The Dance Electric is the first track on André Cymone's third studio album A.C., and, four weeks before the album's release, The Dance Electric was released as the album's first single. This track is the only studio collaboration between Prince and André Cymone during Cymone's solo career following his departure from Prince's band. In 2011, an expanded edition of the album was released on CD, including the Edited Version a.k.a. Single Version of the song.
Initial tracking for Prince's initial version took place on 17 August 1984 (two days before The Screams Of Passion) at the Flying Cloud Drive Warehouse, Eden Prairie, MN, USA (listed on the album as "Paisley Park Recording, Somewhere in Minnesota").
Prince reportedly gave the song to André Cymone after Cymone's mother asked Prince for a song (Cymone himself was too proud to do so). André Cymone recorded lead vocal overdubs between late 1984 and Summer 1985 at one of four studios (which one is not known): Ocean Way Recording, Hollywood, CA, USA; Sunset Sound, Hollywood, CA, USA; Celestial Sound, New York, NY, USA; or Metro Studio, Minneapolis, MN, USA.
Prince also referred to "the dance electric" in the song God, recorded three days later.
In 2001, a 1986 live version by Prince and the Revolution was included on NPG Ahdio Show # 7, but the track was not available separately.
In 2012, a mostly-instrumental rehearsal version by Prince and the New Power Generation, likely recorded in mid-April 2012, was streamed on drfunkenberry.com to promote the forthcoming Welcome 2 Australia Tour; the site stated that "To begin every week of rehearsal, to get the rust off, Prince and the band jam one song for 30-45 minutes."
In 2017 Prince's own version was released as the first track on the From The Vault & Previously Unreleased disc of a Deluxe release of Purple Rain
|