Prince has one of the greatest bodies of works in music history. His catalog spans 4 decades with 40-50 albums and tons of songs written for other people. Prince is the truest definition of an artist. He was always creating and always had something to say. As the famous album liner notes says “produced, arranged, composed & performed by…”. With any artist, athlete or anyone who has does anything at a high level, there’s always a discussion of when was their prime? The years someone performs their craft at peak performance at the peak of their powers. Some primes last longer than others while some primes are short. Prince’s was a decade.
The impetuous of this blog is a quote from ?uestlove where he says that Prince’s “genius period” was from 1978 - 1988. I don’t disagree with this take. It’s accurate. Prince gave us his best work in those years. However, for the years after, I always felt like Prince gave us a legendary single every few years that we overlooked and forgot. Songs that on their own were quintessential Prince gems. Songs that had everything we loved about his music. Sultry baselines, high pitched screams, dirty lyrics, just all the stuff we loved. Sadly, time moves on and everything changes. Change in culture, musical taste, and an entire generation of new artist entered the mainstream. By the end of the 80’s, the tides were beginning to change and maybe Prince’s popularity.
One thing I always wanted to do was make a a greatest hits of Prince’s songs after his genius period. Back in the 90’s, Warner Bros released a 3 disc greatest hits of Prince’s work. It was a 3 disc set consisting of 56 songs if you bought the entire collection together or you could buy the first 2 disc individually. I know this because I had the first 2 disc that I played into the ground when I was in high school.
That greatest hits was the perfect recap of Prince’s career up until that point. I’ve always thought it was really important if we had a post-genius period greatest hits or as I would like to call it “The Second Wave of Genius” which are the best songs from 1989 - 2014. These are the twenty-four songs that I think sums up Prince’s career after 1988. A number of these songs were on albums I bought. One song was on a New Power Generation album which had a music video but was never an official single. One song was made famous by a young Tevin Campbell. And one was remixed by Shock G of Digital Underground. I say all this to say that the hits kept coming even if the charts said otherwise. Real artist will always create and Prince was the most prolific.
Partyman - Batman Soundtrack
Scandalous - Batman Soundtrack
Thieves in the Temple - Graffiti Bridge
Diamonds & Pearls - Diamond & Pearls
Cream - Diamond & Pearls
7 - (Love Symbol) Prince & The New Power Generation
Sexy M.F. - (Love Symbol) Prince & The Power Generation
The One - New Power Soul
Shhh - The Gold Experience
The Most Beautiful Girl in the World - The Gold Experience
Love Sign (Shock G’s silky mix) - Crystal Ball
The Greatest Romance That’s Ever Been Sold - Rave Into the Joy Fantastic
She Loves Me 4 Me - Rainbow Children
U Make My Sunshine - The Chocolate Sunshine
Call My Name - Musicology
Cinnamon Girl - Musicology
Reflection - Musicology
Black Sweat - 3121
Chelsea Rodgers - Planet Earth
Better With Time - MPLSoUND
Lavaux - 20Ten
Anotherlove - PLECTRUMELECTRUM
Breakfast Can Wait - Art Official Age
Xtralovable - HITnRUN Phase Tw
If you’ve enjoyed this playlist, you’re welcome because I had to download these songs from YouTube. A couple of these songs aren’t on any available albums so I did the work for you. I’m so curious how many of these songs you remember or know? Hopefully, I’ve helped you discover your new favorite Prince song.