CSPC: Prince Popularity Analysis

Physical Singles Sales – Part 1

As a reminder, the weighting is done with a 10 to 3 ratio between one album and one physical single.

For You (1978) – 72,000 equivalent albums

Soft and Wet – 210,000
Just as Long as We’re Together – 30,000

Prince (1979) – 438,000 equivalent albums

I Wanna Be Your Lover – 1,310,000
Why You Wanna Treat Me So Bad? – 90,000
Sexy Dancer – 20,000
Still Waiting – 40,000

Dirty Mind (1980) – 66,000 equivalent albums

Dirty Mind – 60,000
Do It All Night – 10,000
Uptown – 150,000

Controversy (1981) – 180,000 equivalent albums

Controversy – 420,000
Sexuality – 20,000
Do Me, Baby – 30,000
Let’s Work – 130,000

1999 (1982) – 1,317,000 equivalent albums

1999 – 1,640,000
1999 / Little Red Corvette – 710,000
Little Red Corvette – 990,000
Delirious – 780,000
Let’s Pretend We’re Married – 270,000

Purple Rain (1984) – 3,189,000 equivalent albums

Let’s Go Crazy – 2,520,000
Take Me with U – 370,000
When Doves Cry – 3,520,000
I Would Die 4 U – 1,080,000
Purple Rain – 2,970,000
Purple Medley – 180,000

Although an album like Controversy sold well upon release, I Wanna Be Your Lover was the only true hit that came out from Prince‘s first 4 LPs. This million seller found company during the 1999 era. The title track as well as Little Red Corvette have been strong US hits. Abroad results were still modest with no Top 20 hits in most other markets, including in the UK.

The era Purple Rain brought Top 10 hits from everywhere. Both When Doves Cry and Purple Rain were huge #1 smashes stateside and performed well too in the UK, Germany, Australia, France, among others. These singles plus Let’s Go Crazy shifted over 9 million units combined. The era total of 10,64 million physical singles puts it among the very top albums ever in this format. Only 15 albums among all studied artists so far performed better in a ranking led by Grease‘s singles which sold 24,4 million units combined.