Songoftheday 1/6/20 - I never thought that you would be the one after all the things that we've been through, you gave your body to another in the name of fun I hope you had some, baby, if not - boo hoo
from the album The Gold Experience (1995)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #12 (one week)
Weeks in the Top-40: 5
Today's song of the day comes from Prince, who by the mid-1990s was going through a tumultous relationship with his record company, Warner Brothers, to the point where he supposedly changed his name to a hieroglyphic-like symbol, his output was pretty scattershot. In the spring of 1994 he made arrangements to release a one-off single through the independent label Bellmark, and the resulting "The Most Beautiful Girl In The World" was a huge (and maybe unexpected for Warners) success, reaching the top-5 on the pop chart. But instead of coming out with an album straight away he balked, and Warners ended up putting out the archival Come album, which did sport one top-40 pop hit in "Letitgo" in the fall of that same year. The record company also put out "The Purple Medley" mixing his hits, but that stiffed in the States, hitting #84 pop #74 R&B, although overseas it got to #19 in Norway, #30 in the Netherlands, and #33 in the UK. After nearly a year and no other hit emanating from Come, Prince returned with The Gold Experience, an album which included "The Most Beautiful Girl...". A new single, "I Hate U" was released, and Prince was back on the pop chart, though it seemed like it was a mostly fan-fueled affair, almost reaching the top ten but only spending five weeks in the top-40. Supposedly it was a rant against former girlfriend Carmen Electra for having a date with another guy. Mind you, using you own fiance' in the music video is sort of hypocritical, but yeah, whatevs...
"I Hate U" would be Prince's final original top-40 pop hit in October of 1995 (he would have one more Hot 100 Airplay top-40 entry, and then re-entries after his passing). The song was a much bigger hit on urban stations, spending a week at #3 on Billboard magazine's R&B chart and spending 20 weeks there. Internationally, the single reached the top-40 in the Netherlands (#18), the UK (#20), New Zealand (#22), Canada (#25), Switzerland (#31), and Australia (#33).
A third single released from The Gold Experience, "Gold", made it to #88 on the pop Hot 100 and #92 on the R&B chart. However in the UK, the song returned him to the top ten at #10 while peaking at #19 in Sweden.
Up tomorrow: A Friendly theme song finally gets a commercial. (Release).
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