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The artistic genius Prince is one of the most talented and versatile musicians to ever set foot in a recording studio.

Since 1978, he’s released over 30 albums, dozens of hit singles and movies, and performed at sold out concert venues from his Minneapolis hometown to Japan. With such a vast catalog, picking ten of his best songs is no easy task.

Did we miss anything? Let us know your favorite in the comments below…

10. “When You Were Mine”

Prince’s third album, Dirty Mind from 1980, was considered a “departure” record by some people. Gone were the disco influences that shaped songs like “I Wanna Be Your Lover” and “Soft & Wet.” They were replaced with shades of rock and new wave that were sweeping through America at that time.  “When You Were Mine” manages to combine the new wave influence with an admitted Beatles-esque sensibility that provides the soundtrack to Prince’s obsession with an ex.

9. “Pop Life”

In 1985, Prince followed up the massive success of the Purple Rain soundtrack with Around The World In A Day, a psychedelic pop record that only someone like Prince could make.  Despite its many nods to psychedelia, one of ATWIAD’s best songs was “Pop Life,” a song that addresses social issues like the dangers of drugs.

8. “Adore”

Influenced by R&B ballads by singers like Anita Baker and Luther Vandross, one of Prince’s biggest songs that never became a single was “Adore,” the final song on Prince’s sprawling 1987 double album, Sign O’ The Times.  Prince toes the line between the sacred and profane with the song’s churchy instrumentation and erotic lyrics. The song also is home to the classic lyric: “You could burn up my clothes / Smash up my ride / Well maybe not the ride…”

7. “Purple Rain”

We all know this song, which probably owes more to the traditions of country music than to R&B.  The nearly nine-minute album version is a revelation with Prince’s extended guitar solo. There’s a reason why Prince performs this song at nearly every concert he does.

6. “Kiss”

Originally intended for a group called Mazarati that Prince signed to his Paisley Park Records label, “Kiss” started off as a simple 90 second demo.  Prince gave the demo to his engineer, David “Z” Rivkind who managed to take Prince’s extremely rough sketch of a song, and turn it into one of the funkiest songs His Royal Badness ever touched.  Feedback was so positive that Prince decided to keep the song for himself.  Mazarati weren’t left completely in the dirt though.  Their background vocals remain on the track.

5. “If I Was Your Girlfriend”

“If I Was Your Girlfriend” was released as the second single from Prince’s 1987 album, Sign O’ The  Times. Despite a warm reception from R&B radio at the time, the song stalled on the pop charts, mainly by those who were confused by the song’s premise.  Using a sped up vocal to simulate a woman’s voice, Prince is actually singing to his then-girlfriend, Susannah Melvoin. Of course, things get kinda freaky as the song goes along, but this is Prince we’re talking about.

4. “Joy In Repetition”

A relatively obscure track to casual fans, “Joy In Repetition” appears on the soundtrack to Prince’s 1990 film disaster Graffiti Bridge.  The song’s narrative vividly details Prince walking into a club where “four-letter words are seldom heard with such dignity and bite.”  Inside the club he sees a woman on stage singing the same two words over and over again as he falls in love with her, dragging her from the stage and running out of the club arm in arm.  Prince rarely goes into narrative mode to the extent that he does in this song.  Plus, he straight up murders the guitar solo.

3. “The Ballad Of Dorothy Parker”

“The Ballad Of Dorothy Parker” is another one of those rare narratives in Prince’s discography.  A deceptively simple song, the song features little more instrumentation than a drum machine, keyboard, guitar and bass.  Prince tells the tale of meeting a waitress who starts flirting with him.  He leaves the restaurant with her even though he admits that he’s seeing someone.  But as the song ends, he reveals that Dorothy “didn’t see the movie cuz she hadn’t read the book first.”

2. “Little Red Corvette”

With those opening synth chords, and the lyric, “I guess I shoulda known by the way you parked your car sideways that it wouldn’t last,” Prince hit critical and commercial pay dirt. Prince works the fast woman as fast car metaphor for all its worth on this song, which was reportedly written in between cat naps while riding in the car of one of his band members. “Little Red Corvette” has the distinction of being one of the first videos by a Black artist played on MTV.

1. “When Doves Cry”

The last song written for Purple Rain, “When Doves Cry” is a pop music masterpiece. The opening guitar riff grabs your attention and doesn’t let go until the sparsely arranged song comes to an end.  “When Doves Cry” helped propel Purple Rain, the film and album, to classic status.

SEE ALSO:

Legendary Musician Prince Dead At 57 

Vanity, Prince Protege, Dies At 57

Salute To The Purple One: Top 10 Prince Songs  was originally published on newsone.com