Prince's band, the Revolution, were invited to the studio in 1986 to contribute to a majority of the material for the planned album, with the notable exceptions of "The Ballad of Dorothy Parker" and "Starfish & Coffee" (co-written by Susannah Melvoin).
[1] The band was dissolved in October 1986, after which many of the album's tracks were incorporated into what was now a planned solo three LP project titled Crystal Ball.
Mavis Staples would later cover "Train" for her 1989 album Time Waits for No One; Prince's version would not be released until 2020.
[3] Even though the album was never officially released, there is a bootleg CD available of the July 1986 track configuration, which comes with a color pencil sketch made by Susannah Melvoin as cover, which was a concept for the prospective sleeve.
A Super Deluxe Edition of Sign o' the Times was released on September 25, 2020, which included outtakes from the Dream Factory/Camille/Crystal Ball sessions as bonus tracks.