Posted by Mikey MiGo on 02.08.2008

Recording Artist
R&B, Pop, Funk, Rock, Jazz, New Wave
Inducted On: 02.08.08

The Purple One takes his place on the throne...


PRINCE'S MAJOR ACCOMPLISHMENTS

• 23 gold albums, 16 platinum albums and 7 multi-platinum albums, including Purple Rain, which is one of the Top 35 selling albums of all time.
• Over 50 million albums sold worldwide.
• 32 Top 40 singles.
• Credited writer for 27 Top 40 singles for other artists.
• 6 Grammy Awards.
• Inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame (2004).
• Performed at the Super Bowl XLI Halftime Show.
• Leader of the Revolution.




It's hard to believe that one of the greatest musicians of all times is a 5'2" man from Minnesota. Prince is best known for the sexual content of his songs , but anyone with two ears knows there are many more layers to the story of Prince. During his epic career, he has taken in many styles and musical genres and developed them into his own that is just as much of an enigma as his personality. Be it R&B, funk, new wave, pop, rock, jazz, or hip hop, Prince has done it all. Plus, he's done it all with a style that you hear and are instantly comforted and challenged to know that it is Prince. Because the second you know it's Prince, you know that your soul is ready to embark on a journey that it may not return from.

Prince Rogers Nelson was born June 7th, 1958 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He was named after his father's jazz band "Prince Rogers Trio". So yes, folks, his real name IS Prince. His first band was with his friend Andre' Anderson and cousin Charles Smith as part of the mainly instrumental Grand Central. They played clubs and parties around Minneapolis and he took on more interest in music . He would then start producing the bands and soon became the front man. Grand Central would soon become Champagne and this is where Prince would pull in some of the more flamboyant influences such as Sly Stone, Jimi Hendrix, Miles Davis, and James Brown.

During the bicentennial of 1976, Prince got to work on a demo tape with the help of producer Chris Moon. With the help of Owen Husney the demo was made in the best studio possible at the time. This demo would be what gets Prince's foot in the door as it was shopped around and involved in a bidding war that would be won by Warner Brothers. The thing that won the war for WB was that in the contract it would state that Prince would have creative control over all of his songs.

While there are theories and claims it wasn't his first album, the first album under Warner Bros. was For You. Released in 1978, Prince did something a bit ambitious on the album. He played all 27 instruments. Critics devalue this because the majority of the instruments were just different types of keyboards, percussion, and strings - I don't know about you, but playing one variation of any of those is tough enough, that alone 27. He spent twice the amount the label wanted and didn't sell as much as they'd hoped. When taking this album on the road he put together his first backing band. In some sort of homage to Sly Stone, the band he put together was of mixed sex and mixed race.

The next album was the self-titled and was a huge step towards the legacy of the purple clad icon. It reached #4 on the R&B charts and had "Why You Wanna Treat Me So Bad?" and "I Wanna Be Your Lover" on it. These songs received the official nod from mainstream America as Prince would go on to perform them on Dick Clark's "American Bandstand". All the attention and praise on the album helped push "I Wanna Be Your Lover" to #1 on the R&B Charts and the album to certified gold status.



This is also about the time Prince began to stir the pot of the status quo by opening up his wardrobe a lot more. He would wear high heels, bright colors, clad clothing, and just based on his appearance would press the buttons of anyone uncomfortable with their sexuality. People would start to question his sexual orientation and that would seem to be what many close minded people would go on to know him for. Like the Little Richards and David Bowies before him, his music would actually be overshadowed by his eccentric and nonconformist style. Yet, this newfound controversy wouldn't stop Prince from evolving into a true American legend.

In 1982, Prince's fifth album 1999 was let loose to the world. It opened the flood gates by selling millions of copies, providing many singles, and brought Prince into the homes of America. The single and title track is one of those songs that has infected, and I mean that in a great way, the minds of a generation. It's 2008 and I still hear people say "Let's party like it's 1999". That's impact on a culture, ladies and gents. There was also "Little Red Corvette", "Delirious", "Lets Pretend We're Married", and "Automatic" to balance out one of the most well known Prince albums. This is also the time frame that Prince deemed his back up band The Revolution, which consisted of Wendy Melvoin on guitar, Bobby Z on drums, Brown Mark on bass, and Doctor Fink and Lisa Coleman on keyboards. While they were a great collection of musicians, Prince didn't need them that much while recording.

Like many other icons of music, there is one album that can be considered the one to cement their legacy as one of the greatest. Prince's Purple Rain is that defining album. Purple Rain has sold more than sixteen million copies and the film has grossed more than $80 million in the US alone. There's a reason for this success: it's great. Singles like "When Goes Cry", "Lets Go Crazy", and the title track are timeless classics. To make even more history with this album/film the song "Darling Nikki" is solely responsible for those annoying Parental Advisory labels on our CD's. Apparently Tipper Gore overheard her daughter listening to it and was appalled. Yeah, Prince is so bad ass that he single handedly changed the way music would be sold forever.

