The Best Prince Non-Top Ten AT40 single

“I wanna be your lover”

I wanna give "Money..." love but "Mountains" is glaring at me.

“Money”, no hesitation. There are like five classics in the list but that’s the one I love.

Mountains, no hesitation

most days my favourite Prince track full stop

same

love the 12" remix as well

Mountains, big time. A hugely underrated jam and the peak of his Wendy/Lisa psychedelic rock flirtation. I want the Around the World in a Day album to sound more like this. It’s like he figured it out on this song and then dumped W&L.

"mountains" is all-time but I mean... "1999"... you know?

Love them all except “Arms of Orion”

I've spent time with Parade this week, an intimacy that inspired this poll; and, my god, I can't figure out how he and W&L condensed funk workouts into two-minute tunelets with steel drums ("New Position"), or how they came up with the tersest psychedelia of all time ("Christopher Tracy's Parade," "I Wonder U").

I think right there you just obliquely touched on the definition of genius

if alfred isn’t gonna vote for “money,” i will!!

"Take Me With U"

The only dip on Parade is Anotherloverholeinyourhead. Never liked that one too much, but it’s not an outright stinker.

Oh I love what Prince-the-producer does with the backup vocals -- the way they interrupt the main vocal.

I will probably vote Letitgo just so it gets at least one vote because it’s a fantastic song but the answer is Mountains

I'm ready for the reallllllll

I will probably vote Letitgo just so it gets at least one vote because it’s a fantastic song but the answer is Mountains

― castanuts (DJP)

I bought this album thanks to you -- no regrets.

mountains

it's not even fair. mountains is like top 50 songs ever

Tough choice between the song that introduced me to him as a preteen ("I Wanna Be Your Lover") and the one that reintroduced me as a teen ("1999")

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_WmPeLOLDnA

How the FUCK did “1999” not make the top ten? I guess Prince wasn’t very well-known at the time?

overshadowed by the release of "Little Red Corvette" at the time, is my recollection

Hey, "1999" reached #12 in 1983 the second time it was released.

It's OK, "Sussudio" went to Number One

otm

1999 is the correct answer

To me there’s the first four on the list which are all brilliant singles in their own way, and then there’s all the other stuff. I’m going with “Take Me with U,” the one I could listen to at any given time.

fair

The little repetitive guitar bit in I Wanna Be Your Lover (during the intro and chorus) is so simple and good. It's a tiny detail that makes the song.

The thing I appreciate about the s/t is that Prince sings the entire album in his falsetto.

It's not my fav album of his, no, because I preferred the more multifaceted stuff from later, but it's still a great album front to back

He didn't drop the falsetto until bits of Controversy.

Dirty Mind might be my fav

Mountains and take me with u are both top 10 prince tracks for me, very hard to choose. Maybe if it’s the album versions, tmwu, and if it’s the 12”, mountains? Idk.

I think my passion for tmwu is more nostalgic, the rush of being a kid and seeing that scene in PR when they’re on his bike together… it took me ages to accept the fact that this wasn’t one of the bigger US hits off the album.

While Mountains is veritably the greater song, I wish there was a timeline where he Wendy and Lisa did like ten more things in this vein. And my favorite of his 12” mixes.

I will probably vote Letitgo just so it gets at least one vote because it’s a fantastic song but the answer is Mountains

― castanuts (DJP), Saturday, April 15, 2023 12:31 PM

this, but about "partyman" (and said with a good amount of jest).

what? it's a fun song.

hm- "take me with u"

Kinda leaning toward "Take Me With U" — I didn't even know it was a single, but I remember liking it a lot when I first bought Purple Rain at...12? 13?

Wendy and Lisa both conducted the strings and Lisa was the one who arranged them. that was one incredible duo

I love them so much

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TVOZBBGJZ-E

Argument for Partyman

"Partyman" was my favorite scene in Batman even before I knew Prince's music.

I'm listening to Parade now for the first time ever in my life and it sounds mindblowingly awesome

JEALOUS!!!

