SYMBOL MAN RETURNS: What was all that...

SYMBOL MAN RETURNS: What was all that again about Prince’s retirement?

You may have heard that the Purple One, who declared last year that he is going to stop recording new music, has a new single, “The Most Beautiful Girl in the World,” coming on Valentine’s Day. But now we hear that he’s also working in a Los Angeles recording studio on an album that could be in the stores by summer.

Karen Lee, vice president of media communications at Prince’s Paisley Park company, would not confirm plans for an album, but said that a package of remixes of the single may be released.

In a twist, the single will not be distributed by Warner Bros. Records, the company that funds Paisley Park. Both Lee and a Warner Bros. spokesman said that it was agreed that the single could benefit from independent distribution in order to try to reach “new audiences.” (The recording will be “previewed” during the Miss USA pageant telecast Feb. 11 on CBS.)

Lee said that Prince does have several new projects in the works, including new dance projects in the wake of the Joffrey Ballet’s successful use of his music and the planned opening of more Prince clothing and accessories stores modeled on one opened last year in Minneapolis.

Meanwhile, Prince has been conducting a search for the “most beautiful girl in the world” to be his Valentine’s Day “date” in a promotion for the song. The finalists will be announced soon.

And the retirement?

“He retired from recording as Prince,” she says of the artist, who has adopted that male-female symbol as his moniker. “This single will be released under his new name, for which we still don’t have a spelling or pronunciation.”