Prince’s ‘Purple Rain’ at 40: Here’s What Happened When It Stormed Our Charts

Big Brother was supposed to take over in 1984 — not a 5’2”, 26-year-old musical polymath from Minnesota. But with the June 25, 1984, release of Purple Rain, Prince took his throne as a global pop star. The album “was like a magic bullet,” Revolution guitarist Wendy Melvoin tells Billboard ahead of Celebration 2024, a five-day Minneapolis party with performances from The Revolution, Morris Day and New Power Generation. “He knew there was lightning in a bottle.”

Purple Rain, which will turn 40 in June, poured onto Billboard’s pages as soon as it came out.

‘Wet Behind the Ears

When Prince released his debut album, For You, the April 29, 1978, Billboard hailed it as “a one-man gangbuster” from an “18-year-old musical phenomenon who goes only by the name Prince.” The reviewer predicted “across the board appeal,” but only “Soft and Wet” hit the Billboard Hot 100, and it stalled at No. 92. It wasn’t until 1999, his fifth album, that Prince sped to the chart’s top 10 with “Little Red Corvette” and “Delirious.”

Baby, He’s a Star

The June 2, 1984, Billboard called The Jacksons’ Victory the month’s biggest album, with Bruce Springsteen’s Born in the U.S.A. named the “next hottest.” The same article mentioned two other albums “by acts that hit platinum” — Prince and Jane Fonda. Two weeks later, Billboard identified Prince as a critics’ pick, “viewed with skepticism by pop programmers.” But a headline in the July 7 issue trumpeted that “Prince Keeps Springsteen Humble” as “When Doves Cry” flew to the peak of the Hot 100, shutting out The Boss’ “Dancing in the Dark.” By Aug. 4, Prince & The Revolution overthrew Springsteen atop the Billboard 200, and Purple Rain ruled for an astonishing 24 weeks.

‘Rain’ Storms Theaters

“Seeing Purple Rain makes it clear that the man from Minneapolis is certainly going to give anybody else making music this year a real hard time,” according to a movie preview in the July 28, 1984, Billboard. The next week’s issue called it “the most gripping contemporary rock movie in years,” as well as “the most performance-oriented music exploitation film since the glory days of Richard Lester’s classic Beatles films.” Another article, about the release of the single “Let’s Go Crazy,” reported that Prince had delivered “a second tour de force” — “even before the doves have stopped crying.” It became his second Hot 100 No. 1 in the Sept. 29 issue.

Crowning Achievement

An article in the Dec. 22, 1984, issue declared that the year had been “dominated by the phenomenon of His Purple Badness, thanks to a multimedia blitz of vinyl, video and film soundtracks” that “epitomized the upbeat creative and commercial climate.” “When Doves Cry” was revealed as the “top-selling single of the year.” But mainstream success didn’t clean up Prince’s dirty mind: The same issue noted that growing interest in B-side “Erotic City” — “fueled” by “controversial lyric content” — was forcing radio stations to “wrestle with how to deal with its popularity.”

This story appears in the June 22, 2024, issue of Billboard.