PURPLE RAIN (ALBUM)

'''Music from the Motion Picture Purple Rain''' (also called just '''Purple Rain''') is a soundtrack album by Prince and The Revolution. It was released by Warner Bros. Records on June 25, 1984 and was Prince's sixth album. Prince wrote all of the songs on the album. Some of the tracks had portions recorded live when Prince performed on August 3, 1983 at the First Avenue club in Minneapolis. This show was a benefit concert for the Minnesota Dance Theater. It was also the first appearance in Prince's band "The Revolution" by Wendy Melvoin, his guitarist in the ''Purple Rain'' film and for a few years afterwards.

Contents

Style

Songs

Awards

Critics' Praise

Sales and chart positions

Charts

Track listing

Personnel

Miscellaneous

Notes

External link

Style

''Purple Rain'' was the first Prince album recorded with and credited to his backing group the Revolution. The resultant album was denser musically than Prince's previous one-man albums, emphasized full band performances and multiple layers of guitars, keyboards, icy electronic synthesizer effects, drum machines, and other instruments. Musically, ''Purple Rain'' remained grounded in the electro-funk and R&B elements of Prince's previous work while demonstrating a more pronounced rock feel in its grooves and emphasis on guitar showmanship. As a soundtrack record, much of the music had a grandiose, synthesized, and even--by some evaluations--a vaguely psychedelic sheen to the production and performances. The music on ''Purple Rain'' is generally regarded as the most pop-oriented of Prince's career, though a number elements point towards the more experimental pop/psychedelic records Prince would record after ''Purple Rain''. As with many massive crossover albums, ''Purple Rain's consolidation of a myriad of styles, from pop/rock to urban R&B to dance, is generally acknowledged to account in part for its enormous popularity.
In addition to the record's breakthrough sales, music critics noted the innovative and experimental aspects of the soundtrack's music, most famously on the spare, bass-less "When Doves Cry," which was frequently identified as pop at its most avant-garde. Other aspects of the music, especially its synthesis of electronic elements with organic instrumentation and full-band performances (some, as noted above, recorded live) along with its landmark consolidation of rock and R&B, were identified by critics as distinguishing, even experimental factors. Stephen Erlewine of allmusic guide writes that ''Purple Rain'' finds Prince "consolidating his funk and R&B roots while moving boldly into pop, rock, and heavy metal" and identifies the record's 9 songs as "uncompromising...forays into pop" and "stylistic experiments," echoing general sentiment that ''Purple Rain's music represented Prince at his most popular without forsaking his experimental bent [[1]].

Songs

"Take Me with U" was originally written for the Apollonia 6 album, but was later pulled for ''Purple Rain''. An unfortunate result of this addition was making crucial cuts to the suite-like "Computer Blue", which circulates amongst collectors in a superior, though unreleased extended version (a portion of this second section of "Computer Blue" can be heard in the film ''Purple Rain'' as Prince walks in on the men of The Revolution rehearsing). The song "Darling Nikki" is notable for its lyrical content, which eventually led to the use of Parental Advisory stickers and imprints on album covers by ways of Tipper Gore and the Parents Music Resource Center.

Awards

Prince won three Grammy Awards for Best Rock Vocal Performance by a Duo or Group, Best Album of Original Score Written for a Motion Picture or TV Special (''Purple Rain'') and Best R&B Song (songwriter) (Chaka Khan's "I Feel for You") and was nominated for Album of the Year (''Purple Rain''). "Purple Rain" (the song) also won an Oscar for Best Original Song Score in 1985.
^[1]

Critics' Praise

In 1998 ''Q'' magazine readers voted ''Purple Rain'' the 73rd greatest album of all time; in 2001 the TV network VH1 placed it at number 18. In 1989, it was rated #2 on ''Rolling Stone'' magazine's list of the 100 greatest albums of the 1980s.

Sales and chart positions

''Purple Rain'' sold 13 million units in the United States, earning a Diamond Award from the Recording Industry Association of America. According to ''Billboard'' magazine, the album spent 24 consecutive weeks at #1 on the Billboard album charts (August 4, 1984 to January 18, 1985) - the longest consecutive run at the top of any album during the 1980s - becoming one of the top soundtracks ever. ''Purple Rain'' traded the #1 album chart position with Bruce Springsteen's ''Born in the U.S.A.'' twice, during 1984 and 1985. Two songs from ''Purple Rain'', "When Doves Cry" and "Let's Go Crazy", would top the U.S. singles charts and were hits around the world, while the title track would go to number two on the Billboard Hot 100. The album has sold 19.88 million copies world wide.

Charts

Chart (1984)	Peak position
U.S. Billboard 200	1
U.S. Billboard R&B Albums	1
UK Albums Chart	7
Australian ARIA Albums Chart	1

Track listing

#"Let's Go Crazy" – 4:39
#"Take Me with U" – 3:58
#"The Beautiful Ones" – 5:17
#"Computer Blue" – 3:56
#"Darling Nikki" – 4:13
#"When Doves Cry" – 5:52
#"I Would Die 4 U" – 2:56
#"Baby I'm a Star" – 4:24
#"Purple Rain" – 8:42
All songs written by Prince, except "Computer Blue", words by Prince, Wendy and Lisa, music by John L. Nelson, Wendy, Lisa and Prince.
==Singles and Hot 100 chart placings==


★ "When Doves Cry" (U.S. #1, R&B #1, UK #6, Australia #1)
#"When Doves Cry"
#"17 Days"




★ "Let's Go Crazy" (U.S. #1, UK #7)
#"Let's Go Crazy"
#"Erotic City"




★ "Purple Rain" (U.S. #2, UK #8)
#"Purple Rain"
#"God" (vocal)
#"God" (instrumental) — ''UK version only''




★ "I Would Die 4 U" (U.S. #8, UK #58)
#"I Would Die 4 U"
#"Another Lonely Christmas"




★ "Take Me with U" (U.S. #25)
#"Take Me with U"
#"Baby I'm a Star"

Personnel

★ Prince: Guitars, bass guitar, keyboards, piano, vocals.

★ Brownmark: Bass guitar, vocals.

★ Lisa Coleman: Keyboards, piano, sitar, vocals.

★ Dr. Fink: Keyboards, organ, vocals.

★ Bobby Z.: Drums, percussion.

★ David Coleman: Violin.

★ Suzie Katayama: Violin, viola.

★ Novi Novog: Cello.

Miscellaneous

★ This album was mentioned in a 2004 Chappelle's Show skit which parodied Prince.

★ In the popular video game Mortal Kombat, one playable character named Rain is given a curiously purple outfit. This is an obvious reference to Prince acknowledged by the character developers as a sort of red herring but in later games given a full background.

★ The term "Purple Rain" first appears in the song "Ventura Highway" by the group America in their 1972 album ''Homecoming'', and refers to LSD. Prince's song does not.

★ Mariah Carey covered "The Beautiful Ones" on her 1997 album, ''Butterfly'', asissted by R&B quartet Dru Hill.

★ Indie band Rilo Kiley played a Purple Rain clip at the end of their song "Spectacular Views" live.
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Notes

1. "Purple Rain", ''Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences'', at AwardsDatabase.Oscars.org; last accessed September 9, 2006.

External link

★ ''Purple Rain'' lyrics