Prince's most groundbreaking single of the 80s...?

That purple high-heeled beast blended pop, rock, funk, psychedelia and new wave like no-one else, but what single from his 'classic' era stands out as something truly groundbreaking and why? I'm inclined to think 'Sign o the Times', as I've heard no-one had used the Fairlight computer so prominently on a hit single before that, and conclusively it really helped digital audio workstations 'come along' in pop music. Anyone want to offer up another one with reasoning and possibly prove me wrong?

 

"If I was your girlfriend" - Amazing track, possibly my favourite out of all of his. A strange choice for a single, the track itself sounds sparse and minimalist, while his voice is sped-up to sound like a female singer, singing from a male point of view.

I think that covers groundbreaking off in one swoop IMO.

 

I would say 1999.

Didn’t exactly sound like anything before it and it put him firmly into everyone’s consciousness.

 

"Sign Of The Times' is a great song and I did not know that about the production, but after thinking about "When Doves Cry" as a possibility, I'm going with "Let's Go Crazy." With that single he is very clearly saying "I am an amazing guitar player and it's time you knew." To me that's ground breaking because no other hit maker at that time really had those chops or was willing to show it. That song was an absolute explosion at pop radio in 1984.

 

It took me years to get into Sign O The Times and always wondered why it was even picked for a single. but after I saw the live version from the movie I finally "got it."

 

A clichéd answer, perhaps, but When Doves Cry is very daring for a smash hit single.

A dance record with no bass, proggy keyboard runs and Freudian lyrics.

 

"Kiss" was quite something when it came out.
An exercise in whittle-down-ness !

Groundbreaking indeed !

 

My sentiments exactly.

 

how about every damn single he released from 1980~1989...The Man was on creative Fire... if Bowie was THE Artist of the 70's then Prince easily owns the 80's.
that's not even considering the B-sides from those singles....How Come U Don't Call Me Anymore?, 17 Days, Erotic City, She's Always In My Hair...i rest my case.

 

Maybe we should start a list of which of his 80s singles were NOT groundbreaking. Will be a shorter list.

 

This.

 

Kiss

 

1987 was pretty late in the game for the Fairlight -- Kate Bush and Peter Gabriel and Trevor Horn's stuff with Art of Noise and Yes were artist having hits with the Fairlight in the early '80s. By the time Sign o the Times came out in '87, the Fairlight was kinda passe. And even that kind of blooping stripped down rhythm thing, from the first Def Jam record, "It's Yours" by T La Rock and Jazzy Jeff with the heavy 808 programming in '84, that was already the sound, whatever the technology. Whatever musical qualities "Sign O the Times," I wouldn't call it groundbreaking.

There was a lot of groundbreaking stuff in terms of using samples, or drum machines or the Fairlight and digital sequencing, or sampling and looping an all kinds of stuff -- from My Life in the Bush of Ghosts to The Dreaming to Hounds of Love to and all the Fairlight on that Peter Gabriel album with "Shock the Monkey" and other new synth and sampling tech like with Laurie Anderson's "O Superman" (that record was a bolt out of the blue) to "It's Yours" (the drum programming on that, that turned everyone's heads) to "Close to the Edit" (those Trevor Horn Fairlight things were novelties maybe, but they were the sound of the day) to, away from pop, Zappa's Synclavier stuff on Jazz from Hell. I can remember all those records coming out and what an impact they all had, years before "Sign o the Times." The Fairlight was so ubiquitous by the mid-80s that Phil Collins actually had a note on one of his albums saying the Fairlight wasn't used on the record!

"When Doves Cry," that was the real mindblower back in the day. The introspective, psychological lyric, the fact that it was this dance pop record with no bass, the sound of the drum programming -- that was and is THE ground breaker for Prince. I never was much of a Prince fan -- phenomenal talent, supernatural talent, but I never loved that much of his writing, (I started spinning his records as a dance DJ as a kid when "I Wanna Be Your Lover" came out, so I heard his stuff pretty much from the start), but even for me, when I heard "When Doves Cry," man, that was something. Yeah, "Dirty Mind" and "Head" were kinda scandalous. And the whole synth wash dance pop sound of "Controvery" or "Delirous" or "1999" was very much the sound of the day -- though in some ways, with the likes of "Controversy" it didn't sound like it was coming out of nowhere, it was in someways like you could hear "Controversy" as an evolution of the Roger Troutman/PFunk "More Bounce to the Ounce" kind of thing (though not as funky). Or that whole mix of Euro synth pop and American funk, I mean, that was the Bambaataa "Planet Rock" model back in '82. Prince has his distinctive style, but it was kind of in line with a lot of stuff that was in the air at the time among a lot of people making these very popular, influential records. Prince was doing his own thing, but it was ground a lot of other cats were also digging in. But "When Doves Cry" though, phew, that was a DIFFERENT, personal, distinctive, unique record, and with depth, not just kind of sexy come-on dance pop and dirty novelties or, not exactly double entendre but kind of sex metaphor records like "Little Red Corvette" or whatever that he was hitting with before.

 

no brainer, When Doves Cry. No bassline, sparse arrangement, strange lyrics. I thought it was a pretty weird song when i first heard it, and no, I did not want to touch if you will his stomach.

 

Fairlight had been used extensively in pop music prior to that, most particularly by Trevor Horn.

 

To me, it's Purple Rain. It's tempo, it's length, the long guitar solo, and the dramatic string arrangement made for a very unique pop hit. Amazing that he got away with that.

 

This is also my first choice. It's so minimal - vocals, swizzy synth sound, drum machine - it's almost not there. Prince could take a piece of paper, a Jew's harp, and the rhythm box from your Grandma's Bontempi organ and come up with a top 10 single.

 

Kiss
Or
When Doves Cry

 

With so many Prince singles it’s easy to say “nothing sounded like...” — but, yeah, that’s the one: When Doves Cry.

 

Kiss to me was just like a JB vamp with a little guitar stop a la "Papa's Got a Brand New Bag" on blues changes. It was the Prince single of the time that broke the least new ground to me.

 

When I first heard "When Doves Cry," it was akin to hearing "Won't Get Fooled Again," "Tusk," or "The Message." As in, What the hell was that?

 

"Pop Life"

 

Thanks for keeping your replies concise, everyone.

 

Sign of the times for me.

 

Coincidentally listening to Prince right now and thinking....When Doves Cry just may be the greatest single of the 80s.