As the lone Prince fan at Valparaiso University, I had a tough task finding songs that I could play that pretty much everyone would like. From what I've experienced though, the following songs were universally liked by people who even hate Prince:

-Starfish and Coffee
-Crystal Ball
-Anna Stesia
-The Question of U
-When Doves Cry
-Gold

What other songs do you believe will appeal to non-fans?

Pretty much the whole Gold album, but specifically P Control and Endorphinmachine.


I actually had people asking me to put them on several times. I was a bit taken aback.


Of course non-fans have a short attention span for Prince, so we only usually made it through the intro to Shhh before they wanted something else.

i find that songs like 'erotic city' 'p-control' 'sexy m.f.' and anything with profanity in it...seriously...seems to appeal to people...at least people i have known...
that may say something about the company i keep tho...

You guys seem to be forgetting Purple Rain. Everybody's heard and loves Purple Rain.
The there's Kiss. Mind you, I've met people who prefer Tom Jone's version.

hey moonbeam are you the mormon girl from The Real World in New Orleans??

Sly said:

I actually know people who don't like Purple Rain or Kiss. Some people griped about the falsetto in Kiss and others preferred LeAnn Rimes' version of "Purple Rain."

Farfunknugin said:

I just like her a lot, that's all.
[This message was edited Thu Apr 18 13:30:32 PDT 2002 by Moonbeam]

Erotic City
Kiss
Little Red Corvette
Head...(just kidding)

Moonbeam said:

Letitgo
Forever in My Life
1+1+1=3
Ballad of Dorothy Parker
Strange Relationship
Take Me With U
Come On


These songs all have great hooks and seem to appeal to the widest range of musical tastes.

Moonbeam said:

I'm glad to hear there are those that don't like Purple Rain. I hear all too often "Prince is shit, but I like Purple Rain".

LeAnn Rimes did a version of Purple Rain? christ. Shouldn't there be a law against that?!

Sly said:

Indeed there should. Her version is atrocious!

Definitely "Little Red Corvette" even though for some reason, I've had to tell people that he is actually singing "Little Red Corvette"...I've heard "Little Red Yvette"...other, more ridiculous ones, too. I don't think it's that incomprehensible. Then again, I've listened to it about 500 times.

Also "Purple Rain". No one can touch Prince's version. LeAnn Rimes' was terrible. She always sounds like she is yodeling.

Girls also seem to like "The Most Beautiful Girl in the World". Hmm, I wonder why...

Oh, and "I Would Die 4 U" and "When Doves Cry". It seems like everyone owns the Purple Rain album.

Little red corvette and the purple rain sdtrk always go over well so do the hits 1 or 2

Moonbeam said; "What other songs do you believe will appeal to non-fans?

Believe it or not, a song that actually appeals to non-fans (from my experience, anyway) is "18 & Over".. I've played it for people of many subcultures, from punks, ravers, skinheads.. trust me, you haven't lived until you've seen a racist skinhead singing "18 & over, I wants to bone ya" with a straight face, lol..

Other songs people (who usually bitch when I play Prince in my car) enjoy include Dinner With Delores, Loose, Peach, She's Always In My Hair, Come, Private Joy, and Jack U Off..

I've actually converted a couple of people on Gold and Holy River.I had the Holy River CD single with TMBGITW mustang mix on it and it went around about 15 people. Kiss still has pulling power. everyone loves the 'dang-a-lan-a-lang-a-lang....Kiss' bit.

Little Red Corvette, Poplife, anything of PR and Alphabet Street also really apeal.

Most non-fans really like The Gold Experience. Pussy Control, at LEAST!

You guys must have pretty tolerant fans! Some of my dearest fans DETEST Prince and most of the songs you have named. Thanks for the suggestions, though. We'll see who I can convert in grad school.

Sly said:

everybody likes kiss! true enuff. even these french people i'm hanging around.

I think there are a lot of songs that non-Prince fans like,...they just don't WANT to like him! I tried to think of a few..
1999
I could Never Take the Place of Your Man
(almost all of SOTT)
Let It Go

~Peace and B Wild

Well, this may not be the best criterion on which to judge this question, but there are some songs that still get played occasionally in 'normal' bars, at least in London, and this indicates that whoever's picking the tunes is fairly confident that mass projectile vomitting won't break out at the sound of prince's voice.

I'm thinking Alphabet St, Gett Off, Kiss, 1999, maybe one or two others. True enough these songs were hits, but they appear to have retained a certain 'cool' that other 'hits' have long since lost (Purple Rain, TMBGITW, U Got the Look, Little Red Corvette, Let's Go Crazy, My Name is Prince) either by association with the excesses of 80s rock, or the tragically unfashionable sound of 'commercial' mid-90s hip-hop.

The Purple Rain Album.. (When he played Take me with U the other night, All the people in the Upper section (not so much up in the front) screamed like they used to for the Beatles....)
Also, Kiss.. LRC, and Erotic City.

Pop Life

On our schooltrip to Berlin I gave the driver a compilation tape of Prince tunes.

I figured it could go either way:

1 - They'd love it
2 - They'd dismember me and bury me at the side of the road.

But actually, the whole bus liked the tunes. Fcuz the tape started out with some big tunes like Kiss, Cream, Sexy MF, but as it went into "17 Days", "New Position", "Gold" etc, people actually started saying "Wow, I didn't know Prince made such cool music! I want a copy of that tape".


However, a downside to some of you orgers may be that the track people went nuts for was "MAD SEX".

We had 30 former Prince haters singing along the chorus on that one.

My friends and I go camping a lot and at night we all are always sitting around the fire drinking & listening to tunes, we all take turns on choosing the CD to play. A few years ago, one of my buddy's was just ripping Prince apart when I put on Crystal Ball (the song 'Dream Factory' got him going). I started explaining that his music was so different that it usually takes a few listens for it to sink in and once it does, your a fan for life. He still was rippin' on P, saying some real shit. So I told him I'd take off Crystal Ball only if I could put in something else that was more accesible. I put on Small Club. This dude that was giving me crap was trying to keep it up, but everyone told him to shut the hell up because this was some good music. So Small Club impressed people and converted a couple of buds into fans.

all of my friends love nothing compares to you, TMBGITW and most like kiss too

Moonbeam said:

Wow...I would think the song "Crystal Ball" would be a hard sell!

DMSR247 said:

Most of my friends were music majors, so they really appreciated the instrumentation and the way he layered everything on that track.

huh.. this one is always the same

Starfish & Coffee ala Muppets Tonight
She Gave her Angels ala Muppets
Question of U
Peach
Purple Rain
Little Red Corvette
Kiss

I didn't read them all thoroughly but it looks like nobody

mentioned .....Rasberry Beret.....casual or non-

fans tend to like only what they've heard on the

radio.....if you're looking to play something for your

friends and not get hazed in the process.....stick with

whatever was big on the radio..

















.

endorphin78 said:

same for me!

Gold and Holy river go down well with people and LRC and pop life and often chosen as faves by "non fans".