The Ball is a track recorded by Prince alone on 25 July 1986 at the Galpin Blvd Home Studio, with horn overdubs done a few days later. The party segue was likely recorded during rehearsals at the Washington Avenue Warehouse,Edina, Minnesota. It was included as the fourth track on the second disc on the 30 November 1986 configuration of the Crystal Ball triple LP, segueing directly into Joy In Repetition.
When the album developed into Sign O’ The Times, the track was removed (along with Crystal Ball). On 11 December 1987, Prince re-recorded the track with new lyrics as No (see No for details), but kept the original segue ending the track (which was also used at the beginning of the released version of Joy In Repetition).
In September 2020, the song was as the seventh track of Vault Tracks part 2, one of the discs with previously unreleased tracks included with the Sign O’ The Times Super Deluxe Edition.
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