The first one.

It wasn't my first Prince song; the radio was all over "Little Red Corvette;" which I never really got into at the time.

But when I heard,

"LET'S PRETEND WE'RE MARRIED" on the tapedeck.

He was saying the VERY THINGS I felt but never heard before.

And damn, there was a very hot young thing in the car with me that I was lusting for. It was like he was reading my mind.

It just fucking grabbed me.

Then, I was hooked.

End of story.

Y'all?

[Edited 12/31/18 17:07pm]

My sweetie and I went to see Purple Rain together. I liked ALL of the music, but when I heard WDC, I could not explain what was going on in my head. I wanted to go back into the theatre and watch the movie all over again, because I hadn't had enough time to process it. (I think it occurs during him riding his motorcycle by himself.)

Not long after it came out, they started playing some more Prince songs on the radio here in the cultural desert known as the Midwest. I had already heard "I Wanna Be Your Lover" when Prince was on The Midnight Special a few years earlier & I liked that, but it did not hit me like WDC.

I really was impressed with P himself on that show, but to me the song was not as intense and complicated, so was not freaked out over it. That's my remembrance of it all....

I had liked a few singles of his on the radio but buying the Hits 1 album and hearing Pop Life was what drew me in and made me want to hear more. I began adding his other albums to my collection after that.

Mine was quite similar to yours! But it was "Automatic" that I heard on the tape deck that made me go WOW.

The entire 1999 album. I already knew the Controversy album, but it was 1999 that did it for me. But the one song that blew my mind was How Come You Don't Call Me Anymore? I can tell you exactly where I was (walking along Spencer Highway in Pasadena, TX) at the time it came on the radio (one o'clock in the morning) and I heard it for the very first time. That was when I knew that this guy was going to be around recording music for a very long time (I want more time!!!) and that he wasn't afraid to be vulnerable and human. The dj at the time came on and said 'I got a brand new song from Prince and I think it's going to blow you away!' That was back in the day when dj's were actually live, were allowed to pick and choose songs and didn't record their 'shows' at an earlier time. That this dj actually picked a 'B' side to play is even more astonishing. HCYDCMA will always transport me back to that moment in time, always.

I was a fan since "I Wanna Be Your Lover", but the ones that really set me straight up was both "Let's Pretend We're Married" and "D.M.S.R.". Dirty, funky, everything about them were so great.

I love this title.

Super generic but probably When Doves Cry. Literally nothing sounds like it.

Raspberry Beret on August 29th, 1989.

Controversy surely did grab my attention when it was a (minor) hit, being the best on the radio.
Then the whole Purple Rain album, listening for the first time (i bought it blindly just for the cover, not knowing what to expect) was a revelation and instead of twice the whole Thriller daily, it became instantly trice the whole PR daily.
But what really grabbed me by the balls and made me a die-hard fan, was AUTOMATIC (bought 1999 album after PR)
And it was cemented with the bootlegs a few years after...

[Edited 1/1/19 3:50am]

controversy... still love it

I'd imagine it was Controversy, it took me a while to tune into the right wavelength with his first 3 albums but I think Controversy hit immediately.

I liked "1999" the song, loved "Delirious", was aware of the entire "Purple Rain" phenomenon, really enjoyed "Raspberry Beret"... It was impossible to be a teenager and NOT know who Prince was in the early 80s.

.

But it wasn't until a friend who was a Prince fanatic sat me down and made me listen - really LISTEN - to the construction of the songs on "Sign 'O' The Times". That was late spring 1987, and I've been a fanatic myself ever since.

After I "slow dragged" to "Do Me Baby" in the club, that was all she wrote.

muchtoofast said:

Watching him sing If I Was Your Girlfriend in the fluffy white coat made me fall in love with him.

I know, I love that video, and so many other non-fan people I have talked to (like at work) think it is creepy. I think they don't get the changing your point of view in a relationship he was trying to convey. They just get all worked up over the gender-bending aspect of it, I guess.

nothing to do with sex, it was controversy, then 1999, then little red corvette, in that order. the sound was fresh, it was big and even as a dumb 13 year old I knew this guy had something that no one else had at the time.

sro100 said:

The first one.

It wasn't my first Prince song; the radio was all over "Little Red Corvette;" which I never really got into at the time.

But when I heard,

"LET'S PRETEND WE'RE MARRIED" on the tapedeck.

He was saying the VERY THINGS I felt but never heard before.

And damn, there was a very hot young thing in the car with me that I was lusting for. It was like he was reading my mind.

It just fucking grabbed me.

Then, I was hooked.

End of story.

Y'all?

[Edited 12/31/18 17:07pm]

The moment I heard It's Gonna Be Lonely, I fell hook, line and sinker. I hadn't even seen him yet but it didn't matter,I think he could have looked like Flava Flav but as long as he still sounded the same as he did on that song, I'd have been all in. Thankfully though, I found out what he looked like and was quite pleased.

When Doves Cry.

It ws a Thursday in 1984. I live in England, and there used to be a programme on TV called "Top of the Pops", and they ran through the top 40 singles, playing some of the videos and having a few live performances scattered through. I was bored and reading a magazine, not really paying much attention to the TV. Then a part of the show called the "top 40 breakers" - devoted to songs which had entered the top 40 but outside the top 20 - started and a few clips from songs were played. This song started and it just grabbed my attention, and I found myself staring at the screen, seeing this guy standing by a lake looking simultaneously weird and amazing, and the music was like nothing I'd ever heard before. I bought the album on cassette a few days later, and I was hooked.

Anotherloverholenyohead

Just magic.

Then the video came.

I smiled a mile wide.

Brilliant song.

Brilliant album.

And then I was hooked.

mynameisnotsusan said:

1999/LRC - they are still special to me

This

MTV spawned something good at least

RJOrion said:

Sexy Dancer

first SONG not first PERSON

Seahorsie said:

Free.

I became a fan in 2010, when I was 15. A relative had got 20ten in the newspaper, and understanding Prince was meant to be a musical great a la Bowie (who I loved), I gave it a listen. It didn't do anything for me, and, a little frustrated, I bought 1999 to see what all the fuss was about. At first I didn't think much of the album, being unaccustomed to the more electronic synth based sound, the drum machines really turned me off. But Free stood out. In a big way. It was vocals, and the compositon, all leading up to that gargantuan scream. I kept listening to the album for that song, and slowly all the over songs began to work their magic on me. Then I bought Parade and was absolutely floored, and that was that.

People seem to hate on Free, considering it the weak link on 1999, but I adore it. Prince would probably have never become my favourite artist if not for that song.