How do you take Prince’s vast body of work and boil it down to “best” songs, let alone 10 best? What you are about to read is just the tip of the iceberg. We know how that goes for ships. How does it go for music? Maybe about the same. I dove deep into Prince’s catalog and managed to make it back to the surface with 100 songs. But when Prince meets print, that means boiling everything down even further. This is the 1-10 of the 1-100. Don’t stop here. Go see the rest here. You’ll still have quarrels with it (and me), I’m sure, but let the retribution match the contribution (of his revolution).
1. “Little Red Corvette (Special Dance Remix)”
1999: Super Deluxe Edition (1982/2019)
This is the moment Sly Stone hands the baton to a sprinting Prince. Sly invented remixing and DIY aesthetics back in 1971 with There’s a Riot Goin’ On, and Prince takes that concept to new heights. I used to think of “Little Red Corvette” as just another radio hit — that is, until one night I heard it played and something felt off. The drums were louder, the extra kick drums hit harder, and the whole song felt … Blacker. It took me a decade to unravel it all. In this remix, Prince exemplifies musical code-switching — every Black person knows how to adjust their voice and demeanor depending on the setting. For Black musicians, this often means softening hard or sharp edges with safe, major-key chords. It avoids aggression and wins over audiences. Prince’s songs raised the big question: “Does this kid have what it takes to be a rock star?” But there’s guilt for Black artists when success means crossing over. Will they be welcomed back? He had a solution. Midway through, he flips the bass line from a safe C sharp major to a tougher B flat minor, transforming this rock gem into a darker funk explosion. For the last three minutes (if you were a 12-year-old confused by the LP version), you’re left baffled by his brilliance. He employs this trick several times throughout his career, winking at us while playing partisan survival games for all demographics. He’ll use this approach on landmark songs like “Raspberry Beret,” “U Got the Look,” and “1999.” Never has the exhausting task of people-pleasing felt so welcome.
