Wednesday, June 7, 2017

Top 15 Prince Songs Performed by Other Artists


Let's start this post off the right way...



He would have 59 years young, today. Unfortunately, we lost him in 2016. That doesn't mean we can't celebrate his legacy. Part of his legacy was writing great music that others performed. Today, we're taking a look specifically at that music. Here are...


The Top 15 Prince Songs Performed by Other Artists


Before getting started, I do have to make note of one vital piece of information. There are no songs by The Time on this list. The reason is because it gets a bit dicey when deciphering who wrote most of their songs. Depending on who you ask, Prince wrote them all or just gave the ideas for them to flesh out themselves. This fleshing out was usually done by Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, who would go on to become multi-Grammy winning producers responsible for the biggest hits in the careers of Janet Jackson, Bobby Brown, The Human League, and others while also crafting hits for George Michael, Usher, Boyz II Men, Mariah Carey, and more. Out of respect to them, the rest of the members of The Time (especially one Morris Day), and on the off-chance one or more them should so happen to find themselves with nothing better to do than read my wee-little blog, I will exclude them. That said, had I decided to include them, their song "777-9311" would be very near the top of this list, with Jungle Love, and Ice Cream Castles finding spots, as well. Also excluded are live covers of Prince songs that were done as tribute, regardless of who sang them.

What is included are other songs that Prince wrote and/or composed that were recorded by other artists. A number of these are covers of material he previously recorded, but some he wrote specifically for the recording artist. A few of these even feature His Royal Badness singing backup. Here they are...



15. Love Song
by Madonna ft. Prince

14. Stand Back
by Stevie Nicks

13. Get it Up
by TLC


12. When You Were Mine
by Cyndi Lauper

11. Round and Round
by Tevin Campbell

10. Sex Shooter
by Apollonia 6

9. Manic Monday
by The Bangles

8. Do Me Baby
by Meli'sa Morgan

7. A Love Bizarre
by Sheila E.

6. How Come You Don't Call Me
by Alicia Keys


5. Sugar Walls
by Sheena Easton

4. Nothing Compares 2 U
by Sinead O'Connor

3. Nasty Girl
by Vanity 6

2. I Feel For You
by Chaka Khan

1. The Glamorous Life
by Sheila E.


By the way, there's also this, which some of you may actually like. I just find it cringe worthy. Let me know how you feel about this one in the comments section.



Kiss
by Tom Jones and Art of Noise 

9 comments:

  1. The Glamorous Life is such a good track. It was good when it was recorded, and it's still good.

    For what it's worth, I don't mind Art of Noise, but I can live without Tom Jones.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It's an awesome track!

      That's exactly how I feel about both AoN and Tom Jones.

      Delete
  2. Oh, I love Tom Jones' cover of "Kiss". Prince was always a great songwriter who just had a knack for insatiable melodies and such. Oh, there's one great cover of a classic Prince song that is just really fucking good. It's from the Foo Fighters who did "Darling Nikki" as a B-side for a single as it's just fun: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LTpHOgcorSw

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That reminds me of one that might be controversial. Warren Zevon and 3/4 of REM did this:

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jRMjSGBHz7E

      Delete
    2. I'm glad somebody like the TJ cover of Prince. Thanks for making me aware of the Foo Fighters cover. I really enjoyed that.

      Can't say the same for that cover of Raspberry Beret. Didn't quite work for me.

      Delete
  3. Your Top 6 is giving me LIFE, Dell! I would say that your #1 is absolutely the correct choice except that I can't even with Sinead's "Nothing Compares 2 U". It's such utter beautiful heartbreaking perfection.

    ...and on certain days, I actually prefer Inaya Day's version of "Nasty Girl" to Vanity's. HERESY, I KNOW!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Honestly, all of my top 5 spent a few minutes at #1 before I finally hit publish.

      And Inaya Day's vesion of "Nasty Girl" is very fun, no shame in that.

      Delete
  4. Great list Dell! Sinead O'Connor's Nothing Compares 2 U improves on the original and is my favorite of those. Apparently Prince dreamed the lyrics to Manic Monday, another wonderful cover, though I feel the latter has been overplayed on the radio here in Europe.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It's a great song so I wouldn't argue with anyone with it at #1. Prince apparently did this sort of thing often. Remember the opening lyrics to 1999? "I was dreaming when I wrote this..."

      Delete