I'm 18, and very new to Prince's Music.

So far, the albums I've listened to are Controversy, Camille, most of Parade, a good chunk of The Black Album, and a few from Sign O The Times. I've also heard a few other songs, but in no particular order.

So, I was wondereing if y'all seasoned, hardcore fans could give me a list of all the Prince songs you think are 'Essentials'. What songs do you think all fans have to listen to?

It is essential to listen to all the albums.

I would start with Dirty Mind probably. Short, funky, nasty, sweet, precocious. One of his best pop songs with "When You Were Mine," one of his best sex songs in "Head," and one of his best party songs with "Uptown." Go there first.

luv4u said:

It is essential to listen to all the albums.

I stand corrected.

Darshy said:

Miitch said:

luv4u said:

It is essential to listen to all the albums.

I stand corrected.

radicalrojo said:

I would start with Dirty Mind probably. Short, funky, nasty, sweet, precocious. One of his best pop songs with "When You Were Mine," one of his best sex songs in "Head," and one of his best party songs with "Uptown." Go there first.

I've listened to a few few from there. Head, Got A broken Heart Again (I think?) And one of my all time faves, Sister. I'll put that right up on the "to listen" list with Lovesexy and Come.

Darshy said:

For starters, go listen to My Love Is Forever from his first album, For You

I was going to listen to that album, but Art Official Age got me sidetracked.

Miitch said:

There is never going to be one valid answer to this question. It's like asking "What are the top 3 Prince albums?" It's impossible because everyone here has a different experience with Prince music in their lives. The variable in the answers is exponential.

Your best bet is to listen to The Hits/The B-Sides and Ultimate or 4ever. Whatever songs draw you in more, go to those albums and b-sides and listen to that era. OR, just start from the beginning. Learn to enjoy the soft AOR/R&B approach he had on the first two records, hear the growth, then get to the gritty demos of Dirty Mind, then him playing with the Linn drum machine for the first time on Controversy, and how he delved more into socially and politically conscience songs. Then to more commercial music we hear on 1999 and Purple Rain, and how he became Prince when he took a 180º turn on Around The World In A Day (yet, ironically, AWTIAD is a blue print of Purple Rain, which can be searched on this site extensively for examples).

All of us found Prince in different ways, and backtracked on the catalog to get up to speed and well-versed. You gotta start somewhere, to close your eyes, stick a pin in the map and say, "That's where I'm going next."

Because, truly, every Prince song is part of his journey (that's true for any artist worth their salt that has a long career). Therefore, "When Doves Cry" is as valid and impressive as "I Wonder U" or "Strollin'" or "Jack U Off" or "Baby" (which, by the way, has a section he later used in " Hate U").

duh....live ...rehearsals....soundchecks...outtakes

luv4u said:

It is essential to listen to all the albums.

Also I have been listening to alot of the unreleased songs on YouTube as well. It is impossible for me to tell you which ones are the best though. So much wonderful stuff and it is a bit overwhelming, but I mean that in a good way. Enjoy

Miitch said:

I'm 18, and very new to Prince's Music.

So far, the albums I've listened to are Controversy, Camille, most of Parade, a good chunk of The Black Album, and a few from Sign O The Times. I've also heard a few other songs, but in no particular order.

So, I was wondereing if y'all seasoned, hardcore fans could give me a list of all the Prince songs you think are 'Essentials'. What songs do you think all fans have to listen to?

If you start with The Hits 1 and 2 or 4ever you've pretty much got his early stuff down. Recommended songs after 1993 :

The most beautiful girl in the world

Come

Papa

Let it go

Empty Room

Anything from Emancipation

Tangerine

Wherever u go, whatever u do

The Sensual Everafter

She Loves Me 4 Me

Musicology

Te amo corazon

Colonized Mind

Dreamer

Anotherlove

Almost anything from Art Official Age and Hit n Run 1/2

***

***

Not necessarily the best but a good satisfying start

[Edited 8/26/19 16:43pm]

[Edited 8/26/19 16:43pm]

[Edited 8/26/19 16:44pm]

Hi Mitch

.

