WHEN DOVES CRY – PRINCE

Chart performance:

Week	Position	Movement	Comments
24-Aug-84	29	New
31-Aug-84	28	+1
07-Sep-84	23	+5	Star rater
14-Sep-84	20	+3
21-Sep-84	16	+4	Star rater
28-Sep-84	15	+1
05-Oct-84	13	+2
12-Oct-84	12	+1
19-Oct-84	9	+3
26-Oct-84	7	+2
02-Nov-84	6	+1*	Peak
09-Nov-84	6	0	Peak
16-Nov-84	9	-3
23-Nov-84	14	-5
30-Nov-84	17	-3
07-Dec-84	21	-4
14-Dec-84	23	-2
21-Dec-84	25	-2
28-Dec-84	27	-2
04-Jan-85	27	0

* This was the 3^rd song to see a record at that time 10 straight weeks moving up the charts. Men Without Hats’ ‘The Safety Dance’ was the first to manage this, followed the next week by the Eurythmics’ ‘Love Is A Stranger’. In total 9 songs would see such a run with Dire Straits’ ‘So Far Away’ being the only one to go on and see an 11^th straight week with a climb.

Written by: Prince
Produced by: Prince
South African record label (unless otherwise stated): Warner Bros

Hit number for artist	1
Peak position	6
Weeks	20
Biggest climber awards	0
Star rater climbs	2
Biggest faller awards	0
Top 20 points	108
Overall Top 20 points ranking	=1030
Top 20 points ranking for the artist	1
Top 30 Points	273
Overall Top 30 points ranking	=773
Top 30 points ranking for the artist	1

Annual ranking:

1984	=36
1985	=131

Other chart success:

Australia	1
Austria	19
Belgium	6
Canada	1
Finland	4
France	32
Germany	16
Ireland	2
Netherlands	6
New Zealand	2
Norway	10
Sweden	18
Switzerland	17
UK	4
US	1
Zimbabwe	5

SA Radio charts:

Capital 604	1
Radio 5	4
Radio 702	1

The song would be the top ranked single for 1984 in the US by Billboard magazine. It was written when the director of the film ‘Purple Rain’, in which Prince starred, asked him to come up with a song for a particular scene in the film. The next day he came back with 2 songs, one of which was ‘When Doves Cry’. Prince would play all the instruments on the track and perform all the vocals. He would also direct the music video for the track. The single would sell over 2 million units in the US. It would be the 700^th song by an American act to make our charts. In 2016, the song would make it to 8 in the US and 26 in the UK following Prince’s death. A cover by American singer Ginuwine in 1997 would get to 10 in the UK.

Video:

Artist link: Prince

KISS – PRINCE

Chart performance:

Week	Position	Movement	Comments
04-May-86	25	New
11-May-86	25	0
18-May-86	24	+1
25-May-86	24	0
01-Jun-86	20	+4	Star rater
08-Jun-86	17	+3
15-Jun-86	13	+4	Star rater
22-Jun-86	10	+3	Peak
29-Jun-86	10	0	Peak
06-Jul-86	11	-1
13-Jul-86	12	-1
20-Jul-86	16	-4
27-Jul-86	20	-4
03-Aug-86	26	-6	Biggest faller

Written by: Prince
Produced by: Prince
South African record label (unless otherwise stated): Warner Bros.

Hit number for artist	2
Peak position	10
Weeks	14
Biggest climber awards	0
Star rater climbs	2
Biggest faller awards	1
Top 20 points	60
Overall Top 20 points ranking	=1480
Top 20 points ranking for the artist	2
Top 30 Points	181
Overall Top 30 points ranking	=1284
Top 30 points ranking for the artist	2

Annual ranking:

1986

56

Other chart success:

Australia	2
Austria	8
Belgium	3
Canada	6
Finland	8
France	29*
Germany	4
Ireland	11
Italy	11
Netherlands	3
New Zealand	2
Norway	10
Sweden	16
Switzerland	3
UK	6
US	1

* Following Prince’s death in 2016, the song would re-chart around the world, but the only place (of those noted above) where it would chart higher would be France where it got to number 2.

