If prince released I could never take the place of your man as the second single and did a massive tour. that album would've sold between 3 to 5million copies. It was a kick-ass European tour with his best stage set ever. The tour would've rocked the u.s. The biggest mistake of his career not touring for his last great album

Yes indeed. Prince could have sold more if, among other conditions, the choices for the singles had been more adequate, especially from Parade onwards.

Regarding Sing O' The Times (which I don't think is his last masterpiece), I agree with I Could Never Take The Place Of Your Man being a perfect second single, much better than If I Was Your Girlfriend. (I'm talking about commercial potential, which is basically what singles are about.). With that song he would have pleased his pop fans, while Housequake would have been a perfect single for the R&B market.

Yes indeed. Prince could have sold more if, among other conditions, the choices for the singles had been more adequate, especially from Parade onwards.

Regarding Sing O' The Times (which I don't think is his last masterpiece), I agree with I Could Never Take The Place Of Your Man being a perfect second single, much better than If I Was Your Girlfriend. (I'm talking about commercial potential, which is basically what singles are about.). With that song he would have pleased his pop fans, while Housequake would have been a perfect single for the R&B market.

I think the singles choices are the same as what I would have done for the most part. The problem with SOTT is that it's a little bland. It just wasn't as edgy as 1999 and Purple Rain. Hot Thing would have sold well, and the title track did, but it's too light and fluffy to have had a huge impact on anyone but fans. People I show it to now think it's boring and it even took me over a year to get into it.

I love how we have different schools of thought on this site, a guy like Vainandy will trash a work like SOTT and back it up with great arguements. I'd say that SOTT belongs to P's golden period and shows an artist who refuses to be caged by anyone and fearlessly experiments and grows to his fullest potential. I do think his pop peak was over at this point though, he would never again have the mass success of Purple Rain and I think he knew this and maybe never even wanted it again. also, you are correct that his choice in singles was hit and miss, SOTT was a great lead off single, I think he tried to release the brilliant but commercially limited "If I was Your Girlfriend" as a single, bad idea, little too much for pop music. U Got The Look was great, hit, I could Never Take The Place of Your Man would have been a great second or even first single. Why he didn't tour here I don't know, touring is known to be grueling and stressful and to my knowledge, he's only gone on a few actual nationwide tours here that reached my hometown.

*and lest we forget, lovesexy sold worse than any album since Dirty Mind even though he toured behind it. touring guarantees nothing.

[Edited 7/20/11 12:25pm]

Shockedelicus said:

I think the singles choices are the same as what I would have done for the most part. The problem with SOTT is that it's a little bland. It just wasn't as edgy as 1999 and Purple Rain. Hot Thing would have sold well, and the title track did, but it's too light and fluffy to have had a huge impact on anyone but fans. People I show it to now think it's boring and it even took me over a year to get into it.

See what I mean? What many of us call his best work other's call "boring". I think the album is not vintage Prince and is not his cutting edge contributions to pop music but it is an illustration of continued growth. True, the album had some really weak songs on it, for me, Hot Thing, Forever In my Life, Play In The Sunshine, The Cross were a couple steps down from the rest of the album but Slow Love, Adore, etc.., more than make up for any of it, It may not be as flashy and attention getting as some of his other work but it is certainly more auteuristic of the man to make. It's more of an internal work, more poetic than outrageous, more clever than raunchy, in other words more subtle and more mature.

America is not the world.

SquirrelMeat said:

America is not the world.

For an American artist its a huge part of his market.

It would have sold far more, if the first two singles weren't Sign "O" The Times and If I Was Your Girlfriend imo.

never been a big fan of this cd. over-rated to me and sold about like it should of to me. It is better than the Black album and Lovesexy though. Those two stink!! I never really knew why people cream in their pants over this cd. its alright but its not all that

bobbyperu said:

How many copies of Exile on Main St did the Stones sell? How many did Live at the Apollo by James Brown sell? How many of What's Going on by Marvin Gaye? How many of Blonde on Blonde by Dylan? I don't know and I don't care. All of those are legendary LPs just like Sign o the Times. Stop judging music by record sales numbers.

Thank You!!! I dont give a crap, it was a hit with his fans. Were all that matters, others only contribute when they look for hits. Never extending their musical outlet. Thats whats wrong with todays music, no soul, everybody just want freakin hits. & sadly 50% of listners want the same thing.

I just want great music, not what has potential for radio. P is a millionaire his music has done him well, by all means.

dandeeland said:

never been a big fan of this cd. over-rated to me and sold about like it should of to me. It is better than the Black album and Lovesexy though. Those two stink!! I never really knew why people cream in their pants over this cd. its alright but its not all that

Let me guess, you love "20Ten", "Chaos & Disorder" & "The Gold Experience"

rusty1 said:

If prince released I could never take the place of your man as the second single and did a massive tour. that album would've sold between 3 to 5million copies. It was a kick-ass European tour with his best stage set ever. The tour would've rocked the u.s. The biggest mistake of his career not touring for his last great album

Din't that album sell between 5-7 million records?

bobbyperu said:

How many copies of Exile on Main St did the Stones sell? How many did Live at the Apollo by James Brown sell? How many of What's Going on by Marvin Gaye? How many of Blonde on Blonde by Dylan? I don't know and I don't care. All of those are legendary LPs just like Sign o the Times. Stop judging music by record sales numbers.

