40 years ago today, Prince won his only Oscar. It was presenter Michael Douglas who summed up the category’s criteria, saying that the film score should contain at least five original songs. Kathleen Turner then further clarified that the songs should “serve a dramatic purpose” and “move the story along.” 

Needless to say, the then-budding icon was the clear runaway choice. Still, he couldn’t hide his disbelief as he took the podium, dressed in a glittery purple hoodie and flanked by his collaborators, Wendy & Lisa. He could only describe that moment as “unbelievable” as he began his speech. 

It’s not every year that they make rock musicals specifically for film, much less those with supplementary albums. It’s probably why the Best Original Song Score award was never given out again, which only makes that victory an even greater fluke. 

But look, Purple Rain wasn’t exactly a cinematic masterpiece. The non-musical scenes were dull, the acting was wooden, and the misogyny was appalling even by that decade’s standards (Look for the scene where a woman gets thrown into a dumpster by two men. Just because.) In fact, the leading lady, Apollonia Kotero (From the girl band Apollonia 6), was also up for a Razzie for Worst New Star that year. She never took on prominent onscreen roles since. That already speaks volumes. 

But no amount of panning could taint the film’s impact, especially with its music. The film’s essentially a companion piece, like a music video anthology, but with bonus tracks and 67 extra minutes of bad acting. The real legend here, of course, is the album – the sixth in Prince’s then-growing discography. And with merely nine tracks, it’s as concise as a masterpiece can get. 

‘The album opens with “Let’s Go Crazy”, as in with the film. On screen, it’s what brings Apollonia into The Kid’s world, thus paving the way for her to start her own career. And as an opening piece, it’s quite the potent kicker. To no surprise, it was released as a single near-concurrently with the film.

The rest of Side A may be curiosity pieces, but they’re far from filler. There’s the single “Take Me With U”, which was played over the pair’s first misadventure and the soulful “The Beautiful Ones”, performed onstage by in a club sequence and, eventually, covered by Mariah Carey for 1997’s Butterfly. The experimental rock piece Computer Blue is the first Side A track which appears in the film out of sequence. The song samples a composition by Prince’s father, aptly named “Father’s Song”, which Prince’s onscreen father, Clarence Williams III plays on piano in the film. 

The first half ends with the album’s most scandalous cut, the hyper-explicit “Darling Nikki”.  The song centers on the sexual encounters of the titular girl and depicts her “…in a hotel lobby/masturbating with a magazine”. This fueled the ire of Tipper Gore and the Parents Resource Center and, long story short, it’s why we now have Parental Advisory stickers.

The disjointed vocals at the end of a track, however, conceal an intriguing (and startling) easter egg. Played backwards, you’ll hear Prince, channeling a gospel choir in what seems to allude to the Apocalypse:

“Hello, how are you? I’m fine. ‘Cause I know
That the Lord is coming soon, coming, coming soon”  

One can only attribute it to the backmasking trend prevalent during the 60s and 70s, with Led Zeppelin’s “Stairway to Heaven” and The Eagles’ “Hotel California” being the most prominent examples. Here, however, Prince did the reverse. He hid a Christian message in an otherwise dirty song. Regardless of creative motivation, it ends Side A on an creepy note. 

It only gets more iconic as you flip the record. Side B opens with “When Doves Cry”, the album’s carrier single and Prince’s first Billboard #1 hit. The six-minute opus may have been written with the movie pitch in mind, but its resonance far transcended the film. And it’s now hailed as one of the most definitive rock and roll tracks of all time.

The next two tracks constitute the album’s most seamless segue, with the single “I Would Die 4 U” smoothly transitioning to “Baby I’m a Star”. It’s that very succession which closes the film and the two tracks have always been performed consecutively since. 

If not for the title track’s eight-minute length, the album would have been much shorter. Yet despite its staggering running time, it far from drags. Originally conceived as a country duet with Stevie Nicks, “Purple Rain” – the song, that is – quickly evolved into an ode to reconciliation and, aptly enough, it plays over the film’s resolved plot points. It’s hard to imagine the album not closing with this epic number. And, quite deservingly, it equaled the legendary status achieved by “When Doves Cry”. By the final note, it’s easy to get a sense that, even with strong predecessors like 1999, Prince finally left an imprint.

A whopping 33 more albums followed suit. Some were also classics, like 1986’s Parade and 1987’s Sign O’ the Times. Others, while not sub-par, were far from essential, like from the time he temporarily re-branded himself with an unpronounceable symbol.

Prince passed away in 2016, but his massive discography left another form of assurance – that there’s no greater testament to hard work than to never stop working. Prince did so until the end, and the 2021 posthumous release, Welcome 2 America, only provides stronger proof. With a legacy that expansive, it’s the next best thing to achieving longevity. And, as some fans would vouch, Purple Rain put him on that route.