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Purple Rain (album)

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Untitled
"When Doves Cry"
Prince's "When Doves Cry" from Purple Rain
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Purple Rain is the sixth studio album by Prince, the first to officially be credited to Prince & The Revolution, and is the soundtrack album to the 1984 film Purple Rain.

Purple Rain is regularly ranked among the best albums in pop 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 72nd 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. Finally, 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.[1]

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.[2] The RIAA lists it as having gone platinum 13 times over.[3]

Background

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. Some of the tracks had portions recorded live when Prince performed on August 3, 1983, at the First Avenue club in Minneapolis. This show was a benefit concert for the Minnesota Dance Theater. It was also the first appearance in Prince's band, The Revolution, by Wendy Melvoin, his guitarist in the Purple Rain film and for a few years afterwards.

Music

"The Beautiful Ones"
A sample of Prince and The Revolution's "The Beautiful Ones" from Purple Rain
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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", which was frequently identified as pop at its most avant-garde. 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.[4]

"Take Me with U" was originally written for the Apollonia 6 album, but was later pulled for Purple Rain. The inclusion of this song necessitated cuts to the suite-like "Computer Blue". The full version of this song was not subsequently given 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" eventually led to the use of Parental Advisory stickers and imprints on album covers by ways of Tipper Gore and the Parents Music Resource Center.[citation needed]

Reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
Yahoo! Music(favorable)[5]
IGN(10.0/10)[6]
Allmusic[4]
Spin(9/10)[7]
Entertainment Weekly(B)[8]
Rolling Stone[9]
Rolling Stone[10]
Robert Christgau(A-)[11]
BBC Music(favorable)[12]

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, 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 album charts (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. Two songs from Purple Rain, "When Doves Cry" and "Let's Go Crazy", would top the U.S. singles charts and were hits around the world, while the title track would go to number two on the Billboard Hot 100. The album has sold more than 20 million copies worldwide.[13]

Track listing

All songs composed and arranged by Prince; except "Computer Blue", words by Prince, music by Prince, John L. Nelson, Wendy & Lisa, and Dr. Fink.

Compact disc

No.TitleWriter(s)Length
1."hi my name is"Prince4:39
2."Take Me with U" (with Apollonia Kotero)Prince3:54
3."The Beautiful Ones"Prince5:13
4."Computer Blue"Prince, John L. Nelson, Wendy & Lisa, Dr. Fink3:59
5."Darling Nikki"Prince4:14
6."When Doves Cry"Prince5:54
7."I Would Die 4 U"Prince2:49
8."Baby I'm a Star"Prince4:24
9."Purple Rain"Prince8:41

Vinyl

Side one

  1. "Let's Go Crazy" – 4:39
  2. "Take Me with U" – 3:54
  3. "The Beautiful Ones" – 5:13
  4. "Computer Blue" – 3:59
  5. "Darling Nikki" – 4:14

Side two

  1. "When Doves Cry" – 5:54
  2. "I Would Die 4 U" – 2:49
  3. "Baby I'm a Star" – 4:24
  4. "Purple Rain" – 8:41

Test pressing

The track listing to the November 7, 1983 test pressing:[14]

  1. "Let's Go Crazy"
  2. "The Beautiful Ones"
  3. "Computer Blue"
  4. "Darling Nikki"
  5. "Wednesday"
  6. "Purple Rain"
  7. "I Would Die 4 U"
  8. "Baby I'm a Star"
  9. "Father's Song"

Chart history

Personnel

See also

References

  • Nathan Brackett, Christian Hoard (2004). The New Rolling Stone Album Guide: Completely Revised and Updated 4th Edition. Simon and Schuster. ISBN 0-7432-0169-8.

Notes

  1. ^ "Prince's Purple Rain reigns over movie soundtrack list". CBC News. 24 October 2007.
  2. ^ "The New Classics: Music". Entertainment Weekly (999–1000). 20 June 2008. Retrieved 24 February 2011.
  3. ^ "American album certifications – Prince – Purple Rain". Recording Industry Association of America.
  4. ^ a b Erlewine, Stephen Thomas. "Prince & the Revolution: Purple Rain > Review" at AllMusic. Retrieved 15 September 2011.
  5. ^ Clay, Jennifer (1 January 1984). "Purple Rain". Yahoo! Music. Archived from the original on 22 July 2010. Retrieved 24 February 2011.
  6. ^ Spence D. (24 August 2004). "Purple Rain: 20 years later it's still Prince's masterpiece". IGN. Retrieved 24 February 2011.
  7. ^ Weisbard, Eric (10 October 1995). Spin Alternative Record Guide (1st ed.). Vintage. ISBN 978-0679755746. Retrieved 24 February 2011.
  8. ^ Browne, David (21 September 1990). "Purple Products". Entertainment Weekly (#32). Retrieved 24 February 2011.
  9. ^ Loder, Kurt (13 April 2000). "Prince: Purple Rain (Soundtrack)". Rolling Stone. Wenner Media. ISSN 0035-791X. Retrieved 24 February 2011.
  10. ^ Hoard (2004), p. 655.
  11. ^ Christgau, Robert. "Prince and the Revolution". Robertchristgau.com. Retrieved 24 February 2011.
  12. ^ Jones, Chris (30 May 2008). "Prince Purple Rain Review". BBC Music. Retrieved 24 February 2011.
  13. ^ Taneja, Nikhil (9 December 2008). "Those chart busters". Hindustan Times. Mumbai: HT Media. OCLC 231696742. Retrieved 18 April 2009.
  14. ^ Nilsen, Per (2003). DanceMusicSexRomance: Prince - The First Decade. Firefly. p. 263. ISBN 978-0946719648.
Preceded by Billboard 200 number-one album
August 4, 1984 – January 18, 1985 		Succeeded by
Born in the U.S.A. by Bruce Springsteen
Preceded by Australian Kent Music Report number-one album
August 13 – 19, 1984 		Succeeded by
Rodney Rude by Rodney Rude
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