Purple Rain

On August 3, 1983, Prince and the Revolution played a benefit concert for the Minnesota Dance Theater at First Avenue in Minneapolis. Wendy Melvoin, just 18 years old, was making her debut with the band that night. Prince had instructed an engineer to record the entire show on a mobile unit. When he listened back, he realized the audio quality was exceptional and the crowd reaction was electric. Three songs from that night, "I Would Die 4 U," "Baby I'm a Star," and "Purple Rain," were used on the album with minimal overdubs. The title track of one of the best-selling albums in history was essentially a live recording captured at a benefit show in Minneapolis.

Prince recorded more than three dozen songs during the Purple Rain sessions, with recording taking place from March 1983 through March 1984. He was simultaneously writing music for two other acts, shooting a movie, and building a stage show. When he recorded "When Doves Cry" and stripped out the bassline entirely, he reportedly told the engineer "nobody would have the balls to do this." That song went to number one and stayed there for five weeks. The album knocked Bruce Springsteen's Born in the USA off the top of the charts and then held its position for 24 consecutive weeks.

Purple Rain is the album that transformed Prince from a critically respected cult figure into the biggest pop star on the planet. It won him an Academy Award for Best Original Song Score. If you have never heard it front to back, start with "Let's Go Crazy," let it run through to the title track, and understand why an entire generation considers this one of the defining records of their lives.