100 Greatest Albums of All Time

76. Purple Rain, Prince and the Revolution, Warner Bros., 1984

The blockbuster soundtrack to Prince’s semiautobiographical movie was raunchy enough to inspire the formation of the censorship watchdog group Parents’ MusicResourceCenter. It also show cased Prince’s abilities as a guitarist, especially on “Let’s Go Crazy.” But at heart, Purple Rain is defined by its brilliant idiosyncrasies. Its breakthrough hit, “When Doves Cry,” has no bass track (looking for a different sound, Prince removed it). According to keyboardist Dr. Fink, the title track was inspired by Bob Seger ”“ when Prince was touring behind 1999, Seger was playing many of the same markets. Prince didn’t understand his appeal but decided to try a ballad in the Seger mode.