If you mean discover as in really moved by a song, it was controversy. but if you mean the first song I heard, it was I wanna be your lover. In those days, at least for me, no one wrote a simple song so damned powerful. By the time 1999 and Little Red Corvette came along, I knew to expect something special that I didn't get out of most songs I heard and then Purple Rain and my life hasn't been the same since.

My parents owned a vinyl copy of Lovesexy, as a very young kid used to dance around the living room with my sisters to it, just to side 1. Didn't even realize there was a side 2, so yeah, pretty young.

PeteSilas said:

If you mean discover as in really moved by a song, it was controversy. but if you mean the first song I heard, it was I wanna be your lover. In those days, at least for me, no one wrote a simple song so damned powerful. By the time 1999 and Little Red Corvette came along, I knew to expect something special that I didn't get out of most songs I heard and then Purple Rain and my life hasn't been the same since.

This sounds a lot like me. I Wanna Be Your Lover was the first song I had on Repeat. I loved Dirty Mind next. Uptown is still a happy song for me. And yeah my life changed forever.

PeteSilas said:

CNickyD said:

PeteSilas said:

If you mean discover as in really moved by a song, it was controversy. but if you mean the first song I heard, it was I wanna be your lover. In those days, at least for me, no one wrote a simple song so damned powerful. By the time 1999 and Little Red Corvette came along, I knew to expect something special that I didn't get out of most songs I heard and then Purple Rain and my life hasn't been the same since.

. I guess I meant what song made you a fan.

well, that's kinda complicated for me really, Prince, at least in the black community where I grew up was seen as an oddity so liking his music wasn't something to really be proud of, and I was young, i wasn't a fan of much of anyone, just discovering the power of music really, so, if you're talking being a fan it wasn't until Purple Rain but I'd been mystified and entranced by him for a few years before that.

I Wanna Be Your Lover. Heard it on the radio, went straight to the wreka stow.

CNickyD said:

For me, it was "International Lover". I was 15 and barely knew what sex was, but that song made me WANT him. I had liked a couple tracks off Controversy, but he was stil just another artist to me. International Lover definitely put him over the top, and that's when I became a REAL fan.

I heard "I Wanna Be Your Lover" on a K-Tel compilation record, that my mother bought for me at Target. (I love the irony that Target and K-Tel are both Minnesota based companies.) I wanted it because it had "Funkytown" from Lipps, Inc. and "Upside Down" from Diana Ross on it. But tucked in the middle of side one was some dude named Prince, and he was singing like a girl. I remember thinking "He wants her to be the only one she comes for.......WHERE? WHERE IS SHE COMING?" I was young, and certainly never heard that phrase before.

There were two album covers on the back jacket. One was Robbie Dupree, and the other was Prince. After that, it was over. Below are the front cover, and the track list. I lost my original copy years ago, but in the late 90s, thanks to Napster, I found & rebuilt the playlist. I've eventually secured two physical copies in recent years. I contacted K-Tel in the late 90s, and they said it was never pressed on CD. The cassette had a slightly different arrangement of songs, and either the Canadian or UK version had a mostly different track list all together.

Side One:

1. Upside Down - Diana Ross
2. Funkytown - Lipps Inc.
3. Cupid/I've Loved You For A Long Time - Spinners
4. Let's Get Serious - Jermaine Jackson
5. I Wanna Be Your Lover - Prince
6. The Empire Strikes Back (Melody) - Meco
7. I Was Made For Lovin' You - Kiss
8. You Better Run - Pat Benatar

Side Two:

1. Steal Away - Robbie Dupree
2. Tired of Toein' the Line - Rocky Burnette
3. Let Me Love You Tonight - Pure Prairie League
4. Do That To Me One More Time - Captain & Tenille
5. Lost in Love - Air Supply
6. Take A Little Rhythm - Ali Thomson
7. Into the Night - Benny Mardones

It was a lot of songs on a record. 15 tracks!

PeteSilas said:

CNickyD said:

PeteSilas said:

well, that's kinda complicated for me really, Prince, at least in the black community where I grew up was seen as an oddity so liking his music wasn't something to really be proud of, and I was young, i wasn't a fan of much of anyone, just discovering the power of music really, so, if you're talking being a fan it wasn't until Purple Rain but I'd been mystified and entranced by him for a few years before that.