Yes, it's worth noting that Purple Rain is really the only Prince album to be extremely successful (having sold approx. 20 Million copies). None of his other albums touched Purple Rain's success - doesn't mean they weren't great, though.

I just don't get it how prince fans can say that sign o' the times was a bland or had a lot of flat songs. It's hands down his 2nd best album of all-time. it's very diverse in a wide range of musical styles from rock,soul,funk, r&b,etc. it was also nominated for a best album grammy. This was Prince's last truly critically acclaimed album. These are the same idiotic fans who love his 90's albums just to be different.

It was also prince's last great tour with the image that worked splendidly together.

rusty1 said:

I just don't get it how prince fans can say that sign o' the times was a bland or had a lot of flat songs. It's hands down his 2nd best album of all-time. it's very diverse in a wide range of musical styles from rock,soul,funk, r&b,etc. it was also nominated for a best album grammy. This was Prince's last truly critically acclaimed album. These are the same idiotic fans who love his 90's albums just to be different.

well, personally, i try to respect others feelings and understand. It's all subjective anyway, and subjectively to me, SOTT is Prince's artistic zenith. also, nowhere near as accessible as his more popular stuff. You have to listen for the genius to works it's magic, People swear up and down as to the brilliance of Coltrane and davis but to me it's just a lot of noise and don't know what everyone raves about. Sott is a corncopia of art, of course songs like SOTT, U got the look, Never could take the place had hit potential but the best songs on the album were songs like Dorothy Parker, Starfish and Coffee, Strange relationship, ohhhh the shit he did with his voice, with the instrumentation and production, there's no one like him. And we could argue all day about his best work, but in my mind, his golden period ended here and it was quite a period for a popular artist, from dirty mind to sott we went from the bold outsider making his mark and nearly getting kicked off his label, to the maverick who melded pop,funk and rock with 1999 and Purple Rain changing popular music more than anyone in that era with these albums, then he defies everyone and goes into psychedelia, classical, old soul and does what the hell he wants. We'll never see another like him and we shouldn't bicker, we should be thankful that we are fans of an artist who gave more than 99.9 percent of pop artists.

[Edited 7/20/11 23:29pm]

8,000,000 copies is not a huge success? That is Dirty mind, Controversy, and 1999...COMBINED. What would you consider a success? Take out Purple Rain that had an entire movie promoting it, and by extension a 30 million dollar ad campaign, and Diamonds and Pearls, and it is his top selling album. And it did that on the streangth of the album alone with no tour and little in the way of promotion. Numbers don't mean a whole lot when it comes to music, but I put them out there to find what your frame of reference was when you posted this.

and to put into context how complicated a piece of art it is, I recall that when it was first released it got lukewarm reviews and little fanfare, yet by the end of that year the critics had it up for album of the year. Everyone thinks they know what's best for others to do, but Prince did plenty and he did it with and by his own heart and balls.

Javi said:

Yes indeed. Prince could have sold more if, among other conditions, the choices for the singles had been more adequate, especially from Parade onwards.

Regarding Sing O' The Times (which I don't think is his last masterpiece), I agree with I Could Never Take The Place Of Your Man being a perfect second single, much better than If I Was Your Girlfriend. (I'm talking about commercial potential, which is basically what singles are about.). With that song he would have pleased his pop fans, while Housequake would have been a perfect single for the R&B market.

"IIWYG" was an odd choice for the second single.Most people didn't really understand that song and it stalled the album's momentum.Beginning with 'Parade',I began to notice a trend.Prince would release an excellent first single and then follow it up with a questionable second single.He did this with Parade,SOTT and Lovesexy.

SoulAlive said:

Javi said:

Yes indeed. Prince could have sold more if, among other conditions, the choices for the singles had been more adequate, especially from Parade onwards.

Regarding Sing O' The Times (which I don't think is his last masterpiece), I agree with I Could Never Take The Place Of Your Man being a perfect second single, much better than If I Was Your Girlfriend. (I'm talking about commercial potential, which is basically what singles are about.). With that song he would have pleased his pop fans, while Housequake would have been a perfect single for the R&B market.

"IIWYG" was an odd choice for the second single.Most people didn't really understand that song and it stalled the album's momentum.Beginning with 'Parade',I began to notice a trend.Prince would release an excellent first single and then follow it up with a questionable second single.He did this with Parade,SOTT and Lovesexy.

i've always thought it was intentional and that sales just didn't mean that much to him, or at least he was ambivalent about all of it. I mean, he's a very private person, i doubt he really likes all the attention he gets.

ManlyMoose said:

SquirrelMeat said:

America is not the world.

For an American artist its a huge part of his market.

Doesn't make any difference where they are from. Its still smaller than the rest of the world.