Boys & Girls is a damn JAM

I had a pet hedgehog named Christopher Tracy and he died shortly after my first serious relationship fell apart and I listened to Sometimes It Snows in April and the dam broke and I bawled like a big ol’ baby.

Voting "I Wanna Be Your Lover" because of that other poll but could have voted for a number of these.

whenever i read the words "i wanna be your lover" i have to go and listen to the dimitri in paris edit for 2 straight hours. commencing...

I'm listening to Parade now for the first time ever in my life and it sounds mindblowingly awesome

― The king of the demo (bernard snowy),

vous êtes très belle!

I'm listening to Parade now for the first time ever in my life and it sounds mindblowingly awesome

― The king of the demo (bernard snowy)

I vividly remember my 1st time, and it was 37 years ago

granted I was shrooming but still

it is actually the best Prince album

Close to. I remember sitting in the corridor of my residential college aged 18 with a bunch of us singing “Sometimes it Snows in April” outside our rooms. I have no idea why now but it was beautiful.

and I always remember Susan Rogers’ story about P sitting down at the kit, day 1 of the Parade sessions and drumming out the first four tracks in one take.

Parade is 100% the best Prince album

tick

and again, tick

Even songs I have heard many times before ("Kiss") sound fresher and... ~weirder~ than they ever have before, in this context.

I had a pet hedgehog named Christopher Tracy and he died shortly after my first serious relationship fell apart and I listened to Sometimes It Snows in April and the dam broke and I bawled like a big ol’ baby.

― Cow_Art, Tuesday, 18 April 2023 19:35 (yesterday) link

My recollection isnt 100% perfect (or even 50%) but I feel like its snowed in April every year since Prince died

cool to see parade love. i remember ye olde days trying to defend it when folks were like "ya but what else does it have besides kiss???"

and I always remember Susan Rogers’ story about P sitting down at the kit, day 1 of the Parade sessions and drumming out the first four tracks in one take.

― assert (matttkkkk), Tuesday, April 18, 2023 1:44 PM

as i didn't hear it for the first time until the early 2000s, i already knew this story going into my initial listen. kind of made it even better; definitely added some prestige-y "wow factor" enjoyment. when i digested all the classic p material, i rated parade his best for several years afterwards. (anybody's guess what that might be now)

anyway. yeah, "partyman" is what i voted for.

Yes, yes, Parade is my favorite too, especially if you count all the amazing 12" mixes!

Listened to Parade all the way through yesterday for the first time since it was new. I liked it a lot better now than I did then. Don't know if it's top-tier Prince; I'd still rank it below SOTT and Purple Rain and even Lovesexy, but it's really good.

oh, i'd definitely rate lovesexy above it by now.

Could've sworn that "1999" reached top 10 during its second run on the charts

(I know I'm the umpteenth person to make that observation)

The album did (his first), not the single.

Gotta throw some support behind "I Hate U," jaw-dropping in both form and content, and probably his last truly great single overall? (Why he didn't release "Call My Name" as a single, I'll never know.)

"Black Sweat" is the last one I really loved

It wasn't officially a single, but it peaked at #75. I heard it on R&B radio more often than "Musicology."

There's actually not a dud among these tracks imo. Amazing run when even the misses are pretty majestic.

It wasn't officially a single, but it peaked at #75. I heard it on R&B radio more often than "Musicology."

― the dreaded dependent claus (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, April 19, 2023 1:14 PM (two minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

ah weird i thought it was a single!

My shameful Prince confession is that I've never really clicked with Parade or gotten all the love. For me this is I Wanna Be Your Lover or 1999, but I've listened to Gett Off and My Name Is Prince way more than Mountains.

(although, the closest I've ever come to loving Mountains was at a DJ/VJ thing where they played the video)

I'm always running at about 80% over Parade

(Kicks back into 100% on Side B tho)

I'm always running at about 80% over Parade

― fair but so uncool beliefs here (Eric H.)

I wonder YOU.

Man, I just relistened to "Anotherloverholenyohead" into "Sometimes it Snows" and I take it all back. Amazing album

And the former was the third single.

