Prince’s Label Clarifies Controversial “Calabama” Credits

Prince may not be on this mortal realm with us, but he left behind an immense archive of work that is still being released to the public, reminding us of the limitlessness of his creativity. Last week, his estate released the album Timeless, which has sparked some controversy with its album credits.Timeless was advertised as a collection of original recordings from 1977 to 2016, which implies that these tracks were untouched or unfinished following Prince's death. But, trombonist Greg Boyer shared on Facebook that he contributed his horn part to the song “Calabama" this year. (Prince recorded the original version of "Calabama" in 2003.) This new information contradicted the Prince estate's claim that these tracks are all original recordings.On Tuesday, Charles Spicer Jr., coprincipal of Prince Legacy LLC, released an apology. “I want to correct something I stated earlier,” he wrote. “I stated that nothing had been edited or added to ‘Calabama.’ I’ve since confirmed that the released version includes additional horns, so that statement was not accurate, and I will take responsibility for what I stated.”Now, Prince's label has released a longer statement regarding the whole scenario,...