Song · Prince
“Raspberry Beret” by Prince
From the EP His Majesty’s Pop Life / The Purple Mix Club (1985)
“Raspberry Beret” by Prince appears on 15 radio countdowns from 10 stations between 1985 and 2026. It was first released in 1985 on the EP His Majesty’s Pop Life / The Purple Mix Club. Its best result is #48 on The Colorado Sound Top 850 Songs of the 1980s. In the combined RockLists rankings it is the #175 alternative song of 1985 and #5,588 alternative song of all time.
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Video from YouTube (Prince). Pressing play loads YouTube's player. Watch on YouTube
"Raspberry Beret" led the way for Around the World in a Day, the 1985 album Prince made with the Revolution for Paisley Park, and it's the sound of Prince going pop and going wide at once. He wrote and produced it himself, and the arrangement stretches past anything he'd tried before: strings sawing away, Middle Eastern finger cymbals shimmering and, on the extended version, a harmonica. The 12-inch and the video kick off with a funky intro before the song settles into its sunny, skipping groove, and the story is a sly tale of a sexual encounter with a girl in a raspberry-colored beret.
Cash Box heard it as instantly accessible and teasingly sexy and took it to number one on its chart; on the Billboard Hot 100 it stalled at number two, stuck behind Duran Duran's "A View to a Kill". Britain was cooler, stopping it at number 25.
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.
RockLists rankings
Alternative & Modern Rock
Indie & Adult Alternative
All Rock Formats
Year-end countdowns
| Year | # | Station | Countdown | of |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1985 | 87 | KROQ Los Angeles, CA | KROQ Top 106.7 Songs of 1985 | 107 |
All-time and decade countdowns
| Year | # | Station | Countdown | of |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2001 | 287 | Virgin Radio | Virgin Radio Top 500 Songs of All-Time (December 2001) | 500 |
| 2007 | 896 | WTMD | WTMD Top 897 Songs of All Time | 897 |
| 2009 | 688 | WYEP | WYEP 913 Essential Songs | 913 |
| 2018 | 161 | The Current | The Current's 893 Essential Songs | 892 |
| 2020 | 666 | WXPN | WXPN 2020 Greatest Songs of All Time | 2020 |
| 2021 | 176 | 90.9 The Bridge | 90.9 The Bridge Top 909 Songs of the '80s | 909 |
| 2022 | 321 | KEXP | KEXP Top Songs of the Last 50 Years (1972-2022) | 491 |
| 2023 | 48 | The Colorado Sound | The Colorado Sound Top 850 Songs of the 1980s | 850 |
| 2023 | 795 | WYEP | WYEP Countdown to Fall 2023 | 1229 |
| 2023 | 133 | 90.9 The Bridge | 90.9 The Bridge Top 909 Songs of All Time | 909 |
| 2024 | 99 | WYEP | WYEP Best Songs of the Past 50 Years | 1049 |
| 2025 | 588 | The Colorado Sound | The Colorado Sound Top 800 Mood Booster Songs | 800 |
| 2026 | 180 | WFPK | WFPK Top 500 Songs of the '80s | 498 |
| 2026 | 325 | WYEP | WYEP Greatest Songs of All Time | 1180 |
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