So, upon perusing the Billboard number one singles of 1984 thread, I was surprised that a few people seem to prefer “Let’s Go Crazy” (and/or other of the album’s tracks) to “When Doves Cry”. And it got me wondering what the collective opinion here is as regards the best song on the album.
Hence, this poll.
When Doves Cry - I use the line, “This is what it sounds like when doves cry” at least twice a week at work.
The Beautiful Ones.
Every time.
The only song on the album which i can still stand listening to now more than 30 years later.
My favorite song from the film is actually not on the soundtrack - Father’s Song. Because Computer Blue contains an approximation of it, I’d choose that, but I prefer the solo piano version.
WDC very closely followed by Computer Blue, because I love the guitar work in that song.
Power ballads get a bad rep, and rightly so - most of them are crap. That said, there is nothing inherently wrong about he genre, and a good power ballad is a thing of rare beauty.
What I’m trying to get at is this: the title track of Purple Rain is one of, if not *the * best power ballads ever recorded.
Purple Rain and When Doves Cry are the stand-out tracks. The former 's guitar work is great but the latter is the better song (but not by much, really).
Let’s Go Crazy is a fun but distant third.
I picked Let’s Go Crazy, even through the guitar solo at the end has an awful ice-picky tone to my ear.
PR is huge, but compared to Dirty Mind, Controversy and 1999, and then Parade and Sign o’ the Times, it is pretty far down my list of Prince’s Golden Era, around the same as Around the World (although Raspberry Beret, Pop Life and the B-Side She’s Always in my Hair are pretty spectacular)…
…and I still hate the fact that he, as is 100% his right, controls his music too much - my all-time favorite song of his is How Come You Don’t Call Me Anymore - a glorious B-Side that Alicia Keys covered on her first album. Prince’s version rules and yet I can’t link to it here and share it.
I don’t care, pretty baby, just Take Me With You
Good, pop-sounding song. Michael Jackson could have done it. But mainly because in the movie it’s right around the Lake Minetonka scene with Appolonia. Besides, 1999 is my favorite album from Prince.
I picked the title track, but it was a five-or-six-way traffic jam at the top. “Purple Rain” edges out “When Doves Cry” and “I Would Die 4 U” at least partly because of its emotional impact in the film, which is inextricably linked with the songs in my mind.
Hey, I’m in complete agreement. Purple Rain is his biggest, most well known album, but it’s not even close to being my favorite. Having said that, I’m absolutely all for creating favorite song polls for each Prince album (and one for ALL the B-sides, too, of course) if those selfsame polls would get some decent foot traffic and not end up just dying on the vine due to most people being not that into Prince (save for, say, Purple Rain and 1999).
Similarly, the instrumental version of “God” wasn’t on the soundtrack, and was far, far superior to the version with vocals that was the b-side to the “Purple Rain” single.
Hey, the SDMB fights ignorance. There’s quite a few Prince respecters here - knowledgeable fans and folks who respect music and understand Prince’s place in it, even if they don’t like the music and/or his persona. I don’t think there’s been many spirited discussions where someone just poops on him and fanboys attack, like there are for so many other legendary artists. There was a notable thread on MJ vs. Prince that was a good discussion - hmm, I will see if I can find it…
Prince is at the tippy-top for me. But if those surveys got started, they’d probably drop off much past, what, maybe Lovesexy? Diamond & Pearl? Which one was Robia LaMorte, who later played Jenny Calendar on Buffy?
I’ll take “When Doves Cry”. When I think of “Let’s Go Crazy” and think “Hey, I like this song!” I soon realize that I just like saying the spoken word portion in the beginning and the rest of the song is okay but nothing great.
Started by the always-up-for-a-good-music-discussion Doper woodstockbirdybird:
IIRC, she was Pearl.
I see Prince in concert back around 1985. Ah, the good old days when you didn’t have to sell the family jewels to buy a concert ticket. Great show.
My favorite PR song, perhaps my favorite Prince song altogether is “The Beautiful Ones.” Love its soulfulness and desperation. There is a live version of it somewhere out there that starts out with a weird intro (sounds like drunk birds), then the intro starts. It’s a great live version; Prince’s voice is really ragged, but there’s so much raw feeling there. It may have been downloaded from the movie itself, but I don’t know. I downloaded it back in the Napster days, but can’t locate a legitimate copy of it anywhere. Shame.
Love “Purple Rain,” too, though I prefer the acoustic version without words.
We may well have been at the same show. I was there at the Riverfront Coliseum, dancing my ass off, on January 22, 1985.
I saw him in 1985, too! I believe it was the Tacoma Dome. Those days can be a bit, uh, hazy.
I hear what you mean about concert ticket prices, PunditLisa. i’d love to see Fleetwood Mac again, but a ticket for nearly the back of the venue is $160. No thanks. I do like seeing some less popular bands at the local casinos where I can get a ticket for $60 or so. I had one for Toto earlier this year, but got sick and couldn’t go. 
1999 is better but this is not bad certainly. I thought "Erotic City " was on this album but I was wrong.