Prince was well known in the entertainment industry for having a vast body of work that remains unreleased. It has been said that his vault contains multiple unreleased albums and over 50 fully produced music videos that have never been released, along with albums and other media. The following is a list, in rough chronological order, of the most prominent of these unreleased works. Many were later released and circulated among collectors as bootlegs.
The Rebels
Before Prince formed The Time, he considered using his backing band as a side-project called The Rebels. The 1979 project was a group effort, with songs being written and sung by the various members (only Bobby Z and Dr. Fink did not sing). André Cymone and Dez Dickerson each contributed material and a few numbers were sung by Gayle Chapman. Instead of making something that sounded similar to his R&B solo output, Prince wanted go into more rock elements of songs such like "I'm Yours" and "Bambi". The project was eventually shelved feeling that the whole thing sounded too generic, but two of the songs composed by Prince were re-recorded and released much later: "If I Love U 2 Night" by Mica Paris (and later by Prince's wife-to-be Mayte Garcia) and "You" (renamed "U") by Paula Abdul. The original Prince guide vocal for "If I Love U 2 Nite" appeared by mistake on the rare Mica Paris Stand for Love EP, of which only a handful exist. From 10–21 July 1979, the band recorded nine tracks together at Mountain Ears Sound Studio, Boulder, CO, US:
"Too Long" "Disco Away" "Thrill You or Kill You" "You" "If I Love You Tonight" "The Loser" "Hard to Get" Untitled instrumental by Dez Dickerson Untitled instrumental by André Cymone
No further sessions under the name "The Rebels" are known to have taken place.
The Second Coming
The Second Coming was planned to be a documentary film and live album from Prince's Controversy Tour directed by Chuck Statler, that was shot on the 7 March 1982 concert at Bloomington, Minnesota. The tour was professionally filmed, with a storyline between songs, but the project was abandoned, likely due to Prince's schedule producing The Time and Vanity 6. The title comes from a prerecorded a cappella intro to the tour, immediately preceding the song "Uptown".
Setlist of the 7 March 1982 show at the Met Center, Bloomington, MN, US
Intro: "The Second Coming" "Uptown" "Why You Wanna Treat Me So Bad?" "When You Were Mine" "I Wanna Be Your Lover" "Head" "Annie Christian" "Dirty Mind" "Do Me, Baby" "Controversy" "Let's Work" "Jack U Off" "Private Joy"
Apollonia 6 film
A mini film project as four-track video was filmed, loosely based on the Apollonia 6 album. It was directed by Brian Thomson, an Australian production designer of the original stage versions of The Rocky Horror Show and Jesus Christ Superstar, and scripted by Keith Williams (concept writer for music videos by Phil Collins, Ray Parker Jr., and Donna Summer), with a cast comprising Ricky Nelson (as "Mr. Christian"), Edy Williams and Buck Henry. Shot in a Los Angeles film studio in 1985, and produced by British video firm Limelight, the video never went beyond the rough-cut stage. The songs featured on the film are "Happy Birthday, Mr. Christian", "Sex Shooter", "Blue Limousine" and "Ooo She She Wa Wa". The plot introduced three lingerie clad widows gathered to listen the reading of Mr. Christian's will and testament which leaves them nothing and encourages them to work. The imagery and set is very 1960's revamped into 1980's colorful graphic trends. The scenes show prominent neon words such as 'FILL' at a gas station for "Blue Limousine", where Brenda Bennett has the main vocal role, 'EAT' at a diner for "Ooo She Wa Wa", where Susan Moonsie leads while the two others find themselves struggling in front of piles of dirty dishes to wash. The part featuring Apollonia in the leading role features the word 'BUY' in a supermarket set.
The Flesh
The Flesh was a project of live jam sessions recorded in late 1985 to early 1986. The project was abandoned when Prince began finalizing work on Parade although a small instrumental portion of a track called "Junk Music" made it into the film Under the Cherry Moon.
The Flesh was a kind of precursor to Madhouse. All the tracks were jazz-funk instrumentals. The songs were recorded in 3 sessions soon after Christmas 1985 at Sunset Sound.
The first session was on December 28, 1985: Prince, Eric Leeds, Sheila E. and Levi Seacer, Jr. recorded 8 tracks: "Slaughterhouse" "U Just Can't Stop" "Run Amok" "Mobile" "Madrid" "Breathless" "High Calonic" "12 Keys"