One more little treat for all of you, something that took root out of the Fun With Vinyl series. While putting the Fun With Vinyl series together and doing research on it, I took an interest in putting together a complete set of singles released by Prince, spanning his entire career. Of course, if you have ever researched the single releases by Prince you know that you will eventually find yourself going off on a tangent here, a tangent there, never really accomplishing anything because there are just so many commercial releases, promotional releases, a slightly different release in this country vice that country, an edit here, a different edit there and it just goes on and on and on. So, I decided to set some boundaries and come up with a particular slice of those releases that could be completed and be definitive without needing to be updated in years to come. So, here are my parameters… concentrate only on releases from the United States, only include singles that were released on vinyl, those singles would only be 7″/45RPM releases and, finally, only commercially available releases would be considered. The result is now being offered to you as a free download.

This box set is being released in two 4CD volumes (a FLAC version and an MP3 version). Volume 1 covers the years 1978-1987, ‘For You’ through ‘Sign ‘O’ The Times’. Volume 2 picks up from there and goes from 1988-1995, ‘Lovesexy’ through ‘The Gold Experience’. 1995 saw the last release of a mass-produced, commercially available 7″/45RPM record bearing Prince’s name and thus ended an era. Vinyl has made a comeback in recent years but, I don’t think the 7″/45RPM single will ever be mass produced in the way it was prior to the development of the Compact Disc. “Singles” are now available all over the internet from iTunes to Amazon to your favorite P2P or torrent site. It will never be economically viable for record companies to mass produce these little vinyl nuggets ever again.

Once again, all kudos for the artwork go to squirrelgrease. Another professional job on the artwork. Thanks, also, to an anonymous donor of some lossless digital rips from some CDs that I didn’t have… “your upload will be completed and ready to move soon, LOL.” Research sources: MoQuake (since closed) and Sleevographia.

Volume 1 is being released this week and Volume 2 will follow next week. The Virtual U.S. 7″ Singles Box has been compiled from various sources, official vinyl, official CD and unofficial CD. Digital sources were given top priority and vinyl sources were used only if a digital source had never been available. No “remastering” or tweaking has been done on any of these tracks, they are direct rips from original sources and have been converted to a lossless or mp3 format (depending on the version you choose). The FLAC files were converted using dbPoweramp and were compressed using Compression Level 5 (Default) option. The MP3 files were also converted using dbPoweramp with the LAME encoder set for VBR, “extreme” quality setting and the “Slow (High Quality)” encoding option.

Prince – The Virtual U.S. 7″ Singles Box Volume 1

CD1

1978-06-07 Soft And Wet
7″ (US: WBS 8619)
A. Soft And Wet (3:01)
B. So Blue (4:26)

1978-11-21 Just As Long As We’re Together
7″ (US: WBS 8713)
A. Just As Long As We’re Together (Edit) (3:25)
B. In Love (3:38)

1979-08-24 I Wanna Be Your Lover
7″ (US: WBS 49050)
A. I Wanna Be Your Lover (Edit) (2:57)
B. My Love Is Forever (4:08)

1980-01-23 Why You Wanna Treat Me So Bad
7″ (US: WBS 49178)
A. Why You Wanna Treat Me So Bad? (3:49)
B. Baby (3:09)

1980-03-25 Still Waiting
7″ (US: WBS 49226)
A. Still Waiting (Edit) (3:48)
B. Bambi (4:22)

1980-09-10 Uptown
7″ (US: WBS 49559)
A. Uptown (Edit) (4:09)
B. Crazy You (2:15)

1980-11-26 Dirty Mind
7″ (US: WBS 49638)
A. Dirty Mind (Edit) (3:54)
B. When We’re Dancing Close And Slow (5:18)

CD2

1981-09-02 Controversy
7″ (US: WBS 49808)
A. Controversy (Edit) (3:35)
B. When You Were Mine (3:44)

1982-01-06 Let’s Work
7″ (US: WBS 50002)
A. Let’s Work (Edit) (2:56)
B. Ronnie Talk To Russia (1:48)

1982-07-16 Do Me, Baby
7″ (US: 7-29942)
A. Do Me, Baby (Edit) (3:57)
B. Private Joy (4:25)

1982-09-24 1999
7″ (US: 7-29896)
A. 1999 (Edit) (3:36)
B. How Come U Don’t Call Me Anymore (3:50)

1983-02-09 Little Red Corvette
7″ (US: 7-29746)
A. Little Red Corvette (Edit) (3:08)
B. All The Critics Love U In New York (Edit) (3:15)

1983-08-17 Delirious
7″ (US: 7-29503)
A. Delirious (Edit) (2:38)
B. Horny Toad (2:12)

1983-11-23 Let’s Pretend We’re Married
7″ (US: 7-29548)
A. Let’s Pretend We’re Married (Edit) (3:40)
B. Irresistible Bitch (4:11)

CD3

1984-05-16 When Doves Cry
7″ (US: 7-29286)
A. When Doves Cry (Edit) (3:47)
B. 17 Days (3:54)

1984-07-18 Let’s Go Crazy
7″ (US: 7-29216)
A. Let’s Go Crazy (Edit) (3:46)
B. Erotic City (Edit) (3:55)

1984-09-26 Purple Rain
7″ (US: 7-29174)
A. Purple Rain (Edit) (4:02)
B. God (3:59)

1984-11-28 I Would Die 4 U
7″ (US: 7-29121)
A. I Would Die 4 U (Single Version) (2:57)
B. Another Lonely Christmas (4:51)

1985-01-25 Take Me With U
7″ (US: 7-29079)
A. Take Me With U (Edit) (3:42)
B. Baby I’m A Star (Edit) (2:55)

1985-05-15 Raspberry Beret
7″ (US: 7-28972)
A. Raspberry Beret (3:31)
B. She’s Always In My Hair (3:27)

1985-07-10 Pop Life
7″ (US: 7-28998)
A. Pop Life (3:42)
B. Hello (3:23)

1985-10-02 America
7″ (US: 7-28999)
A. America (3:40)
B. Girl (3:51)

CD4

1986-02-05 Kiss
7″ (US: 7-28751)
A. Kiss (Single Version) (3:45)
B. Love Or Money (3:52)

1986-05-07 Mountains
7″ (US: 7-28711)
A. Mountains (3:58)
B. Alexa De Paris (3:20)

1986-07-02 Anotherloverholenyohead
7″ (US: 7-28620)
A. Anotherloverholenyohead (Edit) (3:23)
B. Girls & Boys (Edit) (3:27)

1987-02-18 Sign ‘O’ The Times
7″ (US: 7-28399)
A. Sign O’ The Times (Edit) (3:42)
B. La, La, La, He, He, Hee (3:21)

1987-05-06 If I Was Your Girlfriend
7″ (US: 7-28334)
A. If I Was Your Girlfriend (Edit) (3:46)
B. Shockadelica (3:30)

1987-07-14 U Got The Look
7″ (US: 7-28289)
A. U Got The Look (3:46)
B. Housequake (Edit) (3:24)

1987-11-03 I Could Never Take The Place Of Your Man
7″ (US: 7-28288)
A. I Could Never Take The Place Of Your Man (Fade) (3:39)
B. Hot Thing (Edit) (3:40)

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Enjoy and get it on!