Which one is your favorite? - XLV -

Here is a song that matches the colors of the blog. It's from 1984 and written by one of my favorite artists who passed away in 2016. It is a power ballad that combines rock, R&B, gospel, and orchestral music. Thhe song was originally written for a film of the same title.

Here is the song for this week;

"Purple Rain"

"Purple Rain" reached No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 and stayed there for two weeks, being kept off the top spot by "Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go" by Wham! It reached No. 1 in Belgium and the Netherlands. It is certified Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and is considered to be one of Prince's signature songs. Following Prince's death in April 2016, "Purple Rain" rose to No. 1 on the US and UK iTunes Charts, allowing it to re-enter the Billboard Hot 100, where it reached No. 4. It also re-entered the UK Singles Chart at No. 6, placing two spaces higher than its original peak of No. 8. In France, where it originally peaked at No. 12, "Purple Rain" reached No. 1 around a week after Prince's death.

"Purple Rain" is ranked at No. 144 on Rolling Stone's list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time and is included in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll. 

Prince provided one of the most memorable Super Bowl halftime moments when he performed this song in the rain at the 2007 game between the Indianapolis Colts and Chicago Bears. After blasting through bits of several songs, he slowed things down for a sensuous rendition of "Purple Rain." The stadium turned dark, and purple lights glistened through raindrops as Prince enraptured the crowd with a silhouetted guitar solo that produced a stunning visual. Colts fans will remember the game, but for the rest of us, Prince's performance on the field was the highlight.

The album was actually the soundtrack to the first movie Prince made.

The song "Purple Rain" was the centerpiece of the film and a key plot point. In the movie, the female members in Prince's band, Wendy Melvoin and Lisa Coleman, write a song that Prince ignores, prompting a tirade from Wendy ("Every time we give you a song you say you're going to use it but you never do. You're being paranoid as usual..."). At the end of the film, Prince's crew is in a heated rivalry with another band (The Time), who do a blistering set that Prince must follow. When Prince takes the stage, he introduces "Purple Rain" as being written by Wendy and Lisa, then tears down the house with it.

Many viewers were offended by the movie Purple Rain because of its apparent sexism. Prince defended the film, and himself, to MTV in 1985: "I didn't write Purple Rain. Someone else did. And it was a story, a fictional story, and should be perceived that way. Violence is something that happens in everyday life, and we were only telling a story. I wish it was looked at that way, because I don't think anything we did was unnecessary. Sometimes, for the sake of humor, we may've gone overboard. And if that was the case, then I'm sorry, but it was not the intention."

The film was written by the screenwriter William Blinn and its director Albert Magnoli, but Prince did inspire the script. He told Larry King: "I really wanted to chronicle the life I was living at the time, which was in a area that had a lot of great talent and a lot of rivalries. So I wanted to chronicle that vibe of my life."

According to Blinn, the story came about when Prince told him stories about his father, a musician who never quite made it and sometimes blamed his family for his failures. To Blinn, it sounded like a kind of therapy. "It was as if he were sorting out his own mystery," he said.

Here are the 6 versions I picked for you;

• Randy Crawford - "Purple Rain"

• Holly Cole - "Purple Rain"

• Etta James - "Purple Rain"

• Amanda Palmer & Jherek Bischoff - "Purple Rain"

• The Waterboys - "Purple Rain"

• Bruce Springsteen - "Purple Rain"

Now the floor is yours, go ahead and make your comments (here, Instagram, Facebook wherever you feel like...).

nb. Please note that I intentionally do not include the original versions of the songs as it would be a little unfair to the artists covering the songs, and I am sure that sometimes you will be surprised to see that the songs you thought were the originals are just covers.