Prince was more than 'Purple Rain.' Here are some of the great songs you never listened to, but should.

Listen to Prince's greatest hits as you mourn him, but he didn't stop making great music in 1996

Prince did not stop making great music in 1996.
(Image credit: Cindy Ord/Getty Images for NPG Records 2015)

Last year I tried to listen to every recorded Prince song.

Obviously that's not literally possible: Hours of his music are notoriously locked in the "vault" at his Paisley Park studios. But I rounded up every available album, plus anything I could find in the usual sub rosa ways: the newspaper-insert record; the old fan club subscription-only releases; a 600-song collection of unreleased tunes, alternate versions, and other miscellany labeled the "iVault." I gathered some 1,300 songs, or about 100 hours of continuous, chronological listening.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up
To continue reading this article...
Continue reading this article and get limited website access each month.
Get unlimited website access, exclusive newsletters plus much more.
Cancel or pause at any time.
Already a subscriber to The Week?
Not sure which email you used for your subscription? Contact us
Franz Nicolay

Franz Nicolay is a musician and writer from New York. His book The Humorless Ladies of Border Control: Touring the Punk Underground from Belgrade to Ulanbaatar is out on The New Press in August.