UPDATE: The poll is now closed. Click here to see the results:

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

Hi there,

Having finished the series of albums polls, it's time to do the announced poll of Prince songs never released as such on Prince U.S. albums or singles.

Several threads have been created during the last months so that people could nominate songs for this poll. Finally, we have almost 90 songs. As ranking all of them on just one poll would be very complicated, I'll conduct three polls, each one with 30 songs, plus 5 A-Sides which will serve for reference purposes. The 10 songs that rank higher on each poll will be selected for a final poll with, again, 30 tunes.

The result of the process will be a list of the favourite outtakes and associated artists's songs of the fans in prince.org. When we have this list, we´ll start the final series of polling, which will lead to the list of favourite Prince songs as voted by the fans in this site.

It's likely that many fans (as myself) don't know all the songs on the list. If so, please rank the ones you know and leave the others tied at the bottom.

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 Sunday, but I may close it early if the preliminary results are discussed on this site. This is to make sure the poll is as accurate as possible.

Click here to vote on the poll: http://www.cs.cornell.edu...930d237c79

Thanks!

[Edited 10/30/11 8:43am]

By the way, this poll will remain open for 4 days, not 2 like the previous ones. This is due to people already being used to the norms (not discussing the results until the poll is closed), and to the fact that this poll is more difficult than the others, since it is not an album, but a selection of songs, some of them pretty obscure, in alphabetical order.

I think this poll and the two following ones will be particularly interesting.

Thank you, Javi, for starting this poll. I agree with you that, if people don't know all the songs, they should rank the ones they know and leave the rest tied for last place. I will be surprised if more than a few people have actually heard all these songs, and a song that most orgers haven't heard isn't going to rank among his top 25 in the final poll even if it happens to be a great song. After the polling is finished, people can talk about why particular songs should be more widely known than they are.

I would make one suggestion regarding the structure of this poll series. Since you have included a few reference A-sides that were ranked in the A-sides poll, I would suggest that any song that outranks an A-side that made it into the top 25 of the A-sides poll be included in the fourth round even if it did not make the top 10 in the first, second, or third round. Thus, the fourth round would include the top 10 songs from each of the first three rounds, plus any additional songs that outranked one of the top-25 A-sides but didn't make the top 10 in one of the earlier rounds. This will control for the possibility that one of the three lists might randomly contain a stronger group of songs than the others. It's possible that this rule won't result in any additional songs being included, but it would be good to have the rules clarified before we start seeing actual results.

What do you think?

[Edited 10/26/11 12:40pm]

electricberet said:

Thank you, Javi, for starting this poll. I agree with you that, if people don't know all the songs, they should rank the ones they know and leave the rest tied for last place. I will be surprised if more than a few people have actually heard all these songs, and a song that most orgers haven't heard isn't going to rank among his top 25 in the final poll even if it happens to be a great song. After the polling is finished, people can talk about why particular songs should be more widely known than they are.

I would make one suggestion regarding the structure of this poll series. Since you have included a few reference A-sides that were ranked in the A-sides poll, I would suggest that any song that outranks an A-side that made it into the top 25 of the A-sides poll be included in the fourth round even if it did not make the top 10 in the first, second, or third round. Thus, the fourth round would include the top 10 songs from each of the first three rounds, plus any additional songs that outranked one of the top-25 A-sides but didn't make the top 10 in one of the earlier rounds. This will control for the possibility that one of the three lists might randomly contain a stronger group of songs than the others. It's possible that this rule won't result in any additional songs being included, but it would be good to have the rules clarified before we start seeing actual results.

What do you think?

[Edited 10/26/11 12:40pm]

I totally agree. Actually, I had thought about the possibility that one of the three groups of 30 songs could by chance be far stronger than the others. And your suggestion is a very good way to solve this potential problem. Thanks!

I was going to write a post to clarify two questions, but electricberet's post has actually clarified them already. I mentioned these questions in my first post, but briefly. As they are quite important issues, I'll say it again:

1. Rank only the songs you know and leave the others tied for last place. If you happen to know all..., well, that's impressive, but I think not many orgers will.

2. There are 5 songs actually released on Prince albums on the poll. They are there only for reference purposes. Electricberet gives a good example of this in his post. Please rank them too.

[Edited 10/26/11 14:17pm]

7 votes already. Keep going!

Just cast my vote. I'm not going to say how many of the songs I have heard, because I might lose all credibility as a serious Prince fan. Let's just say I was able to vote on more than half.

