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The Arms Of Orion is the third track on Prince’s eleventh album Batman (the motion picture soundtrack to the Tim Burton movie Batman), and, four months after the album’s release, The Arms Of Orion was released as the album’s third single.
The tape of the song in the vault dates this song as 25 January 1989. It was recorded at Paisley Park Studios in Chanhassen, Minnesota.
In a 2012 interview, Sheena Easton detailed the writing of the song:
"I sent him the lyrics to The Arms Of Orion. He really liked it, put music to it and it ended up being on the Batman soundtrack. I’m totally into the stars. Right outside my bedroom window, right over my front guest house, you looked right into Orion. I loved the concept of two lovers apart, looking up at the same stars and wishing they could be together."
Of note is that this track is credited both on the album and single as "Prince with Sheena Easton", once of only a few times that co-credit has been given to anyone other than Prince’s bands the Revolution and the New Power Generation. (U Make My Sun Shine and We Gon’ Make It Funky are other instances of co-credited tracks). The vocals on the album are credited to a character from the movie, as if Prince is singing on their behalf. The Arms Of Orion is attributed to Bruce Wayne and Vicki Vale.
Some CD version of the single The Arms Of Orion contained an unlisted .cdi file, which played a slideshow of unrelated pictures and poems with The Arms Of Orion as a soundtrack when entered into a computer. This video had no input from Prince and should not be considered a promotional video, but an experiment by Warner Bros. into the technology that was available using CD singles, and was advanced for its time.
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