Iam guessing Chris Cross and producer Michael Omartian, much like the Journey guys, may of let the obviousness slide (which personally I think it's a good thing as both were released around the same time, so some similarities are often bound to happen in music)....and I think Prince "borrowed" here more than stole...

I really like the Cross song, and he is a totally forgotten about guitarist as his outro solo is lovely, restrained and melodic. But "Purple Rain" does do abit of borrowing in the intro, strings and outro guitar solo from Chris's song imo. It's the strings and guitar solo inparticular that I think inspired Prince (not rip off LOL). Check the riff around 4:47 mark for example.

I agree.

There's another song that I think has a portion influenced by a Christopher Cross song... the intrumental bridge of Planet Earth.... the intrumental bridge of "Sailing"

when i hear boston's "more than a feeling" i think that one riff was like purple rain's but, that's a standard gospel riff in that case. PR grabbed from so many genres, it's country, heavy metal, stadium rock, a little john lennon in the lyrics, plenty of gospel influence.

ufoclub said:

There's another song that I think has a portion influenced by a Christopher Cross song... the intrumental bridge of Planet Earth.... the intrumental bridge of "Sailing"

The middle part was heavily "borrowed" from Barry Manilow's Could it be magic.

I hear it in the intro too.

ludwig said:

Speaking of Prince borrowing, it's completely impossible he hadn't heard this. Lots of little licks. https://www.youtube.com/w...iKwmzXuQ5A

[Edited 7/6/18 10:10am]

This is really interesting. I think borrow all you want, as long as you make a better song with the material you use. And to me Prince definitely did that. It is not like bad hip hop (and there is definitely good and great hip hop) where you only listen to the song for the sample. Purple Rain is its own entity, and it is an amazing song.