Songoftheday 11/8/13 - I never meant to cause you any sorrow, I never meant to cause you any pain..

Prince & The Revolution - "Purple Rain"
from the album Purple Rain (1984)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #2 (two weeks)
Weeks in the Top-40: 11

Today's Song of the Day is the title track to Prince's first starring movie, Purple Rain. After going to #1 with the first two singles released from the soundtrack, the sparse and funky "When Doves Cry" and the balls-to-the-wall rock of "Let's Go Crazy", "Purple Rain" was a catharsis of soul with a Hendrix-like guitar solo from the Purple One that made the record go to church...


Purple Rain from PRINCE on Myspace.


"Purple Rain" stopped just short of the top spot on the pop chart in the US in November of 1984, and #4 on the R&B chart as well. The single went top ten over most of the world, like #8 in the UK and #3 in Canada, though curiously stopped right under the top-40 in Australia.

Since then the track has been one of the most-revered of Prince's, akin to being his "Hey Jude" moment.

(Click below to see the rest of the post)


Recently, the song has been covered by two of the best singers to appear on the various X Factor competitions. First, in 2012, British singer Chelsea Redfern took on the feat for her audition..

...and most recently, Dami Im, winner of this last season of Australia's version of the show, performed "Purple Rain" and went to #29 in that country's singles charts...

Up tomorrow: The boys from Bushey make it big and need an alarm clock...