5 Prince videos you have to see
Pop superstar Prince was found dead yesterday at 57 and the world has come out in mourning of the songwriter who brought the world hits like “Let’s Go Crazy,” “Little Red Corvette” and “Purple Rain.”
To celebrate Prince’s legacy, we’ve pulled up some of the best and most surprising Prince videos we could find. Whether you’re a die-hard Prince fanatic or just a casual fan, you’ll surely find something to honor the Purple One with here!
While the Purple One’s public persona was often quite serious regarding his music, Prince’s sense of humor would often come through in other appearances, such as this guest starring role on “Muppets Tonight” in 1997. In the opening scene, Prince spoofs his name change to the unpronounceable symbol of “The Artist Formerly Known As Prince” to Bobo the Bear. Another highlight is when he performed the song “Starfish and Coffee” complete with Muppets acting out the song’s pro-individuality message.
When intense rain in Miami looked like it could cause problems for the halftime show, it didn’t deter Prince. In this video from the NFL, production designer Bruce Rodgers remembers Prince asking, “Can you make it rain harder?” Prince continued playing through the rain and created one of the most memorable Super Bowl halftime performances in recent years.
The holy grail of the Prince videos we uncovered is this video of a full Prince concert from 1982. While the black-and-white video quality may seem like a bootleg, this professionally shot multi-camera production from the Capitol Theater in New Jersey boasts incredible audio quality of a Prince set from his earlier, pre-“Purple Rain” days. Definitely worth a watch if you have about 67 minutes to spare!
During the 2004 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Induction for George Harrison, Prince joined an all-star lineup of Tom Petty, Steve Winwood, Jeff Lynne and others to play Harrison’s classic Beatles tune “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” from “The White Album.” Around the 3:30 mark of the video, Prince begins a show-stealing solo that helped remind everyone of his incredible talent with an axe.
Though “Purple Rain” is viewed as a cult-classic and a bit campy these days, it actually did an Oscar for Best Original Song Score, beating out scores for “Songwriter” by Kris Krisofferson and “The Muppets Take Manhattan” (obviously, the Muppets didn’t take it too hard, since they later collaborated together). Because the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has not presented the Best Original Score Award under the same name since “Purple Rain” in 1984, Prince is technically the last person win the award.
While Prince isn’t actually in this clip, “Clerks” director Kevin Smith shared an incredible 30 minute anecdote about a never-released documentary he was asked to help with while asking Prince for permission to use the song “The Most Beautiful Girl in the World” in his film “Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back.” Prince denied the song, but was still able to get Smith to help – free of charge – and led to this amazing look at Prince’s unique creative mind. Highlights include Prince asking his staff for a pet camel at 3 a.m. and that the archives at Prince’s Paisley Park studios contain at least 50 unseen music videos for songs never released.