Prince had 19 Billboard top 10 hits, which I will list below. What are yout top 5 favorites and 5 least favorites. For me, I say bottom favorites as I liked all of these songs at some point, at least a little. Comments about your preferences are welcome.

Here are the 19 songs (1999 just missed the cut)

When Doves Cry

Kiss

Let's Go Crazy

Cream

Batdance

Raspberry Beret

U Got the Look

Purple Rain

The Most Beautiful Girl in the World

Sign O' the Times

Little Red Corvette

Diamonds and Pearls

Thieves in the Temple

Pop Life

Delirious

I Would Die 4 U

7

Alphabet Street

I Could Never Take the Place of Your Man

My top 5

1. When Doves Cry (Not like anything on the radio at the time - never replicated)

2. Kiss

3. Little Red Corvette

4.Purple Rain (though now overplayed but then a real gem)

5.Thieves in the Temple (grossly under-rated)

Bottom 5 (with #1 indicating least favorite)

1. TMBGITW (his last top 10 hit wasa his least)

2. Batdance (ingenious for what it was intended for, but certainly don't listen to it now)

3. I would Die 4 U (good song among a great list)

4. Delirious (good song on a great list)

5. Cream (catchy but almost too smooth)

Note: I found the #5 favorite the hardest to select, as there were many candidates, including my increased appreciation of Pop Life since he died (that song is deep for a single!) and the over-looked 7 (feel guilty for over-looking it again!)

q205 said:

Top 5 Thieves in the temple I would die 4 u When doves cry Purple rain Diamond and pearls Bottom 5 Alphabet street Batdance U got the look Raspberry beret Delirious

Mutual Thieves fan

7
I Could Never Take the Place of Your Man
Alphabet Street
When Doves Cry
Purple Rain

U Got the Look
Raspberry Beret
Delirious
The Most Beautiful Girl in the World
Batdance

Top 5:

.

When Doves Cry

Purple Rain

Kiss

Sign O The Times

I Could Never Take the Place of Your Man

.

Bottom 5

.

The Most Beautiful Girl in the World

Batdance

Delirious

U Got the Look

7

.

Makes me disappointed with myself when I look at that list and see the most recent song in the top list is from 1987. I love his more recent work, too.

His singles were almost always classics, at least to me.

I would recommend adding Take Me With U, 1999, Gett Off, Sexy MF, My Name Is Prince, Controversy & Gold, all of which were top 10 hits on the other side of the Atlantic, UK singles charts.

leftcoast said:

TOP 5 I Could Never Take the Place of Your Man When Doves Cry Let's Go Crazy You Got the Look Little Red Corvette BOTTOM 5 Cream Diamonds and Pearls Raspberry Beret Bat Dance The Most Beautiful Girl in the World I am surprised 1999 did not make cut. It was played a lot on the radio back in the day.

1999 had a long radio shelf life. I recall that It was released before Little Red Corvette and was played by some but not most top 40 stations. However, it lingered and after pop radio had a smash with LRC, the remaining holdouts for 1999 played the single with much success. At that point, it went to #11 but it would have been higher if the orignal stations that played it were still playing it heavy rotation, which was not the case.

Not necessarily in exact order:

Top 5:

Sign o' the Times

When Doves Cry

Diamonds and Pearls

Purple Rain

Little Red Corvette

Bottom 5:

Delirious

The Most Beautiful Girl in the World

Batdance

Cream

I Could Never Take the Place of Your Man

[Edited 7/17/16 20:51pm]

Top 5

1. When Doves Cry

2. I Would Die 4 U

3. Kiss

4. TMBGITW

5. Little Red Corvette

Bottom 5

1. Sign O' The Times

2. 7

3. Delirious

4. I Could Never Take The Place of Your Man

5. Batdance.

These are in no particular order and I actually do like all of these songs just chose the ones that excite me less than the others I guess at this point in time. For instance, I used to not really care for TMBGITW much at all and over time, grew to love it. And years ago I would listen to ICNTTPOYM nearly everyday.

[Edited 7/18/16 6:58am]

CalhounSq said:

Misread... [Edited 7/17/16 12:41pm]

?

Top

.

1. When Doves Cry - Not just because it was his biggest hit, but because it is one of his best ever songs and u can never get sick of it.

2. Cream - U r wondering why it is so high, one of his most basic and yet catchiest songs ever, this was made for the radio and the ass! We may not also forget it's the damn song that got me hooked into Prince in the first place and it was also a number one hit.

3. Kiss - Just funky and catchy.

4. Pop Life - Just love this, the lines, the sound and stuff like "What are ya putting in yo nose? is that where your money goes?"

5. Little Red Corvette - Sexy and Powerful

Honourable mentions - Raspberry Beret, TMBITW, 7, Thieves, Alphabet Street.

.

Worst (I love all these songs, except Batdance, so even I would die 4 u is a good song in my eyes)

.

1. Batdance - It is just samples and other stuff, only a hit because of the movie.

2. I would die 4 U - Its pretty good, but not as great as the other songs that hit, also there is nothing earth shattering about it, when you are placed with Purple Rain, WDC, Lets go crazy etc.

