Post Description

Parade (subtitled "Music from the motion picture Under The Cherry Moon") is the eighth full-length studio album by Prince, and the third and final to be credited to Prince and the Revolution. It was released worldwide in March 1986, and, as the subtitle suggests, is a companion piece to Prince’s second movie, Under The Cherry Moon (although the movie was released three months after the album).

Sessions and compiling

Prince began working on the album in mid-April 1985, shortly before the release of the previous album, Around The World In A Day, and began by recording the drum track in sequence of Wendy’s Parade (late renamed Christopher Tracy’s Parade), New Position, I Wonder U and Under The Cherry Moon, all in one take. He then layered other instruments over all four tracks.

Having been pleased with Clare Fischer’s orchestration on The Family album, Prince sent Clare Fischer a cassette tape marked 'The Marx Brothers Project' and asked him to arrange and record orchestration for the entire album (except Kiss), which he did from mid-1985 to early 1986 at Monterey Sound Studios, Glendale, CA, USA, although Prince chose not to use all of the instrumentation on the final release.

A first configuration of the album was compiled on 1 May 1985 (detailed below), but several changes, including the removal of three tracks and the recording of six additional tracks, took place between then and the final release. The sountrack doesn’t include all the songs heard in the movie (see the Trivia section and the Under The Cherry Moon score & cues page for details)


Promotion

The album produced four commercially-released singles, Kiss, Mountains, Girls & Boys (in Europe only), and Anotherloverholenyohead.

Prince supported the album with a major European and Japanese tour, starting with a series of "hit & run" shows (with each show announced a day or two before the show itself) throughout the USA before the Parade Tour was formally launched. Several songs from the album were played on the tour.


Charts

The album reached number 3 on the US Billboard Top Pop Albums Chart, and number 2 on the Billboard Top Black Albums Chart.


Certifications

The album was certified platinum by RIAA two months after release, on 3 June 1986.