“Automatic For the People” was a huge album, it sold 18 million worldwide; but did not generate big pop hits in the US. (Alternative yes, but that’s not where Prince was being played.) Anyway even if it had (which it did not) it is head and shoulders over most albums from that year and hardly representative. Ditto for most of the others you mention. I didn’t say this album was the best from the year: it doesn’t even make my Top 10 or 20 and even if it was halved I still don’t think it would be as good as his best work. I said this song is better than most of what made the pop charts: but I did not write it was not THE best. I stand by my statements and dismiss the laughably flimsy straw-men you’ve constructed . Madonna is perhaps relevant (since she was big on the pop charts of course)but Madonna was one artist out of dozens that made chart hits and not representative as her singles were obviously better than most as a matter of course. It is possible to say something good about Prince without detracting from Madonna. Maybe a chart from the week that “7” peaked would reveal more and demonstrate what I mean more than a cherry-picked list from the Cream Of The Crop of 92-93 which is easily dismissed.
"7" maybe gets a bit overlooked when it comes to great Prince singles. I love the use of acoustic guitar which is a bit of a rarity for Prince. The vocals throughout are fantastic. This is a pretty terrific pop song. I do wonder how things may have been different if it had been the lead single. It may have been a slightly bigger (top five) hit and could have boosted the performance of whatever the next single would have been. Having a bigger hit at the beginning may have made Warner Bros. more invested in the success of the album and the (inevitable?) split may have been delayed or eliminated. Or maybe not. I don't think Prince was as committed to "working" this album as he was to Diamonds and Pearls. 4.5/5
7 - this is all about the vocal layering and harmonising (with himself) - which is definitely a signature of the album as a whole, but here he sounds like a one man gospel choir. Good melody, but there's just something about the arrangements that doesn't quite work for me. I like nearly all the component parts but somehow they just don't quite fit together comfortably. @sunspot42 nailed it with the 'inherent awkwardness' comment. I think I actually prefer some of the remixes - especially the acoustic version. Similarly it never really worked that well live. Disappointing chart position for this one - I agree that it might have fared better as a lead off single. Geek fact, this is one of the few Prince songs where there is also a 'promo only mix' on the UK promo 12" and US promo CD - 'Mix 5 Long Version' 7 - 4/5
Well like I said, the pop singles charts were largely irrelevant. They didn't reflect what people were actually listening to, either on the radio or in the clubs or especially in their own cars and homes, where they were playing albums on cassette and CD. Pop was a segment, but country, alternative, R&B and even dance commanded massive audiences of their own. A top 10 hit on any of those charts would be roughly as popular as anything in the pop Top 40. Hardly "flimsy". Pop was a balkanized segment of the overall listening audience, and not much more important than any of the others. That having been said, the Top 40 for the week "7" peaked - which was in January of '93 - isn't all that awful: 1 1 I WILL ALWAYS LOVE YOU –•– Whitney Houston – 16 (1) We all got sick of this one, but she certainly recast Dolly's sweet number in a different light. 2 2 A WHOLE NEW WORLD –•– Peabo Bryson & Regina Belle – 11 (2) Great, as these Disney showtunes go. 3 3 ORDINARY WORLD –•– Duran Duran – 8 (3) Duran Duran improbably hopped on the Oasis bandwagon and scored a massive hit. I prefer the follow-up "Come Undone" but this was catchy enough and kind of a surprise for the band. 4 4 I’M EVERY WOMAN –•– Whitney Houston – 8 (4) Another great cover from Mrs. Brown 5 12 NUTHIN’ BUT A “G” THANG –•– Dr. Dre – 5 (5) His breakthru hit. Also Snoop's breakthru. 6 6 MR. WENDAL –•– Arrested Development – 11 (6) Their last big hit, but they were vital in breaking hip hop on the pop charts. 