Prince's Forty Biggest Billboard Hot 100 hits

From a personal perspective, it's weird that some of these were such big hits. Like, I was familiar with all of the BIG hits growing up, but I don't think I ever heard 'Pop Life' or 'Alphabet Street' until I sought out the albums many years after the fact.

Yep. I never heard them on the radio, and the only SOTT hit I remember is "U Got the Look," which even now sounds comparatively underplayed compared to the rest.

Voted Raspberry Beret in the end but it could have been virtually any of them on a different day.

(Okay maybe not Batdance or Thieves In The Temple)

ashamed for having heard less than half of these

wat

I honestly don't know how that's even possible if you're currently an adult and aren't now and have never been amish.

i guess i've probably heard more but these are the only ones i can remember the tune of

1, "When Doves Cry," 1984, No. 1 (5)*
2, "Kiss," 1986, No. 1 (2)*
3, "Let's Go Crazy," 1984, No. 1 (2)*
6, "Raspberry Beret," 1985, No. 2*
8, "Purple Rain," 1984, No. 2*
11, "Little Red Corvette," 1983, No. 6
16, "I Would Die 4 U," 1985, No. 8*
20, "1999," 1983, No. 12

'1999' at the bottom of this list is the most baffling to me. I guess I'd chalk it up to that weird 'song in heavy rotation in the early days of MTV that didn't fare quite as well on the radio' effect I've noticed with a number of other culturally huge songs from that particular era.

Raspberry Beret has the perfect melody, so probably this. ATWIAD was the first P album I bought

:"1999" was released twice in its original run because before "Little Red Corvette" took off it had flopped.

"Thieves in the Temple" was the first Prince cassingle I bought.

In fairness Crut has heard all the really ubiquitous ones, most of the early 90s stuff doesn't get played too much.

Was let's pretend we're married in the full list of 40?

I'm feeling u got the look today so that. Last night, walking to the park to get a view of the Empire State Building and see if they had lit it purple, that wonderful descending harmonized guitar figure from its outro came gliding out the door of a bar and enchanted me.

The esb was not purple when I looked, but there were ample photos of it being so last night. I guess they only did it for a couple hours maybe? Idk.

xpost Yeah, it's entirely possible that I wouldn't have heard most of the NPG-era stuff if I hadn't been glued to MTV at the time.

probably nothing better in life than the extended mix of 'i would die 4 u'

Surprised.. I know all of those 20.

I really want to put together a companion poll for all of the singles he wrote or composed or produced for other people but I'm almost certain I'll omit something crucial.

19/01/1980 Prince I Wanna Be Your Lover 41

I Could Never Take the Place of Your Man

Little Red Corvette

When Doves Cry. It's still almost unimaginable to me that such an unconventially arranged and executed song was a #1 hit, even though I was there and helped make it one. (Even weirder: It was bracketed at #1 by Duran Duran's "The Reflex" and Ray Parker Jr.'s "Ghostbusters." I mean . . .)

and "Dancing in the Dark" at #2.

i just realized yesterday that "When You Were Mine" wasn't a single. criminal.

also, i really thought Get Off was a pretty big pop hit at the time but i guess moreso on the R&B charts.

Raaaaaaaaaaaaspberry Beret

Not a huge Prince fan but his hits stacked up together demonstrate a damned amazing career. Voted Purple Rain bc it's one of the few Prince songs I genuinely love and don't just appreciate.

Listening to Batdance right now for likely the first time since 1989. I didn't like it at the time, but it's really tickling my funnybone right now.

Per my comment earlier re: '1999' being released in an era when huge MTV success still didn't necessarily translate to huge sales for the respective single, I remembered a specific example of this: 'Hot For Teacher', which mindblowingly only got to 56 on the Billboard Hot 100. Also from 1984. I'm sure I rememeber encountering other examples of this phenomenon.

"I Melt With You," the Fixx, it's a long list

When Doves Cry. It's still almost unimaginable to me that such an unconventially arranged and executed song was a #1 hit, even though I was there and helped make it one. (Even weirder: It was bracketed at #1 by Duran Duran's "The Reflex" and Ray Parker Jr.'s "Ghostbusters." I mean . . .)

― T.L.O.P.son (Phil D.), Friday, April 22, 2016 10:58 AM (3 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Well it's also a song where like every single line is a killer hook, and so is the instrumental break.

Purple Rain is also a pretty unconventional hit imo -- an R&B tinged soft metal power ballad with jazzy chords, and that rushed, holy-rolling vocal on the verse.

1984 was a fantastic year for great songs that were also hits.

