aaroncanderson said:

I have a friend that is really into indie folk music (a la Fleet Foxes) and electronica (a la Daft Punk) and I was thinking of making him a Prince primer of 12 songs. What would ya'll recommend. He is in his mid 20's.

Whatever your friend is into, be honest when packaging something. Prince's diversity is his greatest strength & if you put together a collection that focuses too much on a single genre that your friend buys into, he'll be pretty pissed when he goes & downloads Dirty Mind thinking it's going to sound like The Truth.

Stick to released material to keep things legitimate, but give him an interesting enough mix to show how Prince so easily shifts from style to style. Perhaps veer from things he isn't likely to have heard on the radio. For example:

1) Endorphinmachine

2) Anotherloverholenyohead

3) Anna Stesia

4) Come

5) Welcome 2 the Dawn

6) She Spoke 2 Me

7) Elephants & Flowers

8) Forever In My Life

9) Electric Chair

10) Laydown

11) Gold

12) Had U

[Edited 7/28/15 8:05am]

[Edited 7/28/15 8:07am]

Anotherloverholenyohead

When U Were Mine

Little Red Corvette

Way Back Home

Strange Relationship

I Wish U Heaven long version

Joy in Repetition

7

The Love We Make

When the Lights Go Down

The Most Beautiful Girl in the World

Letitgo

aaroncanderson said:

Thanks so much guys for the input here's what I came up with:

1. Bob George

This song is so strange I think everyone should hear it and what better way to start an album off?

2. Beautiful Strange

This sounds like Soundgarden trying to do a Prince song and the person this compilation for is a huge Soundgarden fan.

3. Something In the Water (Does Not Compute)

My friend is a huge fan of The Weekend. He is sure to love this song.

4. Alexa de Paris

Any fan of music will dig this right?

5. Te Amo Corazon

He is Puerto Rican and loves Spanish music. No it is not racist.

6. 7

The Middle Eastern vibe in this song is just to freaking catchy. And it is the song that made me buy my first Prince album.

7. 3 Chains O' Gold

Who doesn't love a good rock opera?

8. U Know

He's in his 20's, he loves music like this. This should have been the single from this album.

9. Anotherlove

That guitar solo though!!

10. When U Were Mine (One Nite Alone version)

This song has my favorite Prince solo and plus everyone needs to hear Prince live.

11. Joy In Repetition

Another werid song, no chorus, one verse yet still majestic.

12. Forever In My Life

It was between this song and Mountains, I flipped a coin.

13. God (Instrumental Extended 12" version)

This is Prince's prettiest song. It's a sonic hug

14. Jughead

Just kidding!

[Edited 7/22/15 6:41am]

[Edited 7/22/15 15:16pm]

This is pretty good. Anxious to hear what your friend thought of it. I disagree with the people that said 'Ultimate' and 'The Hits" because EVERYONE knows that. A lot of Prince's best stuff is buried. I'd have gone with the live verson of "Forever in My Life" from SOTT DVD and the live version of "Something in the Water" from the recent Kentucky download. "Te Amo Corazon" is pretty bad but I don't know your friend. I'd never play that for anyone.

.

I might have left off "God" and put in "Venus DeMilo". There's also not a lot of Electronica on there but, whatever. Awaiting feedback from the reaction.

Why would I want to subject a person to Prince's music past 1996?

For that matter, why would I subject them to being a fan of a guy who doesn't give a shit about his fans?

It's a bad idea to try to "convert" a friend if they didn't warm up the first time. With each new attempt, they see you coming with the cd-r, so they are less and less likely to like the material.

What I do is that I include some of his songs in a varied mix, like maybe I'll have 2 Prince songs in a 20 song playlist. The songs themselves need to fit nicely between two other tracks, so you can go with many tracks that fit a certain mood, but it's a good idea to stay away from material that is too vocally adventurous or intense and to go easy on songs with long, epic guitar solos.

Songs that are easy to insert in a mix:

Clouds (goes well between two upbeat urban tracks)

Erotic City (anytime you're playing funky old school songs, or eighties music, this track is a charmer).

Sugar Walls (using songs where he does not sing is a good conversion strategy)

Manic Monday (anytime you're playing some light rock, you can slip this then casually mention it's a Prince composition)

Stand Back (same thing)

I Feel For You (Prince's version, if you're playing older "disco" stuff, people react to this song because it sounds so familiar yet different)

I Wanna Be Your Lover (another easy fit)

Little Red Corvette (one of his easiest to include for sure)

I Could Never Take the Place of Your Man (same)

Do Me Baby (if you're mixing various smooth songs this one is a winner)

Anotherloverholenyohead

Pop Life

Kiss

Cream (those last four, you can't go wrong)

Bob George (ears perk when this starts)

A Love Bizarre (works almost as well as Erotic City)

Batdance (goes well if you're playing late 80s dance songs)

Sign O The Times (This song is a class act if you're playing danceable sociallly conscious music)

Breakfast Can Wait (expresso remix) (good in dance mix)

Alexa de Paris (no vocals, great atmosphere for a more romantic, late in the party moment)

The Ballad of Dorothy Parker

Anotherlove (but it needs to be in a guitar oriented mix)

Screwdriver

The Ride

Whole lotta love

Honkytonk Woman

Let's Go Crazy Reloaded (again strictly if you're blasting guitar hero music)

There are so many other great songs that can fit in song list, it's also fun to continually rediscover songs because chances are he wrote something that fits just about any style. Like you can put the ONA live version of Alphabet Street after a uptempo country song, it works. Anyway that's why I prefer to mix his songs with others when I have company rather than give a cd-r.

I was mentoring a college student about 3 years ago and he was going on and on about how great Mj was. I made him a DVD of some Prince songs that covered all bases. About 3 weeks later he comes back and says..........."Mj who"?