Top 10 Best Songs by Prince

The magnum opus. Recorded during a live concert, which explains the emotion and atmosphere. It begins as a country ballad and ends as a hymn. The guitar solo is perhaps the most emotional in music history. Prince lets his guitar sing, cry, and comfort. When the audience sings along with the "wooh-ooh-ooh" at the end, you feel a spiritual connection. Bigger than this, music doesn't become.

The most intense powerballad he ever wrote. It starts dreamy and soft, but builds to an insane climax. Prince begs, screams, and shrieks for love. "Do you want him, or do you want me?" At the end, he breaks down completely, crawling across the studio floor. It's pure passion and despair, recorded on tape.

When Doves Cry broke all the rules. There's no bass line in it, which was unheard of for a dance song. That gives it a strange, empty, and ghostly sound. The lyrics are about his difficult childhood and the fear of becoming like his parents. The combination of personal pain and icy, funky beat makes it a unique work of art.

A dark, socially conscious track. The beat is cold and mechanical, almost clinical. Prince lists the world's misery: AIDS, drugs, gangs. There's barely any melody, it's almost spoken word. The sobriety of the music reinforces the grim message. It's Prince holding up a mirror to society without embellishment.

Only Prince and an acoustic guitar (and some piano). It's a song about grief and the loss of a friend. The silence between the notes is as important as the music. You hear the sob in his voice and the creaking of the chair. It's so intimate that it feels like intruding on a private moment of sadness.

Here he abandons the guitars for an electronic, R&B-like beat. The violins are plucked (pizzicato), not bowed, giving it a unique sound. It's a sexy, dark song about exploring each other's deepest secrets. It shows that Prince can also be exciting without bombastic rock outbursts.

Here Muse hits the dance floor, but in space. The beat is tight and funky, inspired by Prince and Franz Ferdinand. Bellamy sings almost the entire song in a sultry falsetto. The guitar sounds like a synthesizer, squealing and electronic. It's a weird but brilliant mix of disco and alternative rock.

The ultimate party song for the end of the world. The synthesizer riff is iconic and compelling. Everyone sings along. But listen carefully to the lyrics: it's about the fear of nuclear annihilation. "We're all gonna die any day now." That combination of dancing on the edge of the abyss makes the song exciting and urgent.

Musical minimalism at its best. Prince strips everything away here: a dry guitar, a drum beat, and his voice. There's no bass line. His falsetto is here at its sharpest and funkiest. It sounds bare, dry, and irresistibly sexy. It proves you don't need a wall of sound to fill a dance floor, just pure "attitude".

A perfect pop song starting with a steamy synthesizer intro. It sounds like a nighttime drive on a deserted highway. The lyrics use car metaphors for a fast, dangerous one-night stand. Prince sings with a mix of excitement and warning. The guitar solo is shearing and emotional. It's the perfect bridge between his early raw sound and later rock work.