"Sometimes It Snows" is just a masterpiece. that intro alone

Wendy and Lisa. And if not, they taught him that leisurely opening (see: "Condition of the Heart").

the closest I've ever come to loving Mountains was at a DJ/VJ thing where they played the video)

― change display name (Jordan), Wednesday, April 19, 2023 2:17 PM (three hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

There's nothing greater than the glowing-neon Revolution dancing through the green-screen heavens. My favorite song here too.

I was watching a lot of music videos in 1986, and I remember seeing "Mountains" only once. I loved it but it's easy to forget that even at that early date, there were a number of critics and fans cooling to him.

when was the infamous "getting booed whilst opening for the stones" incident?

it's easy to forget that even at that early date, there were a number of critics and fans cooling to him.

peak rockism.

He was losing his American R&B audience by 1986, yes. D&P was a deliberate attempt to woo them back.

meanwhile "mountains" is as pure an r+b banger as it gets. oh well.

i don't know if it's a "pure banger" to me it's part of my favorite prince style - an odd mix of pop/r&b/and orchestral 60s psychedelia, take me with u and obviously around the world in a day mine that vein too

He was losing his American R&B audience by 1986, yes. D&P was a deliberate attempt to woo them back.

I remember being surprised by this:

- LENNY WARONKER: [Warner Bros.'] urban department didn't think
there was a song on the album that they could get played on radio.
So I get him on the phone, and he said, "Maybe I could take
so-and-so and turn it around." Then he stopped and said, "It's a
marketing problem. You guys deal with it." And he hung up. That was
on a Friday. On Monday, I get a call from him, and he says, "You've
got yourself a new baby." It was an amazing new track, "Gett Off."
It turned out to be a big hit.

https://www.startribune.com/prince-an-oral-history-in-the-beginning/51508747/

I was mixing the soundtrack at a soundstage in Los
Angeles. I pull up with two huge tapes under my arms, and I see
Prince talking to somebody. "David, do you know Michael Jackson?"
In this soundstage, there was a pingpong table. They come in with
their bodyguards. Prince says, "You want to play pingpong?" Michael
says, "I don't know how to play, but I'll try." The whole crew
stops working to watch them play. Pretty soon, Prince says to
Michael, "You want me to slam it?" Michael drops his paddle and
holds his hands up in front of his face so the ball won't hit him.
Needless to say, the game is over. Michael walks out with his
bodyguard. And Prince starts strutting around like a rooster. "Did
you see that? He played like Helen Keller."

it's easy to forget that even at that early date, there were a number of critics and fans cooling to him.

peak rockism.

I just remember Rolling Stone's review of Sign O The Times said something like, "this is fine, but where's the big statement we know he's capable of making?"

omfg

lmao

Prince appeared on the scene as a champion of outcast originality. He demonstrated for a new generation the beauty of true style and unconstrained personality, the complexity of the interplay among love and God and sexuality and -- most important -- the essentially multiracial nature of rock & roll music. He is an artist capable of altering popular consciousness in concrete ways, but Sign o' the Times seems unlikely to alter anything more profound than the face of the hit parade. Nothing wrong with that, but it's rather like the story about Jesus feeding the multitudes with miraculous loaves and fishes. Such fundamental nourishment is always appreciated. But when a full-blown feast is so obviously within Prince's capabilities, one wonders: Why doesn't he go for it?

-- Kurt Loder

Why didn't Jesus go for it, I ask you

That all sounds pretty interesting. In fact, it is. "Sign o' the Times," "Housequake," "Hot Thing" and "I Could Never Take the Place of Your Man" will be new Prince classics. "It," "Slow Love," "It's Gonna Be a Beautiful Night" and the almost-heavy-metal "U Got the Look" are almost as good. There would be one great LP hidden in the sprawl of this double album if the songs exerted any uniform effect. Unfortunately, they don't. That's okay; one takes great songs wherever one can find them. But simple virtuosity -- mere brilliance, one might almost say -- seems too easy an exercise, at this point, for someone of Prince's extraordinary gifts. And he is beginning to repeat himself: "Play in the Sunshine" is the sort of soulful raveup he's tossed off several times before, and the little bass idea that so memorably animates the title tune crops up again in both "Hot Thing" and the mildly intriguing "Forever in My Life." This way lies decadence.