7 8 7 –•– Prince & The New Power Generation – 14 (7) Decent hit, but I don't think it towers over all of this Top 10 8 5 SAVING FOREVER FOR YOU –•– Shanice – 19 (4) Awww, Shanice. I forgot all about this one. It's pretty generic. 9 10 HIP HOP HOORAY –•– Naughty By Nature – 5 (9) Another act that was crucial for breaking rap/hip-hop on the pop charts, this would be their last Top 10 hit until '99. It's alright. 10 15 INFORMER –•– Snow – 8 (10) OK, we've found the crap. Gotta admit it's catchy, though. He narrowly avoided becoming a one hit wonder. 11 7 IF I EVER FALL IN LOVE –•– Shai – 20 (2) More early '90s R&B product. I do kinda like the mood of this one though, and the arrangement is somewhat inventive - not entirely generic. 12 11 HERE WE GO AGAIN! –•– Portrait – 16 (11) The pop charts are practically the R&B charts. Very early-'80s generic hip hop. 13 13 DON’T WALK AWAY –•– Jade – 11 (13) Their biggest hit. Generic hip-hop tinged early '90s R&B. 14 18 BED OF ROSES –•– Bon Jovi – 6 (14) The hair was deflating somewhat. 15 9 IN THE STILL OF THE NITE –•– Boyz II Men – 14 (3) Tone deaf. 16 14 GET AWAY –•– Bobby Brown – 7 (14) "My Prerogative" it's not. 17 16 REBIRTH OF SLICK (COOL LIKE DAT) –•– Digable Planets – 7 (16) It felt like these guys were hyped to the hilt and then immediately flamed out. I kinda liked it. 18 25 THAT’S WHAT LOVE CAN DO –•– Boy Krazy – 6 (18) Stock Aitken Waterman product. Feels really tired, probably because it was originally cut in '91 (but even then, it was formulaic and dull). Remixed and amazingly did much better here with its '93 re-release than it did in the UK. 19 20 GIVE IT UP, TURN IT LOOSE –•– En Vogue – 13 (15) They were on fire in the early '90s. I'm not gonna cover every other single in the Top 40 that week, but there are quite a few I'd consider early '90s classics: 22 19 RHYTHM IS A DANCER –•– Snap – 29 (5) One of the great dance floor bangers of the era. 23 17 RUMP SHAKER –•– Wreckx-N-Effect – 22 (2) This is what Tony M was trying to do but couldn't. 30 39 TWO PRINCES –•– Spin Doctors – 5 (30) This thing was everywhere. There aren't many songs more evocative of the early '90s than this. 31 29 WALK ON THE OCEAN –•– Toad The Wet Sprocket – 16 (18) Except maybe this one... 35 23 DEEPER AND DEEPER –•– Madonna – 13 (7) God this was a great video for a great dance track. Fantastic homage to the early '70s Warhol scene (which Madge just caught the tail end of). THIS WEEKS DEBUTS 90 — SIMPLE LIFE –•– Elton John – 1 (90) The title cut off of The One was the big hit, but this was by far my favorite cut from the album and one of Elton's last great singles. Anyhow, not a great chart and not particularly diverse - it plays more like an R&B/hip-hop chart (in part because white audiences had largely decamped to alternative, adult contemporary, "adult alternative", rock and country) - but I think it does demonstrate that Prince was having trouble competing in an environment where he in theory should have been dominating. Instead, Whitney Houston, Bobby Brown, Mary J. Blige and a white Canadian rapper were all over the charts.
Well I don’t know what that has to do with what I said. No ****. But that was the market segment Prince was big in and thus relevant, unlike most of the other examples you gave. Again why are you drawing me into this history lesson as if I said something different? Please stop quoting me. Oh and that chart largely sucks (though do enjoy seeing it and going back down memory lane-thanks and I always enjoy your notes on them) though I’ll admit it is better than, say, a typical 91 pop chart. But “7” is indeed more enjoyable than most of it. I stand by what I wrote (what I actually wrote, not what you seem to think that I wrote.) it is interesting how R&B heavy the pop chart was. And as much as REM et al sold I guess the really big stars were still these pop R&B divas who had hit after hit after hit (Whitney Houston, Mariah Carey, etc) Maybe what I said was largely unnecessary because the pop charts are typically so filled with crap at this point that a, yes, even second tier Prince single is definitely better than most of it. Maybe I’m a little overgrouchy on this post, pay it no heed , ha.
