Sign o' the Times (song)

"Sign o' the Times", also stylized as "Sign '☮' the Times", is the lead single from American musician Prince's 1987 album of the same name. The song was originally intended for two separate Prince albums meant to be released in 1986, that were both shelved: Dream Factory and Crystal Ball. (Many of the tracks from both of these albums ended up on the album Sign o' the Times.) Prince sings and performs the entire track except for some backing vocals by then-girlfriend Susannah Melvoin. "Sign o' the Times" was written on a Sunday, when Prince usually wrote his most introspective songs.

The song proved popular upon release, topping the R&B chart, and reaching number three on the Billboard Hot 100.Rolling Stone ranked "Sign o' the Times" #304 on their list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. In 1987, both NME and Village Voice's Pazz & Jop critics' poll named "Sign o' the Times" the best single of the year.

Composition and arrangement

Sign o' the Times (film)

Sign o' the Times (styled Sign "☮" the Times) is a 1987 American concert film written and directed by Prince. In 1987, to capitalise on his growing success in Europe, Prince toured extensively to promote the album of the same name and sales increased accordingly. However the U.S. remained resistant to his latest album, and sales began to drop; it was at this point that Prince decided to film a live concert promoting the new material, for eventual distribution to theaters in America.

Featuring the band that accompanied Prince on his 1987 Sign o' the Times Tour, including dancer Cat Glover, keyboardist Boni Boyer, bassist Levi Seacer, Jr., guitarist Miko Weaver, drummer Sheila E. and former member of The Revolution keyboardist Dr. Fink, the film sees the group perform live on stage (although "U Got the Look" is represented by its promotional music video).

Background

The film was originally intended to consist of live material filmed in the Ahoy' in Rotterdam, The Netherlands on June 26, June 27 and June 28 and in the Sportpaleis in Antwerp, Belgium on June 29. However, the footage from these concerts was deemed unsatisfactory, partly due to the film being grainy and unusable, but also because some of the sound had been recorded on different channels and was virtually inaudible. Consequently, the live performance was reshot at Prince's Paisley Park Studios (where the between-song segues were also filmed). According to saxophonist Eric Leeds, around 80% of the final film was drawn from the Paisley Park reshoot.

The Times

The Times is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register and became The Times on 1 January 1788. The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times (founded in 1821) are published by Times Newspapers, since 1981 a subsidiary of News UK, itself wholly owned by the News Corp group headed by Rupert Murdoch. The Times and The Sunday Times do not share editorial staff, were founded independently and have only had common ownership since 1967.

In 1959, historian of journalism Allan Nevins analysed the importance of The Times in shaping the views of events of London's elite:

The Times is the first newspaper to have borne that name, lending it to numerous other papers around the world, including The Times of India (founded in 1838), The Straits Times (Singapore) (1845), The New York Times (1851), The Irish Times (1859), Le Temps (France) (1861-1942), the Cape Times (South Africa) (1872), the Los Angeles Times (1881), The Seattle Times (1891), The Manila Times (1898), The Daily Times (Malawi) (1900), El Tiempo (Colombia) (1911), The Canberra Times (1926), and The Times (Malta) (1935). In these countries, the newspaper is often referred to as The London Times or The Times of London.

San Mateo County Times

The San Mateo County Times is a daily newspaper published by the MediaNews Group. The paper is distributed throughout San Mateo County, Monday through Saturday. Before being sold in 1996, it had been published for over 100 years as the San Mateo Times, originally published by Amphlett Publishing

San Mateo Times

Amphlett also published a weekly "shopping" newspaper, The San Mateo Post, on Wednesday mornings. The Times provided extensive coverage of San Mateo County news and sports (sometimes using high school or college correspondents).

It had one of the first television columnists in the San Francisco Bay Area, Bob Foster, who covered the birth of KPIX, San Francisco's first television station, in December 1948. Foster remained on the staff for many years, covering Bay Area television and radio. He was an occasional guest on KGO Radio talk shows.

In 1968, Amphlett acquired several weekly newspapers in San Bruno, South San Francisco, Pacifica, and Daly City. All operations for these papers were moved to a central facility in South San Francisco.

The Times (band)

The Times are a British, 1980s-90s, indie band, the brainchild of Ed Ball, co-founder member of the Television Personalities, Teenage Filmstars and 'O' Level.

Whaam! Records 1981-1982

After releasing a string of 7" singles variously as O'Level ("We Love Malcolm", 1978), The Television Personalities ("Part-Time Punks", 1978), Teenage Filmstars ("There's A Cloud Over Liverpool", 1979, "I Helped Patrick McGoohan Escape", 1980), that culminated with the debut Television Personalities album "And Don't The Kids Just Love It" (1980) on Rough Trade Records, Edward Ball and Daniel Treacy opted for even more artistic control by setting up their own label, WHAAM! Records.

At the same time, recorded as a proposed Teenage Filmstars' debut LP, Ball's 1980 collection of songs was completed as "Go! With The Times", from which the first Times single "Red With Purple Flashes" (1981) was released on Whaam! This was followed by "Pop Goes Art!" (1982), released in individually hand-painted sleeves that executed the band's Pop Art visions.