Did Prince really release an album called The Black Album?
Actually no, the album has no official name. But he did release a titleless album that has been referred to as The Black Album, and at one time it was very rarely sometimes called The Monochrome Album. The Black Album was first unofficially released in 1987 (Warner Bros. 25677-2), then in 1988 a quasi-release (See Figure 1b. (Right Disc and Longbox)), was pressed (Warner Bros. 45793-2), then in 1994 the final pressing (See Figure 1a. (Left Disc)), was officially re-released (Warner Bros. 2-45793), notice how the last two pressings have the format number switched around, 45793-2 (Quasi-release) and 2-45793 (Re-release), (See Figures 2 and 4.). Regardless of the attempt to replicate the original album, the quasi-release and the re-release are distinguishable from the original release. Most obvious is that the new pressing has a different catalog number, 45793 instead of 25677, and was not packaged in a longbox. The original CD also clocks in one second shorter then the quasi-release and
