Prince
Born into a family of musicians in the late 50’s, he was given his father’s stage name ‘Prince Rogers’. From a young age, Prince was encouraged by his parents to explore his interest in music and by the age of seven, he had written his first song ‘Funk Machine’ on his fathers piano. Following this, his father soon bought him his first guitar.
Prince began playing in bands and after graduating high school, he recorded a demo tape with producer Chris Moon who showed Prince’s demo to businessman Owen Husney, who signed Prince aged 19 and helped him record other demos at Sound 80 Studios. These demos quickly reached the ears of Warner Bros and Columbia Records, creating demand that led to him signing one of the largest contracts ever for a brand-new act.
Aged 21, Prince’s debut album ‘For You’ was released - within the record deal Prince was named ‘producer’. This was important for him as it enabled him to have creative control of the album - he ended up writing, producing and playing all 27 instruments on the album.
In 1979 Prince founded his band ‘The Revolution’ and recruited Doctor Fink, André Cymone, Bobby Z, and Dez Dickerson to join. Later that year his self-titled album, ‘Prince’, was released. This album went on to sell over one million copies and featured the tracks ‘Why You Wanna Treat Me So Bad’ and ‘I Wanna Be Your Lover’. However, 1984 saw the release of the album and film ‘Purple Rain’ which cemented Prince’s music legacy. The album featured hit songs including ‘Purple Rain’, ‘When Doves Cry’ and ‘Let’s Go Crazy’ and went 13x Platinum with over 25 million copies sold, it is considered to be one of the greatest albums of all time and has won two Grammy Awards.
With a relentless work ethic, Prince’s success didn’t stop there. He often wrote music using pseudonyms such as The Kid, Joey Coco, Alexander Nevermind, and Camille. However, his instantly recognisable guitar style and song structures meant that it usually wasn’t long before his fans discovered that Prince was the artist behind the music.
Image credit: Prince in concert at Sziget Festival in Budapest, Hungary. Mark Milstein/ Northfoto via Dreamstime