Prince – The Hits 1 (1993)

Prince Rogers Nelson (June 7, 1958 – April 21, 2016) was an American singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. Widely regarded as one of the greatest musicians of his generation, he was known for his flamboyant, androgynous persona and wide vocal range, which included a far-reaching falsetto and high-pitched screams. Prince produced his albums himself, pioneering the Minneapolis sound. His music incorporated a wide variety of styles, including funk, R&B, rock, new wave, soul, synth-pop, pop, jazz, and hip hop. He often played most or all instruments on his recordings.

Born and raised in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Prince signed a record deal with Warner Bros. Records at age nineteen, releasing the albums For You (1978) and Prince (1979). He went on to achieve critical success with the innovative albums Dirty Mind (1980), Controversy (1981) and 1999 (1982).

His sixth album, Purple Rain (1984), was recorded with his backup band the Revolution, and was the soundtrack to his film acting debut of the same name. Purple Rain spent six consecutive months atop the Billboard 200.[7] Prince won the Academy Award for Best Original Song Score. After disbanding the Revolution, Prince went on to achieve continued critical success with Sign o’ the Times (1987), hailed by critics as his magnum opus. In the midst of a contractual dispute with Warner Bros. in 1993, he changed his stage name to the unpronounceable symbol Logo. Hollow circle above downward arrow crossed with a curlicued horn-shaped symbol and then a short bar (known to fans as the “Love Symbol”), and was often referred to as the Artist Formerly Known as Prince (or TAFKAP) and simply the Artist.

The Artist signed with Arista Records in 1998 and began referring to himself by Prince again in 2000. After returning to mainstream prominence following a performance at the 2004 Grammy Awards, he achieved six US top ten albums over the following decade. In April 2016, aged 57, Prince died of an accidental fentanyl overdose at his Paisley Park home and recording studio in Chanhassen, Minnesota. Prince had a prolific output, releasing 39 albums during his life, with a vast array of unreleased projects left in a vault at his home after his death, including completed albums and over 50 music videos. Released posthumously, his demo albums Piano and a Microphone 1983 (2018) and Originals (2019) both received critical acclaim.

Prince sold over 150 million records worldwide, ranking him among the best-selling music artists of all time. He released songs under multiple pseudonyms during his life, as well as writing songs that were made popular by other musicians, such as “Nothing Compares 2 U” and “Manic Monday”.[13] Estimates of the complete number of songs written by Prince range anywhere from 500 to well over 1,000.[14] His awards included the Grammy President’s Merit Award, the American Music Awards for Achievement and of Merit, the Billboard Icon Award, an Academy Award, and a Golden Globe Award. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2004, the UK Music Hall of Fame in 2006, the Rhythm and Blues Music Hall of Fame in 2016, and was inducted into the Black Music & Entertainment Walk of Fame in 2022. (wikipedia)

The Hits/The B-Sides is a box set by American recording artist Prince. It was released on September 10, 1993, by Paisley Park Records and Warner Bros. Records. The album is a comprehensive three-disc set consisting of many of his hit singles and fan favorites.

Listen and enjoy !

Personnel
Prince (vocals, guitar)
+
many, many studio musicians (see booklet)

Tracklist:
01. When Doves Cry (single edit) (from “Purple Rain”;1984) 3:48
02. Pop Life (from “Around The World In A Day”;1985) 3:42
03. Soft And Wet (from “For You”; 1978) 3:03
04. I Feel For You (from “Prince”;1979) 3:25
05. Why You Wanna Treat Me So Bad? (from “Prince”; 1979) 3:48
06. When You Were Mine (from “Dirty Mind”; 1980) 3:43
07. Uptown (single edit) (from “Dirty Mind”;1980) 4:09
08. Let’s Go Crazy (from “Purple Rain”; 1984) 4:39
09. 1999 (from “1999” (1982) 3:38
10. I Could Never Take The Place Of Your Man (from “Sign o’ the Times”; 1987) 6:29
11. Nothing Compares 2 U (live 27 January 1992; featuring Rosie Gaines; ) performed bypreviously unreleased (1992) 4:58
12. Adore (edited version) (from “Sign o’ the Times”; 1987) 4:41
13. Pink Cashmere (previously unreleased) (1988) 6:15
14. Alphabet St. (from “Lovesexy”; 1988) 5:39
15. Sign o’ the Times (single edit) (from “Sign o’ the Times”;1987) 3:43
16. Thieves In The Temple (from “Graffiti Bridge” (1990) 3:20
17. Diamonds And Pearls (single edit) (from “Diamonds And Pearls” (1991) 4:20
18. 7 (from “Love Symbol Album”;1992)

