Over The Rainbow is an unreleased cover version of the track originally written for the 1939 movie The Wizard Of Oz (in which it was sung by Judy Garland), recorded twice in the nineties at Paisley Park Studios.
The song was recorded by Prince (as ) and given to Ashley Davis (who went on to be known as Támar eleven years later) through Morris Hayes who was working on demos with her at the time, during the same set of sessions as On Your Own sometime in 1994. Ashley Davis was a teenager who has just left the group Girl’s Tyme, an early incarnation of Destiny’s Child. She met Morris Hayes through a cousin of her and she was invited to record some songs at Paisley Park Studios but she didn’t meet Prince at that time.
When Prince and Davis began to work together again in early 2005, and Davis was renamed Támar (later Támar Davis), Over The Rainbow is not known to have been worked on further with her, or to have been considered for Támar’s first album, then titled Beautiful, Loved & Blessed (which was later renamed Milk & Honey).
Prince worked on the song again in June 1995, with Stacy Francis, at Paisley Park Studios in Chanhassen, Minnesota. He met her in London, England during the The Ultimate Live Experience Tour. Prince offered his help with a couple of songs for the solo album she was working on after she left the American girl-band Ex Girlfriend. Her lead vocal overdubs on Over The Rainbow were recorded during the same set of sessions as Journey 2 The Center Of Your Heart. Her solo project never got off the ground however and she chose to launch an acting career.
Ashley Davis’ and Stacy Francis’ versions of Over The Rainbow remain unreleased. It is possible, but unclear, that the portion of Over the Rainbow heard in the 'Versace Experience' remix is one of this recordings or one newly made circa 2006.
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