Prince: My 10 Favorite Songs

There's 3 artists that can't do anything wrong in my book: Tom Waits, Prince and Manu Chao. For different reasons, they've all been rather important at some point in my life, and when I saw the claim for a 'Top 10 by your favorite artist', it was hard to choose either of them. I guess I eventually went for Prince, as his songs are probably a bit better known and won't make me sound like a total freak.

Why Prince? Ever since his first album back in 1978, For You, Prince has always been controversial. Whether it's for his sexually explicit lyrics, his aversion for the press, his absolutely amazing live-shows, the 4-hour long after-shows, his never-ending energy, people have been talking about him for almost 30 years now. On his debut album, he played all the instruments himself and he's rumored to have mastered almost any instrument known to men, as long as he likes the sound of it. Besides writing his own music, he also wrote hits for The Bangles, Sheena Easton, Sheila E, and many, many others. When Miles Davis is one of your fans, you've got to be doing something right.

This list is not necessarily a list of his best songs. So don't expect to find 'Kiss' or 'Purple Rain' in here. Like so many artists, they're best songs are not really their most successful ones.

Sometimes it snows in April.

After 'Purple Rain', the movie, Prince released a second one, 'Under the Cherry Moon', which wasn't nearly as successful (and that's the understatement of the day) but came with a great soundtrack, 'Parade'. 'Sometimes...' is the last song on the album, and for me one of his best songs ever. You can hear the emotion in every guitar pick and although being one of his longer songs, it will never cease to amaze.

If I was your girlfriend.

In 1987 he released 'Sign 'O' the Times', arguably one of the best double albums ever. From the title song with the revolutionary video-clip to the pumping 'Housequake', from the beautiful ballads to uber-poppy 'Starfish and Coffee', everything is right and the only possible thing to do after listening to all 16 songs is play them again. I chose this one for having one of the better lines in music history: 'Would you run to me if somebody hit you even if that somebody was me'. Makes you think, doesn't it?

Darling Nikki.

Prince's true commercial breakthrough came in 1984 with the release of 'Purple Rain'. Originally the soundtrack to the movie with the same name, the album soon started to lead a life on its own and is still considered one of the great rock albums of all time. 'Let's go crazy', 'When Doves Cry', 'I would die 4 U' and 'Purple Rain' all became anthems for a generation and still get people on their feet. I went for a lesser known song, again because of the content. This song apparently made Tipper Gore come up with the 'Parental Advisory: Explicit Lyrics' sticker on albums. Could the line 'I met her in a hotel lobby masturbating with a magazine' have anything to do with that?

Nothing compares 2 U.

One of Prince's songs that originally didn't make it. He recorded it in 1985, but it remained unnoticed until Sinead O' Connor recorded it and it became a world-wide hit. A few years later Prince started playing it during his shows and eventually recorded it himself as a duet with Rosie Gaines for one of his 'Best Of' albums.

Something in the water (does not compute).

'1999', was released in 1992 and was a crossover between the R6B, bluesy ballads that Prince used on his first albums and the steaming, high paced songs he'd become know for. 'Something in the water' is what an avalanche would sound like if it was recorded by Prince. Funky, steamy, fast-mouthed energy with a few style changes during the song. Definitely underrated, both as an album and as a song.

The future.

In 1989, Prince composed the soundtrack for 'Batman'. Although by all means not his masterpiece, there are some interesting songs on there. On some of the songs it sounds like Prince used the whole Batman-hype to experiment with a combination of electronic music and ballads. Heavily criticized by almost all reviewers world-wide, the album sold 11 million copies. 'The Future' for me shows why Prince is a true genius: more than 5 years before the genre became popular and widely accepted, he showed his vision and went along with crazy loops and other gimmicks.

Joy in repetition.

Another song from a soundtrack that did way better than the actual movie. This was the first album where Prince showed off his new band, The New Power Generation. Although officially not his band until the next album, the appeared on most of the songs. I chose this song for the typically Prince-like jeu de mots: He repeats the phrase 'There's joy in repetition' about 5 times, doing exactly what the phrase says. (Does anybody get this?)

Bob George.

Song from the famous 'Black Album'. After the commercial success of 'Sign 'O' the Times', the record company wanted a follow-up in the same lines. Prince wouldn't be Prince if he wouldn't go in a completely different direction. The record company didn't agree, and decided to release 'Lovesexy' instead, a lot poppier and less dark album. I love 'Bob George' because it's one of the songs where Prince makes fun of himself and his critics: 'Who? Prince? That skinny motherfucker with the high voice?'

One of us.

One of the few songs Prince recorded that he didn't write or co-write. Originally recorded by Joan Osborne, Prince recorded it for his 'Emancipation' album, and performed it live with the word 'Slave' written on his cheek, a reference to his dispute with his record company.

Lolita.

In 2006, Prince released his 13th (!!) album, '3121' and showed he's still one of the great modern musicians. It's not his best work, but still a lot better than most of the music out there these days. With this song he gets back to his roots, with tongue in cheek lyrics and a mixture of pop and funk.

2008 celebrates the 30th anniversary of Prince as a recording artist and I for one hope this will not go unnoticed. He's fitter and better than ever, and definitely has a few incredible songs left in his sleeve.