What are some songs that prince may or may not have released as singles that werent hits but shouldve been? GUITAR-is a fine example of a hit song,and its very catchy. I wonder y it didnt become a hit. If crap like Rihana's unbrella song and Beyonce's single ladies became hits then y not Guitar or even Black sweat?

Guitar
The 1 U Wanna C
$
Dance Wit Me

Adore
Wasted Kisses
Moonbeam Levels
Hot Thing
Endorphinmachine
Dolphin
Anna Steia
Electric Chair

Black Sweat!

List of songs which were not realesed as singles... but could have been hits !


In chronological order:

"Head"

"The Beautiful Ones"

"Sometimes It Snows in April"

"The Cross"

"When 2 R In Love"

"Love Machine"

"3 Chains o' Gold"

"Race"

"Shhh"

"Billy Jack Bitch"

"Acknowledge Me"

"Chaos and Disorder"

"I Rock, Therefore I Am"

"Right Back Here In My Arms"

"White Mansion"

"Sex In the Summer"

"La, La, La Means I Love U"

"Wasted Kisses"

"5 Women"

"Baby Knows"

"A Million Days"

"Reflection"

"The Dance"

"Somewhere Here on Earth"

Loose!
Letitgo
The marrying kind
(There'll Never B) Another Like Me
No more Candy 4 U

and of course I agree with most of the above posted... with some exceptions... for example I can't imagine "Reflection" or "Sometimes it snows in April" ever becoming hits!

saafiir said:

Girls and Boys (released in the UK as follow-up 2 Kiss where it was a Top 20 single) But never released in the states as a single, although radio stations were playing the heck off the album cut. In later years, Revolution's Bobby Z even admitted that it should have been the follow-up 2 Kiss, then Mountains as a 3rd single in the U.S.

porfyrivrohi said:

Most of Prince's music 'should have' been hits.
The issue and problem is that Prince either is horribly bad at marketing
and or he is unconcerned with having a record label maintain his industry presence. Its one huge part of having a record contract, your 'label' maintains your presence in the market-place. Prince by fighting the industry basically black balled himself off radio-tv and print.

We can list probably 100 tunes that should have been hits, the real reason they were'nt is because Mr. Nelsons position on the industry.

A prime example is 'Dance with me' has top ten written all over it but we will never see it on the charts....

GMAM

A good portion of The Gold Experience.

I guess one of the tracks was a hit, but that was prior to the album.

Endorphin Machine missed the boat.

GMAN2000 said:

I agree with you. I know that lonely sheep outside the farm will be eaten by the wolf. And I've seen it happening before. Yet, not all songs have what it takes to be a hit, regardless of quality. We can see that in other artists' albums where little gems remain completely unknown.

Singles that should have been hits:

Do Me, Baby
Let's Pretend We're Married
Pop Life
Paisley Park
Mountains
Anotherloverholenyohead
If I Was Your Girlfriend
Glam Slam
I Wish U Heaven
Scandalous
New Power Generation (song)
Gett Off (this was only a minor hit, wasn't it?)
Sexy M.F. (this was also just a minor hit...?)
My Name Is Prince
The Morning Papers
Pink Cashmere
Love Sign
Letitgo
The Holy River
The Greatest Romance Ever Sold
Musicology (was this ever a hit single?)
Black Sweat
Guitar
Dance 4 Me

GMAN2000 said:

They started this before we ,the public, knew about this.
How do you explain the U Got The Look drama of late summer of 1987 or the 7 of Spring 1993.

Those two songs were #2 longer than any #2 songs I could think of and they had other songs skip over them to the #2 spot. The same thing happened with Diamonds and Pearls.

I think that we have not really heard the full truth to why Prince was denied at least 3 or 4 #1's

Pheromone
Space
Adore
Trust
Erotic City

17 Days!!!

There are too many to name on this thread.

I'm not sure if it was recorded before or after the rest of the album but I've always thought that if "Crucial" had been included on Parade that it easily would have been a top five hit.

It amazes me how many songs you guys are saying weren't hits. To me, a hit is not necessarily what was released as a single. Prince's career has a steady stream of "hits" that weren't all singles. Songs like "Do Me, Baby", "International Lover", "Lady Cab driver", "DMSR", "Adore", "Housequake" etc. were all album cuts that were radio hits.

