Home / Prince Discography / Standalone Singles /
1994
The Beautiful Experience EP
1995
Purple Medley
The Beautiful Experience EP Prince single
Bellmark Records
singleOn record, Slave.
The Beautiful Experience EP was Prince’s second release when under the name of The Artist Formally Known As Prince (Prince Love Symbol).
Comprising alternate versions and mixes to his hit single The Most Beautiful Girl In The World (Prince’s inaugural release both under NPG Records and as The Artist Formally Known As Prince) The Beautiful Experience was issued in celebration of the track becoming Prince’s first and only single to top the charts in the UK.
The releases came at a point in Prince’s career when his relationship with Warner Bros Records had reached its lowest ebb. Prince had formed NPG Records in 1993 as Warner wanted to exercise greater say in the running of Paisley Park Records in order to rein back production costs following the previous year’s costly Love Symbol Album. Prince used his newly created label to distribute the original single, The Most Beautiful Girl In The World, in a partnership Levi Seacer as president of NPG Records struck with small independent outfit Bellmark Records founded in 1989 by Al Bell, former owner of Stax Records. Prince self funded the release to the tune of $2 million. Warner sanctioned the release as long as it was limited to one song only. Their intention was to show Prince how difficult it would be to succeed on his own. This proved to be a significant concession.
The Most Beautiful Girl In The World was laid down at Paisley Park Studios on 23 September 1993. Prince had originally intended to re-record it in several versions each in another language, however only the Spanish version, sung by Mayte Garcia, was released – included in her album Child Of The Sun in 1995 retitled as The Most Beautiful Boy In The World. Prince’s original passed through several iterations, and while still unhappy with the track, passed it to his studio engineer Ricky Peterson for final polish. The finished single was released on 9 February for Valentine’s Day 1994.
In the US, The Most Beautiful Girl In The World climbed to 3 in the Billboard Hot 100 and remained in the top ten for ten weeks, and certified Gold on 26 May 1994. The UK release of the single followed on 28 March and shot to the number 1 spot on 9 April and held the position for two weeks. This was a milestone Prince had not achieved even at the height of his commercial success in his entire tenure with Warner Brothers to top the UK singles chart. The Most Beautiful Girl In The World also headed charts in the Netherlands (2 weeks), Switzerland (2 weeks), Australia (2 weeks) and New Zealand (4 weeks), and was a top 5 single also in Austria, Belgium, France, Ireland and Norway. Global sales of the single totalled 1.8 million units.
The vinyl 12″ edition of the single also featured two additional tracks: Beautiful [Extended Club Version] and Beautiful Beats both mixed by British producer Simon Harris. Being restricted to just one song, Prince decided to put out a celebratory companion release and circumvented the restriction by issuing a EP filled with entirely reworked versions of the same song. A video exclusive for the B-side remix Beautiful was created for BBC’s Top Of The Pops to mark the main single’s chart topping occasion. The new cuts were remixed by Prince and engineered at Paisley Park Studios. The resulting The Beautiful Experience EP was released on 17 May, likewise distributed by Bellmark. The US version of the CD included an insert with a fold-out butterfly, and a 10×10″ full colour booklet accompanied the US vinyl format release. The US vinyl issue is configured with all tracks duplicated on both sides of the disc, and the European version conventionally tracked across sides A and B and omit the the inserts.
The EP sold surprisingly well despite its low-key release – peaking at number 18 in the UK singles chart. Its unanticipated success provided Prince the momentum to pursue his post-Warner career as an independent artist. This was aided by Prince’s performance of the song at the World Music Awards on 4 May 1994 and pushed the single to receive its Gold certification on 26 May, selling a total of 700,000 units. The Most Beautiful Girl In The World was nominated for a Grammy in 1994 for Male Pop Vocal Performance, albeit unsuccessful. Prince received the Merit Award at the 1995 AMAs in recognition for his contribution to music.
The album for which The Most Beautiful Girl In The World was intended was ultimately released in September 1995 on The Gold Experience long delayed by Warner. But the damage in their relationship was done. The Beautiful Experience is highly unusual in that whilst it is itself a maxi-single it spawned two supporting singles – remix tracks Staxowax and Mustang Mix.
The song’s video was shot at Paisley Park Studios on 29 January 1994 and received submissions from 50,000 women responding to an advert to feature in it. The advert, printed in newspapers in the US, UK, Netherlands and Spain, asked females to send in a picture or video, from which seven were chosen. The video received its world debut during the broadcast of the Miss USA Pageant on 11 February 1994. Some 30 other entrants are featured in the artwork of the single.
Performers
- Vox / All instr.
- Prince Love Symbol
- Add. keyboards
- Ricky Peterson
- Saxophone
- Eric Leeds Sexy Staxophone And Guitar
- Programming
- Eric "Statik" Anest
Data
- Producer
- Prince Love Symbol
- Label
- NPG Records
- Distribution
- Bellmark Records
- Cover/Design
- J.C. Munson & Nicole Nodland
- Released
- 32 years ago on 17 May 1994
- Running Time
- 32:57
- US Chart Peak
- 92
- US R&B Peak
- 29
- UK Chart Peak
- 18
- Orig. Formats
-
Tracklist
- Beautiful (5:55)
- Staxowax (5:14)
- Mustang Mix (6:19)
- Flutestramental (3:35)
- Sexy Staxophone And Guitar (3:54)
- Mustang Instrumental [feat. Mayte] (3:23)
- (4:37)
Released as a single
Singles from The Beautiful Experience EP
Staxowax
NPG Records
- Released
- 12 May 1994
- Distribution
- Bellmark Records
- US Chart Peak
- Did not chart
- UK Chart Peak
- Did not chart
- Cover/Art
- J.C. Munson and Levi Seacer Jr.
- Formats
-
- Staxowax (4:59)
- Sexy Staxophone And Guitar [feat. Eric Leeds] (3:36)
Mustang Mix
NPG Records
- Released
- 12 May 1994
- Distribution
- Bellmark Records
- US Chart Peak
- Did not chart
- UK Chart Peak
- Did not chart
- Cover/Art
- J.C. Munson and Levi Seacer Jr.
- Formats
-
- Mustang Mix (6:19)
- Mustang Instrumental (3:23)
The Beautiful Experience EP single review
The Beautiful Experience is much more than your standard remix EP. It is possibly the most important release of Prince’s career. The realisation of independence – partially. Prince was not yet truly independent, still locked into his contract with Warner he was allowed to release just one song and, Prince being Prince conjured up this EP of other versions of that same song. That song was of course The Most Beautiful Girl In The World, Prince’s final proper worldwide smash single.
Legend goes he wrote it in response to a Warner exec telling him in 1993 he was a spent force, with no further hit records within him. So Prince wrote this out of spite and in doing so delivered his first and only UK number one single of his career. The CD packaging featured his new symbol guitar printed on the disc and a pop-up carded butterfly, packaging a truly beautiful experience all at his own expense. Having achieved that on an independent label and at commercial scale distribution courtesy of Bellmark, The Beautiful Experience was released in celebration of that milestone. It features entirely reworked versions of the original track, the liveliest being Beautiful the reworking of the original single’s B-side. An oddity of The Beautiful Experience is that the EP spawned singles, albeit instrumentals of the original track. It broke new ground for a journey that would lead fans to all points of distribution with later releases.
The Beautiful Experience EP is rated 3.5 out of 5 by Goldies Parade.
Related release
© Goldies Parade, 1998 – 2026 • Privacy