As you may have gathered there is no easy answer here, but the way I got into Prince was through his ‘The Hits / The B Sides’ box set. It contains a lot of stellar singles, plus information on which albums each song originally came from. It cover a lot of ground. I recommend this set over others since it also includes the B-Sides which has some beauties on it such as ‘She’s Always In My Hair’, ‘I Love You In Me’ and ‘Another Lonely Christmas’. The only down side is that to fit so many tracks on, the set consists mainly of 7” and radio edits, but you can always pick up full length versions of songs you like at a later date.
.
It sounds as if, from the albums you’ve listen to so far, you’re into the ‘86 - ‘87 era which is my personal favourite. See if you can get your hands on the ‘Dream Factory’ album if you can. It’s unreleased but has been circulating as a bootleg. It’s the album he was planning on releasing before ‘Sign ‘O’ The Times’, but his band split up so he abandoned most of this music. Some of my favourite unreleased songs from this era include ‘It’s a Wonderful Day’, ‘In A Large Room With No Lights’, ‘All My Dreams’, ‘Crucial (saxophone version)’ and ‘We Can Funk ‘86’.
.
If you like The Black Album and Camille, check out The Batman Soundtrack. Even if you’re not into Batman, there is some seriously funky stuff on here. ‘The Future’, ‘Electric Chair’, ‘Partyman’, ‘Trust’. It’s hot stuff.
.
If you’d like to get a taste of 90s Prince, The albums ‘Come’ and ‘The Gold Experience’ go hand in hand as interesting concept albums. Come being the album that marked the death of Prince as an artist on Warner Brothers, and The Gold Experience as his rebirth as on his own label, NPG records. An album that was released between the two that I feel gets overlooked is NPG Exodus (credited as an NPG album, although Prince is in the driving seat). It’s kind of jazzy / funky and an interesting listen.

Key songs from this era include ‘The Most Beautiful Girl In The World’, ‘Love Sign’, ‘Gold’, ‘I Hate U’, ‘Pheromones’, ‘Letitgo’, ‘Get Wild’, ‘The Good Life’, ‘The Good Life (Big City Remix)’
.
If you’d like to sample some smooth R&B and a more mainstream / commercial sound then a couple of my favourite albums are ‘The Chocolate Invasion’ and ‘The Slaughter House’. These are interesting collections. Around 2000, Prince was planning an album called ‘High’, but decided instead to shelve the album and release the songs individually to premium members of his website (a few tracks each month). These two albums (‘The Chocolate Invasion’ and ‘The Slaughter House’) contain those songs that were released through his website and by proxy, the High album along with a bunch of other tracks. There are so many potential singles here it’s unreal. He could have had a huge hit album here, but chose a different approach.
Key songs from this era include ‘When I Lay My Hands On You (feat. Santana)’, ‘High’, ‘Vavoom’, ‘Supercute’, ‘Underneath The Cream’, ‘Golden Parachute’, ‘Judas Smile’ and a few years later came ‘Black Sweat’ which also sounds like it fits in nicely here.
.
If you want to go for something more laid back and relaxing there are two albums I love. One is ‘One Nite Alone...’ from 2002. It’s an album where Prince sings while playing solo piano. I think it’s beautiful. He also did an album of jazzy instrumentals in 2003 named ‘Xpectaion’. Maybe save these two for later down the road, but I think they’re worth mentioning.
.
Good hunting. D

Purple Music, Wonderful Ass, The Question of U, Extra Loveable, Head, Hot Thing, Mountains, Eye No, Batdance, She's Always In My Hair, Lovesexy, Moonbeam Levels, The Arms Of Orion, The Beautiful Ones, Feel U Up, Alphabet St, Ballard Of Dorothy Parker, G-Spot (Prince featuring Vanity demo), Black Sweat, The Cross, Electric Intercourse, DMSR, Kiss, Glam Slam, Controversy, Horny Toad, Electric Chair, Strange Relationships, Adore, Private Joy, Computer Blue (Extended), When U Were Mine, The Second Coming, Irresistible Bitch and 7

"777-9311"
"101"
"Erotic City"

"Eye Hate U"
"Van Gogh"

[Edited 8/27/19 3:20am]

Miitch said:

I'm 18, and very new to Prince's Music.

So far, the albums I've listened to are Controversy, Camille, most of Parade, a good chunk of The Black Album, and a few from Sign O The Times. I've also heard a few other songs, but in no particular order.

So, I was wondereing if y'all seasoned, hardcore fans could give me a list of all the Prince songs you think are 'Essentials'. What songs do you think all fans have to listen to?

If Prince is singing..

.Listen....

You will soon work out whats more to your personal liking...

What some people like others dont..

There is just SO MUCH..

you could literally spend the next two or three years listening to

PRiNCE exclusively,

and you will not have exhausted the treasure chest...

most people though, I have found..

Once they are in to Prince cant stop...

Your musical ear becomes changed and other music, sounds somehwat barren...

so you can

start at the beginning,

For U, and work your way through..

Parade the whole album is for me the Ultimate showcase of Princes creativity...

Its sounds like nothing else by no one else EVER...

He was still making gorgeously original tunes in the last few years of his life..

Clouds, Black Sweat, Sticky Like GLue, 1000 hugs and Kisses, June..

there is so much..

I kind of envy you..

the discovery process is Magic..

