Prince

Prince Rogers Nelson was born in Minneapolis in 1958, signed to Warner Bros. while still a teenager, and put out his first album, For You, two years later. He wasn't just the singer. He played guitar, bass, keyboards and drums, worked the Linn LM-1 drum machine and wrote the songs, and he pioneered a whole new sound: the Minneapolis sound, a lean, sexy hybrid of funk, rock, synths and soul.

Dirty Mind in 1980, Controversy in 1981 and 1999 in 1982 won over the critics first, with the synth-funk party of "1999" and the slinky "Little Red Corvette" showing he could write pop hooks as sharp as his guitar solos. Then came 1984 and Purple Rain. The film, the soundtrack and "When Doves Cry" all hit number 1 in America at the same time, something no singer had done before. Recorded with his new band the Revolution, the album sat at the top for months and won an Academy Award for Best Original Song Score. "Let's Go Crazy" exploded out of the speakers, and "Purple Rain" was a slow-burning power ballad with a guitar solo that just keeps climbing.

The hits kept coming: "Kiss", all nervous funk and falsetto, went to number 1. He broke up the Revolution and made Sign o' the Times in 1987, his first solo double album, sprawling and brilliant, then Lovesexy and Diamonds and Pearls. The Razzies came calling in 1987, too, but nobody was keeping score.

In 1993, fighting Warner Bros. over his contract, he changed his name to an unpronounceable symbol and became the Artist Formerly Known as Prince. He signed with Arista in 1999, took his name back in 2000, and won two Grammys for Musicology in 2004. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inducted him the same year. He died in 2016 at his Paisley Park home and studio in Chanhassen, Minnesota, after an accidental overdose on counterfeit pills laced with fentanyl.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.