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The Closest Thing To Crazy is an unreleased cover version of the 2003 track by Katie Melua (her debut and lead single from her album Call Off The Search) believed to have been recorded in late 2007 at Paisley Park Studios in Chanhassen, Minnesota.
Author and producer of the original song, Mike Batt, posted Prince’s version of If You Were A Sailboat, an other song he wrote for Katie Melua on his YouTube channel in April 2022 with the following description:"Prince’s recording of my song If You Were A Sailboat, which I wrote for Katie Melua, of whom Prince was a big fan. He sang three of my songs for her (The Closest Thing To Crazy, Nine Million Bicycles and this one). Before recording it he asked me if he could change "If you were a cowboy" to "If you were a gypsy" to fit the male POV better. I agreed, but when I approved the final version that he sent (as here) he snuck in "If you were a Witness" for "if you were a preacher"!!! (He was a Jehovah’s Witness). I hadn’t noticed that! I’m sure he wouldn’t mind my posting it now, so the world can hear it. Very nice of him to ask permission to make that word change." This description may be confusing as it implies that Prince recorded these three tracks in the studio, and therefore contradicts a post by Batts on Twitter in 2019 that reads "Prince did 3 of my songs on stage but only recorded one of them and that’s unreleased". It has been confirmed that Prince also recorded a studio version of Nine Million Bicycles. Although not confirmed, it is safe to assume that a studio version of The Closest Thing To Crazy also exists.
It is unknown if these recordings were intended for any project at that time, but Prince was most likely not involved in the original songs. More information will be added if it becomes available.
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