I know this must constantly come up but...
What are the essential Prince albums?
I am a huge music fan and have been reading lots of things about Prince abd I'm wondering which records to start with. I was thinking about getting the Hits\B sides 3 disc but am worried it's only the "simple poppy songs", is this true?
Any thoughts?

The Hits/B sides is a good place to start.

As for essential Prince albums, I'd go for these:

Dirty Mind
1999
Purple Rain
Parade
Sign O' The Times
The Truth



[This message was edited Wed Nov 12 1:41:41 PST 2003 by Cloudbuster]

Sign O The Times (peak)
1999 (early days)
The Rainbow Children (now)

They're as good a start as any IMHO...

KeithyT said:

Co-sign and Good Day, KeithyT!

stymie said:

Hi stymie!

rainman1985 said:

Everyone has their own opinions on what is essential and what is not. You have to make your own decision about that. Some people on this site find some of his work to be quite mediocre, but I tend to disagree. I'm a huge fan and love most of his music. Certainly not all (animal kingdom comes to mind) but for the most part I enjoy several songs on each cd. I digress...I would recommend to start 1999, Dirty Mind, SOTT, Lovesexy, Parade, The Love Symbol cd, The Gold Experience, Crystal Ball, The Rainbow Children - shit, I could never come up with just one to suggest to you. Buy them all, you'll find gems on every cd.

The Hits/The B-Sides is definetly the way forward. Not all the songs R poppy, well neither is Prince. The good thing with it aswell is that its more comprehensive than 'The Very Best of Prince' which basically just has the songs any Tom, Dick and Harry had heard of. It also has non-album tracks such as Peach and Pope on it 2. Plus the B-Sides album is great not only as a collection but becuz some of them singles R hard 2 find these days.

i hope u dont think i'm a smartarse... but u gotta get em all !, and come on the org and let every1 know ur faves etc !, u've had some good advice ie; start with the hits/b sides

theres pop,funk and some real mad shit !!!

Everything released between 1980 and 1988. Parade and Lovesexy being my favorites (though it can take time to fully appreciate them).
Post-Lovesexy recommendable albums: , The Gold Experience, Emancipation, Rainbow Children and NEWS.
And a couple of aspirines

ok, just cos people seem to refuse to give you a simple starting point, after hits/b sides (which id shop around for cos its a tad expensive) its probs just best to go to his biggest albums 1999, and purple rain, if you feel youre going hardcore fandom, go for sign o the times.
usually a good idea is to choose the songs you like most off of the greatest hits album and buy those albums yeah?
also, try not to ignore his post 1989 output, though im not going to list a ton of albums, try find some cheap so if you dont like em no harm done. to see where hes at today i would try rainbow children though. but do what i did and go with 80s albums first!

Mutiny said:

Rainman, if you take that advice- and even if you don't- just make sure to get the Black Album! (which Prince recorded in in 1987, but didn't release until 1994)

Chico said:

Black Album

Dirty Mind
Controversy
1999
Parade
Lovesexy
The Truth


Those are the most creative and inventive albums he's created to date. I would also Recommend Crystal Ball, but I only recommend the song itself.

My problems with the hits 1 & 2 / The B-sides:
1. It isn't chronological ... so it won't give you inside in Prince's musical development
2. The new tracks are awfull
3. A few tracks are edited, almost all B-sides are

My advice for a good start:

1. Dirty Mind
2. 1999
3. Purple Rain
4. Sign "O" the Times

That gives you a excellent first impression of Prince's music in the-good-old-times.
Stay away from the '90 and '00 stuff!!

leave out the first two albums, For You and Prince, and then just get the rest.

cloreensbrother said:

... ??? ... are you serious ???
You like the '90-crap better than:

Soft and wet
Just as long as we're together
I wanna be your lover
Why you wanna treat me so bad
Bambi
and so on, and so on

The first two albums are great!
the '90 and '00 aren't mine recomendations for a good start