3. Purple Rain - I love it, but its way too long and the last 5 minutes is noodling and violins, plus its been played a bazillion times.

4. U got the look - Trite, funky but trite, and one of the lesser single choices for SOTT, yet it was the biggest hit!

5. I just can't choose one - all those other songs deserved to be big hits!

.

Honourable mention - I wanna be your lover should be in my Top 5, but the song stalled at number 11 just on the outside (Higher than the #12 placing of 1999). Plus the song was in the charts for 25 weeks and spent 2 weeks at number 11 and 4 more at number 13 with 12 in all in the 11 - 20 bracket.

CharismaDove said:

His singles were almost always classics, at least to me.

I would recommend adding Take Me With U, 1999, Gett Off, Sexy MF, My Name Is Prince, Controversy & Gold, all of which were top 10 hits on the other side of the Atlantic, UK singles charts.

And here in New Zealand, I wanna be your lover got to #3 on our chart, the highest placing for it on any national chart (US Black chart excluded, but this was not the main chart).

.

Little Red Corvette was #8 and 1999 the single got #4 in June 1983. WDC stalled at #2 and he did not have a number one hit here until Alphabet Street. New Zealand has a thriving local music scene and the New Zealand Maori song - Poi E was a number one hit through April - July 1984 and then WDC was kept off the top by the Specials - Nelson Mandela of all songs.

[Edited 7/17/16 22:11pm]

gandorb said:

My top 5

1. Raspberry Beret
2. Cream
3. Alphabet Street
4. Kiss
5. Pop Life

Bottom 5

1. I Could Never Take the Place of Your Man
2. The Most Beautiful Girl in the World
3. Sign O' The Times
4. Little Red Corvette
5. Purple Rain (don't worry, I like it! I like all of these, I just like some of his other songs more)

CharismaDove said:

I would recommend adding Take Me With U, 1999, Gett Off, Sexy MF, My Name Is Prince, Controversy & Gold, all of which were top 10 hits on the other side of the Atlantic, UK singles charts.

This changes things up for me:

Top 5

1. Raspberry Beret
2. Cream
3. My Name is Prince (I know, I know...I just like it)
4. Gett Off
5. Alphabet Street

Bottom 5

1. I Could Never Take The Place of Your Man
2. Gold
3. The Most Beautiful Girl In The World
4. Sign O' The Times
5. Little Red Corvette

[Edited 7/18/16 11:26am]

CharismaDove said:

His singles were almost always classics, at least to me.

I would recommend adding Take Me With U, 1999, Gett Off, Sexy MF, My Name Is Prince, Controversy & Gold, all of which were top 10 hits on the other side of the Atlantic, UK singles charts.

I certainly don't have any isssue with that, but was hoping to have people rate the same grouping, as I plan to eventually do some stats on them (yes I am a stats nerd, especially for topics I love.) Perhaps if people wanted to include other songs they could at least do a version of the original format. BTW, it is good to hear that those songs were bigger hits there (esp Gold)

Top 5:

1. When Doves Cry

2. Let's Go Crazy

3. Raspberry Beret

4. ICNTTPOYM

5. Little Red Corvette

Bottom 5:

1. Diamonds and Pearls

2. TMBGITW

3. U Got The Look

4. Cream

5. 7

gandorb said:

Prince had 19 Billboard top 10 hits, which I will list below. What are yout top 5 favorites and 5 least favorites. For me, I say bottom favorites as I liked all of these songs at some point, at least a little. Comments about your preferences are welcome.

Here are the 19 songs (1999 just missed the cut)

When Doves Cry

Kiss

Let's Go Crazy

Cream

Batdance

Raspberry Beret

U Got the Look

Purple Rain

The Most Beautiful Girl in the World

Sign O' the Times

Little Red Corvette

Diamonds and Pearls

Thieves in the Temple

Pop Life

Delirious

I Would Die 4 U

7

Alphabet Street

I Could Never Take the Place of Your Man

My top 5

1. When Doves Cry (Not like anything on the radio at the time - never replicated)

2. Kiss

3. Little Red Corvette

4.Purple Rain (though now overplayed but then a real gem)

5.Thieves in the Temple (grossly under-rated)

Bottom 5 (with #1 indicating least favorite)

1. TMBGITW (his last top 10 hit wasa his least)

2. Batdance (ingenious for what it was intended for, but certainly don't listen to it now)

3. I would Die 4 U (good song among a great list)

4. Delirious (good song on a great list)

5. Cream (catchy but almost too smooth)

Note: I found the #5 favorite the hardest to select, as there were many candidates, including my increased appreciation of Pop Life since he died (that song is deep for a single!) and the over-looked 7 (feel guilty for over-looking it again!)

Tough one. Glad you narrowed it down to the top 19 - as if this isn't difficult enough - but better instead of leaving it wide open because I don't think I could ever decide in that scenario.

So tough. Hmm Okay.

I don't know if these top 5 are actually in particular order though, hence the lack of numbers

- Let's Go Crazy.

- Purple Rain.

- Diamonds & Pearls (the song that started the craze for my 11 year old self!)

- Raspberry Beret - (the first song I remember loving of Prince's and I was what 5/6?!)

