To pay proper tribute to an artist that has contributed a sizeable chunk to the soundtrack of our lives, hundreds of radio stations from coast to coast -- frankly, far too many to single out in this limited space -- broke from normal programming, updated their websites and billboards and cranked up nothing but Prince. And it sounded awesome. By last night, Prince's catalog had exploded on iTunes, occupying all ten of the Top Songs chart and nine of the Top Albums chart with "Purple Rain" at No. 1 on both
What Prince songs charted in Chicago? Courtesy of historian Ron Smith...
Prince's chart appearances in Chicago on WLS/WYTZ (alphabetically).
(Peak date, Peak position, Title)
9/10/1983 - 6 - 1999
7/2/1988 - 11 - Alphabet St.
11/24/1984 - 46 - Darling Nikki
11/12/1983 - 10 - Delirious
1/23/1988 - 10 - I Could Never Take The Place Of Your Man
3/1/1980 - 21 - I Wanna Be Your Lover
1/19/1985 - 5 - I Would Die 4 U
4/19/1986 - 1-3 wks - Kiss
9/22/1984 - 3 - Let's Go Crazy
6/25/1983 - 4 - Little Red Corvette
6/28/1986 - 15 - Mountains
8/31/1985 - 11 - Pop Life
11/3/1984 - 2 - Purple Rain
7/20/1985 - 4 - Raspberry Beret
5/2/1987 - 17 - Sign 'O' The Times
3/23/1985 - 31 - Take Me With U
10/17/1987 - 1-2 wks - U Got The Look
8/20/1988 - 22 - When 2 R In Love
7/7/1984 - 1-4 wks - When Doves Cry
Remember when Prince played at the Super Bowl? That was the last time the Bears were in the big game, but nobody remembers that. They only remember this...
As for how television handled his death, after a rocky start, both CNN and MSNBC did well. And MTV went all-Prince. Although as Screengrabber reports, that wasn't without a hiccup...
MTV suspended all scheduled programming today to air an all-day Prince marathon in wake of the musician’s passing, but it looks like searching for “prince” in the network’s video database didn’t work so well. Sandwiched between videos for “New Power Generation” and “Controversy” turned up “Girls Ain’t Nothing But Trouble” by Fresh Prince & D.J. Jazzy Jeff.
Whoopsie Daisy.
One more Prince tidbit. I really enjoyed this interview with his bus driver in Billboard Magazine.