SA Radio charts:

Capital 604	9
Radio 5	1

The song would win the Grammy for Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals. Later in 1986, UK indie band The Age Of Chance, released a cover of the song which got to number 1 on the UK Indie Singles chart and 50 on the main UK charts. Tom Jones and the Art of Noise teamed up in 1988 to record their cover version. Details of this version can be found here.

Video:

Artist link: Prince

PRINCE (US)

Born: 7 June 1958
Died: 21 April 2016 (aged 57)
Full name: Prince Rogers Nelson

Prince was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota. His mother was a jazz singer and his father was a pianist and songwriter who went under the name Prince Rogers (hence Prince’s name). He would write his first song aged 7. While at school he would train in classical ballet at the Minnesota Dance Theatre. In 1975 the husband of one of his cousins, a guy called Pepe Willie, formed a band called 94 East. The group would be fronted by Colonel Abrams who would go on to see solo success with the song ‘Trapped’. Prince would contribute guitar work and write songs for 94 East. When he left school, Prince recorded some demos and eventually got signed by the Warner Bros. record label. His first album, 1978’s ‘For You’, would get to 138 on the US album charts and saw the single, ‘Soft And Wet’, make it to 92 on the Hot 100 charts. The following year he saw his first major hit with ‘I Wanna Be Your Lover’ which went to 11. His big breakthrough came with the loosely autobiographical film ‘Purple Rain’ in which he starred. The album would spend 24 weeks at 1 in the US (the tied 6^th best for an album at the time of writing) and spawned 2 number 1 hits (‘When Doves Cry’ and ‘Lets Go Crazy’) as well as a number 2 hit (‘Purple Rain’), a number 8 hit (‘I Would Die 4 U’) and a number 25 hit (‘Take Me With You’) in the US. It would propel him into the realms of superstardom. He has managed 49 US chart hits (at the time of writing) with 5 number 1’s. In the UK he has managed 55 hits with ‘The Most Beautiful Girl In The World’ being his only chart topper. During his career he would have various ‘fights’ with his record label and at times would release material as ‘The Artist Formerly Known As Prince’ or just as a symbol (sometimes being referred to as Symbol, or Love Symbol). He would die from an accidental overdose of fentanyl, a powerful painkiller.

Date of entry	Song	Peak (weeks at 1)	Weeks
24-Aug-1984	When Doves Cry	6	20
04-May-1986	Kiss	10	14
		Total hits	2
		Total weeks	34

Biggest climber awards	0
Star rater climbs	4
Biggest fallers	1
Weeks with oldest in the charts	0
Longest run in the charts (weeks)	20
Weeks with more than 1 in the charts	0
Biggest gap between hits (weeks)	68
Top 30 points ranking	=363
Top 20 points ranking	=516
Top 30 points	454
Top 20 points	168

Songs written by Prince:

Song	Act	Peak (weeks at 1)	Weeks
Manic Monday	The Bangles	1 (2)	26
A Love Bizarre	Sheila E	3	22
Kiss	Art of Noise & Tom Jones	8	5
		Total hits	3
		Total weeks	53

‘Manic Monday’ was credited to Christopher. Although not charting on our charts, Prince also penned Chaka Khan’s ‘I Feel For You’ and Sinead O’Connor’s ‘Nothing Compares 2 U’, both of which he recorded himself and both of which topped the UK charts.

Prince would play plays on the following Stevie Nicks hit:

Date of entry	Song	Peak (weeks at 1)	Weeks
09-Sep-1983	Stand Back	27	3
		Total hits	1
		Total weeks	3

Total chart involvement:

Number of hits	6
Weeks	90
No of No.1’s	1
Weeks at 1	2