Prince's pop life, song by song, in chronological order.
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The Belle of St. Mark
While “Glamorous” sounded tailor-made for Sheila’s particular talents (even if it wasn’t), “Belle” is well-crafted but faceless, embodying the essentialist cynicism of the publishing imprint Prince used for his female side projects: “Girlsongs.”
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Dirty Mind
After two years of butting his head against the music industry’s racial divide, Prince was smuggling himself across the border, with Dirty Mind as his Trojan horse.
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When You Were Mine
“When You Were Mine” wasn’t Prince’s first classic song, but it was his first standard: timeless, durable, and rewarding of endless reinterpretations by other artists.
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Head
The foundation upon which Prince’s racial, sexual, and personal preoccupations of the next decade were built.