Prince: All Number 1 Songs Ranked Worst To Best
7. Raspberry Beret
4th number one, 1985
The Purple Rain film-and-soundtrack project was an immense success, raking in big sales, great reviews, and a variety of accolades. It truly was a once-in-a-lifetime achievement. Naturally, Prince grew bored with it.
Which is why he went in a completely new direction after his signature commercial breakthrough. The follow-up album to Purple Rain, Around The World In A Day, was a venture into a more psychedelic style, and Prince requested that the record not produce any singles, which the label rejected.
Raspberry Beret is surprisingly wholesome for a song that mentions the deflowering of a virgin. Instead of veering into his habitual realm of controversy, Prince presents the song's story in a charming and romantic manner. The end result shows that there was more to the Artist than mere shock value - beneath the oversexualised and overconfident exterior lay a soft heart. And no matter how far the envelope was pushed, Prince was first and foremost about making good music.
Fun Fact: On Billboard, the song peaked at #2 below Duran Duran's Bond tune, A View To A Kill; it was Prince's second of three runners-up there. The next one would be U Got The Look, featuring Sheena Easton, which didn't chart any higher on Cash Box either, and therefore doesn't make this list.