Prince The #45 Artist of the Rock Era, Part Three

 

(Continued from Part Two)

 

In 1988, Prince released the album Lovesexy, which yielded the #8 hit "Alphabet St.".

Prince assisted Madonna on her album Like a Prayer, playing guitar on three songs and co-writing and singing on "Love Song".

 Meanwhile, Jack Nicholson, who was starring in the upcoming movie Batman, asked director Tim Burton to include songs by Prince in the film.  Prince recorded the soundtrack album.  "Batdance" became his fourth #1 song, sold over two million copies and earned an MTV Video Music Award nomination for Best Video from a Film.  The song hit the Top 10 in every major country except Austria.

 Another highlight of the album is the underrated "Partyman", which peaked at #18 despite selling over one million copies.

The "Batman" Soundtrack went to #1 on the Album chart and sold over four million copies in the United States.  Prince won an American Music Award for Special Achievement and was nominated for Favorite Soul/R&B Male Artist.  He also received Grammy nominations for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance for the album and Best Male R&B Vocal Performance for "Batdance".

 Prince starred in and produced his fourth movie Graffiti Bridge and released the movie soundtrack in 1990.  "Thieves In The Temple" went Gold and reached #6.

The busy artist also wrote "Nothing Compares 2 (sic) U (sic" for Sinead O'Connor, who took the song to #1.  Prince was nominated for Song of the Year at the Grammy Awards.

 

The next year, Prince released the album Diamonds and Pearls, now calling his backing band The New Power Generation.  "Cream" went to #1 and sold over one million copies, while the video won an MTV Video Music Award for Best Dance Video.

 

He scored another big hit with the #3 "Diamonds And Pearls".

 Prince was nominated for Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal for "Gett Off" and scored another nomination for Favorite Soul/R&B Male Artist at the American Music Awards.  

 

In 1992, Prince released the album which became known as the Love Symbol Album, showing an unpronounceable symbol on the cover.  The single "7" peaked at #7 and sold one million singles.  Prince was nominated for Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals for "Diamonds And Pearls" and "7" was nominated for Best R&B Video at the MTV Video Music Awards.  

"My Name Is Prince" is a standout track on the album, with a rap from NPG member Tony M. Prince displays a three-octave range on the song, with a low of C3 to the high note of C6.

The album is approaching three million sales in the U.S.  Prince released the triple disc compilation The Hits/The B-Sides in 1993.

Prince and Warner Brothers had a lengthy dispute over the release of his albums and as a result, he changed his name to the symbol, .  He was now promoted as "The Artist Formerly Known as Prince".

  still had several albums remaining under his contract with Warner Brothers, so in an effort to quickly fulfill those obligations and switch labels, he increased his output. Warner Brothers objected to the quality of the albums. Material he had originally planned to release before Lovesexy was now released as The Black Album.    .

In 1995,  released the album The Gold Experience, quickly followed by another, Chaos and Disorder, which was his final album for Warner Brothers. 

 

The #3 song "The Most Beautiful Girl In The World" was his last big hit.   was nominated for Best R&B Album (The Gold Experience) and Best Male R&B Vocal Performance at the Grammy Awards for "I Hate U (sic)".  Prince won an American Music Award of Merit and under the name  was nominated for Favorite Soul/R&B Male Artist.   was also nominated for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance for "The Most Beautiful Girl In The World". Later in the year, he released the triple CD Emancipation, an album of covers. 

Emancipation went Platinum.  In 1998, Prince released a five-CD collection of previously unreleased songs called Crystal Ball. 

The next year, Prince signed with Arista Records and released the album Rave Un2 (sic) the Joy Fantastic.  In 2000, he returned to the stage name of Prince.

In 2004, Prince was nominated for Best Pop Instrumental Album at the Grammy Awards for N-E-W-S.

