''Ice Cream Castle'' is a 1984 album by The Time. Their third album, it consists of six tracks in the funk-pop or

ballad A ballad is a form of verse, often a narrative set to music. Ballads were particularly characteristic of the popular poetry and song of Great Britain and Ireland from the Late Middle Ages until the 19th century. They were widely used across Eur ...

genre, and it was produced and arranged by

Prince A prince is a male ruler (ranked below a king, grand prince, and grand duke) or a male member of a monarch's or former monarch's family. ''Prince'' is also a title of nobility (often highest), often hereditary, in some European states. The ...

as "The Starr ★ Company". The album's two biggest hits, " Jungle Love" and " The Bird", were featured in the film '' Purple Rain'' and this, along with Day's performance in the movie, catapulted the album up the charts and to a crossover audience. The band didn't have time to enjoy the success, as they had disbanded by the time the movie was released. ''Ice Cream Castle'' produced three singles: "

Ice Cream Castles "Ice Cream Castles" is the opening track from the Time's third album, '' Ice Cream Castle''. The song was composed by Prince and Morris Day, with Prince writing the lyrics after recording the instrumental tracks. Day provided drums and lead vo ...

", "Jungle Love", and "The Bird".

Recording

Sessions for the album began in late March 1983, at

Sunset Sound Sunset (or sundown) is the disappearance of the Sun at the end of the Sun path, below the horizon of the Earth (or any other astronomical object in the Solar System) due to its rotation. As viewed from everywhere on Earth, it is a phenomenon th ...

, in

Hollywood Hollywood usually refers to: * Hollywood, Los Angeles, a neighborhood in California * Hollywood, a metonym for the cinema of the United States Hollywood may also refer to: Places United States * Hollywood District (disambiguation) * Hollywood ...

(while Prince and The Time were still on the 1999 Tour), beginning with "Jungle Love". "Chili Sauce" (under its original title, "Proposition #17") and "If the Kid Can't Make You Come" followed in mid-April 1983. Although Prince played the majority of the studio instrumentation on the album, members of The Time, particularly Jesse Johnson, made some contributions. "The Bird" was recorded live by the band in early October 1983 at First Avenue in

Minneapolis Minneapolis is a city in Hennepin County, Minnesota, United States, and its county seat. With a population of 429,954 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the state's List of cities in Minnesota, most populous city. Locat ...

, after a studio recording was made earlier in 1983, but the live version was chosen for release instead. "Ice Cream Castles" and "My Drawers" were the final tracks recorded for the album in mid-January 1984. Other tracks recorded and considered for the album included "My Summertime Thang" (recorded in late March 1983, and later released on The Time's fourth album ''Pandemonium''). "Cloreen Baconskin" was recorded during the same two-day session in late March 1983, with Morris Day on drums and Prince on bass guitar, but isn't believed to have been intended for the album. Later tracks considered for the album include "Chocolate" (released on ''Pandemonium''), "My Love Belongs to You" and "Velvet Kitty Cat" (released on the deluxe edition of '' Purple Rain''), all recorded in mid-April 1983.

Commercial performance

The album peaked at number 24 on the ''Billboard'' 200 and number three on the Top Soul LPs charts. The album spent a total of 57 weeks on the US ''Billboard'' album charts and had reached its peak position in early March 1985. The album was eventually certified

platinum Platinum is a chemical element; it has Symbol (chemistry), symbol Pt and atomic number 78. It is a density, dense, malleable, ductility, ductile, highly unreactive, precious metal, precious, silverish-white transition metal. Its name origina ...

by the

Recording Industry Association of America The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is a trade organization that represents the music recording industry in the United States. Its members consist of record labels and distributors that the RIAA says "create, manufacture, and/o ...

(RIAA) for sales of over a million copies in the United States. This remains the group's best-selling album to date.

Track listing

Note that the original label gave writing credits to Morris Day (or Morris Day and Jesse Johnson) for all six songs. However, the songs were officially registered with ASCAP as being written by Prince, or by Prince and Morris Day, which is from where the official writing credits have been sourced.

Singles

" (#11 R&B, #106 Pop) #"Ice Cream Castles" #"Tricky" (non-album track) #"Get It Up" – ''12" single'' *" Jungle Love" (#6 R&B, #20 Pop) #"Jungle Love" #"Oh, Baby" – ''7" single'' #"Tricky" (non-album track) – ''NL 7" single, German 12" single'' #"The Bird" – ''7" back-to-back single'' *" The Bird" (#33 R&B, #36 Pop) #"The Bird" #"My Drawers"

Personnel

Credits sourced from Duane Tudahl and Benoît Clerc *

Morris Day Morris E. Day (born December 13, 1957) is an American musician and songwriter. He is best known as the lead singer of The Time. Music career Morris Day is best known as the lead singer of The Time, a group associated with Prince. Day and Pr ...

– lead and backing vocals, drums (1, 2),

Linn LM-1 The Linn LM-1 Drum Computer is a drum machine manufactured by Linn Electronics and released in 1980. It was the first drum machine to use samples of acoustic drums, and one of the first programmable drum machines. Its designer, the American en ...

(4) * Jesse Johnson – electric guitars (all but 3), drums (5), backing vocals *

Paul Peterson Paul Joseph Peterson (born October 18, 1964), also known as St. Paul Peterson, is a singer and musician best known for his memberships in the bands The Family and The Time. Life and career Born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Peterson was the you ...

– synthesizers (6), backing vocals *Jerry Hubbard – bass guitar (credited), backing vocals * Jerome Benton – percussion (6), backing vocals *

Jellybean Johnson Garry George "Jellybean" Johnson (born November 19, 1956) is an American drummer, guitarist, songwriter, record producer and musician based out of Minneapolis, Minnesota. Early life, family and education As a youth, Johnson relocated from Chi ...

– drums (6), Linn LM-1 (6), backing vocals *Mark Cardenas – synthesizers (6), backing vocals with: *Prince (uncredited) – electric guitars (2, 6), synthesizers (3, 5, 6),

Oberheim OB-8 The Oberheim OB-8 is a subtractive analog synthesizer launched by Oberheim in early 1983 and discontinued in 1985. As the fourth product in the OB-series of polyphonic compact synthesizers, the OB-8 was the successor to the OB-Xa. About 3,000 ...

(1, 2, 4), Yamaha CP-80 electric grand piano (3, 5), bass guitar (all but 4), Pearl SY-1 Syncussion (1, 2), percussion, music box (1, 6), Linn LM-1 (2),

LinnDrum The LinnDrum, often erroneously referred to as the LM-2, is a drum machine manufactured by Linn Electronics between 1982 and 1985. About 5,000 units were sold. Development The LinnDrum was designed by the American engineer Roger Linn. It was ...

(3, 5), waiter vocal (3), backing vocals *Sharon Hughes – additional vocals (3, 5) *

Jill Jones Jill Jones (born July 11, 1962) is an American singer, songwriter, and actress, who performed as a backing vocalist for Teena Marie and Prince in the 1980s. She is best known for her various collaborative works with Prince in the 1980s and 1990s ...

– backing vocals (2, 4) * Novi Novog – violin (3) Production *Produced by Prince, Morris Day *Recording engineers: David Leonard, Peggy Mac, Terry Christian *Mastering: Bernie Grundman

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

References

External links

"Ice Cream Castle" at discogs
{{Authority control The Time (band) albums 1984 albums Warner Records albums Albums produced by Prince (musician) Albums recorded at Sunset Sound Recorders