Dancelot said:

ah, that was the 80s... when such a "weird" song could hit.

we must have been listening to the same show, i remember that. though i prefered rick dees.

Funny alot of yous mentioned 7 and Raspberry Beret, they only made no. 27 and no. 25 in the Uk charts. And because 7 only made it to no. 7 in the US and it's brutal rubbish I don't consider it a hit at all, bye.

Heiress said:

haha, yes those were the days... Rick Dees I never got to hear on radio, you see here in my little Austrian hometown I considered myself really lucky when (after years of following AT40 on AM radio!!) we finally got the show aired on the regular public radio station, yuppieee!! but we DID get Solid Gold on TV though where Rick Dees was the host for a while

memories....

Sexy M.F. hitting no.4 in the U.K.

Dancelot said:

solid gold... ah yes...

remember that dancer "darcel?" we used to call her duracell... she could really shake it!

Heiress said:

oh yes!! I remember dem dancers!! I still have looooots of old VHS tapes with 100s of artists performances on the show.. I also used to tape the Top 10 countdown intermezzos when those dancers swere shaking their thang to the current hits...

great stuff

Dancelot said:

somebody needs to bring that show back!

i'm surprised it hasn't happened already, considering that the "80s are back," as it were.

I was gonna say TMBGITW at first, but then someone mentioned Batdance and I have to agree. The first time I heard Batdance was on the radio during the summer in Chicago and I thought it was the WORST song I had ever heard by Prince or any other artist. It sounded so different from anything on the radio. I truly thought he had ruined his career with that one. Then like so many other Prince tunes, it started to grow on me and I really like it now.

Either Diamonds and Pearls or TMBGITW.

I have spread the cheese liberally over a cracker and ate it, to prevent hearing either of those songs again.

I was surprised Erotic City become a cult hit, even though it was a b side.

Dancelot said:

i agree to Kiss but When Doves Cry was the reason for me starting to be a prince-fan

Alphabet St. since it sounds a little too busy and cartoony.

7 cause it just doesn't sound like anything that'd be top 40 material.

Hmm and I was pretty surprised by Batdance being such a huge hit cause it just sounds so damn quirky for a single.


Why are ppl listing Musicology? That song isn't an official hit.

LillianLaughs said:

I dunno... His winning streak was sort of dead by that time... I mean Batdance was a hit, mostly because of the accompanying movie but outside of that it had been near 3 years since Prince had a reasonably big hit of his own.

prins777 said:

heh you know that's funny... because the first time I heard that I just *knew* it was going to be a smash. One station here ende up playing it every hour on thr hour for a whole week or something like that. I was very conflicted about the actual track - it sounded, bravely, like nothing else on the radio right then but it also seemed to me to be a completely shallow and vapid sell out to late 80's Attention Deficient Disorder Commercialism.

As a side note... Did Batdance introduce the horrid idea of using dialogue snippets from movies in radio singles?

Mazerati said:

thieves in the temple, i still don't like that song

darmstro said:

Co-sign, these songs (especially TMBGITW) are plain embarassing!

Alphabet St. - I never understood what that song was about
The most beautiful girl in the world - is there anybody on this planet that actually likes this song?

Heidi said:

I just found out that it is supposedly about oral sex...

Got to be The most beautiful girl in the world made no 1 in the UK and even though I like it didnt sound like a hit.Just goes to show the man can be comercial as well as controvercial and I personally think he could write songs like this anytime he wanted lets face it Prince can write a ballad in his sleep
It was good to see him finally get a no 1 (in the UK) but he has released far better songs than this one.

MY NAME IS PRINCE - when I first heard this track I couldn't hear a tune. It grew on me though, the lyrics are very tongue in cheek and I guess he was mimicking MJ a little with the grunts and howls after each line. Original Mix Edit is my favourite version.

CalhounSq said:

It's his only number 1 single in the UK.

I remember thinking Kiss was WAY too weird for 1986 pop radio the 1st few times I heard it. The 1st indication that it was gonna be a hit was when I went to buy the single and every place I went to was sold out.

Theives in the Temple. It didn't do anything for me until I heard the extended version. I didn't think it was even going to chart. I still, to this day, don't understand why Joy in Repetition wasn't released as a single instead.

Finally, when I 1st heard The Most Beautiful Girl In The World I thought it was horrible. It has grown on me but I wouldn't have ever thought that song would be a hit.

7 and TMBGITW. Both just didn't seem like songs that you'd hear on the radio but sure enough, they were played regularly, at least in NYC. With 7, I've had friend tell me over the years that they really love that song. With The Most Beautiful Girl..., that surpirsed me the most. I remember buying the single at a record store around 34th Street in Manhattan and having a conversation with the cashier about the song and how much we loved it. That song was everywhere. I just hope the same thing happens with Call My Name.

Mazerati said:

The Most Beautiful Girl in the World. I remember when the single came out in February of '94. I remember dancing to it with my girlfriend at the time in my bedroom. Oh-ahhhh...

Anyway, when the song ended, I remember looking at her and saying, "He's crazy if he thinks this song is going to be a hit." Shows you what I know.

funkadelic11 said:

yeah, but an estimated 98 % of the records buying audience don't have your/our extraordinary tast in music don't get me wrong, of course I loooove When doves cry, I just meant it was not commercial enuff for Top 40 radio and up to this day I don't think it would have been such a big hit without the movie and all the surrounding media hype, MTV coverage etc. ... ...

Purple Rain - awful track - shoulda been a b-side at most.

I can't say that. All Prince's music came as a waterfall in a very short time to me. Mr.Prince Roger Nelson, surpiced me most himself.

Famboozled said:

Are you kidding me? That's his greatest song ever!

Little Red Corvette... I didn't immediately understand the lyrics and it reminded me of Duran Duran. Now i LOVE it

As much as I enjoy it personally, "Batdance" seems to me an unlikely hit (much less a #1 hit!) if for no other reason than the fact that there had never been a song quite like it...it was a "sampler" of both the album and the film, a pastiche of clips and sounds that inexplicably work together in a bizarre way. Why folks loved it? Who knows!

I also feel like "The Most Beautiful Girl..." was unlikely in that it did SO WELL after Prince had basically dropped off the face of the commercial pop charts and the song didn't seem to be that amazingly vital or unique or different. It was almost as if people everywhere said, "Yay! Prince is back!" but I doubt it. That's what we always wish would happen, but it rarely does. So why did it work with THAT song? I can't explain it.

Keith/Kacey