I would have to say for me it was "When Doves Cry" I remember hearing it and thinking he is really describing how I feel about my life right now to a T. It was almost as if he read my mind at that point. I would always sing it whenever I heard it because it was just so powerful to me. I mean to me there was just a rawness and honesty about it, that don't too many people capture alot anymore. Another one was "Do Me Baby", that's a whole other story, let's just say I wasn't ready for that one.

"Something in the Water" - which is still to this day my favorite Prince song.

"Condition of the Heart"

"There Is Lonely"

Extra loveable

Sometimes It Snows In April

Forever In My Life

I Hate U

Shhh

P Control

"Wasted Kisses".

Prince sounds unusually unhappy on this track to me.

Erotic City (My Favorite Prince song)

Controversy (My 2nd favorite)

Little Red Corvette

Uptown

Scandalous!

Do Me Baby

Raspberry Berret

Those first listen obsessions are the ones I consider the gems off of each album (for the most part):

from the 80's official releases:

1. Little Red Corvette

2. DMSR

Let's Go Crazy

Erotic City

When Doves Cry

Purple Rain

Another Lonely Christmas

Condition of the Heart

Tambourine

Pop Life

New Position

Under the Cherry Moon

Girls & Boys

Kiss

Sign O' the Times

Housequake

Ballad of Dorothy Parker

If I Was Your Girlfriend

Shockadelica

Le Grind

Bob George

Eye No

Anna Stesia

I Wish U Heaven

I Wish U Heaven 12'

Scandalous

[Edited 6/20/11 8:14am]

There are a bunch of 'em, but the first one that came to mind was "Anna Stesia".

"Empty Room".

The second it finished, I lost it like the guy from the "best cry ever" video.

Too many to count, but here's a few highlights:

DMSR

Lady Cab Driver

When Doves Cry

Darlin Nikki

Let's Work

When U were Mine

Hot Thing

U Got the Look

Good Love

I Wonder U

Girls and Boys

I Could Never take the place of your man

Anna Stesia

I Wish U Heaven

My Name is Prince

(actually about 50% of the symbol album songs)

About 60% of the Gold Experience songs i heard

The Word (from 3121)

There's others here with us

All Night, All Day

Rebirth of the Flesh

Colonized Mind (even though this was only temperary)

His cover of "Best of You"

Jack U Off

The Future

The Greatest Romance That's Ever Been Sold

Pretty Man

Ineteractive

Thunder

Get Off (extended)

There's too many to remember

alexnvrmnd777 said:

There are a bunch of 'em, but the first one that came to mind was "Anna Stesia".

Ooh, good answer, good answer.

1999 and Lets Work

Then everything on SOTT

The entire SOTT album left my head spinning (to this day I can still remember that feeling).

Dance On

Joy in Repetition

Whatever awards show it was when he played Endorphine Machine for the first time! wow!!

I was a late-bloomer to the Princefandom.

Lovesexy is my fav album...yet when it was released I was still on the fence as to whether or not I "liked" him & his music.

"Love Bizarre" (technically it's a "Prince" song) I would say is the first one that I really fell head-over-heels for the FIRST time that I heard it.

prince connects to me best when his lyrical matter captures the essence of an experience .. musically perhaps the horn line in "girls and boys" or the flute line in "gett off" may stand out as extraodinary, but if the lyrics are shallow or concieted i sincerely have no use for a prince song .. this is perhaps why prince can write the cheesiest pop melody and musical arrangement and still unabashedly seduce me into loving every single note line and sylable of a song .. because the lyrics strike in such a sincere and relateable way that everything else is gravy (veggie gravy of course, no blood in my prince songs thank you very much)

there are many but i will stick to a few faves

raspberry beret is amazing lyrically tho it didn't get me on first listen .. it was more songs like "something in the water" and "if i was ur girlfirend" that really popped right away .. its always just a perfect line or two that pulls me in .. "i never meant to cause you any sorrow" .. "i aint got no money, not like those other guys you hang around" "every time i comb my hair, thoughts of you get in my eyes"

"do u get high?, does ur daddy cry?" .. "all the flowers that u planted mama, in the back yard, all died when u went away" .. good stuff

[Edited 6/20/11 11:24am]

Eye remember the 1st time eye heard the following songs very well & on the 1st listen was hooked!