- 7

Bottom 5 - and since the list IS all hits, I do like these, but it is hard, so I am choosing on ones I either don't have in my rotation or sometimes find myself skipping over them.

- Batdance - which is weird because when the music video comes through my list, I do love to watch it. Of the two though, I love Partyman more.

- Alphabet St.

- Pop Life (growing on my as of late).

- Thieves In The Temple (also growing on me, but not my top TOP faves).

- Sign Of The Times - depending on the mood I'm in.

gandorb said:

CharismaDove said:

His singles were almost always classics, at least to me.

I would recommend adding Take Me With U, 1999, Gett Off, Sexy MF, My Name Is Prince, Controversy & Gold, all of which were top 10 hits on the other side of the Atlantic, UK singles charts.

I certainly don't have any isssue with that, but was hoping to have people rate the same grouping, as I plan to eventually do some stats on them (yes I am a stats nerd, especially for topics I love.) Perhaps if people wanted to include other songs they could at least do a version of the original format. BTW, it is good to hear that those songs were bigger hits there (esp Gold)

I LOVE GOLD and cannot believe it did not make the charts here!

1999 should be on that last too. That would have been in my top 5 for sure.

I'll preface this by saying my Top 5 are not in order, just my favourite 5 from the list.

1) Sign 'O' The Times

2) Purple Rain

3) Little Red Corvette

4) I Could Never Take The Place Of Your Man

5) Raspberry Beret

Bottom

1) Batdance - I accepted it at the time as it was Batman fever, and the film was good, but it soon sounded dated, and is a little boring. The snippet of the Electric Chair chorus is the best moment of the song

2) Cream

3) 7

4) TMBGITW - Ghastly. Poppy soul, with no soul. Give me Slow Love, Adore any day.

5) Diamonds & Pearls - Everything about this album, and this song smacked of Prince ditching his artistic, experimental songs, in favour of bringing back the masses, and commercialism. It worked!It left me cold however.

[Edited 7/19/16 3:35am]

For me, from this list -

Top 5:

1. Sign O' The Times

2. I Could Never Take The Place Of Your Man

3. Purple Rain

4. Let's Go Crazy

5. Pop Life

Bottom 5

(very hard for me to do, but if I have to say...)

1. The Most Beautiful Girl In The World (don't shoot me!)

2. Cream

3. Kiss

4. Little Red Corvette

5. When Doves Cry

**The bottom 5 was really hard for me to type, man!

I realize that I gravitate to Prince's more unappreciated, unsung music. I like his stranger, weirder jams. The less commercial, less popular music. That is one of the attractions to Prince for me, early on too, is that he was so different, unique and special.

AnnaStesia10 said:

For me, from this list -

Top 5:

1. Sign O' The Times

2. I Could Never Take The Place Of Your Man

3. Purple Rain

4. Let's Go Crazy

5. Pop Life

Bottom 5

(very hard for me to do, but if I have to say...)

1. The Most Beautiful Girl In The World (don't shoot me!)

2. Cream

3. Kiss

4. Little Red Corvette

5. When Doves Cry

**The bottom 5 was really hard for me to type, man!

I realize that I gravitate to Prince's more unappreciated, unsung music. I like his stranger, weirder jams. The less commercial, less popular music. That is one of the attractions to Prince for me, early on too, is that he was so different, unique and special.

Ouch. It was also hard to read that last entry (WDC)! Still, gotta appreciate your honesty and our shared love of Prince's less commercial stuff.

I know gandorb I know..WDC is a good jam, but I grew up with Prince since 1982 and I just think (again I am going to get shot for this statement), that a lot of PR jams have been played out to my ears. Only because I grew up on that stuff and I do truly like his music that is not as popular by mainstream standards. I told ya it was very hard for me to type the bottom 5 from his top 10 hits.

I just never felt WDC even in 1984. I will re-visit it soon.

+++

The awesome thing about Prince's music is that you can stay away from a jam for awhile, come back to it, and hear something different or appreciate it. I think it also depends on your mindset.

+++

I do like your thread topics gandorb, keep 'um coming!

AnnaStesia10 said:

I know gandorb I know..WDC is a good jam, but I grew up with Prince since 1982 and I just think (again I am going to get shot for this statement), that a lot of PR jams have been played out to my ears. Only because I grew up on that stuff and I do truly like his music that is not as popular by mainstream standards. I told ya it was very hard for me to type the bottom 5 from his top 10 hits.

I just never felt WDC even in 1984. I will re-visit it soon.

+++

The awesome thing about Prince's music is that you can stay away from a jam for awhile, come back to it, and hear something different or appreciate it. I think it also depends on your mindset.

+++

I do like your thread topics gandorb, keep 'um coming!

Thanks for the threads compliment . I am with you about the played out status of the PR jams. At some point, other things seem fresher.

Top
1. Sign of the Times
2. I Would Die 4 U
3. Pop Life
4. Kiss
5. When Doves Cry

Bottom
1. Cream
2. Batdance
3. Raspberry Beret
4. Thieves in the Temple
5. Alphabet Street

[Edited 7/19/16 21:27pm]