STEVIE WONDER v PRINCE v MICHAEL JACKSON

You have them in the correct order. Thanks!

i cannot decide - at times i have liked each best and each worse - they are all in their own way the best music in the world

Definitely not MJ. So it's down to Stevie and Prince.

I really love Prince. I love the fact that he's a one-man show. He's been focused since Day One and is every bit of a professional musician and showman. For a guy who's perhaps better known for keyboards and synths on his stuff, he may be the greatest living guitar player at the moment. He's fought the record companies, he's changed his name, and he unashamedly continues to be who he is.

That said, I voted for Stevie. His songs are warmer. They make me happier. The guy is a nut with a sense of humor. I get the idea that Stevie would have no problem giving me a big bear hug while Prince would be repulsed by the mere thought (and well he should be.) Stevie's also a one-man band at times, but he also surrounds himself with great talent. The man went through three decades with great songs while honestly, I couldn't tell you the name of a Prince song from the past ten years.

So Prince might be the better artist, but I like Stevie more. Prince also gets points for making the Super Bowl halftime show respectable while Stevie would gamely limp along with the Pointer Sisters and Huey Lewis to sing "Love Potion #9" or something. But hey, now that I just wrote it, that hypothetical performance would be the greatest thing in Super Bowl history.

Prince would be second.

Stevie was on a Super Bowl in the last decade, I think. He sang "Another Star" with Gloria Estefan and went "la la la la la la SUPER BOWL la la la la la la!"

But I still voted for him because he's simply my favorite songwriter ever.

write-in for nate dogg

i considered him for the lolz - but concluded purity was paramount

i voted for mj even though my heart isnt entirely in it, because 1. i think he'll lose, and 2. i like 'off the wall' more than any album any of these artists ever released

I agree with PP that Stevie Wonder is probably a nicer person, but as big a genius as he is, I think Prince was more succesful in experimenting and stretching the form of popular music to the verge of breaking point, as well as being an equally great songwriter as Stevie. Plus he had a fifteen year run of good-to-brilliant albums (right up until Emancipation, one of his best albums ever) released almost yearly, which is something not many pop musicians of the 20th century have managed to do. So it's Prince.

I voted for Michael Jackson. It's not a clear choice, though.

For me, it was an easy choice. I've got about 5 Wonder albums that I listen to pretty often - vs. 2 Prince albums and 1 MJ albums that I rarely listen to. For me it seems that Wonder's mid-70s stuff still seems fresh, as if it could have been recorded yesterday, but Prince and MJ both seem a bit stuck in the '80s, though still classic.

gotta go with prince. i love stevie & mj, but i have more prince albums and i spend more time listening to them these days (although i definitely listened to the other two a lot more when i was younger).

Michael. Although he isn't the prolific songwriting genius that Stevie and Prince are, I like a lot of the songs that he is attached to better.

Specifically, but not solely, "I Want You Back." The song that the Corporation wrote is enormous in its own right, but Michael's wail at the beginning is one of my favorite things ever.

If not for that, it wouldn't have been an easy choice, but I still think that Thriller and Off the Wall appeal to me personally more than the best works from the other guys.

Plus he had a fifteen year run of good-to-brilliant albums (right up until Emancipation, one of his best albums ever) released almost yearly, which is something not many pop musicians of the 20th century have managed to do

So did Stevie Wonder!

Yeah, I'd venture to guess Stevie's streak constituted even more albums, but it depends on how far back into the '60s I'm willing to go.

You don't need to touch the sixties, though: from 1970 to 1985 Stevie released tons of good to great albums.

I think, intellectually, the correct answer is Stevie Wonder.

I voted Prince.

I voted for Prince ultimately. In the battle of second-tier records, Symbol beats In Square Circle.

See, I thought the opposite.

