Post Description

16 is the second (and final) studio album by Madhouse, and was released in November 1987 (ten months 
after their first album 8). New Directions In Garage Music appears as a subtitle on the cover, in a 
nod to a series of albums by Miles Davis from the late 60s and early 70s.
All eight tracks were written or co-written by Prince, and all contain him playing most instruments, 
with Eric Leeds playing saxophone and minimal contributions from other musicians. 
Following on from the previous album, 8, all tracks are given written numerical names, from Nine to 
Sixteen, while the album is named numerically.

Prince and Eric Leeds would return to Madhouse projects in the future, although no other Madhouse 
albums were released. See 24 (1989) and 24 (1994) for two later unreleased albums.


Sessions and compiling

Prince and Eric Leeds recorded the album in a very dense few days of recording at Paisley Park 
Studios, Chanhassen, Minnesota, from 30 July to 2 August 1987, shortly after completing filming 
for the Sign O’ The Times movie.

The only exception are Nine, which was recorded in March 1987 at Prince’s Galpin Blvd Home Studio, 
Chanhassen, Minnesota. Sixteen was also likely recorded around this time.


Musicians input

Four of the eight tracks on the album feature only Prince and Eric Leeds. Sheila E. plays drums and 
Levi Seacer, Jr. plays bass guitar on three tracks (Ten, Eleven and Fifteen), and Dr. Fink plays 
keyboards on Sixteen. Prince and Sheila E.’s contributions are uncredited. The band for the whole 
album is listed as Eric Leeds, Levi Seacer, Jr., Dr. Fink and the fictional John Lewis.

Nine (2:06) 1
Ten (5:04) 2
Eleven (6:14) 2
Twelve (5:14) 1
Thirteen (4:46) 1
Fourteen (5:12) 1
Fifteen (3:49) 2
Sixteen (4:17) 3

All songs written by Prince except where indicated.
1 Written by Prince (credited as Madhouse)
2 Written by Prince, Eric Leeds, Levi Seacer, Jr. and Sheila E. (credited as Madhouse)
3 Written by Prince and Eric Leeds (credited as Madhouse)