Purple Rain is the sixth studio album by the American musician Prince, featuring his backing band the Revolution. It was released on June 25, 1984, through Warner Bros. Records as the soundtrack album to the 1984 film of the same name. Purple Rain was musically denser than Prince's previous albums, emphasizing full band performances, and multiple layers of guitars, keyboards, electronic synthesizer effects, drum machines, and other instruments. Much of the album has a grandiose, synthesized, and psychedelic substance 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 of elements point towards the more experimental records Prince would release after Purple Rain. The album drew some controversy. Network executives thought the sexual nature in the music video for the album's lead single "When Doves Cry" was too explicit for television. The risqué lyrics of "Darling Nikki" also raised complaints from Tipper Gore and the Parents Music Resource Center and contributed to the implementation of Parental Advisory stickers and imprints on album covers.
Purple Rain was an enormous success, spending 24 consecutive weeks atop the Billboard 200 and being present on the chart for a total of 167 weeks. "When Doves Cry" and "Let's Go Crazy" reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100, while "Purple Rain" and "I Would Die 4 U" were top ten hits. A widespread critical success, critics noted the innovation and experimentation on the album, such as the synthesis of electronic elements with organic instrumentation, as well as the consolidation of rock and R&B. By 1996, the album was certified 13× platinum by the RIAA.
Purple Rain is Prince's commercial peak, with total sales standing at 16 million copies worldwide, making it one of the best-selling albums of all time. Prince and the Revolution received a Grammy Award nomination for Album of the Year and won the Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal and Best Score Soundtrack for Visual Media awards. Frequently recognized as one of the greatest albums of all time, Purple Rain was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame and added to the Library of Congress's National Recording Registry list of sound recordings that are "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".
Background
Following the commercial breakthrough of 1999 (1982), Prince secured a position for renewing his contract with Warner Bros. He told the label they must finance a major motion picture starring himself, with accompanying new songs as its soundtrack, or he would leave the label. Though executives were reluctant, they eventually accepted the offer, approving a $7 million budget for the film. Purple Rain was initially conceived as a double album, but during post-production, Prince decided to make it a single album instead.
Initial production for Purple Rain began in 1983. Prince wrote over 100 songs for the album, selecting nine after deciding which worked best in the context of the film. His backing band, the Revolution, was formally named and expanded in 1983 to include guitarist Wendy Melvoin and keyboardist Lisa Coleman. Rehearsals took place in a warehouse in St. Louis Park, Minneapolis, which served as the project's headquarters.
Recording and production The Revolution member Doctor Fink told PopMatters in 2009 the recording of the album was "a very creative time... There was a lot of influence and input from band members towards what [Prince] was doing. He was always open to anybody trying to contribute creatively to the process of writing... But Prince was the main lyricist and melody maker for all the songs... and never took any lyrical content from people." Melvoin told Mojo in 1997 the band members were "absolute musical equals in the sense that Prince respected us, and allowed us to contribute to the music without any interference... I think the secret to our working relationship was that we were very non-possessive about our ideas, as opposed to some other people that have worked with him."
The album was mostly written and recorded between May 1983 and March 1984, with "Baby I'm a Star" dating to 1981. The last three songs on the album—"I Would Die 4 U", "Baby I'm A Star" and the title track "Purple Rain"—were recorded live at the 3August 1983 First Avenue show in Minneapolis, although overdubs and edits took place on all three in September 1983; this marked Prince's first album to include live recordings.
Music and lyrics Purple Rain was musically denser than Prince's previous albums, emphasizing full band performances, and multiple layers of guitars, keyboards, electronic synthesizer effects, drum machines, and other instruments. As a soundtrack record, much of the music had a grandiose, synthesized, and evenby some evaluationsa 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 of elements point towards the more experimental records Prince would release after Purple Rain. Apollonia6 member Apollonia recalled that after watching the Purple Rain cinematographic takes, she told Prince, "You know you're going to get an Oscar for this movienot for the acting, but for the music." The Revolution appears on six tracks: "Let's Go Crazy", "Take Me With U", "Computer Blue", "I Would Die 4 U", "Baby I'm A Star" and "Purple Rain" while the remaining three tracks are essentially solo performances by Prince. Apollonia sings co-lead on "Take Me WithU".
Like Prince's previous albums, nearly all tracks on Purple Rain were written by him. Revolution members Fink, Coleman, and Melvoin helped write the album's fourth track "Computer Blue". Doctor Fink, who wrote a keyboard bass line for the track, said he "started playing that main bass groove which later became 'Computer Blue'. So the band [the Revolution] started grooving on it, and Prince started coming up with some stuff, then we recorded a rough version and he took it into the studio and just incorporated it all and made it fly that way. Wendy [Melvoin] and Lisa [Coleman] did some of the stuff on it. Prince borrowed the bridge/portal section from the then-unreleased Father's Song, by his father jazz musician John L. Nelson, who had given him some music over the years to play around with. So the song was a real mixture of different people and influences."
