His Majesty’s Pop Life: The Purple Mix Club

Warner Records

Paisley Park is in your heart.

His Majesty’s Pop Life was originally released under Warner’s Pioneer imprint in 1985, as a very limited run of 500 promotional copies available only to DJs in Japan, to support the then newly released Around The World In A Day album. The compilation was reissued and given a worldwide release on 13 April 2019 by The Prince Estate and titled His Majesty’s Pop Life: The Purple Mix Club to mark the annual Record Store Day, limited to 14,000 copies, distributed by Warner Brothers. That day also saw the commercial release of another sought after promo, a tape that dated from 1995 titled The Versace Experience (Prelude 2 Gold), distributed by Sony Legacy. It peaked in the US number 184, in the Billboard charts.

His Majesty’s Pop Life: The Purple Mix Club received a wider commercial release on 8 July 2020 by the newly rebranded Warner Records, but again only in the Japanese market, but on CD as well as vinyl. It is the first occasion that Pop Life [Extended Version] and Paisley Park [Remix] was available on CD.

The compilation comprises of the 12-inch extended versions and remixes of tracks previously available as B-sides to the singles of the three original albums from which these extended versions supported. Those albums are 1999, Purple Rain and Around The World In A Day. The vinyl version comprises of two disks, with tracks 1-4 playing at 45RPM as disk 1, and tracks 6-11 at 33RPM comprising disk 2.

Prince & the Revolution | Around The World In A Day — Photography by Paul Natkin

When the tracks were recorded

Pop Life [Extended Version] was the second remix made of the track, created at Sunset Sound studios, Hollywood, in 1984. America is the album cut of the track, recorded at Prince’s Flying Cloud Warehouse studio in 1984. Raspberry Beret [New Mix] was likewise produced at the warehouse in 1984 and was released as the A-side to the 12in version of the single. Paisley Park [New Mix] was created at Sunset Sound in 1984 and released as the A-side to the 12in version. Let’s Go Crazy [Special Dance Mix] is actually the full version of the track, which edited down for Purple Rain, it was recorded live at First Avenue on 3 August 1983 and released as a 12in maxi single. Little Red Corvette [Dance Remix] was produced at Sunset Sound in January 1983 and too was released as a 12in maxi single. 1999 is the original album version of the track recorded at Prince’s Kiowa Trail home studio in 1982. I Would Die For You [Extended Version] was mixed at Sunset Sound in 1983, it was released as a maxi single along with the extended version of Another Lonely Christmas. The extended version of Erotic City was mixed at Sunset Sound in July 1984 and released as Erotic City (“Make Love Not War Erotic City Come Alive”) B-side to the extended version of Let’s Go Crazy. When Doves Cry is the album version from Purple Rain, created at Sunset Sound in March 1984 and became Prince’s biggest hit single.