THere is no one who comes close to the level of creativity,musicality

the work ethic or the sheer raw talent of our Prince...

....

Wolfie87 said:

Miitch said:

I was going to listen to that album, but Art Official Age got me sidetracked.

What you really need to do is that you introduce Prince-music to your friends! It's really that timeless and modern, still. I would recommend "17 Days" and "Erotic City" . That Warner Bros B-sides album from 1993 are as essential as his regular Albums. [Edited 8/26/19 10:54am]

i don't have too many friends, and the one I've tried to convert is an absolute heathen, lol

He likes Gett Off tho, so we're getting somewhere

TrivialPursuit said:

There is never going to be one valid answer to this question. It's like asking "What are the top 3 Prince albums?" It's impossible because everyone here has a different experience with Prince music in their lives. The variable in the answers is exponential.

Your best bet is to listen to The Hits/The B-Sides and Ultimate or 4ever. Whatever songs draw you in more, go to those albums and b-sides and listen to that era. OR, just start from the beginning. Learn to enjoy the soft AOR/R&B approach he had on the first two records, hear the growth, then get to the gritty demos of Dirty Mind, then him playing with the Linn drum machine for the first time on Controversy, and how he delved more into socially and politically conscience songs. Then to more commercial music we hear on 1999 and Purple Rain, and how he became Prince when he took a 180º turn on Around The World In A Day (yet, ironically, AWTIAD is a blue print of Purple Rain, which can be searched on this site extensively for examples).

All of us found Prince in different ways, and backtracked on the catalog to get up to speed and well-versed. You gotta start somewhere, to close your eyes, stick a pin in the map and say, "That's where I'm going next."

Because, truly, every Prince song is part of his journey (that's true for any artist worth their salt that has a long career). Therefore, "When Doves Cry" is as valid and impressive as "I Wonder U" or "Strollin'" or "Jack U Off" or "Baby" (which, by the way, has a section he later used in " Hate U").

Yes.

One of the things that made Prince special was that he recorded all genres of music, combined genres and even invented some. To say his catalogue is diverse and electic is a gross understatment. You could listen to 100 songs back-to-back and think each was made by a difference artist.

Consequently, some of those styles will appeal to you more than others. Each of us have different tastes. For example, Prince went through a hip-hop phase in the '90s. Some fans loved it, others hated it. Prince went through a jazz phase in the 200s. Some fans loved it, other hated it. That's what makes Prince great. He's got something for everyone.

So you should explore his entire catalogue and find those styles that work for you personally. After you find some songs you like, come back and ask for recommendations of songs with a similiar styles -- that question is still pretty broad and not totally answerable, but it's more managable than your original question.

Based on what your wrote above you've barely skimmed the surface of all that Prince had to offer. A universe of music awaits you. Good lunk and enjoy.

If someone is totally new to P and would like to try him out, I'd experiment on him/her and let the person go backwards in his catalogue, while allowing no more than 1 album per 3 months.

I'd be curious if they would evaluate the strenght of his albums in the same 'order' as we 80's children!

TheFman said:

If someone is totally new to P and would like to try him out, I'd experiment on him/her and let the person go backwards in his catalogue, while allowing no more than 1 album per 3 months.

I'd be curious if they would evaluate the strenght of his albums in the same 'order' as we 80's children!

Thats interesting.......

a couple of years ago I introduced a young friend ,( 28 )

she listens on repeat in her car, as she travels a lot for work...

she gets 1 cd at a time from me...

I started her with a burned copy of "the Truth" because I had just binge listened and I knew she loves accoustic guitar..

her Dad is a Musician...

Followed that with Diamonds and Pearls

then I gifted her the Hits the B Sides

then Burned copy of The Black album

The The Vault, which she loves

followed by Sign of the TImes

then Purple Rain

and currently shes got Hit n Run phase 1 which she says is her favorite...

By this point she is as addicted to Prince as we all are...

she will listen to anything I give her, and asks for another when she knows enough to sing along

to some of the songs..

Thrilling for me...I get so excited...the other day she and her son were singing StarFish and Coffee...

I appreciate your interest but I have no answer. There are way too many songs and most of them are good, if not very very good. You could listen to all the albums but he shone on live recordings. I suggest you should listen to everything you can get your hot little hands on - bootleg or not.

Nonamesfan said:

I appreciate your interest but I have no answer. There are way too many songs and most of them are good, if not very very good. You could listen to all the albums but he shone on live recordings. I suggest you should listen to everything you can get your hot little hands on - bootleg or not.

That's my plan. I'm just gonna start at the beginning, lol

Lovejunky said:

Darshy said:

Listened to 'Do It All Night' from his third album, Dirty Mind?

Ooh yes. I've actually listened 2 most of DM, just not in any kind of order. I love it tho