All songs written by Prince
except 03. written by Prince & Chris Moon
and 18. written by Prince, Jimmy McCracklin & Lowell Fulsom

*
**

More from Prince:

Prince And The Revolution – Purple Rain (1984)

Purple Rain is the sixth studio album by American recording artist Prince, the first to feature his backing band The Revolution, and is the soundtrack album to the 1984 film of the same name. It was released on June 25, 1984 by Warner Bros. Records.

Purple Rain is regularly ranked among the best albums in music history. Time magazine ranked it the 15th greatest album of all time in 1993, and it placed 18th on VH1’s Greatest Rock and Roll Albums of All Time countdown. Rolling Stone magazine ranked it the second-best album of the 1980s and 76th on their list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. Zounds magazine ranked it the 18th greatest album of all time. Furthermore, the album placed 4th in Plásticos y Decibelios’ list of The Greatest Albums of All Time. In 2007, the editors of Vanity Fair labeled it the best soundtrack of all time and Tempo magazine named it the greatest album of the 1980s. In 2012, Slant Magazine listed the album at #2 on its list of “Best Albums of the 1980s” behind only Michael Jackson’s Thriller. That same year, the album was added to the Library of Congress’s National Recording Registry list of sound recordings that “are culturally, historically, or aesthetically important”.

The two main songs from Purple Rain, “When Doves Cry” and “Let’s Go Crazy”, topped the US singles charts and were hits around the world, while the title track went to number two on the Billboard Hot 100.

The 1000th issue of Entertainment Weekly dated July 4, 2008 listed Purple Rain at number one on their list of the top 100 best albums of the past 25 years. In 2013, the magazine also listed the album at number two on their list of the 100 Greatest Albums ever The RIAA lists it as having gone platinum 13 times over. To date, it has sold over 22 million copies worldwide, becoming the sixth best-selling soundtrack album of all time.

Purple Rain was released by Warner Bros. Records on June 25, 1984, and was Prince’s sixth album. Prince wrote all of the songs on the album, some with the input of fellow band members. “I Would Die 4 U”, “Baby I’m a Star” and “Purple Rain” were recorded live from a show on August 3, 1983, at the First Avenue club in Minneapolis, with overdubs and edits added later. This marked the first time Prince included live recordings on any release.The show was a benefit concert for the Minnesota Dance Theater and featured the first appearance of guitarist Wendy Melvoin in Prince’s band, The Revolution.

Purple Rain was the first Prince album recorded with and officially credited to his backing group The Revolution. The resulting album was musically denser than Prince’s previous one-man albums, emphasizing full band performances, and multiple layers of guitars, keyboards, icy electronic synthesizer effects, drum machines, and other instruments. Musically, Purple Rain remained grounded in the Minneapolis sound and R&B elements of Prince’s previous work while demonstrating a more pronounced rock feel in its grooves and emphasis on guitar showmanship. As a soundtrack record, much of the music had a grandiose, synthesized, and even—by some evaluations—a vaguely psychedelic sheen to the production and performances. The music on Purple Rain is generally regarded as the most pop-oriented of Prince’s career, though a number of elements point towards the more experimental pop/psychedelic records Prince would record after Purple Rain. As with many massive crossover albums, Purple Rain’s consolidation of a myriad of styles, from pop rock to R&B to dance, is generally acknowledged to account in part for its enormous popularity.

In addition to the record’s breakthrough sales, music critics noted the innovative and experimental aspects of the soundtrack’s music, most famously on the spare, bass-less “When Doves Cry”.[citation needed] Other aspects of the music, especially its synthesis of electronic elements with organic instrumentation and full-band performances (some, as noted above, recorded live) along with its landmark consolidation of rock and R&B, were identified by critics as distinguishing, even experimental factors. Stephen Erlewine of AllMusic writes that Purple Rain finds Prince “consolidating his funk and R&B roots while moving boldly into pop, rock, and heavy metal” and identifies the record’s nine songs as “uncompromising…forays into pop” and “stylistic experiments”, echoing general sentiment that Purple Rain’s music represented Prince at his most popular without forsaking his experimental bent.

