MJ, Madonna, Bowie, Whitney all have huge selling greatest hits albums that are constantly re-entering the album charts (MJ's never seems to leave and Immaculate Collection is one of the best selling albums of all time).

Why do you think The Hits or The Very Best of Prince or Ultimate Prince haven't been huge sellers over the years? Songs like Purple Rain, Kiss, Raspberry Beret and When Doves Cry are just as legendary as anything MJ, Madonna, Bowie or Whitney did, so why do you think it is that his hits compilations don't sell like those artists ones?

[Edited 1/5/21 9:16am]

MattyJam said:

MJ, Madonna, Bowie, Whitney all have huge selling greatest hits albums that are constantly re-entering the album charts (MJ's never seems to leave and Immaculate Collection is one of the best selling albums of all time).

Why do you think The Hits or The Very Best of Prince or Ultimate Prince haven't been huge sellers over the years? Songs like Purple Rain, Kiss, Raspberry Beret and When Doves Cry are just as legendary as anything MJ, Madonna, Bowie or Whitney did, so why do you think it is that his hits compilations don't sell like those artists ones?

[Edited 1/5/21 9:16am]

Could it be that the Madonna and MJ hits were just a tiny bit bigger and their media coverage much more constant through the years

prince is/was a very big cult artist

but he did not have the massive global pop appeal of an MJ, or a madonna.

just facts.

1) The Hits/The B-sides was 3CDs and very expensive, it sold well for a triple album though. Having Hits 1 and 2 available separately only diluted sales.

2) The Very Best of Prince came out years after his last hit, was a repeat of The Hits, and downloading was already starting to make mince meat of CD sales. It still sold a lot of copies though.

Everything after that was deep into downloading or streaming.

jaawwnn said:

There's still space for a definitive career spanning 1CD release greatest hits, and a Star-Time style career spanning boxset. With streaming ruling all it might be too late though, a real shame if that's the case.

[Edited 1/5/21 9:48am]

alan leeds wanted the hits/b sides to be a star time style big box set.

shame it didnt happen.

that would have been the perfect time for that.

there have already been a few one cd greatest hits releases so i dont think anyone needs anymore of those.

but if they had to do another one, strictly top 40 hits, and only one straight pop bangers disc, it should be:

wanna be yr lover

1999

LRC

delirious

when doves cry

lets go crazy

purple rain

i would die 4 u

raspberry beret

kiss

u got the look

could never take the place

alphabet st

batdance

thieves in the temple

gett off

cream

sexy mf

thats strictly the biggest singles.

[Edited 1/5/21 10:11am]

Because Prince's "greatest hits" albums are not very comprehensive in terms of his "best" nor do they span his entire career.

Madonna, MJ, Whitney:

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Their greatest hits collections ARE comprehensive as they have less music/material to cover over all.

[Edited 1/5/21 10:05am]

Prince probably has less appeal to mainstream USA than others like Whitney Houston, Eagles, The Beatles, Journey, or Garth Brooks who have big selling hits albums that continue to sell. For the most part, their music is pretty clean and inoffensive and so are their images. Their CDs can be sold in Walmart, which does not sell any albums with parental advisory stickers. There's also the case that some of these acts get a lot more airplay on oldies & classic rock radio (especially Eagles & Journey) and their songs are often used in movies, TV shows, video games, & commercials. We Will Rock You by Queen has been played at sporting events for decades. So new audiences continue to hear them. Prince had his music taken down from Youtube and other streaming sites, which is how most teens & young adults listen to music today. It's like the Fleetwood Mac album Rumours recently re-entered the Top 10 on the Billboard album chart because Dreams was in a popular TikTok video. Dreams itself hit the Top 40 on the Hot 100 chart

MickyDolenz said:

Prince probably has less appeal to mainstream USA than others like Whitney Houston, Eagles, The Beatles, Journey, or Garth Brooks who have big selling hits albums that continue to sell. For the most part, their music is pretty clean and inoffensive and so are their images.

Yes. Agreed. This is likely the BIGGEST reason. Popular as he is, Prince is still one of the most controversial musicians in pop music. Even now, what he was doing back in the day challeneges societal norms and peoples ideas of "good taste."

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I actually think it's quite amazing that Prince was able to straddle the line between being one of the most controversial/groudbreaking artists as well as being one of the most popular.

skywalker said:

Yes. Agreed. This is likely the BIGGEST reason. Popular as he is, Prince is still one of the most controversial musicians in pop music. Even now, what he was doing back in the day challeneges societal norms and peoples ideas of "good taste."

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I actually think it's quite amazing that Prince was able to straddle the line between being one of the most controversial/groudbreaking artists as well as being one of the most popular.

Tipper Gore didn't start the PMRC because of Air Supply albums. Record stores weren't hiding Kenny G albums behind the counter like Dirty Mind or Lovesexy. Some record stores & department stores in the US refused to sell Lovesexy at all because of the cover. A lot of people didn't buy it because they were embarrased to be seen buying that picture or having it at their house.

Let's not overlook the fact that Prince probably didn't care much for compilations. (Understatement.) He was an artist who put a great deal of thought and effort into concepting and creating cohesive albums. When you put together a "greatest hits" thing, you blow all that up - taking individual bits and putting them with other bits they never belonged with, in the first place.

