Given that the thread "Your Top and Bottom 5 of Prince 19 top 10 hits" ** looks like it is dying down, here is a summary of the 18 respondents who did the full rankings.

1. Diversity Rules - 18 of the 19 songs were mentioned in the top 5 by at least one respondent, with the exception being Delirious. 18 of the 19 songs were also mentioned in the bottom 5 by at least one respondent except for Let's Go Crazy. It just goes to show you that Prince has so many great songs and different styles that it is impossible to get a consensus.

2. When Doves Cry was the clear frontfunner. It made 14 of the 18 top 5 lists, and 6 of 14 #1 song choice (there were just 14 due to 4 respondents not ranking their top 5 or bottom 5 in order). While it is not surprising given that it was his biggest hit ever (his only best selling song of the year across all artists), most massive songs generate a backlash of some sort. This didn't. It made only one Bottom 5 and that was just barely.

3 Other songs that made about 50% of the top lists include Purple Rain (10) - a bit of the surprise only due to how many people have mentioned being burned out on this song, Little Red Corvette (9), Kiss (8), and the real darkhorse here I Could Never Take the Place of Your Man (8). The later result was interesting given that the song just barely made it into the Billboard top 10 to begin with.

4. The remaining #1 songs as chosen by the respondents were scattered, as only Sign o' the Times (3) and 7 (2) getting more than one first place vote.

5. Before you read further, I imagine you might be able to guess correctly the two most mentioned Bottom 5 songs - Pause to guess

6. Yes, both TMBGITW (12 of 18) and Batdance (also 12) were mentioned the most frequently, with TMBGITW having the dubious honor as being the very least favorite song (4 0f 14 - remember that 4 respondents didn't put their bottom5 in order). The other ones that were mentioned the most in the bottom 5 were Delirious and Cream (8 lists each). The only other songs mentioned more than once for least favorite song were Cream (2) and Diamonds and Pearls (2).

7. The only song never mentioned in the bottom 5 list was Let's Go Crazy.

8. The most non-polarizing songs (rarely made top or bottom lists) were Let's Go Crazy and Pop Life. Of course, When Doves Cry was also not polarizing due to it's universal appeal. The most polarizing song surprisingly was SOTT (Made 6 top 5 lists including 3 votes for #1 song, but also made 6 bottom 5 lists with 1 vote for least favorite).

9. One surprises (at least to me) was the neutrality of respondents towards Let's Go Crazy. It was only on a couple of top 5 lists and no bottom 5 lists. This for a song that was one of his biggest hits. Apparently no immense love or backlash among responders.

10. Anther surprise was that Diamonds and Pearls didn't do as poorly as expected based on how often it is slammed on the org (yes, 6 did put it on the bottom 5 list but only two placed it as the worst, 3 put it in their top 5, and 9 didn't place it in either list.

11. The Delirious vote is also worthy of a look. It did not receive any top 5 votes but 8 bottom 5 notes. I always thought that Delirious was his most surprising top 10 song. This is not a slam against the song, but it just doesn't have the type of hook or lyrics that most top 10 songs have. The results of this survey also suggest that it is an outlier. IMO, Prince was so smoking hot after LRC and 1999 that he could have put out many songs at that point and hit the top 10 with them.

12. For those who hate numbers, the drink is on the house .

Your comments, observations and questions or welcome.

** If you want to see list of 19 songs, go to current thread of "Your Top and Bottom 5 of Prince's 19 Billboard Top 10 Hits".

[Edited 7/23/16 20:54pm]

[Edited 7/23/16 21:53pm]

[Edited 7/24/16 5:34am]

sonshine said:

Awesome! Thanks 4 all your work summarizing this. I'm one of those number haters but this was really interesting

Thanks .

CalhounSq said:

I'm probably kooky for doing this, but when I made my choices I didn't strictly think about how much I like a song on record, but how excited I got hearing it live (or imagining it). In fact, the live element was more important to me for some reason. In all the shows I attended, I never NEEDED to hear Lets Go Crazy or Doves, but if that mf didn't play PR it was definitely missed (& really, did that EVER happen?) 🙂 Thx for the data!

I get what you are saying. It is easy to take the standbys for granted. I did that listeining to the BET tribute, where each time they made a surprising selection (Delores, Housequake...) I'd get super excited compared to the obvious choices.

I love threads like this, about his music and stating individual ideas and thoughts then reviewing them. Thank you again, you are one of my favorite's on here!

[Edited 7/25/16 19:06pm]

I really appreciate your comment, Anna. I was beginning to wonder if it was worth the effort to do the analysis but your encouraging reponse as well as a few others made it worthwhile. I actually had come to accept that it was fine even if no one responded, as I found it interesting. However, this is better .

gandorb said:

I really appreciate your comment, Anna. I was beginning to wonder if it was worth the effort to do the analysis but your encouraging reponse as well as a few others made it worthwhile. I actually had come to accept that it was fine even if no one responded, as I found it interesting. However, this is better .

No prob. Music threads like these help the spirit. After all, Prince was his music and I think loves that fact we are sharing our thoughts and feelings over this music. Love it!