of Sixteen, the rest of the album was recorded in late July and early August 1987.
The track contains interpolations of Euphemia Allen’s 1877 piano composition Chopsticks and Richard Rodgers’ and Oscar Hammerstein II’s 1959 composition The Sound Of Music (originally from the stage musical The Sound Of Music), as well as opening with Sequential Circuits Prophet VS, FILMUSIC (patch 69) pre-set synth, previously used on U Got The Look, Make Your Mama Happy, Eight and The Cocoa Boys.
Confusingly, the track Six And ½, recorded on 8 October 1986, was originally recorded as Nine, logically following the last recorded Madhouse track Eight. When that was chosen to serve as b-side for the single 6 it was dubbed Six And ½. Prince (possibly with Eric Leeds) at that point recorded another song titled Nine, but that remains unreleased and is different from this song from March 1987.
To stay with the numeric logicality this first song for the follow-up Madhouse album again was titled Nine as no song with a title as such was yet released.
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