Song · Prince
“Controversy” by Prince
From the album Controversy (1981)
“Controversy” by Prince appears on 6 radio countdowns from 5 stations between 2018 and 2024. It was first released in 1981 on the album Controversy. Its best result is #154 on The Current's 893 Essential Songs. In the combined RockLists rankings it is #1,708 indie & aaa song of all time.
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"Controversy" hit the streets in September 1981 on Warner Bros., the lead single and title track of Prince's fourth album, and it's a dare set to a funk groove. Everybody wanted to pin him down: his sexuality, his gender, his faith, his race. Prince took the gossip and made it the subject, shrugging that he couldn't figure out why anybody was so curious.
He wrote it, arranged it, produced it and played on it himself, with Lisa Coleman chipping in background vocals and Mick Guzauski, Bob Mockler and Ross Pallone engineering. The soul chart ran it up to number three while the Hot 100 barely blinked at 70, but it was his breakthrough in Australia, and together with "Let's Work" it gave him the first of seven dance-chart number ones. A 1993 UK reissue for The Hits/The B-Sides climbed to number five.
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.
RockLists rankings
Indie & Adult Alternative
All Rock Formats
All-time and decade countdowns
| Year | # | Station | Countdown | of |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2018 | 154 | The Current | The Current's 893 Essential Songs | 892 |
| 2020 | 1034 | WXPN | WXPN 2020 Greatest Songs of All Time | 2020 |
| 2021 | 672 | 90.9 The Bridge | 90.9 The Bridge Top 909 Songs of the '80s | 909 |
| 2022 | 650 | The Colorado Sound | The Colorado Sound Top 1055 Colorado Sound Songs of All Time | 1055 |
| 2023 | 435 | The Colorado Sound | The Colorado Sound Top 850 Songs of the 1980s | 850 |
| 2024 | 404 | KEXP | The Best Opening Tracks of All Time | 738 |
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