All Articles Tagged "54"
Happy Birthday Purple One! Our Top 6 Songs By Prince (Not 5, But 6)
Source: individualism.co.uk
No matter what you’re doing today, make sure you take time out to stop and play some Prince. The Purple One, born Prince Rogers Nelson, turns 54 today, and doesn’t look a day over 40! The multi-talented musician has been ahead of his time since the ’70s, when he dropped his debut album, For You, and slowly but surely started to change both the R&B and rock game (don’t forget about funk!). So on this day of celebration, we thought we’d find a way to pick six of our favorite songs by a man with a catalog of jams so extensive and amazing. Feel free to let us know your own favorites in the comment section. And if you’re wondering why I picked six…well, I couldn’t pick JUST five and seven would have been doing the most…I know, it doesn’t make sense.
Enjoy!
*Sidenote: I would have added all the videos, but Prince isn’t a fan of his stuff being accessible via the “Intanetz.” So attached are links to the songs.
The minute this song drops, who doesn’t stop and start nodding their head really hard? The keyboards, the guitar action, and Prince singing like he got kicked in the gonads–it’s a classic! It’s also one of his biggest R&B hits and a jam that definitely makes you want to head to the dance floor for a bit. And the video, with his hair looking very laid and his clothing at a minimum, is a must-see as well. Good look finding it though, you know he doesn’t mess with YouTube…
“How could you just leave me standing…alone in a world so cold?” Many people have tried to cover this track (Hey, Ginuwine), but nobody has done it like this fella. A stellar track from the legendary Purple Rain soundtrack, the nearly six-minute song is guaranteed to make you dance, and possibly shout (especially around the breakdown). And who wasn’t either lusting or laughing at Prince when he was in the bathtub and then crawling butt naked towards the camera? Such an intriguing character he is.
There are few slow love songs out there that touch me to the point that I feel the need to play it nonstop, but “Adore” gets that reaction from moi. With deep lyrics and messages like, “If God one day struck me blind, your beauty I’d still see…” and the way the song gradually grows through the beautiful crescendo makes it one of those jams that inadvertently takes you to church with each listen. It’s so moving, that while performing the song during a tribute to Prince at the BET Awards, a very pregnant Alicia Keys felt so inclined to climb on top of her piano and jam. Can you blame her though?
A song from the highly underrated Parade album (which was the soundtrack for his panned film, Under the Cherry Moon), “Kiss” is a showcase of the power of some sick acoustics. The track is very minimalist when you compare it to other Prince songs, but maybe it’s his attempts to sing falsetto and the smart, snarky lyrics (“Act your age mama, not your shoe size…”) that make it a must-listen. Plus, the minute it plays at a party, or even on the radio, folks lose their ever-loving mind. What do I think when I hear the song? As Prince would say during the bridge, “I think I wanna dance!”
What you know about this one? Definitely an alluring and seductive track, “If I Was Your Girlfriend” is supposed to be a song about the tight bond and relationship between a woman and her best friend, and a man’s quest to be that oh-so-close to his lady. The “lady” singing the track is of course Prince with his vocals altered to sound like his female alter ego, Camille, and the track as a whole appeared on the critically-acclaimed album, Sign ‘o’ The Times. This is one of those dance-around-in-your-lingerie jams, or better yet, sit-on-your-couch-and-eat-Cheetos bangers too...
But of course. When Prince did this track during the Super Bowl halftime show a few years back, I was pretty sure I was going to cry, but instead, I just threw my cell phone light up in the air in my room and reveled in the awesome-ness of it all (Until the Chicago Bears lost the game, then I was sad.). Some of Prince’s biggest and best hits were with the Revolution, and this one for the movie of the same name is as big as it gets. I mean, the guitar solo, the strings, the lyrics–it’s just all too epic. But then again, so is Prince.
Which jams would you add to the list?
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