I should add that I think this poll will be especially useful, because I certainly plan on seeking out and listening to whatever songs make the final round of polling, if I haven't already heard them.

18 votes. Keep going!

I'm a bit confused what I'm voting on, as there are major released singles ?

SquirrelMeat said:

I'm a bit confused what I'm voting on, as there are major released singles ?

The released songs are included for reference purposes, to see how the songs new to this poll compare to ones that have already been ranked. Otherwise, we'd have no way of knowing the relative significance of the results of this poll.

22 votes. The poll will remain open for two more days. Come on!

Up to 26 votes. 24 hours more to vote.

Remember: You can vote on this poll no matter how many songs you actually know: just rank the ones you know, including the 5 A-sides, and leave the others tied at the last place (#35).

electricberet said:

SquirrelMeat said:

I'm a bit confused what I'm voting on, as there are major released singles ?

The released songs are included for reference purposes, to see how the songs new to this poll compare to ones that have already been ranked. Otherwise, we'd have no way of knowing the relative significance of the results of this poll.

Okay, then i totally fucked up. I thought they were unreleased versions I never heard of and rated them as 35. Hope I haven't ruined anything, since I can't change the vote...

irreverence said:

electricberet said:

The released songs are included for reference purposes, to see how the songs new to this poll compare to ones that have already been ranked. Otherwise, we'd have no way of knowing the relative significance of the results of this poll.

Okay, then i totally fucked up. I thought they were unreleased versions I never heard of and rated them as 35. Hope I haven't ruined anything, since I can't change the vote...

Don't worry. This could happen, but what really matters here is to select 10 outtakes/associated artists songs, as I explained on my first post. It's also important the reference to the A-sides, but not as important as obtaining a ranking of the outtakes/associated artists.

To all of you who still haven't voted, remember: please rank the 5 A-sides together with the other 30 songs.

irreverence said:

electricberet said:

The released songs are included for reference purposes, to see how the songs new to this poll compare to ones that have already been ranked. Otherwise, we'd have no way of knowing the relative significance of the results of this poll.

Okay, then i totally fucked up. I thought they were unreleased versions I never heard of and rated them as 35. Hope I haven't ruined anything, since I can't change the vote...

Because of the way Condorcet polling works, a few outlier votes aren't likely to matter. If the A-sides are ranked lower than they should be, it will just result in more songs possibly making it into the final round. The main thing we're trying to do here is to weed out the songs that have no chance of making it.

kenkamken said:

In the orgNote sent Sat Oct 29 2011 3:02pm, you said: > On the 'Condorcet Poll: Best Prince songs never released as Prince songs on U.S. albums or singles (I)' thread you said: > > This stupid thing again? > > Thanks for bumping the thread! With help from you, we'll keep it at the top of the list. From Electric Beret him/herself, oooooooooo

If you don't like the polls, nobody is forcing you to come on here and complain about them. I don't think they're hard to skip over. Unless you live in Canada, there is nothing new to talk about relating to Prince's music, so why not let us have our fun?

But, as I said, if you want to keep bumping the thread, that's cool.

The first of the three polls of outtakes/associated artists songs is now closed. As I explained in my first post, the 10 songs that rank higher on each poll will make it into a final round. The ten qualified on this one are:

- Computer Blue (unreleased version)

- All My Dreams

- All Day All Night

- Electric Intercourse

- Empty Room

- Extra Loveable

- Crucial

- Beautiful Strange

- The Dance Electric

- The Glamourous Life

[Edited 10/30/11 11:30am]

Javi said:

The first of the three polls of outtakes/associated artists songs is now closed. As I explained in my first post, the 10 songs that rank higher on each poll will make it into a final round- The ten qualified on this one are:

- Computer Blue (unreleased version)

- All My Dreams

- All Day All Night

- Electric Intercourse

- Empty Room

- Extra Loveable

- Crucial

- Beautiful Strange

- The Dance Electric

- The Glamourous Life

I realized after voting that "Crucial" actually should not have been included in this poll, as it was released on the Crystal Ball compilation and was ranked #2 in that poll (which might be good enough to qualify it for the first round of overall polling if the three-disc sets are allowed more than one entry, as I think they should). If you leave "Crucial" out, you could include "Cool" in its place in the fourth round. What do you think?

electricberet said:

Javi said:

The first of the three polls of outtakes/associated artists songs is now closed. As I explained in my first post, the 10 songs that rank higher on each poll will make it into a final round- The ten qualified on this one are:

- Computer Blue (unreleased version)

- All My Dreams

- All Day All Night

- Electric Intercourse

- Empty Room

- Extra Loveable

- Crucial

- Beautiful Strange

- The Dance Electric

- The Glamourous Life

I realized after voting that "Crucial" actually should not have been included in this poll, as it was released on the Crystal Ball compilation and was ranked #2 in that poll (which might be good enough to qualify it for the first round of overall polling if the three-disc sets are allowed more than one entry, as I think they should). If you leave "Crucial" out, you could include "Cool" in its place in the fourth round. What do you think?