He would go on to release Around the World in a Day, Parade, Sign "" The Times, Lovesexy, and the soundtrack to the Purple Rain sequel, Graffiti Bridge. All of them had their hit singles, tours, and attention. Around this time is when Prince's "offbeat antics" became revealed. He would claim that Around the World in a Day would mark the end of his tour days and music videos. That wouldn't stick. He would be set to release The Black Album in 1987, but cancelled the release only a few days before its street date. He was slated to work with Michael Jackson on the title track of Bad, but they had creative differences. To me this time period was when Prince's success and self vision crossed. He knew what he wanted and how he wanted to do it, but the pressures of the mainstream would clamp on to him.

I look over my shoulder and I see a poster from 1991's Diamond and Pearls hanging on my office wall. A lot of people will criticize me for it, but this is when I really understood who Prince was. I was eight years old and could actually comprehend the fact that Prince was "different". That is drew me in, the music is what kept me there. I didn't understand the controversial and sexual undertones, but I could accept the fact that the single "Cream" was catchy.

This is when people got really mystified by Prince as he would release an album in 1992 with a symbol, , as the title instead of a name. Then the following year, he would also no longer be called Prince. He wanted to be referred to as , or "The Artist Formerly Known as Prince", or just "The Artist". The symbol and name would later be revealed as "Love Symbol", but at the time people were just there scratching their heads in confusion. It would be revealed that this name change was due to Warner Bros. copyrighting the name Prince and wanted to have input in the creative and financial aspects of Prince's work. Others would say this was an attempt to "reinvent" himself, but I sorta see it as him "rediscovering" himself.

By 1994, Prince was frustrated with Warner Bros. to the point he realized that, if he released albums as fast as he could, he could get himself out of the contract. He even went as far as releasing the once-panned Black Album just to get more contracted albums out there. After more not-so-successful albums and battles between Prince and Warner Bros, their relationship ended with the album entitled Chaos and Disorder.

He broke free from his long time label and started releasing material on his own NPG Records. For the next few years he seemed to have more breathing room for his own creativity, but lacked the attention he had less than a decade before. The first to be released was Emancipation, which was a three CD set featuring 36 songs. Then to upstage that he put out an unprecedented FOUR CD set featuring unreleased music and then New Power Soul at the end of 1998 without much acclaim.

In 1999, Prince signed with Arista Records and struggled with Rave Un2 the Joy Fantastic and 1999: The New Master. Neither were taken in by the public as much as they'd hoped, but Prince kept thriving to explore his own self and the world as we entered a new millennium.



Prince returned to using the name Prince on May 16, 2000 after his publishing contract with Warner ended. He would release music exclusively to his NPG Music Club and at this time I see him as taking a deep breath and recollecting his thoughts, focus, and overall passion for his art. He would adopt more of a Jazz influence into his work with The Rainbow Children, N.E.W.S, and the 2003 download-only album Xpectation.

In early 2004, Prince would appear on the Grammys with Beyoncé to perform a medley of "Purple Rain", "Let's Go Crazy", "Baby I'm a Star", and Beyoncé's "Crazy in Love". This would get rave reviews, but wouldn't be the top honor of 2004 for Prince. In March of 2004, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and not only played his own music, but rocked the solo of "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" as a dedication to George Harrison. I remember seeing this and it clicking in my head that Prince is one of the greatest living guitar players out there. At this point, the love I had for Prince as a child was rejuvenated and I would officially go on a "Prince-kick" that's still going on today.

April of 2004 saw the release of Musicology, in late 2005 came 3121, and in 2007 Planet Earth was released, all to great reviews by critics and fans. These albums saw many singles break into the rotation of many pop and rock radio stations. In a mouth dropping performance, he would go onto even perform at the Super Bowl last year to an audience of 140 million television viewers. So over twenty years after his biggest albums, Prince was back into the mainstream. It was if he never left. In many ways he never did.

Why Prince Was Selected:

Many would claim that Prince is a recluse, but he has spread his talents more than many people realize. In the midst of his rise, Prince took advantage of his loose contract with Warner Bros and started his side project The Time. He would perform all the instruments and backing vocals and had Morris Day do the vocals. We would also work with the likes of Sheila E., Celine Dion, The Bangles, Chaka Khan, Mariah Carey, Sinead O'Conner, Tevin Campell, Madonna, and others through songwriting, arranging, and collaborations. Then we must take into account the influence he has had on many musicians of today. Tell me you don't think of Prince you see an eccentric R&B star come out in today's music world and I'll tell you are blind. Look at Andre 3000 of Outkast and tell me he's not influenced by Prince.

He's not even 50 years old yet, so we still have plenty more of Paisley Park to explore. While many would say that the '80s are past us and Prince will never regain the status he once had, I full heartedly disagree. Prince has reached a status that can not be diluted. He's Prince, for crying out loud. If I see a "Greatest of All Time" list and DON'T see his name, it's automatically discredited as not fully informed. When you take into consideration all of the hit songs he has wrote, produced, composed and arranged for himself and others since his career started, it's astonishing. The image and name changes, awards won, and everything aside he will always be an eccentric and misunderstood creative genius far ahead of his time.

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[Edited 2/8/08 22:09pm]

thanks for posting!

Word!!!

Go head Prince

excellent article, nice post.
the stats at the start were interesting, no matter how many times i hear those facts, sales figures etc..it still amazes me to think of the things hes accomplished.
thumbs up for the positivity.