Release Both Versions of Prince’s “Calabama” from the album Timeless as a Single w B-Side
The Issue
Prince fans recently learned that the version of “Calabama” released on Timeless contains newly recorded horn parts that were added in 2026, years after Prince’s death.
The archived multitrack, meanwhile, already contained Prince’s own synthesizer parts in that section.
The controversy over altering a Prince recording posthumously, and releasing that altered version without initially making the nature and timing of those additions completely clear to listeners, has become known in parts of the Prince community as #Calabamagate.
We are asking NPG Records and the current Prince management team for a simple, fair, and completely achievable solution: RELEASE BOTH VERSIONS.
Join the campaign and SIGN THE PETITION AND SHARE IT FAR AND WIDE and help us spread the message using this hashtag when you share this petition anywhere. #PrinceReleaseCalabama.
Keep the Timeless version exactly as it is, with the newly recorded horns, but also release a Prince-only archival version preserving the recording as it existed before those posthumous horn overdubs were added. No one has to erase the new version. No one has to choose which version is allowed to exist. Give us both.
Clearly label both versions so there can be no confusion about what listeners are hearing. For example: “Calabama (Prince-Only Archival Version)” and “Calabama (Timeless Version)”
Another possible title for the archival release would be “Calabama (Original Archive Version).” Whatever titles are chosen, the distinction should be unmistakable: one version should preserve Prince’s recorded work as it existed before the 2026 horn overdubs, and the other should remain the posthumously completed Timeless version already released.
This is about transparency, historical preservation, artistic integrity, and giving the Prince community access to the music Prince himself actually recorded. Prince fans should not have to wonder what was on the tape before posthumous musicians were added. We should be able to hear it.
We are requesting that “Calabama” be released ASAP as a two-version single, with one version as the A-side and the other as the B-side, digitally and wherever else practical. It is an extraordinarily simple solution that benefits everyone: fans who prefer the Timeless version keep it, fans who want to hear Prince’s archival recording finally can, and the historical record preserves both.
The Prince management team itself has now acknowledged that many recordings in the Vault exist in unfinished forms and that this should not prevent them from being released. We agree completely. Prince did not have to finish every decision for what he left behind to have enormous historical and artistic value. Let us hear what he left us.
Please SIGN THIS PETITION and SHARE IT EVERYWHERE. Send it to every Prince Fam you know. Post it throughout the Prince community on X, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Threads, Reddit, Prince forums, fan groups, music communities, and anywhere else Prince people gather worldwide.
Please use #PrinceReleaseCalabama whenever you share the campaign so we can build one clear, visible message across the Prince community.
The #PrinceArmy is enormous. If enough of us speak together, the people entrusted with Prince’s legacy will hear us.
We are not asking them to take something away.
We are asking them to give Prince’s own recording back to the people who love his music.
Release both versions.
Let us hear Prince. Free the music. Release It.
3
The Issue
Prince fans recently learned that the version of “Calabama” released on Timeless contains newly recorded horn parts that were added in 2026, years after Prince’s death.
The archived multitrack, meanwhile, already contained Prince’s own synthesizer parts in that section.
The controversy over altering a Prince recording posthumously, and releasing that altered version without initially making the nature and timing of those additions completely clear to listeners, has become known in parts of the Prince community as #Calabamagate.
We are asking NPG Records and the current Prince management team for a simple, fair, and completely achievable solution: RELEASE BOTH VERSIONS.
Join the campaign and SIGN THE PETITION AND SHARE IT FAR AND WIDE and help us spread the message using this hashtag when you share this petition anywhere. #PrinceReleaseCalabama.
Keep the Timeless version exactly as it is, with the newly recorded horns, but also release a Prince-only archival version preserving the recording as it existed before those posthumous horn overdubs were added. No one has to erase the new version. No one has to choose which version is allowed to exist. Give us both.
Clearly label both versions so there can be no confusion about what listeners are hearing. For example: “Calabama (Prince-Only Archival Version)” and “Calabama (Timeless Version)”
Another possible title for the archival release would be “Calabama (Original Archive Version).” Whatever titles are chosen, the distinction should be unmistakable: one version should preserve Prince’s recorded work as it existed before the 2026 horn overdubs, and the other should remain the posthumously completed Timeless version already released.
This is about transparency, historical preservation, artistic integrity, and giving the Prince community access to the music Prince himself actually recorded. Prince fans should not have to wonder what was on the tape before posthumous musicians were added. We should be able to hear it.
We are requesting that “Calabama” be released ASAP as a two-version single, with one version as the A-side and the other as the B-side, digitally and wherever else practical. It is an extraordinarily simple solution that benefits everyone: fans who prefer the Timeless version keep it, fans who want to hear Prince’s archival recording finally can, and the historical record preserves both.
The Prince management team itself has now acknowledged that many recordings in the Vault exist in unfinished forms and that this should not prevent them from being released. We agree completely. Prince did not have to finish every decision for what he left behind to have enormous historical and artistic value. Let us hear what he left us.
Please SIGN THIS PETITION and SHARE IT EVERYWHERE. Send it to every Prince Fam you know. Post it throughout the Prince community on X, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Threads, Reddit, Prince forums, fan groups, music communities, and anywhere else Prince people gather worldwide.
Please use #PrinceReleaseCalabama whenever you share the campaign so we can build one clear, visible message across the Prince community.
The #PrinceArmy is enormous. If enough of us speak together, the people entrusted with Prince’s legacy will hear us.
We are not asking them to take something away.
We are asking them to give Prince’s own recording back to the people who love his music.
Release both versions.
Let us hear Prince. Free the music. Release It.
The Decision Makers
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Petition created on September 4, 2026