I think it's cool.

electricberet said:

Javi said:

The first of the three polls of outtakes/associated artists songs is now closed. As I explained in my first post, the 10 songs that rank higher on each poll will make it into a final round- The ten qualified on this one are:

- Computer Blue (unreleased version)

- All My Dreams

- All Day All Night

- Electric Intercourse

- Empty Room

- Extra Loveable

- Crucial

- Beautiful Strange

- The Dance Electric

- The Glamourous Life

I realized after voting that "Crucial" actually should not have been included in this poll, as it was released on the Crystal Ball compilation and was ranked #2 in that poll (which might be good enough to qualify it for the first round of overall polling if the three-disc sets are allowed more than one entry, as I think they should). If you leave "Crucial" out, you could include "Cool" in its place in the fourth round. What do you think?

Beautiful Strange was also released, on Rave In2 The Joy Fantastic.

TheEnglishGent said:

electricberet said:

I realized after voting that "Crucial" actually should not have been included in this poll, as it was released on the Crystal Ball compilation and was ranked #2 in that poll (which might be good enough to qualify it for the first round of overall polling if the three-disc sets are allowed more than one entry, as I think they should). If you leave "Crucial" out, you could include "Cool" in its place in the fourth round. What do you think?

Beautiful Strange was also released, on Rave In2 The Joy Fantastic.

Yes, that's right. But, since we didn't make a poll of Rave In2..., it's the first time this song appears on a poll, so we'll leave it there.

TheEnglishGent said:

electricberet said:

I realized after voting that "Crucial" actually should not have been included in this poll, as it was released on the Crystal Ball compilation and was ranked #2 in that poll (which might be good enough to qualify it for the first round of overall polling if the three-disc sets are allowed more than one entry, as I think they should). If you leave "Crucial" out, you could include "Cool" in its place in the fourth round. What do you think?

Beautiful Strange was also released, on Rave In2 The Joy Fantastic.

True. But that album was available only through the NPG Music Club, so it was excluded from the album poll and didn't get ranked in any of the other polls. See here:

http://prince.org/msg/7/368474

Arguably "Nothing Compares 2 U" should be excluded from this poll as well, because it was released as the B-side to the U.S. "Peach" single and was ranked in the poll of Prince B-sides. However, since most people are more familiar with the versions by The Family and Sinead O'Connor, I think "Nothing Compares 2 U" should be ranked in one of the rounds of this poll with the other associated artist tracks. The song's poor showing in the B-sides poll probably reflects people's opinion of Prince's own version as opposed to the song in general.

[Edited 10/30/11 11:42am]

I have the dubious honour of having proposed as a candidate the song that has finally ranked the lowest: "Elephant Box". I LOVE this song. I supposed it wasn't going to make it into the top 10, but ranking at number #35 has been a sad surprise for me...

Javi said:

TheEnglishGent said:

Beautiful Strange was also released, on Rave In2 The Joy Fantastic.

Yes, that's right. But, since we didn't make a poll of Rave In2..., it's the first time this song appears on a poll, so we'll leave it there.

Javi beat me to it.

Javi said:

I have the dubious honour of having proposed as a candidate the song that has finally ranked the lowest: "Elephant Box". I LOVE this song. I supposed it wasn't going to make it into the top 10, but ranking at number #35 has been a sad surprise for me...

Some of the songs that ranked low in this round may just be unfamiliar to a lot of people. Now that this poll is closed, people can talk about why particular songs that were eliminated in this round aren't appreciated enough.

Javi said:

I have the dubious honour of having proposed as a candidate the song that has finally ranked the lowest: "Elephant Box". I LOVE this song. I supposed it wasn't going to make it into the top 10, but ranking at number #35 has been a sad surprise for me...

I would love to know this song, but have never heard of it before, hence the bottom placement on my part.