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The 20 Best Prince Songs Ever, Ranked

In honor of the Purple One

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Warner Bros.

Boy do we miss Prince! One of all time music greats, Prince was known for his falsetto, high-pitched screams, the ability to play 27 different instruments, and, of course, his many legendary hits. Now when you have 39 albums to your resume, it can be a challenging task for folks to narrow down what your best songs are. Especially when those songs won loads of awards and accolades including an induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, an Academy Award, and the Grammy President's Merit Award to name a few. And with an artist like Prince, there's also the question of what defines "best."

Are we talking solely about his most commercially successful songs, or are we diving deeper into his catalog to highlight the songs that may not have been chart toppers, but are still brilliant? Our answer to that question is that we're going to do a bit of both because any fair coverage of Prince's discography has to mention the fact that he sacrificed commercial success in the 1990s to fight for his music rights (this is the reason why he started going by the love symbol—to be able to release and re-record music under his own record label so that way he would have full ownership of his work).

Other than 1994's "The Most Beautiful Girl in the World," you aren't going to find a Prince song in the mid-to-latter half of the 90s that was pulling numbers similar to what he was doing in the 1980s, but that doesn't mean those songs weren't reflective of his artistry. Below is our list of the 20 best Prince songs ever, ranked. Check it out.

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20. Erotic City (1984)

19. Adore (1987)

18. All The Critics Love U in New York (1982)

17. Gett Off (1991)

16. Controversy (1981)

15. Sexy MF (1991)

14. Housequake (1987)

13. Alphabet St. (1988)

12. Cream (1991)

11. U Got The Look (1987)

10. Soft and Wet (1978)

9. I Wanna Be Your Lover (1979)

8. Sign 'O' the Times (1987)

7. If I Was Your Girlfriend (1987)

6. Darling Nikki (1984)

5. Little Red Corvette (1984)

4. Let's Go Crazy (1984)

3. Kiss (1986)

2. Purple Rain (1984)

1. When Doves Cry (1984)

While we did leave off a couple of "automatic" Prince songs, we feel this is a list that Prince (especially mature Prince) would be proud of because it takes into account his artistry as a whole rather than going straight for the commercial pop songs. Long live the Purple One.

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