Compilations are about making money, pure and simple. That's a matter for the suits - not the artist.

MickyDolenz said:

skywalker said:

SantanaMaitreya said:

I know. But that says more about the people buying the album than it says about the artist who made the album, right? In Europe, that whole Lovesexy album cover was no big deal. That's why around this time Prince was becoming more popular in Europe than he was in America. Lovesexy was a big hype in e Europe and a big flop in the US.

I think it had more to do with it being a guy. Naked or scantily clad women had been on a lot of album covers and were not put behind the counter. Such as The Ohio Players. 2 Live Crew albums were also on the shelves with the other records.

MickyDolenz said:

Unlike those artist u mentioned, it's impossible 2 do a real Greatest hits of Prince without it being several disks and quite expensive.

Prince could literally have a separate greatest hits of his Rock, R&B, Funk, Acoustic, Pop, instrumentals, Jazz, etc............

SantanaMaitreya said:

I don't think so. I'm a guy, I was 17 years old at the time, the age where you start to think about who you are and what you like and I knew I liked girls and I didn't give a damn about buying an album with a naked man on the cover. So I think it's more of a cultural thing. There was a Dutch book about Prince that came out at the time where the writers said: this time he is naked, all he wears is his faith. I think that sums it up perfectly!

What do you mean? I'm talking about the United States and have been the entire time. That's where I live. I'm pretty sure you're more likely to see a naked woman in a Hollywood movie than a naked man.

Couple of things here: Greatest and Best are different. Greatest is typically an album with hits, obviously. But I've found in my experience that the Very Best often has other tracks, sometimes lesser known, that are equally amazing, but were never singles or never charted as high. Not quite an "essential" type thing, but somewhere in the middle.

For me, The Hits package was comprehensive enough, to that point. Remember that there was also Peach 2-CD set that included a few other trinkets that didn't fit on The Hits. Sure, a couple of things were missing, but in general, that was a great package of songs.

After that, who cares? The Very Best of - meh. The artwork is garbage, and the setlist I don't even remember. Ultimate didn't ring for me because of Prince having to take out songs w/ cuss words in them. I have it for the sake of having it, not because it trumps anything else. If I want a shuffle of earlier Prince stuff, I shuffle The Hits. Anything else, I'll build on my own.

I don't know that, overall, greatest hits packages sell that well. I think Eagles had one that did really well. The only reason HIStory sold well is because a regular album was attached to it. The only other one, off hand, that I can recall doing well and getting some heat was Whitney Houston's Whitney: The Greatest Hits in 2000. If 4Ever sold anything, it was solely off the back of Prince's death, not because there was anything illusive or rare on it (besides "Moonbeam Levels").

Also, people are only going to buy "When Doves Cry" or "Little Red Corvette" so many times before they see it as a cash grab.

RODSERLING said:

I opened a topic yesterday that answers the question perfectly : https://prince.org/msg/7/465604 .

Because Prince made good albums.

Most people are better off buying a full record instead. He also polarized his audience who pretty distinctly prefer different periods and the casual audience doesn't have enough interest.

People like Madonna and MJ sold greatest hits because there was a sizeable group that liked their hits but stopped buying their records, so just having the radio singles fits a need.

Currently I feel like I hear more Prince everywhere too, so people are getting their fill of Kiss and Raspberry Beret.

The very best of Prince has sold million plus Cds.

lavendardrummachine said:

Because Prince made good albums.

Most people are better off buying a full record instead. He also polarized his audience who pretty distinctly prefer different periods and the casual audience doesn't have enough interest.

People like Madonna and MJ sold greatest hits because there was a sizeable group that liked their hits but stopped buying their records, so just having the radio singles fits a need.

Currently I feel like I hear more Prince everywhere too, so people are getting their fill of Kiss and Raspberry Beret.

Bingo.

lavendardrummachine said:

Because Prince made good albums.

Most people are better off buying a full record instead.

Datz a güd answer.

funkbabyandthebabysitters said:

alan leeds wanted the hits/b sides to be a star time style big box set.

shame it didnt happen.

that would have been the perfect time for that.

there have already been a few one cd greatest hits releases so i dont think anyone needs anymore of those.

but if they had to do another one, strictly top 40 hits, and only one straight pop bangers disc, it should be:

wanna be yr lover

1999

LRC

delirious

when doves cry

lets go crazy

purple rain

i would die 4 u

raspberry beret

kiss

u got the look

could never take the place

alphabet st

batdance

thieves in the temple

gett off

cream

sexy mf

thats strictly the biggest singles.

[Edited 1/5/21 10:11am]

No I don't want to do "strictly top 40 hits," i'm talking a slightly rejigged the very best of, TMBGITW, Originals or "Cinematic mix" version of Nothing Compares, maybe Gold (top 10 in the uk!), Musicology and Black Sweat should be included, at the expense of... i'm not sure yet.

Single disc hit packages are interesting, I've often felt Prince could do with something similar to ChangesOneBowie which was Bowie's biggest seller in the USA for YEARS despite incuding many non-hits and even non-singles. A tight, well sequenced collection for people who can't handle anything that isn't immediately accessible. Arguably he already made that and it was called Purple Rain.

[Edited 1/6/21 1:36am]

The only one worth getting is The Hits & The B Sides.