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Singles that had no business being singles! My Name Is Prince was a trash song - Prince should've listened to Warners and released 7 first.
The Holy River, whilst a great song, had zero commercial appeal. Face Down should've been single #2 from Emancipation. Eye Hate U was an odd single choice. A single edit of Billy Jack Bitch would've had a broader appeal imo. [Edited 12/20/23 0:25am] | |
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*"Glam Slam"---I think this is a decent album track but it didn't stand a chance on pop radio in 1988.I have always felt that the dynamic title track should have been the second single.
*"If I Was Your Girlfriend"---Yes,this song is clearly a fan favorite and it really is a brilliant track.But this is not the type of song that works as a single.The meaning was misunderstood by the masses and the SOTT album started tumbling down the charts when this was the single.
*"Mountains"---It's a good song,but not an outstanding one.Many people have said that "Girls And Boys" should have been the second single and I agree.
*"The Morning Papers"---The Symbol album was filled with so many strong,catchy,potential hit singles.Unfortunately,this wasn't one of them.It's a decent but uneventful track. | |
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I think this is one of the times when they got it right."Eye Hate U" is one of Prince's strongest singles of the 90s,imo.It's a superb track that actually did reasonably well on the R&B charts. | |
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SoulAlive said:
I think this is one of the times when they got it right."Eye Hate U" is one of Prince's strongest singles of the 90s,imo.It's a superb track that actually did reasonably well on the R&B charts. Agreed. Here in Detroit, Eye Hate U and the remix got heavy airplay from Summer'95 through Spring '96. I think his decision not to release the promo video hurt its potential to be a bigger hit. [Edited 12/20/23 4:32am] | |
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I Hate U peaked at #12 with it being only 3 days of sales- the single was delayed for a few days, so it killed its chances to be a top 10 or even top 5. The lack of a video hurt too. The Holy River was a top 40 pop AirPlay in the US, and peaked at #6 in Europe, IIRC. The previous single, Betcha By Golly Wow! peaked at #1 for 2 weeks (!). Of course a lot of payola at play here obviously, since it had clearly zero impact on neither the sales of the said singles, nor the album Emancipation. Facedown is a great track, excellent video, but I don't think it would have been a great lead single. Not enough catchy, too much private jokes to attract a large audience. | |
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Glam Slam and I Wish U Heaven weren't great choices - this was when I was first getting into music as a kid, and I remember seeing a clip of I Wish U Heaven on Top of the Pops and not being too impressed. . Although I absolutely love The Greastest Romance Ever Sold, I'm not sure it was the best choice as a lead single (that was my thought the first time I heard it).
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MattyJam said: My Name Is Prince was a trash song - Prince should've listened to Warners and released 7 first.
The Holy River, whilst a great song, had zero commercial appeal. Face Down should've been single #2 from Emancipation. Eye Hate U was an odd single choice. A single edit of Billy Jack Bitch would've had a broader appeal imo. [Edited 12/20/23 0:25am] My Name Is Prince is great. It was an obvious single choice. I think it flopped because Prince didn't show his face in the vidéo. That was a bold, risky choice to do that. It could have paid well, but it didn't. Maybe too much singles-fatigue for the audience at the time. 7 was a flop outside the US, and it didn't really sell the album in the US neither by the way : it was already at the bottom of the charts. I think what mostly hurt the sales of the album was that Sexy MF was released way too soon before the album release. Then, it success ( at least in Europe) and all the fuss surrounding its release, didn't impact the sales of the album. I m sure most people at the time thought Sexy MF was on D&P. Take Me With U wasn't a good single choice, because you can't really distinct Prince voice from Apollonnia that much. Hence it peaked "only" at #25, whereas I m sure something like The Beautiful Ones would have been a smash top ten hit. They should have released The Cross instead of IIWYG, it would have been a success in Europe for sure, bigger than any of the other singles from SOTT. Mountains or even Girls and Boys were odd choices, following Kiss. The only other obvious hit from Parade is Sometimes It Snows In April. It would have been successfull and cult in every major markets. Frankly, for Lovesexy, Alphabet St was the only commercially viable single, IMHO. I wouldn't have given a penny on the potential success of the shitty Round and Round, but it went Gold, so...who knows. [Edited 12/20/23 5:10am] | |
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SoulAlive said: *"Glam Slam" *"Mountains"---It's a good song,but not an outstanding one.Many people have said that "Girls And Boys" should have been the second single and I agree.