7 Here Prince has written a great, catchy tune. The mystical nature of the lyrics slightly puts me off it, but what puts me off it more is the way the vocals are done. If it was a single-tracked Prince lead vocal I'd like it much more than the unnatural and over-the-top sound of the "Wall of Princes". this could have been a 5, but the production brings it down to 4/5 Anyone else feel there is a strong element of "When Doves Cry" coming through in these '90s middle-Eastern flavoured Prince songs? It might not have been a big chart hit here but it got played a lot- I think I heard it at least as much as the previous two singles. By now the album had come out and most fans already had the song on the album.
What I've always loved about 7 are all the little flourishes, the little bells (literally! ) and whistles. Those details are what make the song for me. Love the slightly Eastern flavour as well. It is a great pop song, despite its kinda peculiar structure. Because the song does seem to stop and start a couple of times, it's not a continuing melody. But that might be one of those things that make it a typical Prince song. And a near-classic one as well. 4.5/5
7 Who needs the NPG when you can create a track like this one pretty much by yourself. It immediately sounds different from the rest of the album. I actually like the no doubt laborious vocal layering, there's no escaping that distinctive sound. Had never seen the music video with Prince emerging in that thing that resembles Bowie's Serious Moonlight tour Space Oddity translucent curtain pillar and/or that Dr Who thing. Incredible amount of music videos created by Prince for minor hits ... were they ever issued on dvd or blu-ray ? Usually not very lucrative, but in his case YouTube never had much. 7 has plenty of hit potential: 4.5/5
7...One of the "Beautiful Ones." This song is top tier Prince. So many sounds, flourishes & moods just engulf the soul. I love this song, and it proved Prince was still capable of making great music. Please don't stand in the way of love, or your ass will get smoked! "but do not fear, for in the distance, twelve souls from now, you and me will still be here" love that line & miss the man 5/5
There was a DVD release for the D&P videos but not the "Three Chains Of Gold" collection thing. It only saw a VHS and laser disc release.
i agree with almost everything here. However, AFTP had 3 Top 40 US hits, which went Top 20 in the UK. Yes they were more popular on Alternative/Modern Rock stations here, they still were substantial pop hits as well. FYI, they were Drive, Man on the Moon, and Everybody Hurts.
7: Classic Prince single, and another in the line of great songs on the album. Everything works for me, and while I prefer Sexy MF, I do think this could’ve been Top 3 in the US as the lead single. But it still was the biggest hit here from this release. 5/5
There was a Hits Collection dvd in different versions, that has '7', some other hits, but Purple Rain isn't even included, just checked Discogs for video releases.
