From the personal collection of Russ Thyret, the man who signed Prince to Warner Bros. Records—an exceedingly rare original 1987 U.S. CD of Prince’s legendary The Black Album, also known as The Funk Bible, which was originally intended to be released on December 8, 1987, with an entirely black sleeve and no printed title or song credits. A week before its release date, Prince had the album withdrawn after having a spiritual experience that convinced him the album was 'evil.' Warner Bros. worked extremely hard to destroy all of the 500,000 copies pressed on vinyl, CD, and cassette. An extremely small number of copies on CD and vinyl were presented to senior Warner Bros. executives before this album was withdrawn—this example is one of those. In fine condition.
This copy has all of the hallmarks of the 1987 first issue—the 1987 copyright date, the original catalog number "9 25677-2," and the "DIDX-2720" manufacturing code on the inside rim of the disc.
Accompanied by a letter of authenticity from Recordmecca's Jeff Gold, who states that this Black Album CD is from the collection of Russ Thyret (1944-2021), the former chairman of Warner Bros. Records, who, in 1977, as the label’s head of promotion, signed Prince to Warner Bros—“I worked with both Prince and Thyret at Warner Bros., where I was executive vice president / general manager, and obtained this directly from Thyret’s estate.”
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