Some of the songs you guys are saying that weren't hits, really were (in one form or another).

Pop Life:
Pop Life Dance Music/Club Play Singles 5
Pop Life Hot Dance Music/Maxi-Singles Sales 1
Pop Life Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles & Tracks 8
Pop Life The Billboard Hot 100 7


Anotherloverholenyohead Dance Music/Club Play Singles 21
Anotherloverholenyohead Hot Dance Music/Maxi-Singles Sales 10
Anotherloverholenyohead Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles & Tracks 18

Scandalous Hot Dance Music/Maxi-Singles Sales 19
Scandalous Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles & Tracks 5

Gett Off Dance Music/Club Play Singles 1
Gett Off Hot Dance Music/Maxi-Singles Sales 1
Gett Off Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles & Tracks 6
Gett Off The Billboard Hot 100 21

Pink Cashmere Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles & Tracks 14
Pink Cashmere Rhythmic Top 40 18
Pink Cashmere The Billboard Hot 100 50
Pink Cashmere Top 40 Mainstream 30

The Morning Papers Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles & Tracks 68
The Morning Papers The Billboard Hot 100 44
The Morning Papers Top 40 Mainstream 18

Letitgo Hot Dance Music/Maxi-Singles Sales 22
Letitgo Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles & Tracks 10
Letitgo Rhythmic Top 40 13
Letitgo The Billboard Hot 100 31
Letitgo Top 40 Mainstream 17

The Greatest Romance Ever Sold Hot Dance Music/Maxi-Singles Sales 6
The Greatest Romance Ever Sold Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles & Tracks 23
The Greatest Romance Ever Sold The Billboard Hot 100 63

porfyrivrohi said:

Because you don't live in France

We like folk songs, accoustic & slow tracks...

There really are too many to post...but his decision on releasing singeles were shaky at best.

White Mansion with a strong video, Morning Papers with a stronger video-maybe a live release. If i was the man in ur life for some reason.

I don't even want to start, there are so many songs on his latest 4 albums that should have ANNIHILATED the charts. Best example was Black Sweat that song had number 1 platinum hit written all over it. Where did it get? About number 50 are you kidding me?
Others of late

Dance 4 Me (This should have blown up by now)
Crimson and Clover
Dreamer (Great adult rock here)
Guitar (Like someone said, well written and catchy)
Chelsea Jones (Also catchy and has real singing)

I think his songs flop, because he can't compare with all the shit hop about hos and Escalades and near naked 18 year old girls miming to 80s pop samples.

Mars23 said:

I completely agree. This album went unnoticed by those who were not already Prince fans or who had lost interest not long after Purple Rain.

Deffinately Dolphin and Shy should have gotten airplay. They both are catchy enough to appeal to a larger crowd than Prince diehards. A hit has to be a bit like a Katie Perry song, catchy and a bit of a jingle in the sense that you find yourself singing it afterwards.

SavonOsco said:

very shaky

Huggiebear said:

I think that Round and Round would have been a much bigger hit had Prince not given it to Tevin Campbell.

Darwintheorgangrinder said:

Round and Round did extremely well for a break out hit. It was the first listed under his own name.

Round and Round Hot Dance Music/Maxi-Singles Sales 40
Round and Round Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles & Tracks 3
Round and Round The Billboard Hot 100 12

Previously, he had a number one with Quincy Jones with "Tomorrow".

daPrettyman said:

It did very well at the time. I remember it being on MTV a lot when it came out. However, I think the song would have had more staying power if Prince would have performed it. Instead, it was just a catchy song by a cute little kid (who turned out to be pretty fugly, sorry to all the Tevin fans out there). I bet that hardly anyone old enough to have heard it when it came out remembers it (I feel old talking like this).

nurseV said:

I was on my phone on the train and the damn train was shaking..it was the only word i can think of the time..lol...scratch the whole comment entirely

SHOCKADELICA

EROTIC CITY

!!!!!

Huggiebear said:

I was in agreement with everything you said..until the uncalled for jab at hip-hop.Hip-Hop had nothing to do with this one.

Darwintheorgangrinder said:

I gotcha!