Inside the Guide: Prince Establishes His Mark Early

Prince was one of the most talented musicians of his generation. With his air of mystery and unabashed sexual lyrics, not to mention immeasurable talent, he had a deep impact on 1980s dance and pop music. Also known as the Purple One, Prince had a unique style that blended pop, new wave, synth, rock, and funk, which became known as Minneapolis sound.

Not only could he sing and dance, he was also a composer, producer, and incredibly versatile musician. He played almost all of the instruments on his first five albums and produced his albums with Warner Bros. starting when he was 21 years old.

Prince was born Prince Rogers Nelson on June 7, 1958 in Minneapolis, MN. Born into music, he was named after the Prince Rogers Trio, a jazz band in which his father played the piano.

Prince taught himself piano when he was 7, guitar at 13, and drums at 14. Also at 14 he joined the band Grand Central, which then became Champagne. Four years later the demo tape he made with engineer Chris Moon made its way to businessman Owen Husney, who helped negotiate Prince’s first contract with Warner Bros.

His debut album, For You, was released in 1978. The track “Soft and Wet” introduced his sexualized style and reached No. 92 on pop charts and No. 12 on R&B. It was quickly followed by Prince in ’79 with “I Wanna Be Your Lover,” an R&B No. 1, and “Why You Wanna Treat Me So Bad?” which showed off his musical range. Dirty Mind came out a year later as a loose concept album with controversial songs like “Head” about oral sex and “Sister” about incest. In 1981 Controversy was released, going to No. 21 with the title track hitting No. 3 on R&B charts and “Let’s Work” reaching No. 9 on pop charts. The rapid succession albums Prince, Dirty Mind, and Controversy all went platinum and quickly established Prince as a boundary pushing musician with unabashed sexual themes in his music.

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