Sept 22nd in Pop History
On this day, September 22nd, in:
• 1984 - Prince made it eight weeks at # 1 on the Album chart with Purple Rain, holding off Bruce Springsteen’s Born in the U.S.A. again. Huey Lewis & The News were still at # 3 after 51 weeks with Sports. Tina Turner remained at 4 with Private Dancer, and The Cars’ great album Heartbeat City was at # 5
Prince Rogers Nelson (June 7, 1958 – April 21, 2016) was an American singer-songwriter, musician, record producer, dancer, actor, and filmmaker. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest musicians of his generation.
A multi-instrumentalist who was considered a guitar virtuoso, he was well known for his eclectic work across multiple genres, flamboyant persona, and wide vocal range. He sold over 130 million records worldwide, ranking him among the best selling music artists of all time.
Purple Rain is the sixth studio album by American recording artist Prince, released on June 25, 1984. The album became Prince's first album to reach number one on the Billboard 200. The album spent 24 weeks atop the Billboard 200 and stayed on the chart for a total of 122 weeks. Total album sales stand at 25 million copies, making it one of the best-selling albums of all time. “Prince and the Revolution” won two Grammy Awards, and Prince also won the Academy Award for Best Original Score for the film Purple Rain. In Billboard's list of All 92 Diamond-Certified Albums Ranked From Worst to Best: Critic's Take, Purple Rain was ranked first.
In April 2016, at the age of 57, Prince died of an accidental fentanyl overdose at his home In Minnesota. During the week following Prince’s death, his artist's catalog sold 4.41 million albums and songs (from April 21 to 28), with five albums simultaneously in the top ten of the Billboard 200, a first in the chart's history. Prince was pronounced dead shortly after being found unresponsive in an elevator in his Paisley Park compound in Minneapolis. That detail haunted fans who point to the bizarre connection to a line in his hit song, "Let's Go Crazy," in which he sings, "Are we gonna let the elevator bring us down?”
Purple Rain was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2011, celebrating it as a 'recording of lasting historical significance'. ... It is safe to say there will never be another star quite like Prince.
Check out Purple Rain (the Song) on Spotify:
Here is Purple Rain (the Album) on Spotify:
And continuing on Sept. 22nd…
• 1957 - Bobby Helms made his television debut on The Ed Sullivan Show, singing My Special Angel
• 1962 - Bob Dylan first appeared at Carnegie Hall in New York
On this day in…
• 1964 - Herman's Hermits reached # 1 on the charts with a song written by Carole King with her husband Gerry Goffin — the big hit: I'm Into Something Good
• 1979 - Led Zeppelin remained the owners of the # 1 album with In Through the Out Door. The former # 1 Get the Knack from the Knack was still at 2 while Bob Dylan moved from 14-3 with one of his best career albums, Slow Train Coming. Supertramp was still at 4 with Breakfast in America
