If Tracks Are Good, Let's Get 2 Pollin - PRINCE TRACKS POLL RESULTS

Reading Matos' book in 2004 was my first awareness that "Adore" was so highly considered.

Took me a LOT of listens before I came around on "Adore." The production felt so wrong before it felt so right.

side two/the second half of disc one is the draggy part of sott for me.

U Got The Look-Strange Relationship-I Could Never Take The Place-The Cross is an awe-inspiring sequence whose momentum is killed off by "It's Gonna Be a Beautiful Night," a good groove that isn't really a good song. I lose interest a quarter of the way through, which is why "Adore" remains an afterthought.

Alfred otm

and I even forgot "If I Was Your Girlfriend"! Seriously -- greatest album side ever.

"Adore" hooked me with the hilarious "maybe not the ride" quip and then seduced me with the melody and the emotion that compelled me to put it on my wedding playlist

I wouldn't at all mind slow dancing to "Adore" at a wedding. I guess it'd be more appropriate than "Sometimes It Snows in April."

it's a good wedding song because it means more once you've found someone you want to be with until the end of time

Every wedding I've been to in the last three or four years inevitably ends up playing BEPs. Gonna be a lot of divorces in the next decade.

my wedding was pre-"I Gotta Feeling" (so we played "My Humps," of course)

OK, I was traveling and didn't submit my entry, but here's what it would have been. Note that I haven't really followed Prince closely since about 1996—I got off the bus with Emancipation, really. I should give those recent discs a few more spins. I excluded stuff written but not produced by Prince, otherwise "Manic Monday" would certainly be in my top five.

Top 20:
1. Little Red Corvette (Dance Mix)
2. Adore
3. When You Were Mine
4. I Would Die 4 U
5. Let's Pretend We're Married
6. When Doves Cry
7. Erotic City
8. Vanity 6 - Nasty Girl
9. Pop Life (Extended Version)
10. Uptown
11. Kiss (Extended Version)
12. I Could Never Take the Place of Your Man
13. P Control
14. The Family - The Screams of Passion
15. Sheena Easton - Sugar Walls
16. New Position
17. When We're Dancing Close and Slow
18. Dirty Mind
19. Sheila E. - The Glamorous Life
20. Mazarati - 100 MPH

20 runners-up:
The Time - Get It Up
Head
Delirious
Raspberry Beret
Why You Wanna Treat Me So Bad?
André Cymone - The Dance Electric
Housequake
Sheila E. - Koo Koo
17 Days
Irresistable Bitch
Let's Work
She's Always in My Hair
Gotta Stop (Messin' About)
Sexuality
Vanity 6 - If a Girl Answers (Don't Hang Up)
The Future
Sister
Papa
Scarlet Pussy
The Morning Paper

(BTW those runners-up aren't really in any particular order -- just the ones that nearly made it onto my list but didn't in the end)

U Got The Look-Strange Relationship-I Could Never Take The Place-The Cross is an awe-inspiring sequence whose momentum is killed off by "It's Gonna Be a Beautiful Night," a good groove that isn't really a good song. I lose interest a quarter of the way through, which is why "Adore" remains an afterthought.

I'm with this. "Adore" has always been a great ballad, but never been on endless rotation for me. I get being totally whacked out on those first four songs, but "It's Gonna Be a Beautiful Night" is a total "you had to be there" cut.

yes baby

20. Sometimes It Snows In April (from Parade, 1986) - 288 points, 12 votes, 2 first place

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cBJ0lxBhGDs

19. Sign O' The Times (from Sign O' The Times, 1987) - 292 points, 12 points, 2 first place

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4zNTiaAUEcI

What some where saying about "Adore" upthread applies to me and "Sometimes it Snows." It's pretty and all, but I can't sink into it.

Who's my other "Sign" first place vote? *hi-five!*

April is too low. Perfect end to my favourite Prince album. I like that his other great ballad, The Beautiful Ones, is so wracked and raging and this is vulnerable yet stoic. This poll reminds me how incredible his range was at his peak.

Great start to the list today. I think April is his best vocal.

Sign deserves to be this high, I think because that album is so great and there's so many other amazing tracks later on I sometimes forget just how good it is as an opening track.

Who's my other "Sign" first place vote? *hi-five!*

*hi-fives back* We're on the same page quite a lot, I'm noticing.

Sign O The Times deserves a lot better imo - the faithful don't seem to rate it much, but it's all-time for me.

A great sound, great vocal, great guitar fills. A good opener. It's nowhere near my top twenty though.

It was between "Sign" and "Pop Life" for me, but I ended up dropping "Pop Life" further down my ballot assuming it was sure to place and giving a boost to other songs which may not have made it w/o my help. Hope that decision doesn't backfire on me.

xpost Kinda dud lyrics, tho.

Yeah, the lyrics are pretty dire but the sound blew me away at the time. If I was voting aged 13 this would be top 5.

Then again, my #1 boasts the couplet: "The beautiful ones always smash the picture / Always, every time."

Ha, mine too. The Sign O' the Times drug lyric really reminds me of when Marvel comics like Daredevil started doing anti-drug message storylines where some kid would have one reefer and then do PCP and jump off a building because he thought he could fly and Daredevil, after taking out the dealer, would sadly shake his head and make some speech about the youth of America.

I think "Sign O' The Times" has a great lyric, even the drug part. The AIDS reference meant a lot to me at the time for personal reasons.

My big regret in my ballot is not voting for "Sometimes It Snows In April", but as I said above, Parade has never really stuck with me until now.

The SOTT lyric was an arresting and apt bulletin for its time, but I don't think it was composed with posterity in mind. What persists, though, is the sound of the track; I marked down a lot of the big hits when voting as they still felt played out, but SOTT very nearly made my 20.

so 'erotic city' is definitely going to be top 5, right?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0bRKangkiuo

18. Dirty Mind (from Dirty Mind, 1980) - 299 points, 13 votes, 1 first place

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bNa1YgdbMZk

17. If I Was Your Girlfriend (from Sign O' The Times, 1987) - 309 points, 13 votes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D4C9qR9wJVw

How many ballots came in total, btw?

now that all the really classic shit is coming up i guess with each one we can say "too low!" but what else are you gonna do with an artist like this?

Wow I thought Girlfriend would be top five.

I did too, but I am starting to think pretty much all of Purple Rain will be occupying most of the top slots.

16. I Would Die 4 U (from Purple Rain, 1984) - 317 points, 12 votes, 1 first place

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_EEvpiNzO8

15. 1999 (from 1999, 1982) - 321 points, 15 votes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UjivDeA7Qu0

40 ballots came in in total

That better not include "Darling Nikki". Tipper Gore infamy notwithstanding, it's just a half-decent filler. "When Doves Cry" probably belongs in the top 5, "Let's Go Crazy" probably doesn't. Would really like to see "The Beautiful Ones" and "U Got the Look" up real close to the top.

^xp Eric H

14. The Ballad Of Dorothy Parker (from Sign O' The Times, 1987) - 324 points, 14 votes, 1 first place

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6sXqGKJzfd4

13. Alphabet St. (from Lovesexy, 1988) - 327 points, 14 votes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G8pK6mgIvtg&feature=related

wow

I love "Alphabet St" but I had no idea it would get that much support

It's a stone cold classic, was my favourite for a long long time 'til I heard Sign with new ears

Just barely missed my ballot - glad to see it here

I think it was my #1

Yeah, I would've never pegged "Alphabet St." landing above "If I Was Your Girlfriend."

Or "I Would Die 4 U" (!!)

But it is the most fun!