My first experience with Prince was finding the LoveSexy CD when i was babysitting for a neighbour. Played it and was hooked for life!

Instead of paying me for babysitting they gave me the CD!

i wanna be your lover, probably on the radio right before the bandstand performance. I doubt if soft and wet got any radio play on the one black station we had at the time.

Controversy on MTV in 1981 (MTV just Aired), It was his first hit in the Netherlands!

Erotic City/Girls and boys

I was going through my older cousin's record collection when I was around 13/14 and listened to the Gils and Boys 12"......hooked!

Lovesexy was the first full album I heard months later when I started to aquire Prince's music for myself.

Rememeber having great fun trawling record fairs as there was already a big back catalogue and loads of bootleg stuff on the go.

Fun times.

When Doves Cry. Sometime in late 1995, VH1 showed the music video one morning before I went to school. The moment I heard those guitar notes, followed by the Linn LM1 drum beats and synth keys, instantly became a fan.

I wanna Be Your Lover on bandstand. it was the only rock show I could watch... which was ok as it was pretty much the only one. I was supposed to spend the day with my dad, but he told me I could not go, that there was no room, to go wake up my brother...after I had helped pack and prepare for the trip...

Controversy on the radio - I liked it but didn't know anything more about him
later: 1999 on the radio: i liked it but didn't even realise it's the same guy.
Next: I bought PR album just because of its intriging artwork while i didnt know any music on it (I was still pretty young, it was the second album i ever bought after Kim Wilde's Select)
I was sold, the rest is history.
Only afterwards I realised it's all the same guy

[Edited 4/21/17 5:22am]

I Wanna Be Your Lover

Definitely I Wanna Be Your Lover... 1979.

I heard it on one of the two R&B stations in our neck of the woods. When it was over, I switched to the other one, popped in a tape, pressed RECORD/PAUSE and just sat next to the radio until it came on again.

[Edited 4/21/17 6:39am]

1999

Do Me Baby! It blew my mind! I knew instantly this was someone I needed to get to know.

"LET'S GO CRAZY"

I was 15 or 16.

"Starfish and Coffee" on Muppets Tonight. At six I thought The Artist (he was still going by The Symbol at the time) was weird.

Two years later I saw the videos for When Doves Cry and Raspberry Beret on an old VH1 show called Pop Up Video and I understood why he was so popular.

1999. 7th grade. Remember it like yesterday...

I wanna be your lover

This and the Best of Elvis were my first to vynil records that were my own

Soft and Wet

Baby I'm a Star! Like he was calling out for my attention!

Soft and Wet

I feel like I heard "Soft and Wet" at some point, but I always say it was "I Wanna Be Your Lover". I'd heard it on radio, but it was when I bought K-Tel's Soundwaves album (I still have 2 copies on vinyl today, it was never released on CD) that I heard that song on the middle of side A. His picture was even on the back of the record. I was just so curious. Was he a girl? He sang like one. And what kind of name was Prince?

Side One:

Upside Down - Diana Ross

Funkytown - Lipps Inc.

Cupid/I've Loved You For A Long Time - Spinners

Let's Get Serious - Jermaine Jackson

I Wanna Be Your Lover - Prince

The Empire Strikes Back (Melody) - Meco

I Was Made For Lovin' You - Kiss

You Better Run - Pat Benatar

Side Two:

Steal Away - Robbie Dupree

Tired of Toein' the Line - Rocky Burnette

Let Me Love You Tonight - Pure Prairie League

Do That To Me One More Time - Captain & Tenille

Lost in Love - Air Supply

Take A Little Rhythm - Ali Thomson

Into the Night - Benny Mardones

PeteSilas said:

GTsymbolover said:

Purple Rain 1984, the year him and MJ owned 84, I was only 10 and saw/heard it on my parents TVs in their bedroom, the first introduction to Prince.

I'd have to say MJ owned 1983, because Thriller came out December 1982. Of course The Victory Tour in 1984 kept him, and the brothers, on the map. But I tell ya - come May, June, & July, it was "Michael who?" LOL

Soft & Wet in either late 1977 or early 1978, on the radio.

I finally saw him when he was on American Bandstand, but by that time I had heard I Wanna Be Your Lover and Why You Wanna Treat Me So Bad and Sexy Dancer and I Feel For You.

Soft and Wet. Been a die hard fan ever since and will be forever.

1999. I heard about Prince before the song. "So that's Prince?" were my words. It was end of summer 1983, family picnic in San Diego.