It's Prince's Birthday: What's Your Favorite Song?

As my Mixmaster companion Jamie Laughlin and I were driving to lunch today, Prince's "Purple Rain" came on the radio. We both looked at each other and threw up a fist when the breakdown came, that part when Prince starts ecstatically screeching like only he can. And there is the...

By Audra Schroeder

June 7, 2012

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As my Mixmaster companion Jamie Laughlin and I were driving to lunch today, Prince's "Purple Rain" came on the radio. We both looked at each other and threw up a fist when the breakdown came, that part when Prince starts ecstatically screeching like only he can. And there is the beauty of a Prince song.

Fans often like to break up his career into "early" Prince and "later" Prince, but his catalog never really had a definite before and after to me. I recently went back to his 1987 LP, Sign "O" the Times, and found it to be a solid R&B album. I'd almost forgotten songs like "The Ballad of Dorothy Parker" and "Housequake" among the hits like "U Got the Look."

Prince Rogers Nelson turns 54 today, and I would like to personally thank him for stirring a sexual awakening in me with the video for "Gett Off" and giving me the confidence (well, him and booze) to engage in a particularly suggestive performance of "When Doves Cry" at an Austin karaoke bar I'm not sure I'm allowed back to.

What's your favorite Prince song? Leave it in the comments.

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