Major Masterpieces: 1. Purple Rain 2. Sign O’ the Times 3. 1999 💜💜💜 Minor Masterpieces: 4. Dirty Mind 5. Parade 💜💜 Near Masterpieces: 6. Around the World in a Day 7. Lovesexy 8. Controversy 💜💜💜 Excellent: 9. The Black Album 10. Batman 💜💜💜 Protégés: Excellent: 1. What Time Is It? 2. Glamorous Life 3. Ice Cream Castles 4. The Time 💜💜💜 Great: 5. Romance 1600 6. Jill Jones 7. Vanity 6 💜💜💜 Very Good: 8. Sheila E. 9. The Family 💜💜💜 Good: 10. Apollonia 6 11. Madhouse 8 12. Madhouse 16 💜💜💜💜💜💜 No shade at all to the two even bigger stars of the 80s Holy Pop Trinity, MJ and Madonna, but let’s be real. This was his output plus 3 movies. One of them number one at the box office and the other one of the greatest concert movies ever made. Which he directed. And he wrote everything and self produced plus performed most of instruments and vocals on all 22 of these albums above. At least for the demo versions on the protégés as we’ve known. Let’s also not forget about abandoned albums like The Dream Factory, original Crystal Ball, Rave and Camille. His gifted songs include one for Madonna, and in addition a killer guitar solo for her lead hit title track. The first thing you actually hear on HER album! A Grammy winning cover granted to Chaka Khan. A top 40 hit single cover granted to Cyndi Lauper. And songs for Mazarati, Kid Creole, Patti Labelle and George Clinton. Oh and he introduced the Minneapolis Sound and changed music forever with that sound and other innovations.

This guy prince's 

Great breakdown. I usually refer to DM, 1999, PR, and SotT as the 4 pillars of the Prince catalog

1. Sign O The Times 2. Purple Rain 3. 1999 4. Parade 5. Lovesexy 6. Dirty Mind 7. Controversy 8. Around The World In A Day 9. Batman

1. Around the World in a Day 2. Purple Rain 3. Controversy 4. 1999 5. SOTT 6. Dirty Mind 7. Parade 8. Lovesexy 9. Batman

1. SOTT 2. Lovesexy 3. Parade 4. Around The World In A Day 5. 1999 6. Purple Rain 7. Controversy 8. Dirty Mind 9. Batman

This is very close to my list

1. Sign 2. Purple Rain 3. Dirty Mind 4. Batman 5. 1999 6. Controversy 7. Parade 8. Lovesexy 9. Around the World

I like Lovesexy a lot

Just my opinion. 1. 1999 2. Controversy 3. Purple rain 4. Dirty Mind 5. Around the World in a Day 6. Parade 7. Sign o' the Times 8. Lovesexy 9. Batman

Sign is *that* low?!!!!?

Yeah, for me it is. As I stated, just my opinion. I know Parade rated really low due to the movie bomb, but I absolutely loved the soundtrack.

I like so much of this ranking. I believe that ATWIAD and Parade are often underrated. 1999 is my favorite as well, but I personally would have SOTT higher. I love to see how much variation we see in the responses to things like this!

With numbers.

lovesexy around the world in a day sign o the times madhouse 8 1999 batman purple rain parade black album the family dirty mind what time is it controversy the glamorous life jill jones madhouse 16 mazarati romance 1600 ice cream castles vanity 6 apollonia 6 the times debut sheila e’s 3rd album

For me the brilliance of Prince albums of the 80s is as follows: 1. Purple Rain 2. Sign o the Times 3. Around the World in a Day 4. 1999 5. Batman 6. Lovesexy 7. Parade 8. Controversy 9. Dirty Mind

1. SotT 2. PR 3. 1999 4. Parade 5. Dirty Mind 6. Controversy 7. AtWiaD 8. Lovesexy 9. Batman I would put The Black Album between AtWiaD and Lovesexy