“Take Me with U” was written for the Apollonia 6 album, but later enlisted for Purple Rain. The inclusion of that song necessitated cuts to the suite-like “Computer Blue”, the full version of which did not earn an official release, although a portion of the second section can be heard in the film Purple Rain, in a sequence where Prince walks in on the men of The Revolution rehearsing. The risqué lyrics of “Darling Nikki” contributed to the use of Parental Advisory stickers and imprints on album covers that were the record label’s answer to complaints from Tipper Gore and the Parents Music Resource Center.[10][11][12]

“There’s every emotion from the ballad to the rocker,” observed Jon Bon Jovi. “All the influences were evident, from Hendrix to Chic.”

Prince won two Grammy Awards in 1985 for Purple Rain, for Best Rock Vocal Performance by a Duo or Group and Best Album of Original Score Written for a Motion Picture or TV Special, and the album was nominated for Album of the Year. Prince won a third Grammy that year for Best R&B Song (songwriter) for Chaka Khan’s cover of “I Feel for You”. Purple Rain also won an Oscar for Best Original Song Score in 1985.

Purple Rain sold 13 million units in the United States, including 1.5 million in its debut week, earning a Diamond Award from the Recording Industry Association of America. According to Billboard magazine, the album spent 24 consecutive weeks at #1 on the Billboard albums chart (August 4, 1984 to January 18, 1985), becoming one of the top soundtracks ever. Purple Rain traded the #1 album chart position with Bruce Springsteen’s Born in the U.S.A. twice, during 1984 and 1985. The album has sold more than 20 million copies worldwide. The album further established him as a figurehead for pop music of the 1980s.

Singles from the album became pop hits worldwide, with Prince scoring four US Top 10 singles from the album. Of them, “When Doves Cry” and “Let’s Go Crazy” reached #1, “Purple Rain” reached #2, and “I Would Die 4 U” reached #8. The fifth and final single “Take Me with U” reached #25, but became a top 10 hit in the United Kingdom, meaning all Purple Rain singles became worldwide hits.

Personnel:
Lisa Coleman (keyboards, vocals)
Matt Fink (keyboards)
Brown Mark (bass)
Wendy Melvoin (guitar, vocals)
Prince (guitar, vocals)
Bobby Z. (drums, percussion)
+
Apollonia (vocals on 02.)
David Coleman (cello)
Jill Jones (background vocals)
Suzie Katayama (cello)
Novi Novog (violin, viola)

Tracklist:
01. Let’s Go Crazy (Prince) 4.39
02. Take Me with U (Prince) 3.54
03. The Beautiful Ones (Prince) 5.13
04. Computer Blue (Prince/Nelson/Wendy/Lisa/Fink) 3.59
05. Darling Nikki (Prince) 4.14
06. When Doves Cry (Prince) 5.54
07. I Would Die 4 U (Prince) 2.49
08. Baby I’m A Star (Prince) 4.24
09. Purple Rain (Prince) 8.41
+
10. Purple Rain (live 1983) (Prince) 13.34

*
**

Prince Rogers Nelson (June 7, 1958 – April 21, 2016)

I never meant to cause you any sorrow
I never meant to cause you any pain
I only wanted one time to see you laughing
I only wanted to see you laughing in the purple rain

Purple rain, purple rain
Purple rain, purple rain
Purple rain, purple rain
I only wanted to see you bathing in the purple rain

I never wanted to be your weekend lover
I only wanted to be some kind of friend, hey
Baby, I could never steal you from another
It’s such a shame our friendship had to end

Purple rain, purple rain
Purple rain, purple rain
Purple rain, purple rain
I only wanted to see you underneath the purple rain

Honey, I know, I know, I know times are changin’
It’s time we all reach out for something new, that means you too
You say you want a leader, but you can’t seem to make up your mind
And I think you better close it and let me guide you to the purple rain

Purple rain, purple rain
Purple rain, purple rain
If you know what I’m singin’ about up here, come on raise your hand
Purple rain, purple rain
I only want to see you, only want to see you in the purple rain