7 One of the better songs on this album. Had it been the first single the album might have done better in the US. 3.5/5
7 This is an absolute 90s classic Prince song. There is so much going on, with bells, acoustic elements and multilayered vocals. It sounds really magical and out of this world. The number 7 has a special meaning for Prince (probably biblical), so you see it pop up on this album ("On the 7th day, he made me") and throughout his career. I seem to remember that The Steeles did some background vocals on this, but Princevault says it's a solo performance. This is the type of song that would be great with a full choir. The song also uses a drum sample from Lowell Fulson's Tramp. That drum sample was used on numerous songs around the same time, like Cypress Hill's How I Could Just Kill A Man or House Of Pain's Jump Around (the same song that 'probably sampled Gett Off too'). There are many remixes made of the song (released, promos and unreleased), but most of them sound very similar. The 'acoustic version' is a standout version with many bells and whistles mixed out of the song. It's also the closest one to an a cappella version, which would be a great idea (maybe with those modern technology filters...?) BTW, this was the shortest song title ever on many charts at the time. Probably something that Prince was keen on... The live version was really great and he brought it back in the 00's and 10's, for example in Berlin 2010: "And in the distance, six others will curse me But that's all right For I will watch them fall (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)" This is a 5 out of 5
7 Another member of the "I got too many hits" section. The video is terrible, the whole album "concept" ... what was he thinking? Anyway ...the song is super interesting, layered vocals, Arabic influenes, acoustic feeling, very clever and good! I agree that is an outstanding song for a chart hit that year... Whitney Houston, Michael Bolton, Boys II Men, Jon Secada, c'mon this was something complete different! 4.3/5
Yes, I know but not too big. (I’m running the REM thread too and we’re just about to finish with that album so it’s fresh on my mind.) (And I was deliberately taking a US centric view — as was he—as I am not entirely sure what the pop charts in the U.K. looked like. Usually I think they looked better since the market were not so segmented so there was more variety plus there seems to have been at least a little less corruption baked into the system. Certainly singles were not irrelevant in the U.K. at this time it was the golden age of singles there!)
7 I LOVE the acoustic version but I HATE the album version and edit.. what is the laughing about on the intro? The bass is sludgy and god-awful 2/5 acoustic: 5/5
I've never been a fan of 7. I don't like the vocals and don't feel there's anything innovative about it. 2/5
Well, what you'd originally said was this: Way better than most of what passed for pop music in 1992 as I recall. You didn't say "pop singles" or - more specifically - the "pop singles charts". You'd said "pop", which to me means everything popular. I'd argue that by '92 "popular" music - as in what human beings in America were actually buying and listening to on the radio and in clubs - was primarily not what was on Billboard's pop singles chart. And that might have been the first time since the charts were spun up that you could definitively say such a thing. In fact I'd go beyond even that assertion - not only was most of the buying and listening happening off the pop singles chart, but that chart was actively misleading re: what people were actually listening to. Largely because it didn't at all reflect album sales, which is where the money was pretty much all going by this point, and which also drove a ton of what actually got played on the radio and in clubs. But also because it didn't reflect country, which was a huge business by this point, or a bunch of other genres very well, even ones where singles were selling OK. The pop singles chart was this bizarre thing sort of divorced from what was actually popular, its own weird sort of genre. Which is actually an interesting point, because a lot of Love Symbol sounds like Prince desperately chasing after that freakish pop singles chart, and probably explains why the album is so odd and sports so many dated clunkers. And also why he began encountering increasing sales resistance, because sales were being driven by albums and not the hodgepodge of diamonds and drivel on the pop singles charts. I think if you sat around listening to the Top 40 countdown in '92-'93 and tried targeting your material to what you heard with an eye toward commercial success you'd pretty much be guaranteeing failure. It was just sort of a meandering river of detritus. The innovative and even the truly commercially successful stuff - as in dollars actually made by the labels - was all over on the album charts. It almost feels like Prince didn't understand how the commercial landscape had shifted, and was targeting something both amorphous and irrelevant. Hearing these records now, he'd have been a lot better served by jettisoning R&B and funk entirely - his brand of it was dated and his attempts to blend into what was on the pop charts at the time somewhat laughable and also futile - and leaning heavily into his rock chops instead. He might have cleaned up over on the adult alternative side of the fence. The period where he drifted furthest from Jimi and Joni is the period where he should have been racing to embrace them, instead.
"7": Definitely top-tier for the era, and the best of the "Thieves in the Temple" / "Thunder" / "7" trilogy. I have no idea WTF it means, even on a symbolic level, but that isn't my main reservation. This is: There's something unsettlingly artificial about the layers of Prince; it's one of those uncanny valley experiences. 4/5 In that respect, "7" is in the lineage of "Alphabet St.," and perhaps Prince was hoping for equal success. But then again, the lyrics aren't exactly commercial.
