This track may be his best pop track during his perfect run. I just revisited it on the extened version and wow is that brutally good! That funky guitar laydown together with those tropicana sounds and beats around the 4 minute mark. Makes it a totally superior track compared to the single. But if we stick with the released track for radio and video. Why the hell wasn't this song of the year 1986 (or 80's)? Is the only reason "Kiss" ? This track got killer horns in the chorus (and on the extened version, holy fucking shit!), a playful and catchy tune throughout the entire song and Prince's voice which is stellar. The only thing we got from this track is the iconic silhouette of Prince with the hat on the single cover. This image is as much Prince as his purple trenchcoat, for me at least.

Wolfie87 said:

Why the hell wasn't this song of the year 1986 (or 80's)?

Because of the movie

The critics absolutely murdered the UTCM film and it was a huge bomb at the box office.As a result,the subsequent singles from Parade didn't become major hits.

V10LETBLUES said:

It's a great track, but also an artsy track. This type of track even as poppy as it is, goes over the heads of most listeners. I also agree with you on the extended version. Parade is a tad too sophisticated for general audiences. Imagine that! After hitting low low bottom with simpleton garbage like Art Official Cage, it's hard to remember when Prince music was sophisticated.

Must u always refer to AOA and how terrible it is in your opinion in every post...

SoulAlive is right, the stink of failure that was all over Under The Cherry Moon murdered any chance post-"Kiss" singles had. Plus I think people were having a bit of Prince burn-out at that point. "Mountains" was his 14th single in just over three years, with 9 of those being big top ten hits (plus the ubiquitous #12-peaking "1999"). Warner's fears of him being overexposed to the general public weren't unfounded.

V10LETBLUES said:

It's a great track, but also an artsy track. This type of track even as poppy as it is, goes over the heads of most listeners. I also agree with you on the extended version. Parade is a tad too sophisticated for general audiences. Imagine that! After hitting low low bottom with simpleton garbage like Art Official Cage, it's hard to remember when Prince music was sophisticated.

Nothing "simpleton" about AOA...the arrangements are actually quite stunning. People like you are doing it wrong.

jackmitz said:

I'll tell you my inital 1986 impression of Mountains was everything was on point EXCEPT for the melody of the lines "I say it's only mountains an' the sea
Love will conquer if you just believe"

First time I heard it, I felt like the melody and way those lines were sung in that monotone repetition killed the flow, and sunk it as a potential single. The rest of the chorus seemed great. Another thing that could have happened to it is the falsetto lyrics in general seemed a bit indecipherable.

Of course I grew to love the song as a Prince fanatic, but for general population ears, the hooks needed to keep going and building.

I'd love to hear Prince remake this in the way he's remade other songs, especially the live rock version of "Anotherloverholeinyohead"

V10LETBLUES said:

It's a great track, but also an artsy track. This type of track even as poppy as it is, goes over the heads of most listeners. I also agree with you on the extended version. Parade is a tad too sophisticated for general audiences. Imagine that! After hitting low low bottom with simpleton garbage like Art Official Cage, it's hard to remember when Prince music was sophisticated.

What a tiresome snob you are. You're not sophisticated, forget all that.

I 100% agree with you!

ufoclub said:

I'll tell you my inital 1986 impression of Mountains was everything was on point EXCEPT for the melody of the lines "I say it's only mountains an' the sea
Love will conquer if you just believe"

First time I heard it, I felt like the melody and way those lines were sung in that monotone repetition killed the flow, and sunk it as a potential single. The rest of the chorus seemed great. Another thing that could have happened to it is the falsetto lyrics in general seemed a bit indecipherable.

Of course I grew to love the song as a Prince fanatic, but for general population ears, the hooks needed to keep going and building.

I'd love to hear Prince remake this in the way he's remade other songs, especially the live rock version of "Anotherloverholeinyohead"

I loved "Kiss" and "Mountains" when I was five, so it's not like it wasn't catchy or pop enough.

Mountains was recorded 30 years ago today.

bluegangsta said:

Mountains was recorded 30 years ago today.

Interesting vibe for this time of year.

V10LETBLUES said:

jackmitz said:

Nothing "simpleton" about AOA...the arrangements are actually quite stunning. People like you are doing it wrong.

Ha! Breakfast Can Wait, Clouds, the tittle track, lasers and chipmunks, this is almost as simpleton and base as Prince has gotten. Almost as bad as Mplsound. Almost.

AOA - late period classic.

good question....

there a probaby a lot of good reasons why it wasnt a huge hit.. most already mentioned here:

- UTCM was a bust and there was a lot of bad buzz around P .. Kiss came out before so it dodged the UTCM bullet..

- BURNOut - I mean I personally ate up any morsel that P threw at us in the 80's.. but the general public needed a break from him for a while....

but I kind of think the Falsetto hurt it a little TBH... its really really hard to understand the lyrics and I really wonder if it would have hit a little harder if it had been sung in his lower register..

dont get me wrong.. I LOVE MOUNTAINS TO DEATH... but I do sometimes wish he would do either a harder version or an acoustic version of it in his regular voice... i think it would be more effective..

ps - Girls & Boys should have been the 2nd single.. it would have slayed even if UTCM bombed.. look at Who's that Girl.. flop of a movie.. but 2 huge songs.. Whos that Girl and Causing a Commotion.

leecaldon said:

The song was moving and lost momentum. I'm going to disagree that any other single would have done better. Parade is a phenomenal album but not exactly loaded with radio-friendly singles. Kiss was a risky choice, as brilliant as it was. To this day it still sounds different from anything on the radio and the song is dang near 30 years old. Try to imagine how it sounded back in 86 for those who didn't get to witness it firsthand. Mountains, Anotherloverholenyohead, Girls and Boys...all great songs but none of them were Top 5 pop hit material. Don't get me wrong, I am not arguing that these songs were inferior, quite the opposite. In a world of watered down Heart and Starship, a world with Huey Lewis and The News "Stuck with You" was one of the biggest singles of the year, does it seem like retro-soul or Euro funk would crack that wall. The songs were too cool for where radio was in 1986 and Prince was on the down cycle, at least in the states. The movie being a colossal bomb certainly didn't help.

