Do you think Prince chose always the right single as 1st Single to introduce a new album??

I was never very convinced about opening an album era with some of the ballads he chose throughout the years like: Te Amo Corazon, Pink Cashmere, Betcha By Golly Wow!, Dinner With Delores, I Hate U.
Some are better than the other ones, some great songs, some not. But still in some cases I think it killed the launching of a new album when there were other songs with much more radio potential hit and when they could've left those ballads for 2nd or 3rd single. Some great upbeat opening single could've changed the public reaction towards many of Prince's albums in the last 10 years.

My least favorite easy was Te Amo Corazon. I have to say I liked all the other ones when they were released, but then again I was already a huge Prince fan and my reaction was not the same as the mass public.

Peach was the first single from the Hits and not Pink Cashmere

PartymanTX said:

I agree with you here. Te Amo was also my least fav and I have thought he should have put some of the upbeat songs out there first.

The Greatest Romance

Welcome2daRevolution said:

Ha, ha! I had just come back to my post because I had realized I had forgotten The Greatest Romance.... In my opinion, it killed that project. What a choice...

medion said:

I'm not sure about that one, Medion. I remember clearly Cashmere being the first single at least here in America. I would need to research a bit more. I just checked wikipedia and lists Cashmere as August 1993 and Peach in November 1993. In what country are you? Maybe in your country they released Peach first.

When Doves Cry


lol jk

I'm not sure that any different choice of first single would've helped things play out differently with any of those albums.

Little Red Corvette instead of 1999


Diamonds & Pearls then Cream instead of Get Off(should not been a single)



7 instead of Sexy MF


Private Joy instead of Controversy

PartymanTX said:

I agree,this was a weak first single.

I also think that "Betcha By Golly Wow" from Emancipation was a poor choice.He's got this massive 3-CD set with all these NEW songs,and he decides to launch it with a cover song?! A better choice would have been "Sleep Around".

"Kiss" was the worst first single choice because it was midleading of the rest of the album.

I think for a long time he was trying to replicate the success of MBGITW, and appeal to the R&B market, by releasing a lead off ballad, and it never worked. There were a lot of other decent songs that could've made more of a splash, but oh well.

I think his (or his company's) first single choices were more or less correct in the 80s (although I would prefer Pop Life to Raspberry Beret and any of the other three singles to Alphabet Street). In the early 90s up until the come album he was giving good first single choices. But then?
The Good Life should have been the first exodus single not Get Wild
Betcha By Golly Wow was a cover version and as such should have never been the first single off Emancipation.
Having a ballad as an album's first single is always risky so The Greatest Romance was also a mistake (although I do love that song)
Te Amo Corazon as the first single off 3121? That was a joke which was corrected since we had also Black Sweat before the album came out.
Guitar was a totally wrong choice for first single off Planet Earth. Future Baby Mama would be the obvious choice.
Does Lotus FLower have any singles?

Also Peach was totally wrong as a single choice in general nevermind for first single off Hits. The Pope or even Nothing Compares 2 U would work much better.
[Edited 7/16/09 2:11am]

TheKing662 said:

Both Gett Off and Sexy MF were massive hits in the UK (both peaking at number 4) and those two songs are the ones which made me pay attention to Prince and become a fan (and to a lesser extend Thieves In The Temple) whereas I don't like Diamonds And Pearls at all and although I love 7 it was just a minor hit in the UK (number 27). Also both Gett Off and Sexy MF went number 1 as video singles.
[Edited 7/16/09 2:11am]

PartymanTX said:

Peach was the first single in the UK. And technically TMBGITW was the first single off The Gold Experience not I Hate You although it came out before his previous album (Come) which I am sure had something to do with Come becoming a UK number 1 album.

From a commercial standpoint he would've benefited more by releasing more upbeat songs as first singles. I like the ballads you mentioned but I don't think they worked very well as opening singles, except for I Hate U. The worst choice was probably The Greatest Romance Ever Sold. A solid and well constructed song but it was definitely not for the masses. I've always felt that So Far, So Pleased would've been the natural choice or Baby Knows.
[Edited 7/16/09 3:15am]

wow, Gett Off is the best single off the D&P album (imo), a big mystery why it wasn't a hit in the USA...

& I love Sexy MF deeply too.

The Greatest Romance, I can't think of a better single off the Rave album, it's a very weak album.. Rave, but I like the TGRES single.. lol...

Same with Emancipation, I don't hear that many singles (hits).... I guess Betcha By Golly Wow was okay as the leading single.

Te Amo Corazon is maybe the worst single ever, definately no leading single.

But.... the right singles were chosen most of the time... Imo.

NouveauDance said:

Yeah,the success of TMBGITW convinced him that he should release R&B slow songs as first singles.He tried this strategy several times,but it didn't work.Even though 'Rave' isn't one of his strongest albums,I think it might have done better if he had released "Baby Knows" or "So Far,So Pleased" as the first single.

thedance said:

Are you kidding? That album had many strong songs that could have been the first single.

"Sleep Around" is the most logical choice,imo.

"Sex In The Summer","Get Yo Groove On","In This Bed I Scream","Right Back Here In My Arms"....any one of these songs could have been first single.

peter430044 said:

Yep,"Baby Knows" or "So Far,So Pleased" should have been the lead-off single from Rave.

TGRES is a solid song,but it's a little too boring to be the lead single.It might have worked as a third or forth single.

SoulAlive said:

Im sure TGRES was princes favourite, it meant alot to him. In interviews he would go into depth about what the song was about. So he obviously wanted it out first as pehaps he knew the album wouldnt last 4 singles?

TheKing662 said:

I don't know where you are, but I seem to remember My Name is Prince being the first single from that album here in the states.

jiorjios said:

This is a very good point. It also depends where.
He's had hits in other countries (than US) with songs that did practically nothing here.