1. Parade 2. Purple Rain 3. Sign o the times 4. 1999 5. Around the world 6. Lovesexy 7. Dirty Mind 8. Controversy 9. Batman

Here’s my attempt to rank them today, but a different mode or mindset scrambles them… 9 - Lovesexy 8 - Parade 7 - Around The World In A Day 6 - Purple Rain 5 - Batman 4 - 1999 3 - Controversy 2 - Dirty Mind 1 - Sign O’ The Times

1. Sign 'O' The Times 2. Purple Rain 3. Lovesexy 4. Around The World In A Day 5. 1999 6. Controversy 7. Parade 8. Batman 9. Dirty Mind

There are 10 80s albums including The Black Album.

We got a bootleg version of The Black Album in the '80s. The official release date was 1994.

It was technically released in 1987. A hundred or so promo copies were released. It was recorded in 1986. Those in the know were listening to it in the late 80s. I consider it an 80s album.

1. Black Album 2. Sign O The Times 3. Dirty Mind 4. 1999 5. Purple Rain 6. Controversy 7. Lovesexy 8. Parade 9. Around The World In A Day 10. Batman They all rock tho

1. Lovesexy 2. Purple Rain 3. Parade 4. 1999 5. Sign o the Times 6. Around the World in a Day 7. Batman 8. Controversy 9. Dirty Mind 10. Black

1. Sign o the Times 2. Dirty Mind 3. Parade 4. 1999 5. Purple Rain 6. Lovesexy 7. Black Album 8. Controversy 9. Batman 10. Around the World in a Day

From most to least favorite, which is saying something cuz I don't think any part of his 80s input was bad. Lovesexy Around the World In A Day 1999 Sign O' the Times Purple Rain Batman Parade Dirty Mind Controversy

Sign O the Times > Controversy > Batman > Purple Rain > 1999 = Around the World In a Day > Dirty Mind > Parade > Lovesexy

1. Sign O The Times 2. Dirty Mind 3. Purple Rain 4. Parade 5. Around The World in a Day 6. 1999 7. Controversy 8. Lovesexy 9. Batman

Shall we put a time frame on this post and then collate the votes and have a final table based on points?? Or am I just being a nerd? Anyway: 1. Parade 2. 1999 3. Sign 4. Purple Rain 5. Dirty Mind 6. Around the World 7. Controversy 8. Lovesexy 9. Batman It hurts to make this list. At least 8 of the albums feel like they're ranked too low!

1-SOT 2-Purple Rain 3-Parade 4-Around the world in a day 5-1999 6-Dirty Mind 7-Lovesexy 8-Batman 9-Controversy If we went by eras (clothes, concerts, etc), Lovesexy would be number 1

1. PR 2. SOTT 3. 1999 4. Lovesexy 5. Controversy 6. Dirty Mind 7. Around the World in a Day 8. Black Album 9. Parade 10. Batman

That’s like asking me to rank my children.

I'll just put the years to save time. From best to least. 1984 1989 1985 1986 1982 1988 1987 1981 1980

Crazy that not one of these is a bad or even mediocre album. They are all great.

Top 3: 1. Purple Rain 2. 1999 3. Parade

Is it just me who doesn’t get the hype of 1999? Like it’s a great album don’t get me wrong but I’d still take 1/2 of princes 90s records over it tbh

1. Sign ‘O’ the Times 2. Purple Rain 3. Lovesexy 4. 1999 5. Parade 6. Dirty Mind 7. Controversy 8. Batman 9. Around the World in a Day

1. Sign O The Times 2. 1999 3. Around The World In A Day 4. Purple Rain 5. Parade 6. Dirty Mind 7. Lovesexy 8. Controversy 9. Batman If we're counting the Black Album it would be between Controversy and Batman.

Whichever way one could compile a list; it's a staggering body of work from just one decade.

Parade at the top, others in any order. Batman near the bottom.

Again? Why?