Wonderful Ass

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Wonderful Ass

Purplerain Deluxe.jpg
from the album Purple Rain Deluxe Edition and Deluxe Expanded Edition
Song details
Performer: Prince (Prince and the Revolution)
First Released: 23 June 2017 - Purple Rain Deluxe Edition and Deluxe Expanded Edition album
Album(s): Purple Rain Deluxe Edition and Deluxe Expanded Edition
Writer(s): Prince and Jill Jones (lyrics), Prince (music) (credited to Prince)
Producer(s): Prince
Live Appearances
First and last live appearance:
  • This track is not believed to have been performed live by Prince.
Performed regularly on tour:
  • none
Performed occasionally in shows:
  • none

Wonderful Ass was released posthumously in 2017, as the seventh track on the second disc (titled From The Vault & Previously Unreleased) of Purple Rain Deluxe Edition and Deluxe Expanded Edition.

While specific recording dates have not been confirmed, basic tracking took place in the first two weeks of January 1983 (or in November 1982) at Prince’s Kiowa Trail Home Studio in Chanhassen, Minnesota. The track’s lyrics were supposedly inspired by Vanity. Jill Jones was in the studio with Prince during the recording and helped come up with the rhyming words ending in "...ate" at the end of the song. It is unknown if the track was intended for any project at the time of recording, although in 1983 there was some discussion of the track being used by Vanity 6, Apollonia 6 or The Time.

Wendy Melvoin and Lisa Coleman worked on the track further at Sunset Sound in Hollywood, California, most likely on 27 September 1984, adding vocals and possibly other instrumentation. Again, it is not known if this song was intended for any project at the time of additional recording. The liner notes for Purple Rain Deluxe Edition and Deluxe Expanded Edition state that the track was recorded in September 1984, but this refers only to the overdubs by Wendy and Lisa.

The track was later planned for inclusion on the Prince and the Revolution album Roadhouse Garden worked on in 1998-9, but the album remains unreleased.

During Prince: A Celebration in June 2000, computer screens at Paisley Park Studios offered names of a selection of tracks which users could vote on for inclusion on Crystal Ball Volume II, and while Wonderful Ass was chosen by fans, the project was ultimately abandoned.


Recording Information
Recording Sessions
Date Studio Additional info
Early-mid January 1983 Kiowa Trail Home Studio,
Chanhassen, MN, USA
Tracking
27 September 1984
(likely but not confirmed)
Sunset Sound,
Hollywood, CA, USA
Additional recording by Lisa Coleman and Wendy Melvoin
28 March 1986 Sunset Sound,
Hollywood, CA, USA
Edits for a possible release as a B-side
Recording Personnel

Unreleased 1982 or 1983 version

  • Prince - all vocals and instruments, except where noted
  • Jill Jones - background vocals


Versions
Released Versions
Title Length Released Version Additional info
Wonderful Ass 6:24 Purple Rain Deluxe Edition and Deluxe Expanded Edition (From The Vault & Previously Unreleased)
Studio


Unreleased Versions
Title Version Additional Info
Wonderful Ass Studio Original 1983 Prince solo recording
Wonderful Ass Studio Remix/reworking of updated '84 recording
Wonderful Ass Studio Edit(s) from 1986
 
Additional Information

See also Trivia


References
Witness 4 The Prosecution   < < < All Songs Unreleased Songs > > >   The Word