Each week, SPIN digs into the catalogs of great artists and highlights songs you might not know for our Deep Cut Friday series.
Prince released an album almost every year of the 1980s, but his output was so prolific throughout that decade that there was always more material spilling forth through other outlets. He wrote and produced entire albums for many of the acts he signed to Paisley Park Records, most of Prince’s singles had great B sides or extended mixes, and sometimes even the B sides had extended mixes.
In November 1984, “I Would Die 4 U” was released as the third single from the album and film that made Prince a superstar, Purple Rain. The B side “Another Lonely Christmas” was five minutes long on the 7-inch single, but the 12-inch single featured an extended mix that stretched out to seven minutes. The lyrics are sung from the perspective of a heartbroken man whose lover died on December 25: “Your father said it was pneumonia, your mother said it was stress / But the doctor said you were dead, and I say it’s senseless.” The longer version of “Another Lonely Christmas” features an additional verse, with more lyrics about sex and banana daiquiris, and an extended instrumental outro.
Many Prince fans first heard the shorter version of “Another Lonely Christmas” on his 1993 compilation The Hits / The B-Sides. The extended mix became more widely available when it was included on the deluxe expanded edition of Purple Rain in 2017.
Prince performed “Another Lonely Christmas” live only once, a few weeks after its release in 1984. He capped his banner year with five concerts at the St. Paul Civic Center, on every day except Christmas between December 23 and December 28. The only holiday-themed song Prince ever released was on the Revolution’s setlist for the third show on December 26.
Three more essential Prince deep cuts:
“International Lover”
The closing track from 1999 was never released as a single, but Prince received his first Grammy nomination for “International Lover,” losing the Best Male R&B Vocal Performance award to Michael Jackson’s “Billie Jean.” “International Lover” is one of the signature Prince slow jams that’s become a staple of the quiet storm radio format alongside “Adore,” “Do Me, Baby,” “Beautiful Ones,” “Scandalous,” and “Call My Name.”
“Sometimes It Snows in April”
Parade, the companion album to Prince’s 1986 film Under the Cherry Moon, closes with “Sometimes It Snows in April,” a beautiful piano ballad about the death of Christopher Tracy, the character Prince played in the film. The song gained greater poignance after Prince died on April 21, 2016, exactly 31 years after the track was recorded.
“The Ballad of Dorothy Parker”
One of the most sonically distinctive and futuristic tracks on 1987’s Sign o’ the Times featured lyrics that reference Joni Mitchell’s “Help Me,” which helped spark a friendship between Prince and Mitchell, one of his favorite artists.
