To be fair, this was the last new song of his I played at work and my friends all loved it. 'Look At Me' is actually my personal last favorite song, but much like 'Clouds', everyone who heard this song (1000 X's and O's) seemed to love it.

[Edited 5/5/16 21:58pm]

I know I did.

Radio relegated it to adult R&B though, so it never had a chance to break through like it should've. But to me it's still considered a hit.

His last proper hit was TMBGITW. Betcha By Golly Wow if you're being generous.

Someone on the Org mentioned "I Wonder". Even without remixing it. Just as it is now. Release it with a compilation video: instant hit. I wholeheartedly agree.

Oops, sorry, misread your question. Nevermind...

MattyJam said:

His last proper hit was TMBGITW. Betcha By Golly Wow if you're being generous.

I would say that "Musicology" was a hit.

for every hit he had, he had plenty of songs as good or better that got ignored. Hits only tell a one dimensional story.

PeteSilas said:

for every hit he had, he had plenty of songs as good or better that got ignored. Hits only tell a one dimensional story.

That's very true, but fact still remains the last time he had a song that crossed over into the mainstream was 1994.

1000 x's & 0's, Musicology, Fall In Luv 2nite, Black Sweat... none of these songs were commercial hits.

Of course, he wrote plenty of hit-worthy songs from 94-16, but I think after the Rave project tanked, he never truly put himself out there again in the commercial arena. He promoted the fuck out of TGRES and Arista failed to do their job.... he never really pushed a single release after that, his post-90s attempts always struck me as half-hearted, almost like 'lets put it out and see if it catches on.'

Musicology wasn't a big hit chartwise but seems to have gained a bit of traction in the general public awareness, at least around these parts (ireland/uk). Those paying a bit more attention might know Black Sweat, but probably more from the gifs from the video than the song itself.

A lot of people who know I'm Prince fan have expressed that X's and O's is a great song. It def has a mass appeal to the casual music fan...

The last single that hit the charts over here (Netherlands) was Guitar in 2007..

Depends on what HIT is to you. He had RB radio hits and a few of those charted, like "Somebodys Somebody" and "Call My Name" even "satisfied" and "Black Sweat". "Future Baby Mama" won a grammy, not sure if it charted but i know RB radio played it. But as far as a crossover TOP 40 single, "Most Beautiful Girl" was his last TOP 10 and then "eye Hate U" was Top 25. 1999 re-charted in 2000 but that is it.

Superstition said:

To be fair, this was the last new song of his I played at work and my friends all loved it.

It's not a new song.

http://www.princevault.com/index.php?title=1000_X%27s_%26_O%27s

skipthecharades said:

The last single that hit the charts over here (Netherlands) was Guitar in 2007..

Here in the UK it was Pretzelbodylogic in 2014, which reached the dizzying height of number 90. His last top 40 single here was the reissue of 1999 in 1999 - previously it had been Dinner With Delores in 96.

Lianachan said:

skipthecharades said:

The last single that hit the charts over here (Netherlands) was Guitar in 2007..

Here in the UK it was Pretzelbodylogic in 2014, which reached the dizzying height of number 90. His last top 40 single here was the reissue of 1999 in 1999 - previously it had been Dinner With Delores in 96.

Betcha By Golly Wow reached number 11 and The Holy River number 19 also back in '96.

MattyJam said:

Lianachan said:

Here in the UK it was Pretzelbodylogic in 2014, which reached the dizzying height of number 90. His last top 40 single here was the reissue of 1999 in 1999 - previously it had been Dinner With Delores in 96.

Betcha By Golly Wow reached number 11 and The Holy River number 19 also back in '96.

Very true. The Holy River was actually in March '97. The official UK charts website has those two (and TGRES #65) listed by "Artist", rather than "Prince", "Prince and" or "(symbol)", which is why they didn't turn up on the Prince list there.

[Edited 5/6/16 7:54am]

Lianachan said:

MattyJam said:

Betcha By Golly Wow reached number 11 and The Holy River number 19 also back in '96.

Very true. The Holy River was actually in March '97. The official UK charts website has those two (and TGRES #65) listed by "Artist", rather than "Prince", "Prince and" or "(symbol)", which is why they didn't turn up on the Prince list there.

[Edited 5/6/16 7:54am]

TGRES could've been a big hit over in the UK. It was getting a tonne of airplay on Radio 2, they A-listed the track and played it daily for weeks.

But the label messed up and put too many remixes on the single, which meant that it was eligible for chart entry. The number 65 I recall was purely based on copies of the imported US single.

