Prince Getting Divorced. Again. Let's Remember The Music

One of my favorite singers, Prince, is getting divorced. Again. Amusingly, to some people news of this divorce is the first official confirmation that The Purple One was actually married to Manuela Testolini. It was common knowlwedge that he had divorced his first wife Mayte Garcia shortly after the couple's baby son died from Pfieffer's syndrome, a rare skull disease, in 1998. Prince later had that marriage annulled.

I actually hadn't thought about Prince much recently so news of the divorce made me fondly remember the "good old days" when I used to be a Prince freak and run to the music store the very day a new Prince album dropped. I even wangled a way to get a bootleg version of "The Black Album" when Warner Records balked at releasing a record where the lead singer uniformly has his voice digitally altered to sound like he's singing in a helium atmosphere.

So, what I did was think about my Top 10 Prince songs. What are yours? (Here's a link to a helpful Prince discography.)

1. "Adore" from Sign O' The Times
2. "Kiss" and "Venus de Milo" from Parade: Music from the motion picture"Under The Cherry Moon"
3. "When Doves Cry" and "Purple Rain" from Purple Rain
4. "Joy in Repetition" from Graffiti Bridge
5. "Condition of the Heart" from Around the World in a Day
6. "Little Red Corvette" from 1999
7. "Gett Off" from Diamonds and Pearls
8. "A Love Bizarre" from Sheila E.'s Romance 1600
9. "Do Me Baby" from Controversy
10. "When 2 R In Love" from The Black Album and Lovesexy

Phew! I had first started this as a Top 5 Favorite Prince singles and couldn't stop at 5. It takes discipline to restrict oneself to ten. (You may notice I technically have 12--but hey! "Venus de Milo" is a swooningly beautiful instrumental which was my outgoing phone message for years in the early 1990s so it doesn't really count. Almost every track on the Purple Rain soundtrack is a classic, but clearly "When Doves Cry," "Let's Go Crazy" and "Purple Rain" are first among equals.) It should be noted that I stopped buying Prince albums after 1992's Love Symbol so his earlier work may be oversampled in my Top 10 list. I have also generally tried to restrict myself to one track per album.

There's still at least ten other Prince tracks which I love which are not on this list: "Let's Go Crazy," "7," "D.M.S.R.," "Starfish and Coffee," "Batdance," "Anotherloverholenyohead," "The Beautiful Ones," "Pop Life," "Cream," "I Wanna Be Your Lover" and "If I Was Your Girlfriend."

Hmm, perhaps coming soon: favourite Prince covers? Sinead O'Connor's "Nothing Compares 2 U" would be my #1 fave for sure. For now, I'd love to hear what others have as their favorite Prince songs.