Update #2: The poll has closed. Final results here:

http://www.cs.cornell.edu...thm=runoff

Update #1: The poll has now begun. Please vote here:

http://www.cs.cornell.edu...f89feb3a4a

Please don't discuss the poll results until I have closed the poll. I plan to stop the poll on June 4, but I may close it earlier if the preliminary results are discussed on the site.

Thanks!

Now that I've done the polls to rank Prince's albums and U.S. A-sides, I'd like to do one to rank the B-sides. I've decided to also include the bonus tracks that were included on The Hits/The B-Sides collection but were not released on singles, because I won't be doing an album poll for that compilation. I'm also going to include a few "reference A-sides" to be ranked alongside the B-sides, so that I can compare the results of the B-side poll to the A-side poll for purposes of the final combined poll.

Here is the list of the songs I propose to be ranked. Please let me know if I've missed anything:

Dirty Mind [Reference A-Side]

Gotta Stop (Messin’ About)

How Come U Don’t Call Me Anymore

Horny Toad

Irresistable Bitch

17 Days

Let’s Go Crazy [Reference A-Side]

Erotic City
God

Another Lonely Christmas

4 The Tears In Your Eyes

She’s Always In My Hair

Hello

Girl

Love or $

Alexa De Paris

Sign ‘O’ The Times [Reference A-Side]

La, La, La, He, He, Hee

Shockadelica

U Got The Look [Reference A-Side]

I Could Never Take The Place Of Your Man [Reference A-Side]

Escape

Scarlet Pussy

200 Balloons

Feel U Up

I Love U In Me

Sex

Thieves In The Temple [Reference A-Side]

Loveleft, Loveright

Horny Pony

Call The Law

2 Whom It May Concern

Pope

Power Fantastic
Nothing Compares 2 U

The Most Beautiful Girl In The World [Reference A-Side]

Rock ‘N’ Roll Is Alive! (And It Lives In Minneapolis)

When Will We B Paid?
Magnificent

Brand New Orleans

For my earlier polls, see here:

http://prince.org/msg/7/359981

http://prince.org/msg/7/357438

Also, if you haven't yet, please nominate your favorite Prince songs that were not released on Prince's albums or singles here:

http://prince.org/msg/7/360072

Thanks!

[Edited 6/2/11 7:31am]

[Edited 6/2/11 7:46am]

[Edited 6/3/11 6:01am]

[Edited 6/4/11 6:52am]

I have now started the poll. The link is at the top of the previous post. Vote, and let your voice be heard!

5 votes so far. If you liked my other polls, you should really like this one. If you didn't like my other polls, maybe you'll like this one better.

Time for the night owls and Europeans to take over. This is more fun than the last one, I promise!

? Where would a song like Violet the organ grinder, be placed? What list or poll? Are you planning on a list of extended mixes like Let's Go Crazy, Let's Work, Gett Off or Little Red Corvette?

Nice polls by the way!

617automatic said:

? Where would a song like Violet the organ grinder, be placed? What list or poll? Are you planning on a list of extended mixes like Let's Go Crazy, Let's Work, Gett Off or Little Red Corvette?

Nice polls by the way!

If you think Violet The Organ Grinder might make the top 25, you should nominate it for this poll:

http://prince.org/msg/7/360072

I had to make some tough calls in deciding what counts as a U.S. B-side for purposes of this poll, since he released maxi CD singles in so many different formats.

A poll of extended mixes might be fun if people continue to show interest.

Glad you like the polls!

****EDIT**** should really get more votes then it has now

[Edited 6/3/11 4:35am]

Thanks to those who voted last night. We're up to 12 votes now. Now's the time to jump in, if you haven't already!

15 votes...still a lot of ties to break. Anyone up for a vote?

With 17 votes cast, here are the final results using the Condorcet-IRV completion method:

The top three are not a surprise. It's nice to see "She's Always In My Hair" at the top (although I didn't vote it as my #1 choice). The first Prince record I ever bought was the "Raspberry Beret" single.

One odd thing about this result is that the reference A-sides are ranked in a different order than they were in my poll of U.S. A-sides. "Dirty Mind" came in at #15 at that poll, but here it is beat out by songs that came in at #35 ("The Most Beautiful Girl In The World"), #30 ("Thieves In The Temple"), #25 ("I Could Never Take The Place Of Your Man"), and #20 ("U Got The Look"). I am sure that the low sample size in both polls helps to explain this; if more people had voted in both polls then the A-side results might match more closely. In any event, when I combine these polls for the final poll, I will exclude the B-sides that ranked lower than "Dirty Mind" here.

I plan to follow this up with polls ranking the tracks on individual albums, beginning with Sign 'O' The Times, which came in at #1 on my album poll. Thanks to everyone who voted in this poll!

[Edited 6/4/11 7:03am]

I agree with the top, but it's sad to see 'God' and even more sad 'Alexa De Paris' ranked so low