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Velvet Kitty Cat was released posthumously in 2017, as the eighth track on the second disc (titled From The Vault & Previously Unreleased) of Purple Rain Deluxe Edition and Deluxe Expanded Edition.
Basic tracking took place on 20 April 1983 at Sunset Sound in Hollywood, California (three days after Chocolate, two days after Prince fired Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis from The Time, and the same day as recording My Love Belongs To You and Sleazy).
The track was recorded in a session with other songs for The Time and they were listed as the artist on the session, but Morris Day never recorded vocals for it and the song was not included on any known configuration of The Time’s third album Ice Cream Castle. It was however considered initially for Vanity 6’s aborted sophomore album and later for the Apollonia 6 album that came in its place. And it seems a version with Susan Moonsie’s vocals was tried out at some point.
On 2 May 1985 (in a session started the previous day, but tracking this began after midnight on the 1st) Prince revised the track by recording a rockabilly version of it with members of The Revolution, not dissimilar sounding to the rendition of Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On as played live with The Revolution in 1986. This version was included as the seventh track on the configuration of Parade made the same day, but was removed before the album’s release.
While a solo recording, the 1983 version is listed here as a Prince and the Revolution track as it was released as a bonus track on the Purple Rain Deluxe Edition and Deluxe Expanded Edition album, which is credited to Prince and the Revolution.
It is unknown if the track has any link to Mink Kitty Cat, originally recorded in 1981, but it is possible this is simply an update of that song.
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