The Ladder is the eighth track on Prince’s seventh album Around The World In A Day, the second album to be credited to Prince and the Revolution.
Basic tracking was done on 31 October 1984, during the last day of rehearsals for the Purple Rain Tour at the Saint Paul Civic Center Arena, St. Paul, Minnesota. The basic recording was taken to the Flying Cloud Drive Warehouse in Eden Prairie afterwards, where Wendy & Lisa, together with Susannah Melvoin and Taja Sevelle (as "Taj") recorded background vocals.
Wendy & Lisa are also given writing and conducting credits for the string interlude which precedes the song as featured on the album. The credits feature in the liner notes for Around The World In A Day seemingly as part of the credits for Pop Life, which precedes The Ladder. However, the string interlude is the first part of the eighth track on the album, and is therefore included here. It was recorded in September 1984, and forms the opening bars of the string arrangement for Our Destiny. The string arrangement is included as part of the posthumous release in 2017 of Our Destiny / Roadhouse Garden on the second disc (titled From The Vault & Previously Unreleased) of Purple Rain Deluxe Expanded Edition.
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