The intellectual correct answer is Prince even though Wonder got my vote (because I voted with my http://farm1.static.flickr.com/92/211633915_6ef065a71f.jpg.)

the mind says prince * the heart says michael * the compromise candidate is stevie

stalemate!

had to go with MJ. I think Prince is a better artist, and Stevie at his best is some of my favorite shit ever, but the best parts of MJ's catalog are the ones that kill me deadest.

There is no heart/mind divide!

I Want You Back is the best song, so that's not really fair to anyone.

"I Want You Back" vs "Little Red Corvette" vs "Do I Do"

yeah lately I've been in awe of "Human Nature", and nothing by Stevie or Prince cuts as deeply---there's something kind of cold at the heart of Prince's best work, which I absolutely love but if I have to choose, I'll choose the confusing vulnerability of "Human Nature" or "The Lady In My Life".

if prince is going to go to war against 'i want you back', it's at least gotta be 'when doves cry' or 'kiss' or 'adore'!

"I Want You Back" vs "Little Red Corvette" vs "Do I Do"

This was my train of thought, although I gave adult MJ one too: "rock with you"

stevie. without question.

prince played on one of stevie's recent albums, and michael & stevie have collabbed (right?). anything else?

wow, i had never seen this 12 min movie version of 'you rock my world'. it's creepy on so many levels, but the percussion breakdown about 9 minutes in is pretty cool.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e3wShd_bX8A

Michael and Stevie had a pretty good duet called "Get It."

I wonder if the results of a "Little Stevie vs. Little MJ" TS would differ from a "grown-up Stevie vs. grown-up MJ" TS.

michael named his kid prince

He named somebody's kid Prince, anyway.

Prince

lOlilyrags!

Impossible to call. Therefore, Prince.

Sign 'O' The Times is the Innervisions of the 80s.

And while Prince has never done anything as dishearteningly dippy as "I Just Called To Say I Love You," his best stuff still ain't Talking Book (although it's close).

That said, I'm voting for Michael. He can sing rings around them both.

Well, he could. These days I think Prince might be winning the singing stakes.

hey yoo guys! whats the difference between prince, stevie and michael?

MIchael Jackson is white.

prince played on one of stevie's recent albums, and michael jackson likes to fuck little boys!

agreed. the only thing michael takes is dancing.

xp

Wonder.

The name says it all!

J0hn D. otm

This question hurts my head.

Stevie Wonder. Because his funk moments were fewer than Prince's.

Obviously his creative heyday was way back when, but the one non OST album Stevie Wonder made in the 90s was better than any (well, again non OST) album released by Prince OR Michael Jackson during the entire 90s. Prince's recent work is better than "A Time To Love" though.

Jungle Fever OST is possibly better than any of his albums post Musiquarium. And that possibly would be a positively had they included "Feeding Off the Love of the Land."

If Stevie had never produced anything but Talking Book, I'd still vote for him.

http://58.img.v4.skyrock.com/585/eastsyd94/pics/159711205.jpg

i'm using this thread as an excuse to repost this spontaneous jam between james brown, michael jackson and an utterly spannered prince

I've always been madly in love with synth-pop MJ:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xfZz-q8CRLE

MJ > Stevie > Prince

OMG braveclub

looool @ prince in that video

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

I refuse to vote on religious grounds.

Prince. Produced the most enjoyable music of the three (Stevie hasn't put out nearly as many bad albums as Prince, but he hasn't put out as many albums period - and beyond his 70s classics I don't really care about him)

Stevie hasn't made any bad albums, actually.

Stevie was more versatile as musical genres go. I don't believe Prince's ballads most of the time and get bored by them.

Stevie hasn't made any bad albums, actually.

May be true. The mid 80s ones were not at all bad, even if not quite up there with his 70s output. His 60s albums were pretty patchy though, 2-3 genius songs and the rest merely filler.

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

lol predictable results

seems about right

Everyone that was actually able to narrow this down is insane.

thread was worth it for that video, though

seen it before, but def. worth rewatching

2 for the price of 1 -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZfggqkOUB6c