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Purple Rain
Prince · 1984
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The story behind
Prince recorded “The Beautiful Ones” the same year the world was introduced to *Purple Rain*, but this song doesn’t sound like the rest of the album. It’s neither a conventional love song nor a party anthem: it’s a ballad that unfolds with a tension that isn’t resolved until the very end. The piano comes in softly, almost shyly, and the female backing vocals that accompany it from the very first measure lend it an air of fragile elegance. There are no screams or distortion here, just a melody that stretches out as if each note weighed more than the one before it. The most striking part is that bridge, where Prince’s voice breaks into falsetto notes that sound like a half-hearted confession, as if he were on the verge of saying something he never quite manages to get out.
The song was born in Minneapolis during the recording sessions for *Purple Rain*, when the artist had already spent years crafting that “Minneapolis sound” that blended funk, rock, and soul with an experimental touch. It wasn’t intended to be a single, but rather a piece that fit the dramatic atmosphere of the film of the same name. Prince himself served as arranger and producer, opting here for a minimalist approach: clean guitars, a bass line that barely peeks through, and drums pulsing in the background, as if the song’s weight rested solely on the vocals and the piano. It lasted five minutes and fourteen seconds, but every second seems to contain more than its duration suggests. When *Purple Rain* was released on June 25, 1984, “The Beautiful Ones” stood out as the perfect contrast on the album: while “Let’s Go Crazy” and “When Doves Cry” burst with energy, this song whispered.