The Family (The Family album)

The Family is a 1985 album released on Prince's Paisley Park Records label by the band of the same name. The album consists of eight Minneapolis sound tracks but with a funk-jazz slant; two of the tracks are instrumentals, and three are ballads. A single was released for "The Screams of Passion," a modest hit that was re-released in 1996 on the Girl 6 soundtrack. A promo version of "High Fashion" was distributed. The album's crowning achievement, however, was "Nothing Compares 2 U" an emotional ballad covered five years later and catapulted to worldwide fame by Sinéad O'Connor. The album was released on vinyl; following the success of O'Connor's version of "Nothing Compares 2 U" a CD version of the album was released in Japan and Germany/Europe.

Much like The Time, the band's material was composed nearly entirely by Prince, with the exception of "River Run Dry," which was written by Revolution drummer Bobby Z. Prince wrote and performed all the other tracks and simply overdubbed Peterson's and Melvoin's vocals and added saxophone and flute by Leeds. Indeed, on several tracks, Prince's vocals can be clearly heard. Some of the original demos are circulating among fans with Prince's lead vocals. As on other associates' albums, Prince falsely gave credit to the various band members for writing credits, though he kept his name on "Nothing Compares 2 U", perhaps sensing the song's hit potential.

Due to the original lack of interest "The Family" went largely unnoticed. In recent years interest in the band has increased and CD copies of the album are extremely rare and hard-to-find.

Chart history

Peak position 14—Billboard R&B Chart (spent 29 weeks on the chart).

Track listing

As mentioned above, all songs on the album were composed by Prince, with the exception of "River Run Dry" by Bobby Z.. Except for "Nothing Compares 2 U", Prince gave writing credit to the various band members for all other tracks.