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I mean I'm sorry this is akin to saying

There'd be one great EP in Life After Death if Biggie had the gravitas to rap with any sort of conviction, unfortunately he doesn't.

Loder turned out to be a Libertarian so he is confirmed as dumb.

“This way lies decadence”

Dorkus says this like it’s a bad thing?!? GTFO

"I Can Never Take the Place of Your Man" is so iconic that it has been covered by tons of fuckin' people including the fuckin' Goo Goo Dolls of all bands (though with guest vocalist Lance Diamond singing, as they often did back then)

xpost what was with all of those shitty conservative MTV VJs

you had Loder's shitty Libertarianism, you had Kennedy actually shouting "Nixon now! Nixon now!" at Bill Clinton at the Rock 'n Roll Inaugural Ball and getting a GOP elephant tattooed on her thigh.

i guess there should be a fun irony in a Kennedy screaming the praises of Nixon.

and covered by Jordan Knight! xpost

yeah I think that was the biggest cover of it

Best song ever about rebuffing the advances of a pregnant woman in a bar. (Surprising Nashville hasn't made more of that subject matter...)

Nashville take would be "I could never help you get an abortion"

Loder turned out to be a Libertarian so he is confirmed as dumb.

― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Thursday, April 20, 2023 2:08 PM

what was with all of those shitty conservative MTV VJs

― Cthulhu Diamond Phillips (Neanderthal), Thursday, April 20, 2023 2:09 PM

cool observations. i fucking hated those assholes back in the day, especially kennedy. ugh, her voice. it was like morrissey if he were a babbling budgie. i have a memory of her introducing a snoop dogg video and she wasn't even trying to hide her displeasure at having to do so. fucking obnoxious, good lord.

(sorry for rant post, but man i been holding onto this vitriol since the early 90s lol)

Had to vote for 1999, but this material is All Time. Dude was way cool

it was like morrissey if he were a babbling budgie

lololol

“If I Was Your Girlfriend In A Coma”

wonder what the name of his female alter ego would be

See, here's a basic rule.

All double albums get shitty reviews because the reviewer has "oh man, two whole LPs?" to listen to, so is immediately grumpy.

("Beatles", of course, excluded as the 'rules' generally don't apply to The Beatles)

Take Me With You

The inEVITAble: The Best Madonna Non-Top Ten AT40 single

Loder turned out to be a Libertarian so he is confirmed as dumb.

― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Thursday, April 20, 2023 2:08 PM

During the height of the pandemic, I was surprised that Loder was very much in support of vaccines and mocked the anti-vaxxers despite his Libertarian beliefs.

https://imgur.com/BR6w6ux

dammit

https://i.imgur.com/BR6w6ux.jpg

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

no reason, just a favorite photo—
https://i.imgur.com/HslzS7G.png

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

I voted for Take Me With U, but My Name is Prince deserved at least one vote, The Arms of Orion is cool as well - I love Prince!

1999, the song so nice, Prince wrote it twice

(but it and the album it came from are all time)

wow

someday I hope to get "Mountains"

what's not to get??

well maybe something is wrong with me I just don't... it doesn't click

it's enjoyable but I find the chorus lacking, like... I can't hear the melodic hook

I have the 12"

not a big Parade fan tbh, tho obv Kiss and Sometimes it Snows rule my world

"Mountains" isn't my favorite, but I very much hear what makes it a Prince cult favorite

Mountains is such a hazy song, so much in the mix, and the chorus is more like a refrain that bubbles up from the foment. The intense psychedelia of AtWiaD, Parade and SotT was pretty much the wildest music I knew at the time, I’m forever grateful he opened the door for me. I think the next record my friend and I got into was Electric Ladyland.