1984Released
8:40

Did You Know?

Interesting facts and trivia about Purple Rain. By Songfacts®.

After Prince released his 1999 album in 1982, he toured in many of the same cities Bob Seger did. He was amazed at how crowds connected with Seger's songs like "Night Moves" and "Mainstreet" - slow songs that told stories people could relate to. Prince decided to write a song in that style, and "Purple Rain" was the result.

The album was actually the soundtrack to the first movie Prince made. He went on to make three more: Under The Cherry Moon, Sign O' The Times, and Graffiti Bridge. Purple Rain won Prince an Oscar for Best Original Song Score (not to be confused with the Best Original Score category, won that year by A Passage to India). 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. Wendy and Lisa were real members of Prince's band until 1987 when they left to record as a duo. This song, however, was composed solely by Prince. It's a love song, with Prince singing about his devotion to a girl, but it also serves as a catharsis, releasing the pent-up frustrations that had been building throughout the movie. The "Purple Rain" is a place to be free.

The song was written for the Purple Rain film, but it served Prince very well in concert, where it was often his showstopper. He retained many of the visual elements from the movie performance in his shows, which isn't much of a stretch - the concert scenes were filmed at the First Avenue nightclub in Minneapolis, where Prince often performed.

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Song Analysis

Key, BPM (tempo) and time signature of Purple Rain.
A♯Key
MajorMode
4/4Time Signature
113BPM

Album

The album Purple Rain is released on.

Released By

The record label that has released Purple Rain.
Rhino/Warner Records
© 1984 NPG Records, Inc. under exclusive license to Warner Records Inc.
℗ 1984 NPG Records, Inc. under exclusive license to Warner Records Inc.

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