The Family was a rather short-lived Prince side-project that gave birth to a number of hallmarks in his career. After Purple Rain, Morris Day left The Time bringing that band to an end. With Morris going his own way and Appolonia 6 disbanding just as quickly as they were formed, Prince was concerned he would be short of a devoted channel for his additional output, so he summoned St. Paul, Jerome Benton, Eric Leeds, Susannah Melvoin, and Jellybean Johnson to discuss their futures. With the quickness, he announced that a new band would be forming, named The Family, and St. Paul would be the lead singer with Susannah, Wendy's sister, contributing vocals. Everyone was understandably stoked.
Prince soon had an album's worth of tracks written and recorded, mostly on his own with Eric Leeds on sax. He even recorded scratch vocals for St. Paul to learn his new vocal performances with. Most of the new songs could easily pass for Time tunes, but Prince brought out the big guns with a number named Nothing Compares 2 U. That song would later gain popularity due to a fabulous rendition by a somewhat hairless female singer, but that's a different story.
Prince rehearsed The Family till they were a well-oiled machine, all on the promise that they would play a show at First Avenue and then they'd hit the big time. The First Avenue show came, and that was both the first and last show The Family played for over fifteen years. The band went into hibernation with Prince focusing on his career and St. Paul, angry at being unable to do anything without Prince's okay, left for a solo career. Prince proceeded to taunt him in public, sometimes calling him the "punk of the month", but none of that mattered because The Family was over and the record was quickly forgotten.
A similar set of problems surrounded Jill Jones, a long-time friend and sometimes girlfriend of Prince. After years of devotion and background duties, Prince decided it was time for Jill to have a chance at the spotlight. Her self-titled album was released in 1987 and Prince gave her some of his best leftovers, including G-Spot, a leftover from the unfinished second Vanity 6 album, Mia Bocca, a Parade outtake, and All Day, All Night, a Purple Rain leftover. Best of all, the excellent ballad, Baby, You're A Trip made the album, much to fans of the purple-one's satisfaction. Unfortunately, much like The Family's sole album, Jill's release and singles were under-promoted and went nowhere in the US, furthering Prince's love-em-and-leave-em habit of nurturing artists in his image.
Unlike The Family, Jill stuck around for a while, even making an appearance in Graffiti Bridge. She was working on a new album with Prince around that time but, due to a falling out for unknown reasons, the album wasn't finished and the completed songs remain unreleased.
It's really a shame that Prince didn't give Jill or The Family more promotion, as they were great acts in their own rights. The fans know how great they were and cherish their albums. A reissue is in order, but judging from Prince's list of should haves, I wouldn't expect it any time soon.
The Family have reunited several times since 2003 and continue to perform to this day as fdeluxe. You can read more about them at their wikipedia, myspace and official pages. Jill is still performing as well and you can find out a lot more about what she's been up to at her Peace Bisquit page.
The Family - The Family
01 High Fashion
02 Mutiny
03 The Screams Of Passion
04 Yes
05 River Run Dry
06 Nothing Compares 2 U
07 Susannah's Pajamas
08 Desire
Jill Jones - Jill Jones
01 Intro (Baby, You're A Trip)
02 Mia Bocca
03 G-Spot
04 Violet Blue
05 With You
06 All Day, All Night
07 For Love
08 My Man
09 Baby, You're A Trip
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