On June 25, 1984 "Purple Rain" was released, Prince's sixth album and his first with "the Revolution".
Indeed, this album, which is also the soundtrack to a film by the same name released two weeks later, has created a "revolution."
Beyond the pile of nominations and awards this album has garnered, it ranks third on the list of best-selling soundtracks ever.
The album revealed to the world that Prince is much more than a gimmick, he is a gifted and talented musician, a multi-instrumentalist and a guitarist of supreme grace.
But more than that, this album influenced a lot of artists, among them, Chris Cornell who especially loved the song "The Beautiful Ones".
So now let's learn about this album some important facts:
1. Prince originally wrote the country-style theme song "Purple Rain" with the intention of collaborating with Stevie Nicks of "Fleetwood Mac".
2. Prince approached the Nicks with a 10-minute recording of the music of "Purple Rain" and asked her to write the lyrics to the song.
3. If you thought the song "Purple Rain" and its guitar solo were too long (the song goes through the 8 minutes), then think again. The song was originally intended to be 11 minutes long and include an additional verse and chorus that dealt with the subject of "money."
4. Each of the three verses in the song deals with a different theme from The Kid's life. His parents, Apollonia and his bandmates.
5. Prince was very worried that the song was very similar to the song "Faithfully" by the band "Journey". He was so worried, that he was rewarded, called the songwriter, Journey's keyboardist - Jonathan Cain, and asked him what he thought. Cain gave Prince a "green light" and noted that there are only a few identical chords.
6. The name of the song and the album "Purple Rain" were taken from the lyrics of the song "Ventura Highway" by the band "America".
7. According to the film's director, Prince had about 100 written songs that he sent him, so that he could choose songs for the soundtrack. "When Doves Cry" and "Take Me With You" were not on this list and were written later. "Purple Rain" was not on the song list either. The director heard Prince play the song in a fundraising show, got excited, and asked Prince to put it on the soundtrack.
8. Prince plays all the instruments in the song "When Doves Cry".
9. There is no bass channel in this song. Prince neutralized it at the last minute.
10. The singles "Let's Go Crazy" and "When Doves Cry" but actually the theme song "Purple Rain" only came in second place on Billboard.
11. Q Magazine ranked the theme song in 40th place out of the 100 best guitar songs of all time.
12. Rolling Stone magazine ranked the song 144th out of the 500 greatest songs of all time.
13. The song also entered the list of 500 songs that shaped the rock 'n' roll of the Hall of Fame.
14. Prince won an Oscar in 1984 for the song "Purple Rain" as the best original song.
15. The soundtrack of the film reached number one on Billboard and stayed there for 24 consecutive weeks.
16. It was Prince's first album to reach number one on the Billboard 200.
(Photo: Tidal)
17. The album entered the list of major albums in the "Grammy Hall of Fame".
18. It also entered the list of significant recordings of the Library of Congress.
19. The album sold about 25 million copies, making it one of the best-selling albums in the world.
20. It is also the sixth best-selling soundtrack in the world. Above it are "The Bodyguard", "Saturday Night Fever", "Grease", "Dirty Dancing" and "Titanic".
21. The album is ranked 8th in the "Rolling Stone" magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.
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