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Child Of The Sun Mayte album
Edel
albumStep back, give a girl some room.
Mayte Jannell Garcia when aged just 16 was first introduced to Prince in August 1990 at a concert in Mannheim Germany where Prince was performing the Nude Tour. Her mother had shot an audition tape of Mayte dancing and managed to slip it to NPG’s Kirk Johnson in a chance meeting just before the show. Prince watched it and the two kept in touch – hiring her for the Diamonds And Pearls Tour two years later, as her first job as a professional dancer. Her relationship with Prince inspired the entire backstory to the Love Symbol Album and the accompanying home video 3 Chains O’ Gold. The couple dated for four years and married on Valentine’s Day 1996, Prince composing an entire instrumental album Kamasutra for the occasion.
Noting how well Mayte was received as dancer on the Act II Tour, Prince said to her he would write her an album. She nervously accepted. The project was originally titled Latino Barbie Doll and later redeveloped into an Egyptian theme and renamed Child Of The Sun. Prince performs all instruments throughout, Mayte is lead vocals. Prince wrote every song, except House Of Brick (Brick House) – his cover of the Commodores hit. The oldest track recorded for Child Of The Sun was also Mayte’s first recording in the studio with Prince, being otherwise employed as a dancer, However Much U Want, produced in December 1991 for inclusion on Prince and the NPG‘s Love Symbol Album. The track was later reworked during the sessions for Child Of The Sun which were laid down at Paisley Park Studios throughout the latter half of 1993 and early 1994. The album’s lead single, The Most Beautiful Boy In The World, preceding the release of the LP by over a year, is a reworking of Prince’s first and only UK chart-topping single The Most Beautiful Girl In The World he released on 9 February 1994, almost exactly two years before the couple married.
Prince is credited for his involvement under the name Prince Love Symbol, but due to his ongoing contractual dispute with Warner Bros Records, Mayte’s Child Of The Sun was released under Prince’s independent label NPG Records and available in Europe only, distributed by German publishing company Edel – Warner denying its release in the US. Child Of The Sun contains reworking of three previously available tracks, the lead single If Eye Love U 2night originated from Prince’s sessions in Colorado with The Rebels back in July 1979 and would be the only song from the band’s session ever to see the light of day. He gave the track to Mica Paris to rerecord in 1990. Hailing from 1990, Love’s No Fun was written for Prince’s Graffiti Bridge backing vocalist Elisa Fiorillo for her solo LP I Am. And of course, The Most Beautiful Boy In The World a reworking of Prince’s 1994 hit single. Finally, Baby Don’t Care was originally titled Holly Don’t Care when written in 1992 for Tevin Campbell but was rejected and so rerecorded by Mayte.
Prince’s years with Mayte was among the happiest periods in his life, but in 2000 he and Mayte divorced, amicably, having slowly drifted apart following the tragic death of their new-born son, Amiir, resulting from complications at birth, in October 1996. In 2002, Mayte was engaged to Tommy Lee, drummer of Mötley Crüe, but separated in 2003. In 2017, exactly one year after Prince’s death, Mayte published a heartfelt autobiography charting her life with Prince, titled The Most Beautiful.
