Girl 6 Prince album

Warner Bros. Records

Your film gave me newfound respect for the music.

Girl 6 is a compilation soundtrack of Prince written songs released at the request of film director Spike Lee who had become a friend and confidant. Lee had long hoped to create a movie using a soundtrack formed of Prince’s songs.

Prince responded in kind to the request to support his friend’s movie, but on the understanding he would not supply newly produced tracks, which would fall into the ownership of Warner Bros Records, the label he was locked in dispute against since 1993. Spike Lee’s $12 million budget movie Girl 6 was distributed by 20th Century Fox and premiered on 22 March 1996 a few days ahead of the release of the OST. The movie is the fictional story of a cash strapped aspiring black actress who, spurned by her treatment in the film industry, resorts to phone sex to make a ends meet as the titular Girl #6 (played by Theresa Randle). Quintin Tarantino, Madonna and Naomi Campbell cameo in the film.

The eclectic soundtrack Prince provided did in the end contain just one newly recorded song, the title track Girl 6, specially co-written by Prince and New Power Generation’s Tommy Barbarella in 1995. It was also the soundtrack’s only single, reaching 78 on Billboard’s R&B chart. Spike Lee thanks Prince in the Girl 6 soundtrack liner notes for his “great sacrifice” to allow the release. The years 1994 to 1996 produced a particularly busy release schedule of Prince’s music, the result of him feeding out new material from his recently established record label NPG Records issuing 1-800-NEW-FUNK (July 1994), Exodus (March 1995) and Emancipation (November 1996) to counter Warner’s releases of the six albums worth of material Prince was required to deliver under the terms of the contract signed by the parties on 31 August 1992: Come (August 1994), The Gold Experience (September 1995) and Chaos And Disorder (July 1996) – notwithstanding The Black Album that got its eventual release in November 1994 if only to satisfy output obligation. Girl 6 landed in the height of this activity and so suffered in the charts as result, with a mere 100,000 units sold it peaked in the US album chart at number 75. Prince would fulfil his obligation by giving Warner The Vault: Old Friends 4 Sale in 1996, which along with 1992’s Love Symbol, completed his delivery of the six albums required under the deal. Because his release programme was so saturated, Warner withheld releasing The Vault until 1999.

Impressed with Spike Lee’s movie debut in 1986 with She’s Gotta Have It, in 1990 Prince flew the Brooklyn based director over to Minneapolis to the set of Graffiti Bridge then undergoing production at Paisley Park. From this first meeting they formed a close friendship and in 1991 Prince asked Lee which song from Diamonds And Pearls would he like to shoot the promo video and Lee chose Money Don’t Matter 2 Night. In 2018, Spike Lee featured the Prince track Mary Don’t You Weep in his movie BlacKkKlansman, in tribute to Prince who died in April 2016.

Recording

Girl 6 houses three tracks that were previously unreleased: She Spoke 2 Me was recorded at Paisley Park Studios in 1991 and is an outtake from the sessions for New Power Generation’s Love Symbol album. Don’t Talk 2 Strangers was recorded at Platinum Studios in Melbourne during Prince’s stint in the city for the Diamonds And Pearls Tour in April 1992 and was originally produced for his later withdrawn contribution for the soundtrack for James L. Brooks’ 1994 movie I’ll Do Anything. The title track Girl 6 is the only track specially written (recorded at Paisley Park in December 1995) for the Girl 6 soundtrack, it features Nona Gaye on backing vocals. Containing no remixes or alternative cuts, it failed to chart when it came out as a single one week after the album.

The oldest track on the Girl 6 compilation is Nasty Girl, recorded at Prince’s Kiowa Trail home studio in March 1982 with Vanity 6 and released on their debut album that August. How Come U Don’t Call Me Anymore was laid down at Sunset Sound in April 1982, it was released as a B-side to single 1999. Erotic City was Prince’s first studio collaboration with Sheila E, recorded in March 1984 likewise at Sunset Sound, both the track edit and the full version, which stretches to 7:24, was released as a B-side to Let’s Go Crazy that July, the single topped the Billboard Hot 100. Screams of Passion was recorded in August 1984 at Prince’s Flying Cloud warehouse studio for his new side-project The Family and was released on the band’s first and only LP in July 1985. Girls & Boys was recorded by Prince and The Revolution at their Washington Avenue warehouse studio in late 1985 and released on their second LP Parade in March 1986 and again that August as the album’s third single.

Hot Thing was recorded at Prince’s Galpin Blvd home studio in August 1986. The Cross was recorded at Sunset Sound in July 1986, as was Adore that followed in November. The three tracks were released in March 1987 on Prince’s double LP and masterpiece Sign O’ The Times.

Pink Cashmere was recorded at Paisley Park Studios in 1988 for Prince’s aborted album Rave Unto The Joy Fantastic, it was subsequently released in 1993 on his greatest hits package The Hits 1 despite not being previously available and thereby not a bona fide ‘hit’. Count The Days was recorded in the spring of 1994 and released on New Power Generation’s second LP Exodus in March 1995 and again that September as the album’s third single.

Cover story

The Girl 6 cover is noteworthy, bearing in mind Prince had changed his name to Prince Love Symbol in June 1993, and that even while he was in dispute with Warner at that time, he allowed the label to issue and promote Girl 6 it under his name ‘Prince’. This was under the pretext that all the songs other than the title track were created prior to his name change – the 1995 title track Girl 6 was thereby credited solely to the New Power Generation due to Tommy Barbarella’s input. This caused confusion for the marketing, to issue a new release bearing Prince’s birth name when at the time he was avidly Prince Love Symbol.

Performers

All Instruments

Prince

Drums

Michael Bland ^{She Spoke 2 Me and Count The Days}

Bobby Z. ^{Girls & Boys}

Guitar

Levi Seacer Jr. ^{Girls & Boys}

Bass Guitar

Brown Mark ^{Girls & Boys}

Keyboards

Tommy Barbarella ^{She Spoke 2 Me and Count The Days}

Morris Hayes ^{She Spoke 2 Me and Count The Days}

Lisa Coleman ^{Girls & Boys}

Wendy Melvoin ^{Girls & Boys}

Matt "Dr." Fink ^{Girls & Boys}

Programming

Kirk Johnson ^{Girl 6}

Saxophone

Eric Leeds

Trumpet

Atlanta Bliss

Orchestration

Clare Fischer ^{Pink Cashmere and The Screams Of Passion}

Data

Producer

Prince

Label

Warner Bros. Records

Distribution

Warner Bros. Records

Cover/Design

Greg Gilmer

Released

30 years ago on 19 March 1996

Running Time

62:11

US Chart Peak

75

US R&B Peak

15

UK Chart Peak

Did not chart

Orig. Formats

Singles from Girl 6

Girl 6

Warner Bros. Records

Released

26 March 1996

US Chart Peak

Did not chart

UK Chart Peak

No release

Cover/Art

Greg Gilmer

Formats

1. Girl 6 [feat. Nona Gaye] (4:04)
2. Nasty Girl [performed by Vanity 6] (5:14)

Girl 6

Warner Bros. Records

Released

26 March 1996

US Chart Peak

No release

UK Chart Peak

Did not chart

Cover/Art

Greg Gilmer

Format

1. Girl 6 [feat. Nona Gaye] (4:04)
2. Nasty Girl [performed by Vanity 6] (5:14)
3. Erotic City [feat. Sheila E.] (3:55)