Home / Prince Discography / Prince Albums / One Nite Alone…

One Nite Alone…

NPG Records

If the demand is there, I would release a solo piano joint.

Following the vein of his acoustic release The Truth of 1998, One Nite Alone… is a full studio album that features Prince solo, this time on piano. One Nite Alone… was initially digitally available to subscribers of npgmusicclub.com on 17 January 2002, followed by a physical version on 14 May. That November, the album was also packaged into the boxset One Nite Alone… Live!. The second year of NPG Music Club promised Premium members to receive four exclusive CDs. Another album Xpectation was considered for manufacture but was digitally released instead. Therefore, the four discs comprising the One Nite Alone… Live! boxset was considered adequate delivery of this promise despite the expectation of others following. One Nite Alone… was the first of the club issued CDs and was shipped directly to members, it was thereby ineligible for Billboard. One Nite Alone… was Prince’s first album to contain new material and not receive full commercial release.

One Nite Alone… was recorded at Paisley Park Studios during March 2001, right after the studio sessions of The Rainbow Children. The piano Prince plays on the album is a K208 Pegasus grand piano formed from black fibreglass with the stool integrated into the piano’s only leg. The transparent support makes the 6ft 10-inch instrument look as if it is floating. The lid (opening electronically) on Prince’s piano features a gold Prince love symbol replacing the model’s usual Pegasus figurine. The Pegasus was designed in 1997 by Italian supercar designer Professor Luigi Colani, there is not a straight line in sight – even the keyboard has a slight curve. The K208 is a striking instrument built to order at a cost of £70,000 by Wilhelm Schimmel Pianofortefabrik GmbH, a renowned German producer of high-end pianos since 1885. Prince’ debuted his copy at the Rave Un2 The Year 2000 concert, broadcast on TV New Year’s Eve 1999. In 2001, Prince sat at it for his Q&A session with fans at the Paisley Park open house Prince: A Celebration hosted during 11th to 16th June.

Featured in One Nite Alone… is Prince’s cover of Joni Mitchell’s A Case Of You of 1971. Prince, who adored Mitchell, frequently covered the track in concerts since his Triple Threat Tour in 1983, captured as a home studio demo released as Piano & A Microphone 1983 in 2018. His 2002 version on One Nite Alone… is widely considered among the best covers of her work.

A reworked and rerecorded version of U’re Gonna C Me would be later released on Prince’s 34th studio album MPLSound in 2009. Controversially, in the track Avalanche Prince condemns Abraham Lincoln as a racist who believed white and black people could not live in an integrated society, and quotes his State of the Union address given on December 1862: “You cannot escape from history.”

Prince would later return to the format with his Piano & A Microphone Tour, a highly popular run of concerts in 2016 which would tragically see his final ever shows.

2020 reissue

One Nite Alone… was reissued on 29 May 2020 by Sony Legacy, as part of the Up All Nite With Prince: The One Nite Alone Collection, in which it was again packaged with One Nite Alone… Live!

Cover story

One Nite Alone… is perhaps one of the most intriguing of Prince’s cover artworks. Heaped in symbolism, the heart-shaped nest of blue eggs depict the self-renewal taking place in Prince’s life in 2001, namely his marriage to Manuela Testolini and conversion to the Jehovah Witness faith. The cover is Prince’s final collaboration with Paisley Park’s long-term art director Steve Parke, who based the cover’s theme on rebirth is continued with his trademark Prince love symbol shown as a sunflower. Having reclaimed his birth name in 2000, ‘Prince’ is shown prominently on the artwork.

Prince’s doves Divinity and Majesty, which were perched in a cage on the first floor of Paisley Park’s atrium are credited in the liner notes for “ambient singing”.

Performers

Vocals / all Instr: Prince
Drums: John Blackwell ^{Here On Earth, A Case Of U}

Data

Production

Prince

Label

NPG Records

Distribution

NPG Records

Cover/Design

Steve Parke and Jeremy Gavin

Released

21 years ago on 14 May 2002

Reissued

29 May 2020 as Up All Nite With Prince: The One Nite Alone Collection

Running Time

34:59

US Chart Peak

Ineligible

UK Chart Peak

Ineligible

Prince Album

#25

Orig. Format

Tracklist

One Nite Alone... (3:35)
U're Gonna C Me (5:16)
Here On Earth (3:22)
A Case Of U (3:39) ¹
Have A ♥ (2:03)
Objects In The Mirror (3:26)
Avalanche (4:24)
Pearls B4 The Swine (3:00)
Young & Beautiful (2:44)
Arboretum (2:16)

¹ Written by Joni Mitchell as A Case Of You, 1971.

Singles from One Nite Alone…

One Nite Alone… produced no singles.

Supporting tour

One Nite Alone… Tour

2002

One Nite Alone… Tour
65 shows from 1 March to 15 December, 2002
Xenophobia Celebration (Paisley Park Studios)
7 shows from 21 to 28 June 2002

One Nite Alone… – review

In 1998 Prince treated fans to an acoustic set with The Truth, and in that vein in 2002 came a piano showpiece One Nite Alone… In the wake of The Rainbow Children it remains perfectly inoffensive and can easily played to your mother quite without need of editing those hazardous swear words of Prince’s pre Millennium output. There are many good tracks to be had with One Nite Alone… namely the title track, Here On Earth A Case Of U (a cover of Joni Mitchell), Avalanche and Young And Beautiful. Pearls B4 The Swine has real catch even though you might believe you have heard it before (think Little House On The Prairie). But One Nite Alone… will not find a home in your stereo. It will be a temporary tenant occupying fleeting visits, which will be good but only passing through. For this album you need to be in the right frame of mind to let it in. So on some levels the ‘good time, not a long time’ adage works perfectly. As with The Truth Prince never fails to under produce his work and there are pleasing swathes of rhythm worked into the melody. A ‘rare album’ listening experience, that really should not remain rare.