"Take Me with U" was written for the Apollonia 6 album Apollonia6 (1984), but later enlisted for Purple Rain. Prince wrote and composed the album's lead single "When Doves Cry" after all the other tracks were complete on Purple Rain. In addition to providing vocals, he played all instruments on the track. With there being no bass line, the song's production is noted for being unconventionally bare in comparison to 1980s pop hits. Prince said there originally was a bass line but, after a conversation with singer Jill Jones, he decided the song was too conventional with it included. The risqué lyrics of "Darling Nikki" contributed to the use of Parental Advisory stickers and imprints on album covers that were the record label's answer to complaints from Tipper Gore and the Parents Music Resource Center (PMRC).
"Purple Rain" was originally written as a country song and intended to be a collaboration with Stevie Nicks. According to Nicks, she received a ten-minute instrumental version of the song from Prince with a request to write the lyrics, but felt overwhelmed. She said: "I listened to it and I just got scared. I called him back and said, 'I can't do it. I wish I could. It's too much for me.'" At a rehearsal, Prince then asked his backing band to try the song: "I want to try something before we go home. It's mellow." According to the Revolution member Lisa Coleman, Prince then changed the song after the Revolution's Wendy Melvoin started playing guitar chords to accompany the song: "He was excited to hear it voiced differently. It took it out of that country feeling. Then we all started playing it a bit harder and taking it more seriously. We played it for six hours straight and by the end of that day we had it mostly written and arranged."
Artwork and title The album cover for Purple Rain was photographed at the Warner Bros. Studio Backlot in California. The area known as Hennesy St, designed to look like a New York tenement area, was the location of the balcony where the album photo was taken. The cover features Prince on a customized 1981 Honda CM400A motorcycle, in an ornate purple suit.
Regarding the meaning of "Purple Rain", both Mikel Toombs of The San Diego Union and Bob Kostanczuk of the Post-Tribune have written that Prince took the title "Purple Rain" from lyrics in the America song "Ventura Highway". Asked to explain the phrase "purple rain" in "Ventura Highway", Gerry Beckley responded: "You got me." However, Prince explained the meaning of "Purple Rain" as follows: "When there's blood in the skyred and blue = purple... purple rain pertains to the end of the world and being with the one you love and letting your faith/god guide you through the purple rain." According to Lisa Coleman, it symbolizes "a new beginning. Purple, the sky at dawn; rain, the cleansing factor."
Promotion
Tour
The Purple Rain Tour began at the Joe Louis Arena in Detroit in November 1984. In addition to Prince and the Revolution, the Purple Rain Tour featured Apollonia6, and Sheila E. and her band. The tour opened with the album's opener, "Let's Go Crazy". Three singles from 1999 (1982) followed: "Delirious", "1999" and "Little Red Corvette". An instrumental interlude of "Yankee Doodle" usually introduced another song from 1999, "Free". The B-side "God" was often played, followed by a usual sequence of "Computer Blue", "Darling Nikki", "The Beautiful Ones" and "When Doves Cry". As encores, the remaining Purple Rain songs closed the concert, "I Would Die 4 U", "Baby I'm a Star" and "Purple Rain".
The tour spanned 98 shows, ending in April 1985, and sold 1.7 million tickets. Prince and the Revolution played the final date of the tour on April 7 to an audience of 55,000 in Miami's Orange Bowl. Prince ended the show saying, "I have to go now. I don't know when I'll be back. I want you to know that God loves you. He loves us all." Two weeks after the end of the tour, Around the World in a Day (1985) was released, which officially brought an end to Prince's Purple Rain era. The tour was considered by Rolling Stone as "groundbreaking in many ways" because it introduced Prince's most "elaborate" sets and featured occasional cameos from Bruce Springsteen and Madonna, which confirmed Prince's place as "pop's most commanding star" during the Purple Rain era.
Singles Purple Rain's lead single, "When Doves Cry", was Prince's first Billboard Hot 100 number-one single, staying there for five weeks, and was also a worldwide hit. It was ranked number one on the Billboard Year-End Hot 100 singles of 1984. The music video, directed by Prince himself, premiered on MTV in June 1984. The video sparked controversy among network executives, who thought its sexual nature was too explicit for television.
The second single, "Let's Go Crazy", became Prince's second number-one hit on the Billboard Hot 100. Common to much of Prince's writing, the song is thought to be exhortation to follow Christian ethics, with the "De-elevator" in the lyrics being a metaphor for the Devil.
A power ballad and a combination of rock, R&B, gospel, and orchestral music, "Purple Rain" reached number2 on the Billboard Hot 100 and stayed there for two weeks. "I Would Die 4 U", the fourth and final Billboard Hot 100 top 10 hit from Purple Rain, reached number eight on the chart. The album's final single, "Take Me withU", was released on January 25, 1985.
Critical reception