The Family (band)
| The Family | |
|---|---|
| Origin | Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States |
| Genres | Pop, rhythm and blues, soul, funk, new wave, dance |
| Years active | 1984-1987, 2009–present |
| Labels | Paisley Park/Warner Bros. |
| Associated acts | Prince, The Time |
| Website | fdeluxe |
| Members |
St. Paul Susannah Melvoin Miko Weaver Jellybean Johnson Eric Leeds Jerome Benton |
The Family is a band formed by Prince, and one of the first signed to his record label, Paisley Park Records. The band reformed as fDeluxe in 2009.
The band's origins started with the disintegration of The Time in 1984. Lead singer Morris Day had left the band to pursue a solo career and guitarist Jesse Johnson became the de facto band leader. Prince suggested restructuring the band with new member Paul Peterson to head the group, but Johnson opposed. However, like Day, Johnson soon left the band to pursue his own solo career. A few of The Time's newer members followed Johnson to join his backing band (called Jesse Johnson's Revue).
As the band had served as an outlet for Prince to release more music, he wanted to continue this avenue, inviting the remaining members of The Time, Jellybean Johnson, Jerome Benton, and Paul Peterson, to his home and presented them with his new project. They agreed to become a new band called The Family, with Peterson renamed "St. Paul" as the new frontman and bassist. Johnson and Benton reprised their familiar roles from The Time. To the mix, Prince added Susannah Melvoin, the twin sister of Revolution guitarist Wendy Melvoin, as a backing singer and keyboardist. The fifth member was Eric Leeds, the brother of Prince's tour manager Alan Leeds, who provided saxophone and flute. Guitarist Miko Weaver is credited in the album's booklet because he was to be a session player and tour musician band supporter, but was never officially part of the band.
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. On several tracks Prince's vocals can be clearly heard. Some of the original demos have surfaced as bootlegs and circulate among fans with Prince's original lead vocals, as well as two outtakes: the instrumental "Feline" and the pop song "Miss Understood". 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". The tracks were all recorded in a few weeks' span at the end of the year 1984 after Prince had finished sessions for Around the World in a Day, and just before he started to record music for Sheila E.'s album Romance 1600 and his own album Parade.
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