When Doves Cry

Kiss

Sign o The Times

GoodLove

AnnaStesia

Eye Love U In Me

Eye Hate U

Life O The Party

Ol Skool Company

Underneath The Cream

Race

Last December

3121

Laydown

Witness 4 The Prosecution

Hmm, let me see...

So Blue

Blue Light

The ? of U

Power Fantastic

Somebody's Somebody

I Can't Make You Love Me

Joy In Repetition (especially live)

Let's Work

And God Created Woman

The last song that I heard on the radio was the one that brought me back to Prince after 15 years and led me to this website: "Better With Time." I hadn't heard a Prince song (well, I didn't listen to the radio for years) but when I heard that song, I wanted to find out more, which led me to discovering albums and other sources of his music which I had never heard--since the last album I bought, which was The Gold Experience around 1995. So much to discover! I feel like I did in the '80s!

Purple Rain

DMSR

Extra Loveable

Dirty Mind

Do Me, Baby

Beautiful Ones

Darling Nicki

I Wanna Be Ur Lover

Head

International Lover

Kiss

Alphabet Street

Gett Off

Most Beautful girl In World

18 & Over

Crimson & Clover

Walk In Sand

A few on the top of my head:

Mountains

Strange Relationship

Lets Go Crazy

Raspberry Beret

Pop Life

1999

DMSR

Cream

Face Down

Return of the Bump Squad

Endorphinmachine

Everlasting Now

The Word

3121

Wow...Where do I begin?

Sexy Dancer

Head

BLue Light

Anna Stesia

Witness for the Prosecution

Soft & Wet

Raspberry Beret

Electric Intercourse

Shockadelica

UR gonna C Me

Party Up

Dirty Mind

I can't make U love me

Still

The Christ

Somebody's Somebody

Scandelous

Le Grind

Love U 2 the 9s

Walk in the Sand

DO me Baby

Something Doesn't Compute

Face Down

Hide the Bone

Lay Down

and so on & so on.....

A long list . . . .

It's Gonna Be Lonely

Why You Wanna Treat Me So Bad?

Dirty Mind

When You were Mine

Let's Work

Anna Stesia

Little Red Corvette

Automatic

Something In the Water (Does Not Compute)

Do Yourself A Favor

Moonbeam Levels

When Doves Cry

The Beautiful Ones

17 Days

She's Always in My Hair

Screams of Passion

Old Friends for Sale

Others Here With Us

Crucial

Crystal Ball

Mountains

Sign O' The Times

Forever In My Life

Strange Relationship

Adore

Anna Stesia

I Wish You Heaven

Electric Chair

Pink Cashmere

Scandalous

[I wasn't done]

The Question of U

Still Would Stand All Time

Thieves In The Temple

Open Book

Insatiable

Violet the Organ Grinder

Hold Me

Letter 4 Miles

There Is Lonely

7

The Morning Papers

Blue Light

Letitgo

Van Gogh

White Mansion

In This Bed I Scream

The Holy River

Friend, Lover, Sister, Mother Wife

My Computer

The Love We Make

When You Love Somebody

Wasted Kisses

One of Your Tears

The Sun, The Moon and Stars

Man O'War

Mr. Prettyman

When The Lights Go Down

Last December

Musicology

Illusion, Coma, Pimp and Circumstance

If Eye Was the Man In Your Life

The Word

Incense and Candles

The Morning After

4Ever

Dance 4 Me

U're Gonna C Me

Valentina

Beginning Endlessly

Sticky Like Glue

Laydown

[Edited 6/20/11 19:38pm]

boom - idk what it is about this one, but i love it.

interactive

pop life

controversy - awesome beat :]

the most beautiful girl in the world

the beautiful ones - kind of the opposite with this song. its my absolute favorite now, but i didnt like it at all when i first heard it. the screaming was too obnoxious at first, but it grew on me and now thats the reason why its my favorite.

"The Dance"

"The Marrying Kind"

"Pop Life"

"Beginning Endlessly"

"Baby Go Go"

"Splash"

Gonna only list two, Pheremone and Space and the subsequent maxi-single release. i guess cause the Come Cd was so hideous it was nice to find a couple of jewels on it. Especially with WB releases that were put out for contractual obligations, it was nice to find some funk still in a dark time for The Artist. The few Cd's before emancipation were clearly "for fans only" and a lot of us thought thought that the ride was over.

[Edited 6/20/11 21:45pm]

I liked the Come LP the minute I heard it....

DELETE

[Edited 6/20/11 22:38pm]