[Edited 11/29/15 19:39pm]

Ego101 said:

GottaLetitgo said:

The song was moving and lost momentum. I'm going to disagree that any other single would have done better. Parade is a phenomenal album but not exactly loaded with radio-friendly singles. Kiss was a risky choice, as brilliant as it was. To this day it still sounds different from anything on the radio and the song is dang near 30 years old. Try to imagine how it sounded back in 86 for those who didn't get to witness it firsthand. Mountains, Anotherloverholenyohead, Girls and Boys...all great songs but none of them were Top 5 pop hit material. Don't get me wrong, I am not arguing that these songs were inferior, quite the opposite. In a world of watered down Heart and Starship, a world with Huey Lewis and The News "Stuck with You" was one of the biggest singles of the year, does it seem like retro-soul or Euro funk would crack that wall. The songs were too cool for where radio was in 1986 and Prince was on the down cycle, at least in the states. The movie being a colossal bomb certainly didn't help.

[Edited 11/29/15 19:39pm]

Like DAVID Z said in an interview... He should've released Girls and Boys right after KISS as a single... He lost momentum after KISS.

feeluupp said:

GottaLetitgo said:

The song was moving and lost momentum. I'm going to disagree that any other single would have done better. Parade is a phenomenal album but not exactly loaded with radio-friendly singles. Kiss was a risky choice, as brilliant as it was. To this day it still sounds different from anything on the radio and the song is dang near 30 years old. Try to imagine how it sounded back in 86 for those who didn't get to witness it firsthand. Mountains, Anotherloverholenyohead, Girls and Boys...all great songs but none of them were Top 5 pop hit material. Don't get me wrong, I am not arguing that these songs were inferior, quite the opposite. In a world of watered down Heart and Starship, a world with Huey Lewis and The News "Stuck with You" was one of the biggest singles of the year, does it seem like retro-soul or Euro funk would crack that wall. The songs were too cool for where radio was in 1986 and Prince was on the down cycle, at least in the states. The movie being a colossal bomb certainly didn't help.

[Edited 11/29/15 19:39pm]

Like DAVID Z said in an interview... He should've released Girls and Boys right after KISS as a single... He lost momentum after KISS.

Why "Girls and Boys"? The instrumental is brilliant, but the droning singing is not inspiring at all.

[Edited 11/30/15 4:13am]

Wolfie87 said:

feeluupp said:

Like DAVID Z said in an interview... He should've released Girls and Boys right after KISS as a single... He lost momentum after KISS.

Why "Girls and Boys"? The instrumental is brilliant, but the droning singing is not inspiring at all.

[Edited 11/30/15 4:13am]

Well, the singing itself might not be mega-catchy, but the hook IMO is in the guitar bit after the chorus, very catchy and recognisable. And the basic groove of the song is very infectious. I think it might have fared better than Mountains.

funkaholic1972 said:

Wolfie87 said:

Why "Girls and Boys"? The instrumental is brilliant, but the droning singing is not inspiring at all.

[Edited 11/30/15 4:13am]

Well, the singing itself might not be mega-catchy, but the hook IMO is in the guitar bit after the chorus, very catchy and recognisable. And the basic groove of the song is very infectious. I think it might have fared better than Mountains.

I'm listening to the song right now in my earphones, and I couldn't disagree more. This song has no energy at all. And then Life can be so nice kick it into high gear right after. Why not follow up with that song instead? Maybe this album was, as you all mentioned, to advanced and to snobbish for the masses? Because when I listen to Mountains in this very moment, I can't believe it wasn't almost as popular as Kiss. Really, no bullshit.

Wolfie87 said:

feeluupp said:

Like DAVID Z said in an interview... He should've released Girls and Boys right after KISS as a single... He lost momentum after KISS.

Why "Girls and Boys"? The instrumental is brilliant, but the droning singing is not inspiring at all.

[Edited 11/30/15 4:13am]

I think because it was a similar funk style that KISS had and would've been the most reasonable and commercial follow up...

Girls & Boys is brilliant..

and, so is Mountains... I can't say 1 bad word about the Parade singles.

A mystery why they weren't top-10 hits, iirc only Kiss made it to top-10 (#1)... strange...

Because the musis from Parade is absolutely stunning..

Wolfie87 said:

feeluupp said:

Like DAVID Z said in an interview... He should've released Girls and Boys right after KISS as a single... He lost momentum after KISS.

Why "Girls and Boys"? The instrumental is brilliant, but the droning singing is not inspiring at all.

[Edited 11/30/15 4:13am]

The lyrics and singing on that are catchy and memorable as hell! Like I said, it inspired people in the school halls to sing it walking by. It also sounds quite unique in context of Prince's other songs.

People were into it, it seemed too cool, I thought for sure it had to be a single. But it wasn't in USA.