Songoftheday 9/3/13 - Dig if you will the picture of you and I engaged in a kiss...
Prince - "When Doves Cry"
from the album Purple Rain (1984)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #1 (five weeks)
Weeks in the Top-40: 16
Today's Song of the Day is by the Purple One, Prince, whose 1982 double-album helping of funk 1999 scored the musician his first top-10 pop hit with "Little Red Corvette", as well a two-time hit with the title track, and another top-10 with "Delirious". While he was now firmly in the mainstream known apart from his earlier (and more lascivious) work, nothing would prepare America for his next move - a movie starring himself along with a soundtrack that would become one of the biggest records of the decade.
For his Purple Rain feature, Prince released a lightly instrumented lead-off single written about his relationship with one of the members of side-group Vanity 6, with no bass in sight (a total rarity in funk) and with him alone playing the instruments. The video, which had Prince coming out of a bathtub at the get-go, was an instant attention-grabber at MTV.
"When Doves Cry" became Prince's biggest single to date,staying for five weeks at #1 on the pop chart, as well has reigning for two full months on the R&B chart. The single also spent an amazing six week on top of the dance club play chart, and even spent time on the rock radio track list, peaking at #31. Internationally, the single went to #1 in Canada and Australia, but stopped short at #4 in the UK.
The song, which leaped into the top 40 the same time as Bruce Springsteen's "Dancing In The Dark", "won" the battle for #1, mostly likely because it sounded like absolutely nothing else on the radio at the time, and expanded what could be a "pop hit" into uncharted territories.
(Click below to see the rest of the post)
It would seem foolish to try to cover such a "signature" song as "When Doves Cry", but in 1996 soul singer Ginuwine did just that, and managed to get a top-10 hit in Britain with it...
More recently, British singer Alex Clare ("Too Close"), included a version of the song on his debut album The Lateness Of The Hour...
An artist with as much attitude as Prince, punk queen Patti Smith, took on the song in 2002...
But perhaps the most well-known use of "When Doves Cry" besides the purple one was when rapper MC Hammer interpolated the record on his top-5 pop hit "Pray" in 1990...
Finally, here's the extended version of "When Doves Cry", which topped the dance chart for six weeks...
Up tomorrow: another single from a movie starring a rockstar.
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