I guess it all depends on if you define "hit" by records sales. I always assumed that was the case?

It looks like Black Sweat was the last song to crack the US top 100 coming in at #60, although #2 in Canada. Does that make it a "hit"?

The last #1 anywhere was TMBGITW but the last US #1 was Cream (that's 25 years ago).

Soft and Wet (#92) did better than Musicology (#120). Apparently Musicology didn't chart in the UK at all? So maybe not a "hit" but still a damn fine song if you ask me. It was the last of his songs to chart in Australia

And it looks like the last single to chart anywhere was Fallinlove2nite in the UK (#113).

The big surprise for me was seeing that I Hate U made it to #12 in the US. I didn't realise that was such a big song (even though I always liked it).

Betcha By Golly Wow didn't appear to even chart in the US but made it to #18 in Australia and #9 in Canada.

It's kinda strange looking back at all these statistics and seeing how different songs were accepted (or not) in different countries. It makes me wonder whether it is a cultural difference that is driving the variation or whether the marketing efforts of the record company (and/or artist) just happened to be focused on some countries and not others for specific songs.

BLACKSWEAT was #1 in physical singles sales in the USA .

FURY and CINAMMON GIRL both reached #43 in the UK.

MUSICOLOGY was a minor hit in Australia, and if it was released physically it could have made the top 40. It was a minor hit on radio too.

TE AMO CORAZON made the top ten in Spain, but at the time sales were very low (and still are).

Never understood why there was a (radio) edit for Black Muse but only available on Tidal.

Would have made a nice way to promote the album, especially now that it is available everywhere.

With his death it might even become a hit as "his last single".

sarielthrawn said:

I guess it all depends on if you define "hit" by records sales. I always assumed that was the case?

It looks like Black Sweat was the last song to crack the US top 100 coming in at #60, although #2 in Canada. Does that make it a "hit"?

The last #1 anywhere was TMBGITW but the last US #1 was Cream (that's 25 years ago).

Soft and Wet (#92) did better than Musicology (#120). Apparently Musicology didn't chart in the UK at all? So maybe not a "hit" but still a damn fine song if you ask me. It was the last of his songs to chart in Australia

And it looks like the last single to chart anywhere was Fallinlove2nite in the UK (#113).

The big surprise for me was seeing that I Hate U made it to #12 in the US. I didn't realise that was such a big song (even though I always liked it).

Betcha By Golly Wow didn't appear to even chart in the US but made it to #18 in Australia and #9 in Canada.

It's kinda strange looking back at all these statistics and seeing how different songs were accepted (or not) in different countries. It makes me wonder whether it is a cultural difference that is driving the variation or whether the marketing efforts of the record company (and/or artist) just happened to be focused on some countries and not others for specific songs.

According to Wiki (my source for everything ) the US R&B chart had the most singles over his career (57) although UK chart had 56 songs. The US billboard chart had 52 singles altogether.

The country with the highest average chart position was Norway (7.7059) but only 17 songs charted in that country.

Personally I think a lot of the songs from the latter part of his career could have sold more or done better if they had a more rigourous marketing campaign and support from a record label (or something like that). I think part of the reason that his sales started to dip in the mid-90s was because he didn't have the record label pushing him to make a profit and his interest was more around getting the music out and less about promotion or chart success.

In my mind there a lot of "hits" in the catalogue but they don't necessarily equate with sales (or downloads/views) which often has more to do with the quality of the promotion and not the quality of the song. As a point of comparison Rebecca Black's "Friday" has over 90 million views on Youtube right now and has sold at least 400,000 copies (it charted higher than Sexy MF and If I Was Your Girlfriend). If you've heard the song then you know that it is all about the promotion not the song (and if you like that song then you really need to sit down and take a good hard look at yourself and figure out where your life went wrong).

Excellent song A 1000 Hugs & Kisses....

I'm surprised Musicology isn't defined as a hit, that was the song that preceded his huge 2004 "comeback". Either way, as I've said here many times, I'd rather listen to a new Prince album than an album by just about anyone else.

This is a beautiful track I really like both the old version and the version on Hit N Run Phase ONE.

hits no such thing....only a thing of the past... hit n r pt 2 is a hit and awesome...may u kive 2 c the dawn

The last real hits, IMO, were Most Beautiful Girl and Musicology. Songs that were played on radios, danceclubs, etc. Other songs may have been in charts in some countries, maybe because of marketing strategies, but I doubt that people remember them.