Where were you the first time you heard WDC? It was that much of a significant gamechanger.

in front of my turntable playing 'that' record i bought just because of its cover....

[Edited 7/19/17 10:01am]

2:30 AM

I knew it was going to be released. Listening to the R&B station. There was no DJ introduction. From the first couple of notes, I knew it was Prince.

Sitting on my front porch listening to Detroit's ONE and ONLY Electrifying Mojo. He said he had something special for us after the commercial break and the next thing I knew, I was listening to WDC.

Let me just put it out there that 2 this day as I am typing this "When Doves Cry" is my all time favorite song ever not just by Prinice but from any artist. This coming from a guy who dressed and danced like Michael Jackson back in 1984. I remember hearing it on the radio it was around May 1984 and it was just b4 the movie Purple Rain came out. I had heard it in heavy rotation for a few weeks it was such an incredible song I had to have it , my friend next door had the song on a 45 and I was hoping he would record it 4 me, on their speakers it was hella knocking the drums synths etc. . was so on point.

Then on one Friday night I was watching videos on "Friday Night Videos" it came on NBC 4 those who didn't have cable or MTV so I had to watch all these videos from Rockwell Duran Duran Van Halen then after commecrcial was "When Doves Cry" never saw the video b4. The video got me hyped to listen to the song again and again and again . It was played heavy on the radio ALOT so I would try to record it but they would always say their "Call Sign" damn near the end of the song. I just "borrowed the 45 from my homie not sure if I ever gave it back Lol. I ended up buying PR the sound track in cassette form then Album hell I have had it in every format tape cd to dvd to blu-ray.

When Doves Cry will 4ever be my Jam!!

Thank U Prince 4 that gift !! Rest In Purple.

I heard it first on the radio sitting in my room as a 12 year old kid and couldn't believe what I was listening to. It sounded so cool and futuristic to me, WDC immediately impacted me. That guitar intro, the weird vocal sounds, that enormous Linndrum beat kicking in, the sparseness, the catchiness, the lyrics, the guitar solo, it all contributed to an amazing song! I went off to the record store the following weekend to buy the single and a diehard Prince fan was born...

I had just come home from school and turned on my boombox radio.Our local R&B station (KSOL) was playing it but I wasn't sure who it was.But when it got to a certain point,I just knew it was Prince.I yelled down the hall to my sister "Hey,I think this is the new Prince song!!"

.

[Edited 7/19/17 14:23pm]

I have absolutely no idea.

sulls said:

Sitting at the kitchen table watching MTV on a small black n white tele

BS, you're never at home.

rdhull said:

Where were you the first time you heard WDC? It was that much of a significant gamechanger.

I remember it like yesterday! I had just gotten home from a stressful waitress gig, was grouchy, hot, and sweaty... I turned on the stereo to a local radio station and heard the opening notes of When Doves Cry and my mouth literally fell open...and then I was That was when the song first debuted... I was a lost cause from then until 1995...

[Edited 7/19/17 14:40pm]

TheEnglishGent said:

i'm not sure, i think it was either the video or a place we used to have in seattle for teen native kids, one of the two. it's been said that the production was so disconcerting that it had the effect on people of remembering when and where they first heard it. but my memory is getting a little shaky for 30+ year old events.

I was going into my senior year of high school in Washington DC. On Saturdays I would wake up early and go down to the back of the old Washington Post bldg. They would hire people for the day to put the large insert packages into the Sunday addition for the next day. It was an easy $30.00 bucks a week. I had a walkman radio/cassette player that I kept with me and remember the first time I heard the opening guitar riff. I literally froze in my tracks and in my mind was saying "this is Prince. It has to be him." Maybe it was even out loud. I quickly got the attention of my supervisor and indicated that I needed to use the restroom. I found a secluded spot and took it all in for the first time. I NEVER forgot that feeling that coursed through me when the sound of the opening guitar hit. I mean my heart started racing. Of course everyone I knew had been waiting on this new single to drop and were staying by the radio to catch it. When the moment came, it hit me like a ton of bricks. An amazing experience.

[Edited 7/19/17 17:06pm]

Sitting in the car....

not sure where i was going

Dj announced "a new single by Prince from the forthcoming album and movie, "Purple Rain", When Doves Cry"

I remember thinking, "Interesting title"

Once it came on, with that guitar intro, and that hard drum beat, i thought, "damn, funk with no bass in it" Interesting lyrics too

After the first verse, i concluded that this was gonna be a hit....

Still his masterpiece to this day

never get tired of listening to it

Perhaps it was back in 2008 or so, but i did not like it at all, i though it was weird, now is my first or second favorite song, is a masterpiece. Lately i fell in love with the video and that wonderful outfit.

at tower records. i was so awe struck by the sound.

and the royal sexiness took me as though by storm.

day the album came out

Tower Records on Watt Avenue in Sacramento California... they were playing it when we walked in...i knew it was Prince but i didnt know WTF it was... i just heard that insane drum progranmming, and Prince's vocals in their rarest form... the only other songs that EVER blew me away on first listen like that, were "Fantasy" by Earth Wind & Fire and "Criminology" by Raekwon & Ghostface

RJOrion said:

Tower Records on Watt Avenue in Sacramento California... they were playing it when we walked in...i knew it was Prince but i didnt know WTF it was... i just heard that insane drum progranmming, and Prince's vocals in their rarest form... the only other songs that EVER blew me away on first listen like that, were "Fantasy" by Earth Wind & Fire and "Criminology" by Raekwon & Ghostface

ya, everything about it had the touch of strangeness to it, even the vocals had runs which i'd associate with some kind of italian singing rather than anything rock or soul, dude was a genius.

I was 15 in May, 1984. I'm pretty sure it was a Wednesday night. I was sitting in the basement of the house where I grew up in northern Minnesota, doing something with my comic books and listening to a weekly show on a local AM radio station that spotlighted brand new tracks they'd just gotten in (kind of a local version of the syndicated show Future Hits, if you ever heard that). I was already a Prince fan from the 1999 album, but this was different--so strange yet so immediately appealing. It wasn't long before the commercial single was released and soared up the charts, and Purple Rain was everywhere. Of all the major hits, "When Doves Cry" is the one that I've never gotten the least bit tired of; that opening still stops me in my tracks. If pressed to name a single favorite Prince track, it's the one.

I do not remember the exact place and time. I just remember it always being - it was always here - it is one of my favorite songs - it is never old, and no matter what is going on in my life it speaks to me.

I heard it on the radio first, and then bought the record the second it came out, went home, and played it a million times in a row.