Performers
- Vocals
- Mayte
- All instr. / Vox
- Prince Love Symbol
- Keyboards
- Kirck Johnson Children Of The Sun, In Your Gracious Name and Mo' Better
- Guitar
- Billy Franze If Eye Love U 2night
- Mike Scott Love's No Fun
- Keyboards
- Ricky Peterson If Eye Love U 2night
- Todd Burrell Love's No Fun
- Programming
- Eric "Statik" Anest If Eye Love U 2night and The Rhythm Of Your Heart
- Saxophone
- Eric Leeds House Of Brick (Brick House), Love’s No Fun and Baby Don’t Care
- Trombone
- Michael B. Nelson The Rhythm Of Your Heart
- Trumpet
- Steve Strand The Rhythm Of Your Heart
- Dave Jensen The Rhythm Of Your Heart
- Baritone Sax
- Kathy Jensen The Rhythm Of Your Heart
- Tenor Saxophone
- Brian Gallagher The Rhythm Of Your Heart
Data
- Producers
- Prince Love Symbol and Ricky Peterson
- Label
- NPG Records
- Distribution
- Edel
- Cover/Design
- Albert Earl, Ricky Devila and Steve Parke
- Released
- 30 years ago on 27 November 1995
- Running Time
- 52:52
- US Chart Peak
- No release
- UK Chart Peak
- Did not chart
- Orig. Format
-
Tracklist
- Children Of The Sun (4:30)
- In Your Gracious Name (5:06)
- (4:19)
- The Rhythm Of Your ♥ [feat. Prince] (3:17)
- Ain't No Place Like U (4:45)
- House Of Brick (Brick House) (3:20) 1
- Love's No Fun [feat. The Steeles] (3:58)
- Baby Don't Care [feat. Troy Beyer] (5:26)
- However Much U Want [duet with Prince] (4:33)
- Mo' Better (4:56)
- If Eye Love U 2night [Spanish Version] (4:18)
- The Most Beautiful Boy In The World (4:31)
Released as a single
1 Written by the Commodores, 1977.
Singles from Child Of The Sun
The Most Beautiful Boy In The World
NPG Records
- Released
- 22 July 1994
- US Chart Peak
- Did not chart
- UK Chart Peak
- Did not chart
- Formats
-
- The Most Beautiful Boy In The World (4:30)
- Quieres Ser El Mas Bello De Este Mundo (4:30)
If Eye Love U 2night
NPG Records
- Released
- 6 November 1995
- US Chart Peak
- Did not chart
- UK Chart Peak
- 67
- Formats
-
- If Eye Love U 2night [Radio Edit] (3:30)
- If Eye Love U 2night [Album Version] (4:19)
- If Eye Love U 2night [Spanish Version] (4:19)
- The Rhythm Of Your ♥ (3:16)
If Eye Love U 2night [Remixes]
NPG Records
- Released
- 6 November 1995
- US Chart Peak
- Did not chart
- UK Chart Peak
- 67
- Format
-
- If Eye Love U 2night (4:19)
- If Eye Love U 2night [Lil' Cash Mix] (5:02)
- If Eye Love U 2night [Displacement Mix] (6:05)
- If Eye Love U 2night [Tweakin' Dub] (7:13)
Child Of The Sun album review
By the middle of the 1990s, a clear pattern had emerged on the criteria of Prince’s selection of his protegees – they were invariably girlfriends. Mayte however, became his wife in 1996, and in his typical fashion he set to work to write her a debut album. The album the couple competed, Child Of The Sun, is remarkable.
Opening with the title track, a dance groove which slides into In Your Gracious Name, they maintain the quality that will continue throughout the entire album, and its immense drive to boot. Prince never did a half-hearted effort, and as side projects go, Child Of The Sun is a standard bearer. It’s lead single is If Eye Love U 2night, but it’s the next tracks that are its gems: The Rhythm Of Your Heart and the mighty Ain’t No Place Like U – supplying one of Prince’s most impressive guitar solos of his career. This is followed by his fantastic version of House Of Brick (Brick House) a cover of the Commodores’ Brick House. The next track slows thangs down with Love’s No Fun, and picks up again with the wild Baby Dont Care. In However Much U Want Prince duets on what is the albums standout track and a powerhouse at that. Matye’s gives provides perhaps the listener a little too much information in Mo Better “when it’s wetter”, her intimate and fun love letter to her obviously pleasing marriage to Prince. This is followed by her rendition of The Most Beautiful Boy In The World, another reworking of his first ever UK #1 single. That track closes what is a mesmerising and solid release from Prince’s newly formed label NPG Records.
Of course Mayte was far more than a mere project, she was an admired member of the NPG and also a woman who had bagged her prince. With Child Of The Sun she deserved to have the world at her fingertips.
Child Of The Sun is rated 4.5 out of 5 by Goldies Parade.
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