Update: I closed the poll early because people were discussing the preliminary results. For final results click here:

http://www.cs.cornell.edu...thm=runoff

Now that I’ve done polls on the A-sides and B-sides of U.S. singles, I’d like to do separate polls ranking the individual tracks on each album. The idea is to figure out which album tracks deserve to be ranked along with the top-ranked single tracks in a final poll to determine the overall top 25 Prince songs.

For those of you who haven’t been following my earlier polls, these are different than the usual “best song” threads in that they combine the preferences of all the voters into an overall list.

My plan is to do the album polls in the same order that they were ranked in my earlier poll of the best Prince albums. Since Sign ‘O’ The Times was ranked the #1 Prince album in that poll, it is the subject of this first album poll.

This should be an easy poll to complete. You know all these songs, and there are only 16 to rank. So please vote!

Click here to vote in the current poll:

http://www.cs.cornell.edu...c6b37af940

Please don’t discuss the preliminary results or campaign for your favorite song(s) until the poll is closed. I plan to close the poll on June 6, but I may close it early if the results are discussed on this site.

For my previous polls, click here:

http://prince.org/msg/7/360189

http://prince.org/msg/7/359981

http://prince.org/msg/7/357438

Also, if you haven't yet, please nominate your favorite Prince songs that were not released on Prince's albums or singles here:

http://prince.org/msg/7/360072

Thanks!

[Edited 6/4/11 10:29am]

[Edited 6/5/11 5:49am]

12 votes so far. Thanks for your help!

Up to 16 votes. Bumping the thread so our friends in Europe will see it in the morning. I appreciate everyone's vote!

Voted

Vict0r said:

Voted

Thanks!

voted

i voted .. suprized to see THE CROSS so low down

voted

voted.

Voted.

Same surprise about the Cross.

I just closed the poll, as people have been discussing the preliminary results. Here are the results with 35 votes cast:

Thanks to everyone who voted.

Well, that's a clear message to Prince:

don't play "u got the look" however, Sign O'Times is also known by the big audiance and appreciated more by fans. Same for the first 10 songs.

Sorry for polluting your poll by stating about The Cross. Didn't think about it.

dJJ said:

Well, that's a clear message to Prince:

don't play "u got the look" however, Sign O'Times is also known by the big audiance and appreciated more by fans. Same for the first 10 songs.

Sorry for polluting your poll by stating about The Cross. Didn't think about it.

I was also surprised to see "The Cross" so low down, but it was toward the bottom throughout the voting. I wonder if some fans are turned off by the religious message.

Stay tuned shortly for the Purple Rain poll.

I dare thinking that some fans are turned off by the religious message of The Cross NOW that Prince's religious views have become something controversial (Jehovah's Witness...) and even fan-divider (Rainbow Children...), but that it didn't turn off so many fans in its day. Anyway, I think it's a great song that deserves a higher place in this poll.

Javi said:

I dare thinking that some fans are turned off by the religious message of The Cross NOW that Prince's religious views have become something controversial (Jehovah's Witness...) and even fan-divider (Rainbow Children...), but that it didn't turn off so many fans in its day. Anyway, I think it's a great song that deserves a higher place in this poll.

Maybe I should include "The Cross" in the final poll to give it another chance, since I had to close this poll early due to the premature discussion of the results. I'm still trying to decide on the methodology for the final poll. My original idea was to include the top 35 from the singles poll plus all the songs that ranked higher than those songs in the individual album polls. But in the case of this album, all of the U.S. singles made it into the top 25, so some of the songs that lost here to the songs released as U.S. singles might still have made it into the top 35 of the singles poll if they had been included on it. There does seem to be a natural break after "Hot Thing," which beat "It's Gonna Be A Beautiful Night" by a 21-11 margin. Perhaps I could include "The Cross" and "Hot Thing" in the final poll but eliminate the bottom three here.

I don't know what I'm going to do about Purple Rain. The lowest-ranked song, "Take Me With U," still made the top 35 of the singles poll, so if I follow this method every song on the album will make the final poll.