In 2004, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and released the album Musicology through Columbia Records.  At the conclusion of the year, Pollstar named Prince as the top-grossing performer in the United States.  Prince was nominated for Favorite Soul/R&B Male Artist and Favorite Soul/R&B Album at the American Music Awards.

Prince won Grammy Awards for Best Male R&B Vocal Performance ("Call My Name") and Best Traditional R&B Vocal Performance for the title song, which also earned an MTV Video Music Award nomination for Best Male Video.  He was also nominated for Best R&B Album and Best R&B Song (for "Call My Name") and Best Male Pop Vocal Performance (for "Cinnamon Girl".

In 2005, Prince signed a new deal with Universal Records and released the album 3121, which debuted at #1.  "Black Sweat" received Grammy nominations for Best R&B Song and Best Male R&B Vocal Performance and the video for "Black Sweat" was nominated for an MTV Video Music Award for Best Cinematography. 

Prince also received Grammy nominations for Best R&B Album, Best Urban/Alternative Performance and Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals (for "Beautiful, Loved And Blessed").

Prince recorded "The Song Of The Heart" for the animated movie Happy Feet, which won a Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song.  He received Grammy nominations for Best Song Written for a Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media for the song and won a Grammy for Best Male R&B Vocal Performance on "Future Baby Mama".

Prince performed during during halftime of Super Bowl XLI, in which he sang and played on stage during an increasing rainstorm.  Billboard.com ranks the show as the greatest Super Bowl performance of all-time.

After Prince's announced seven nights at the O2 Arena  in London sold out in 20 minutes, he added eight more shows and eventually increased performed 21 shows at the venue.

In 2008, Prince released the album Planet Earth, which was included in deliveries of the newspaper the Mail on Sunday.  As part of a European tour, Prince performed at the Coachella Festival.

Prince released the album Lotusflower in 2009.  The following year, Time magazine included Prince in its yearly ranking of "The 100 Most Influential People in the World".

Prince released the album 20Ten and was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.

In 2013, Prince received the Icon Award at the Billboard Music Awards.  In 2014, he returned to Warner Brothers.  The following year, after the death of Freddie Gray and the resulting riots, Prince released the song "Baltimore" and performed a tribute to Gray at his Paisley Park estate.

Prince released the album Hit n Run Phase One in 2015.

On April 7, 2016, Prince postponed two concerts due to influenza.  He rescheduled the show for the following week, but on the way back home, Prince was unresponsive.  His private jet made an emergency landing in Moline, Illinois, where he was hospitalized but soon left against medical advice.

Representatives at the hospital said Prince was dehydrated after suffering from the flu for several weeks.  Prince returned to his hometown of Chanhassen, Minnesota and made several stops on April 19.

The next day, representatives of Prince called Dr. Howard Kornfield of California asking for medical help for Prince.  Kornfield contacted a local doctor in Minneapolis to arrange an appointment for April 21.  At 9:43 a.m., Dr. Kornfeld's son placed a 9-1-1 call to the Carver County Sheriff's Office for an ambulance at Paisley Park.  Kornfeld flew in to administer buprenorphine and come up with a treatment plan for opiod addiction.  

First responders found Prince unresponsive in an elevator and performed CPR, but announced that Prince had been dead for about six hours.  The Midwest Medical Examiner's Office in Anoka County announced on June 2 that Prince had died from an accidental overdose of fentanyl.

Prince albums sold over four million copies in the week following and five albums appeared in the U.S. Top 10, the first time that feat had ever occurred.

Prince racked up 49 career hits, with 19 of those reaching the Top 10 and five going to #1.

Prince has sold over 100 million records and won seven Grammy Awards, a Golden Globe Award and an Academy Award.  

The late superstar won seven Grammy Awards from 32 nominations, six American Music Awards out of 24 nominations, one Golden Globe Award from two nominations, an Academy Award and four MTV Video Music Awards out of six nominations.  In addition, the song "1999" and the albums Purple Rain and Sign o' the Times have been inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.