Did You Know...

On June 7th, 1958 in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Prince Rogers Nelson was born. Prince showed at an early age he was a prodigy songwriter, producer and multi-instrumentalist. After running away from his mother and step-dad and joining his father John Nelson he was given his first guitar. He had written his own material from an early age, becoming conversant with both piano and guitar.

In high school he began to play his music with a band he started called Champagne. Prince continued his music development through out the early 70's with the emergence of an underground scene that included Flyte Time, Jellybean Johnson, Terry Lewis and Alexander O'Neal. With the help of Chris Moon in 1976, Prince became familiar with music studio operations and cut his first demo and began a major hyping campaign. It wasn't long before he signed to a long-term, flexible contract with Warner Brothers Records.

He spent double his entire advance on the production of a single album. 'Soft And Wet' sold moderately in the U.S. but did well on the R&B charts reassuring his label they had made a wise investment. By 1979 Prince had put together a firm band and they headed to the studio to record 'Dirty Mind'. Despite spending far less time and money on this album, Prince charted number 22 on the U.S. charts and produced two successful singles, 'Why You Wanna Treat Me So Bad?' and 'I Wanna Be Your Lover'. Within 12 months Prince released 2 more albums. 'Controversy' and '1999' prompted a promotional tour that headlined Prince and the Revolution along with an all-girl Prince creation called Vanity 6. 'Little Red Corvette' was lifted from the album as the first single to gain significant airplay on MTV, which is what the song was almost entirely constructed for. Soon after Prince began working on 'Purple Rain' in which he would star. 'When Doves Cry' was taken from the soundtrack and promptly rose to the top of the U.S. charts. 'Let's Go Crazy' and 'Purple Rain' further established his role as an icon for the 80's.