. I'm black too, and grew up in DC. Prince was The Man here! No shame in my game at all.

oh, i'm not black, i'm indian, but my stepdad was black, most of my neighbors too, and at least in my neck of the woods he was seen as kind of an oddball, then, Purple Rain and everyone loved him. But even then, I still remember the ambivalent relationship that Prince had with his own community, Tommy Davidson would say he was going to imitate him and people would start making dissaproving noises. and, i recall a story at a Graffiti Bridge premier, don't know if it was true but a mostly black audience was watching it, with him in the house and people started screaming that he was a "fag" and Prince ran from the theater. This story was related by a gossip columnist whom i can't remember on the geraldo show, Geraldo told the lady not to use the term "fag" couldn't even see that term getting on TV nowadays. That all just seemed to be forgotten by the time of the 00's Prince was beloved by pretty much everyone. You know, there is always a question of whether a guy sold out or not, always. Even with a guy like Muhammad Ali, people couldn't believe it when he endorsed Ronald Reagan in the 80's. I think Prince and MJ really went through it in the late 80's 90's. Both also stopped sing song like "Black or white" and started singing songs like Scream and slave.

Soft and Wet. I was in the 8th grade headed to high school that fall.

"I Wanna Be Your Lover" was first for me........."Prince, at least in the black community where I grew up was seen as an oddity so liking his music wasn't something to really be proud of"....Yup. I got into a few arguments and fights as a kid (with white and even some black dudes) defending his name and why I liked his music. The hip hop loving dudes called him all kinds of homophobic slurs and the white rock and roll dudes him homophobic and racist names....(and I would tell them; "but you love DLR, Mick Jagger, Vince Neil and Rod Stewart??)...It wasn't cool to like him in the early 80's...."then, Purple Rain and everyone loved him"....Exactly. By the late 80's/early 90's many black folks I knew wrote him off again...hip hop and new jack swing was huge and his "G.B" look, film and romance with Kim Basinger was frowned upon too.

jonnymon said:

It was Lady Cab Driver. My best friend at the time, Tyrus"Snut"Williams brought the 1999 album to our 6th grade graduation party. I loved the song as soon as the needle hit the record. Then Tyrus got in big trouble when Prince started having sex in the song. If that wasn't bad enough for an elementary school party, the teacher saw the record sleeve with Prince's bare ass and she went ballistic. I thought to myself, "Prince is the coolest guy ever!"

that's funny as fuck.

CROWNS1 said:

I Wanna Be Your Lover. Heard it on the radio, went straight to the wreka stow.

This was also the song for me. At the time, I listened to Casey Kasem's American Top 40, and this song just blew me away. I remember Casey saying, "sung, performed, arranged, and produced by Prince," and it's been a journey together ever since.

PeteSilas said:

"PRINCE" 1979

Sexy Dancer

I Wanna Be Your Lover

Its Gonna Be Lonely

those 3 songs got me...

i always made fun of his over the top effeminate behavior/appearance when i first saw him back then, but i couldnt deny how much i liked the music...after i matured, the androgeny and suspect behavior wasnt even a cooncern because the music was/is so good...

CNickyD said:

. Hmm, like I said, I don't remember it ever not being cool to love Prince. But then, I was at a mostly white private school. Still, I remember black radio playing him a lot too.

Same here. I am just a year younger than P. As a teen (and still) I was a huge fan of Motown music, Smokey Robinson was one of my favorites. When I heard P's falsetto, I was hooked. The way he dressed never bothered me (with the exception of around '94). I loved that edge about him. My parents on the other hand.....

'Let's Pretend We're Married' from 1999.

Little Red Corvette. Stumbled upon it when going through my dad's 45s, and it was what made me go 'Hmm, maybe I'll start picking his albums up now'.

It was "I wish U heaven"

My sister brought home the Purple Rain (vinyl, of course) LP in 1984, when I was 8 and she was 12 or 13. When I was 8, I thought Prince looked so cool on that motorcyle and with a hot babe waiting for him just up the stairs.

First song I ever heard by Prince when I was about 8 years old.....Controversy. I was sneaking around my sister's room going through her bootleg cassette collection.

The rest is history.

[Edited 6/12/16 4:11am]

First song I Wanna Be Your Lover. First Album Dirty Mind, i was 8 so was not sure on the lyrics then

[Edited 6/12/16 4:44am]

CNickyD said:

For me, it was "International Lover". I was 15 and barely knew what sex was, but that song made me WANT him. I had liked a couple tracks off Controversy, but he was stil just another artist to me. International Lover definitely put him over the top, and that's when I became a REAL fan.

Good evening. This is your pilot Prince speaking
You are flying aboard the Seduction 747
And this plane is fully equipped with anything your body desires

Some of my fav lyrics that put a smile on my face

Guitarhero said:

Kind of ashamed to admit this but I slept on Prince until 20Ten fell out of my newspaper. I thought It's free, I might as well give it a listen. Best decision of my life.

I knew all the hits, but never really paid much attention, so it was the first time I'd actually heard the Minneapolis Sound. I never heard anything like it before.

I was all up to speed by the time he released those PurpleMusic singles (D4M/RnRLA/etc), spending those two years in between diving into an overwhelming black hole of purple funk. Good times.

[Edited 6/14/16 10:17am]