Purple Medley

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"Purple Medley"
US 12" single
Single by Prince
B-side	"Kirk J's B-Sides Remix"
Released	March 14, 1995
Recorded	1989–1995
Studio	Paisley Park, Chanhassen
Genre	Pop, funk, rock
Length	3:14 (7" edit) 11:00 (12" full version)
Label	Warner Bros.
Songwriter(s)	Prince
Producer(s)	Prince
Prince singles chronology
"Space" (1994) "Purple Medley" (1995) "I Hate U" (1995)

"Purple Medley" is a medley of songs by American musician Prince from 1995. There is no album accompanying the single. The track is a mix of many hits and well-known songs from Prince's career. Some of the pieces of music are samples, while others are re-recorded for the mix. Some of the additional instrumentation is credited to The New Power Generation. The "Purple Medley" consists of snippets from the songs: "Batdance", "When Doves Cry", "Kiss", "Erotic City", "Darling Nikki", "1999", "Baby I'm a Star", "Diamonds and Pearls", "Purple Rain" and "Let's Go Crazy" and fades for the edit. The full version continues with "Sexy Dancer", "Let's Work", "Irresistible Bitch" (with the music of "Sexy MF"), "I Wanna Be Your Lover", "Alphabet St.", "Thieves in the Temple", the bassline to The Time's "777-9311", Sheila E.'s "A Love Bizarre", "If I Was Your Girlfriend", "Raspberry Beret", "Little Red Corvette", "Cream" and "Peach".

The CD single release includes both the full version of the medley (which clocks in at 11 minutes) and the edited version, which is 3:14 in length, and omits about half of the tracks present in the full version. Despite, in essence, being a megamix of Prince's biggest hits (barring "The Most Beautiful Girl in the World"), the B-side of the single is "Kirk J's B-Sides Remix" which consists of additional Prince hits remixed (oddly, only one was an actual B-side). This track appears to have little additional input from Prince, but is rather a compilation of remixes made by band member Kirk Johnson. The compilation includes bits of "Pop Life", "Housequake", "When Doves Cry", "Shockadelica", "Head" and "The Continental".^[1] The remix of "The Continental" was released in a longer version on the 1998 compilation Crystal Ball as "Tell Me How U Wanna B Done".

The track also features Prince's last use of his Yamaha DX7 synthesizer. When the DX7 was up for sale in 2020 by Shane T. Keller, Prince's main engineer during the recording, he remarked how Prince had used the DX7 before he sold it for financial purposes in 1995 to him:

When we were working on the Purple Medley, Prince asked me, "Can you get my DX7?". I had to look for it, so that is how I knew where it was later in the year during the fire sale. His handwriting is all over it, and he assumed ownership of it when I brought it into Studio A. Indeed, it was his, and I saw him play it.^[2]