Nick Nolte Sings Prince... Not!

Yikes! Got a heads up from the Undercover Black Man that the recording in question is Albert Brooks, not Nick Nolte, and as a result not quite as funny. A link to an interview with Mr. Brooks is posted in the comments section. Cue my own Krusty groan. My apologies to all, especially to Mr. Nolte and his family.

Back in the early nineties, James Brooks shot a musical called I'll Do Anything. The cast, which included Nick Nolte and Tracey Ullman sang and danced to songs mostly written by Prince. Test audiences weren't crazy about the result, and the movie was re-edited into a dramedy. I saw it on cable years ago and didn't think it was that bad of a movie, but I always wanted to see the original version out of curiosity. As a Prince fan, I'd be compelled to purchase a special edition DVD with the musical on it, if it were ever made available.

A non-Prince tune stayed in the film and the lyrics to Don't Talk To Strangers was used as dialog (or was it the other way around?).
A number of the songs appeared on the bootleg Platinum, and then (3 songs) on The Vault: Old Friends For Sale (officially released and excellent). Don't Talk to Strangers was covered by Chaka Khan on Come To My House. The Prince version of that song and I'll Do Anything hasn't been released officially, I think.

Recently, 30 Years Of Unreleased Funk Vol. 3 appeared on usenet. I haven't listened to the whole thing yet (and may be missing a track or two), but I jumped right to the I'll Do Anything tracks, particularly the one's with Nick Nolte. Man, it would be tough to try and sell this soundtrack. He even does a Krusty The Clown like groan somewhere in there. Using the mug shot pic above will probably seem like a cheap shot till you hear this tune... (took that down out of fairness)

I'll Do Anything - Nick Nolte Albert Brooks

I'll Do Anything - Prince Demo

I'll Do Anything - Prince from Platinum

The above are megaupload links. I don't know how long they'll last...