Credit: Alamy

The album that made Prince enjoy The Beatles

Tue 25 April 2023 19:15, UK

Prince was a notoriously difficult character to impress. For many years, he didn’t understand the hype surrounding The Beatles, but he eventually succumbed to their greatness, and one album by the band was crucial to his change of mindset.

In the 1990s, Prince was critical of The Beatles reuniting without John Lennon and using technology to bring his voice to life on ‘Free As A Bird’ after his death. ‘The Purple One’ said of the posthumous release to Guitar World: “That’s the most demonic thing imaginable. Everything is as it is, and it should be. If I was meant to jam with Duke Ellington, we would have lived in the same age. That whole virtual reality thing… it really is demonic. And I am not a demon.”

Apart from their biggest hits, his first introduction to the band was ‘Good Morning Good Morning’. It wouldn’t be the ideal starting place for most people, but it worked a charm on Prince. John Lennon even once said of the song which appeared on Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band: “It’s a throwaway, a piece of garbage, I always thought. I always had the TV on very low in the background when I was writing, and it came over, and then I wrote the song.”

At first, Prince was confused by the track, and it made him understand The Beatles in a whole different light. Before hearing ‘Good Morning Good Morning’, he thought they were just another pop group, but he’d never delved underneath the surface of the band and paid attention to their weirdness.

Z later told Diffuser: “He said, ‘What’s that?’ We said, ‘That’s Sgt. Pepper.’ He went, ‘The Beatles. Ehhh? Really?’ You know, it was just like that. He walked in [and we were like] ‘No, no, no, no, not this song. Start it over.” And, of course, he didn’t have the patience, but I know he went back and listened to that song and realised that it was much better. Not better, but ‘Good Morning Good Morning,’ that’s just a novelty track on an amazing album.”

He continued: “But that moment, I think he realised that The Beatles were more than he thought. He just kind of swallowed them up.” Z added: “I’m assuming that by swallowing up Magical Mystery Tour and Sgt. Pepper that Around the World in a Day is definitely influenced by it.”

Sgt. Pepper’s showed Prince that he was wrong to write off The Beatles without listening to the entirety of their work and judging them purely by their biggest singles. Years later, the Minnesotan musician covered ‘Come Together’ during his set at Coachella Festival and performed a poignant tribute to George Harrison at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame ceremony in 2004.

The respect was reciprocal, with Paul McCartney revealing during a television interview in 1989 that Prince is “probably my favourite modern act”. Macca also spoke highly of a recent concert he witnessed by the musician at Wembley and labelled him an “innovator”.

Listen below to the album that made Prince become a fan of The Beatles.