I was thinking about this and it saw an article from the following web address:


http://morethings.com/mus...prince.htm

To sum it up, it says that for an artist like Mariah Carey to get critical acclaim, she should attempt singing songs from P's catalogue. I don't think it is a logical move for her since she does not really have the same vibe to her, but it was an interesting read.

How does his catalogue stack up against other greats in terms of quantity and for the sake of argument, quality?

Prince can be called a pop artist, funk, or whatever, but IMO, he matches up extremely well against his contemporaries for the nearly 30 years he's been around.

Let the arguments begin:

Easily, Prince is my favorite. But I don't think you can really argue that his catalogue is the best. I think Marvin Gaye and Stevie Wonder surpass him (but again, I'd personally rather listen to Prince). Although, while Prince is so heavily influenced by Sly Stone and George Clinton/Parliament/Funkadelic, I think his catalogue does surpass theirs.

All i got to say is why Prince? Why should she be able to take all the credit from a true genius just to get more sales? It aint our fault she to blonde 2 write her own songs so why should we suffer? And anyway she'd probly just mess the songs up anyway stupid bit*h

Junior92 said:

Lamb

Stevie Wonder wins easily.

Nothing against Prince, of course...

AlexdeParis said:

I personally couldn't judge between the two because I've never dipped heavily into Stevie's catalogue. However I'm rather proud to say as a child the first single I ever bought was Latley. But with all the quality that Prince has released, unreleased, and written for others would you still say Stevie wins, or does he win because you feel his best is better than Prince's best?

Nikeze said:

Both? It's kind of hard to say. Starting with the latter, I do believe Stevie's best is better than Prince's best. Stevie's Music of My Mind is a great, underrated record. Without an ounce of hyperbole, I can say that the four records that followed (Talking Book, Innervisions, Fulfillingness' First Finale, Songs in the Key of Life) are perfect. Perfect. The Grammys were never more relevant than when Stevie kept winning Album of the Year because they couldn't justifiably give it to anyone else. Talking Book was prevented from winning by Innervisions (because they were released less than a year apart and eligible at the same time).

Prince may have written more hits for others, but I don't think any of those songs approach the classic status of "Tears of a Clown," "Until You Come Back to Me," "It's a Shame," and "Tell Me Something Good."

Stevie's post-Hotter Than July output has been spotty - I'm sure Prince can relate - but there have been many gems (e.g., "Overjoyed," "Skeletons," "Ribbon in the Sky," "Do I Do," "Love Light in Flight," "Front Line," "That Girl"). Do I even need to go into his pre-MoMM songs?

On another note, when I think of the term "songbook," I think of music that will be covered for all time (and Ella Fitzgerald, of course). Without a doubt, that applies to Stevie more than Prince.

As an aside, does the author realize she covered "The Beautiful Ones"?
[Edited 5/6/06 5:36am]

Junior92 said:

but she does write all her own songs so what's your point?

Yes he does!!by a looooong shot!

It's a tie between Stevie Wonder and Prince .