Girls and Boys was released in Europe instead of Mountains, and the success was not extraordinary neither, to say the least. Mountains sold 530k copies Worldwide, while Girls & Boys 280k. Do the maths. | |
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Both Mountains and Girls and Boys were released as singles in Europe. Just like the white winged dove... | |
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whitesockedfunk said:
Both Mountains and Girls and Boys were released as singles in Europe. Right, And they did more or less the same numbers there. So there s no reason to believe that Girls and Boys would have done better in the US than what Mountains did (Billboard #23, Cashbox #19) | |
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RODSERLING said: My Name Is Prince is great. It was an obvious single choice. I think it flopped because Prince didn't show his face in the vidéo. That was a bold, risky choice to do that. It could have paid well, but it didn't. Maybe too much singles-fatigue for the audience at the time. 7 was a flop outside the US, and it didn't really sell the album in the US neither by the way : it was already at the bottom of the charts. Lead singles always do better by virtue of the fact that they are lead singles. MNIP didn't flop because he wore the chain mask in the video, it flopped because it sucked. The majority of Prince fans think it's embarassing, so if the diehard fanbase think that, it doesn't bode well for the casual music listening audience. 7 was a top 10 US hit and possibly could've been much bigger in Europe if they had released it earlier in the album campaign instead of MNIP. [Edited 12/20/23 8:49am] | |
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Did My Name is Prince flop? It went Top 10 in the UK, and had massive exposure. | |
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never understood the choice of Gotta Stop Messing About as a single. Never liked the song... not on an album... just never understood it. Paisley Park is in your heart - Love Is Here! | |
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leecaldon said:
Did My Name is Prince flop? It went Top 10 in the UK, and had massive exposure. Flopped in the US. | |
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Yeah. There should've been a different long ass video where Prince came back home from an uppidy university and met his old buddy Tony who then calls Prince a "pussy" to which the music starts... "MY NAME IS PRINCE!!! EYE DID NOT COME 2 FUCK AROUND!!!"
"Whatever skin we're in
we all need 2 b friends" | |
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RODSERLING said: whitesockedfunk said:
Both Mountains and Girls and Boys were released as singles in Europe. Right, And they did more or less the same numbers there. So there s no reason to believe that Girls and Boys would have done better in the US than what Mountains did (Billboard #23, Cashbox #19) I’m convinced that “Girls and Boys” would have been a huge second single in the States,following “Kiss”.It actually got alot of radio airplay in my area.It was very well-received.It’s a fun,irresistible track. | |
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I like "My Name Is Prince" I don't know if it was the best choice for a first single,but I enjoy it.That groove is wild! | |
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I think Kiss, Anotherlover, and Sometimes It Snows could have all been great LEAD singles, in that very order, if marketed well and coupled with good videos. I think Mountains actually would have performed much better with better marketing and a better video. The trouble is/was if you didn't already like/love Prince, his use of lyrics/looks/symbolism was "strange" to a lot of the uninitiated- especially in comparison to what was starting to top the charts in the US. I think many people just couldn't relate to the uniqueness of Prince's product - so it sat on the shelf. | |
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one problem with Parade is that...once the movie came out (along with all the bad reviews and negative word-of-mouth),it sorta killed the momentum of the album and its singles."Anotherloverholenyohead" is a fantastic song but when it became the third single,it flopped,which really makes no sense. | |
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MattyJam said: RODSERLING said: My Name Is Prince is great. It was an obvious single choice. I think it flopped because Prince didn't show his face in the vidéo. That was a bold, risky choice to do that. It could have paid well, but it didn't. Maybe too much singles-fatigue for the audience at the time. 7 was a flop outside the US, and it didn't really sell the album in the US neither by the way : it was already at the bottom of the charts. Lead singles always do better by virtue of the fact that they are lead singles. MNIP didn't flop because he wore the chain mask in the video, it flopped because it sucked. The majority of Prince fans think it's embarassing, so if the diehard fanbase think that, it doesn't bode well for the casual music listening audience. 7 was a top 10 US hit and possibly could've been much bigger in Europe if they had released it earlier in the album campaign instead of MNIP. [Edited 12/20/23 8:49am] Bullshit. | |
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Te Amo Corazon. Good God what was he thinking releasing this boring song as a lead single???? | |
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lurker316 said:
Funny that. For me, I always thought Anotherloverholenyohead was by far the catchiest song on Parade. | |
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Lol. Face down? Song has no hook. Princes rap songs (mnip, sexy mf) never did well in the states. Face down would have bombed. It was a promo only single anyway. So they half tried it already. | |
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funkbabyandthebabysitters said: Lol. Face down? Song has no hook. Princes rap songs (mnip, sexy mf) never did well in the states. Face down would have bombed. It was a promo only single anyway. So they half tried it already. But Face Down is much cooler than MNIP and a much better song. I disagree that it has no hook - those dark strings in the chorus are very hooky. | |
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Interesting. I thought it was a good choice. So different from anything he'd done before, very classy, appealing video. It did continue that long run, since TMBGITW of leading with a ballad, which I'm not sure was always the wisest choice. | |
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leecaldon said:
Interesting. I thought it was a good choice. So different from anything he'd done before, very classy, appealing video. It did continue that long run, since TMBGITW of leading with a ballad, which I'm not sure was always the wisest choice. It s a stretch to consider TMBGITW as a leading single IMHO. Because TGE was released like 18 months after, and didn't include the single version everybody knows, but a strange remix instead. Black Sweat would have been a better lead single choice, but this and Te Amo Corazon were unheard of the audience, so at this point, that doesn't really matter anyway. He could have released "Yeah " instead of Usher or "Hey Ya" instead of Outkast, these songs would have flopped at #80 on the hot 100 under his banner. | |
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Face Down as a single?...LOL...Face Down shouldve been buried under the vault...one of Prince's worst creations of all time. | |
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"My Name Is Prince" is a GREAT song. | |
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Both MNIP and Facedown are great ! | |
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