Prince’s Parade released

Parade Prince & the Revolution

Released: March 31, 1986 Charted: April 19, 1986 Peak: 3 US, 4 UK, 11 CN, 8 AU Sales (in millions): 2.11 US, 0.3 UK, 4.5 world (includes US and UK) Genre: R&B/funk

Tracks: Song Title (Writers) [time] (date of single release, chart peaks) Click for codes to singles charts. Christopher Tracy’s Parade [2:11] (Prince, John L. Nelson) New Position [2:20] I Wonder U [1:39] Under the Cherry Moon [2:57] (Prince, Nelson) Girls & Boys [5:29] (8/4/86, 11 UK) Life Can Be So Nice [3:13] Venus de Milo [1:55] Mountains [3:57] (Prince, Wendy Melvoin, Lisa Coleman) (5/7/86, 23 US, 19 CB, 21 RR, 15 RB, 45 UK, 45 AU) Do U Lie? [2:44] Kiss [3:37] (Prince, arranged by David Z) (2/5/86, 12 US, 12 CB, 11 RR, 14 RB, 6 UK, 4 CN, 2 AU) Anotherloverholenyohead [4:00] (7/2/86, 63 US, 74 CB, 18 RB, 36 UK) Sometimes It Snows in April [6:48] (Prince, Melvoin, Coleman) Written by Prince unless noted otherwise. Total Running Time: 40:57 The Players: Prince (vocals, instruments) Lisa Coleman (backing vocals, keyboards) Wendy Melvoin (backing vocals, guitar) Dr. Fink (keyboards) Mark Brown (bass) Bobby Z (drums, percussion) Sheila E. (backing vocals, drums, percussion) Eric Leeds (saxophone) Atlanta Bliss (trumpet)

Rating: 3.887 out of 5.00 (average of 26 ratings) Awards: (Click on award to learn more).

About the Album: Prince’s last album with the Revolution also served as the soundtrack to Under the Cherry Moon, a movie starring and directed by Prince. “Undaunted by the criticism Around the World in a Day received, Prince continued to pursue his psychedelic inclinations on Parade” AMG instead of the “guitar and rock elements of…1984 album Purple Rain,” WK which made him a superstar. The album did restore some of the critical acclaim that had slipped with Around the World in a Day. NME and The Village Voice named Parade the album of the year. WK PopMatters.com’s Quentin B. Huff said it “doesn’t sound like anything else in the Prince canon. The album is a blend of jazz, soul, and a certain French undercurrent, probably absorbed from the film being set in France.” WK The Sunday Times called its musical scope “stunning” WK and the Detroit Free Press called it “a confirmation of Prince’s place as a superior melodist, arranger, and player, as well as a celebration of his creativity.” WK “The album sees Prince further diversifying musically, adding orchestrations to his music.” WK Although this was a regular-length release, it “has the sprawling feel of a double record,” which was the original plan. AMG “Prince & the Revolution shift musical moods and textures from song to song – witness how the fluttering psychedelia of Christopher Tracy’s Parade gives way to the spare, jazzy funk of New Position, which morphs into the druggy I Wonder U.” Prince & Co. are “determined not to play it safe, even on the hard funk of Girls and Boys and Mountains, as well as the stunning Kiss, which hits hard with just a dry guitar, keyboard, drum machine, and layered vocals.” AMG The latter gave Prince his third #1 hit, although no other singles reached the top 20 on the Billboard Hot 100. “All of the group’s musical adventures, even the cabaret-pop of Venus de Milo and Do U Lie? do nothing to undercut the melodicism of the record, and the amount of ground they cover in 12 songs is truly remarkable.” AMG “Even with all of its attributes, Parade is a little off-balance, stopping too quickly to give the haunting closer, Sometimes It Snows in April, the resonance it needs. For some tastes, it may also be a bit too lyrically cryptic, but Prince’s weird religious and sexual metaphors develop into a motif that actually gives the album weight. If it had been expanded to a double album, Parade would have equaled the subsequent Sign ‘O’ the Times, but as it stands, it’s an astonishingly rewarding near-miss.” AMG

Resources and Related Links: DMDB encyclopedia entry for Prince AMG All Music Guide review by Stephen Thomas Erlewine WK Wikipedia Other Related DMDB Pages: First posted 3/23/2008; last updated 8/22/2021.