Yeah either 83 or 84 is my all time fave top 40 year it's hard to choose between those two

I've been listening to my '84 Billboard playlist today, and it really is kind of amazing. So much of it still sounds like the future.

even second and third stringers like Steve Perry and Dan Hartman sounded jazzed.

well it *was* morning in America

For me it's partly the collective palette that reigned at the time - new wave influence fully saturated, analog polysynths in effect with the dx7 still just a new player in the cast, policey guitar compression and chorusing - combined with the old fashioned songcrafty writing values that still prevailed. Idk things changed in a big big way around 85 and it's about more than just busy beats and the dx7...

That was not very coherent

the fall-off between '84 and '85 is still kinda staggering. i managed to put together a decent 100-ish song playlist of '85 jams, but it was filled with artist double-dipping and stuff that woulda been clearly second-string (or even third-string) a year before. it's like all of music needed a pause for breath.

oh, and "raspberry beret." (shout-out to the extended single mix.)

I'm still shocked no artist had ever thought to put finger cymbals against a Linn drum before.

Right? Those fucking finger cymbals kind of make that LP for me

i discovered the song "when you were mine" today via the frank ocean post. that's the one i've been addicted to today.

Matos has some great paragraphs about that song in his sign o the times book.

Don't sleep on the cyndi version which rules

Indeed. Got into that version first myself.

"raspberry beret" prob in my top 5 singles of all time. having a hard time listening to it, or any prince, today. i heard "purple rain" in the car right after hearing the news and kinda lost it. but i'm voting for "pop life" which is lovely and special and never quite gets as much love as it deserves.

The break in "Pop Life" after the second chorus is all time (the best way I can describe it is 'swirly'

going u got the look

Wow, "1999" was only his twentieth biggest hit....

How do people feel about the 12" inch versions, generally? I love them, especially Pop Life.

always loved Prince's twelve inches

They are amazing

The strategy worked for me. I bought Parade because of the singles that weren't on Hits 1 & 2.

Forgot about "Delirious" - one of the best.

"Mountains" peaked at #23.

Mountains had a video! Prince directed it.

Xp

and it's marvelous

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qx2x5vb9P8E

Yes I was saying, it was worth him doing a video so it's weird that he didn't include it in the 3cd

there is extra song at the end of that video.

Oh yeah also it says on wikipedia that Warner Brothers paid Prince to limit his involvement in Hits 1&2/B-Sides so exclusions were probably determined by some suits or whatever.

"Batdance" should be on every Prince greatest hits comp since it was a #1.

Xpost that is I think the 12" version of mountains or at least v similar to it

someone zip up the polled songs and post a link plz, thank you in advance

I was familiar with all of the BIG hits growing up, but I don't think I ever heard 'Pop Life' or 'Alphabet Street' until I sought out the albums many years after the fact.

Yep. I never heard them on the radio

"pop life" got a lot of airplay in the northeast, at least.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

YES! \o/

wau @ the "Pop Life" votes

Eye honestly thought 'When Doves Cry' was going 2 take this.

Today is the third straight day I woke up with 'Pop Life' in my head, it truly is mesmerizing.

well, everybody needs a thrill!

Pop Life really is such an eery song. that organ, and the verse about doing coke

Voted for I Could Never Take the Place of Your Man, never expected it to win.

Too bad Delirious got no votes. Poor Delirious, such a slinky monster of a pop song.

What kind of "wau" is that, Alfred?

will there be a #21-40 version?

the kind of "wau" as big as my shoe size

will there be a #21-40 version?

― billstevejim,

sure!

I was the sole voter for "Thieves in the Temple", but I voted without having listened to it in years... And after relistening to the single I realized what I really was voting for was Junior Vasquez' "Thieves in the House Mix". The original is great too (particularly the 12" version with the crazy "who got the party who?" ending), but that remix is sublime. Many of his 90s tunes had pretty good house remixes... The William Orbit/Mark Moore remix of "The Future" is also better than original, it's the best single from the Batman soundtrack IMO.

If we did a "sick of" poll, I would hazard a guess that "The most beautiful girl" would probably win, I would be tempted to vote for "U got the look" possibly due to overexposure at the time.

probably would have voted Pop Life in this, but am sick of more than a few Prince mega hits. Listening to 1999, usually skip the first two songs, and listen to Purple Rain the least of any of the full lengths

"Thieves in the Temple" = first Prince cassingle I bought

Prince is so great he wrote the only song about being a star that doesn't suck. so I voted 'Pop Life'.

"Mountains" video has gone off the web because of youtube, but the associated Making of... is right here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UopzMEHmUDQ