The first artist to have a number one album, single, and movie simultaneously
One of the highest honours any artist could hope to achieve is becoming an EGOT, meaning that they’ve, at some point in their career, won an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and a Tony, giving them a clear run of excellence across music, film and theatre. But how about an award for an artist that, at one moment in history, stole the number one spot in the chart for a single, album and film, grasping a thorough grip across culture? One artist is certainly deserving of that.
It’s one thing to achieve greatness over the course of an entire career. The average EGOT winner takes over 30 years to manage that incredible feat. However, there is something especially incredible about dominating culture, across several fields, for one moment in time. It’s a display of a defining talent who not only soundtracked a given period, but also was entertaining the masses too.
Surely dominating across album charts, single charts and box offices is a sure-fire sign of a true star, as no other talent could come in to disrupt their moment or attempt to steal their spotlight. It’s also a sign of a well-rounded talent as albums, singles and movies require very different skill sets, each asking a different thing of their audience and each needing to move the masses in a different way.
If anyone could pull that off, of course, it was Prince. The Purple One proved from his debut album, where he played each and every instrument that his talent knew no doubts. Throughout his career, he proved time and time again that he was always pushing forward towards a new challenge. So in 1984, when he released Purple Rain, the movie and Purple Rain, the album, he was launching a multi-pronged attack to completely and utterly own pop culture.
People often forget that, really, Purple Rain is merely a soundtrack album. Despite now standing as Prince’s most popular and beloved release, it was made to go along with the film, with certain songs written overnight to supplement a new scene. One of them was ‘When Doves Cry’, a track that Prince made in barely even a day when he realised he needed an extra song.
Upon it’s release, ‘When Doves Cry’ topped the singles chart, followed by ‘Let’s Go Crazy’ which also gained a number one spot. Purple Rain the album was top of the albums chart, and Purple Rain the film was the number one movie in box offices, grossing $68,392,977 in the US.
How many number one hits did Prince have?
Worldwide, Prince had 15 number-one hits, spanning his decades-long career.
‘When Doves Cry’ was his first number-one single on the US Billboard chart. However, he’d previously had a number one in the R&B chart with ‘I Wanna Be Your Lover’. In total, he had five number ones on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, ‘When Doves Cry’ and ‘Let’s Go Crazy’ in 1984, ‘Kiss’ in 1986, ‘Batdance’ in 1989 and then ‘Cream’ in 1991. In the UK, his 1994 single, ‘The Most Beautiful Girl in the World’ also charted.
But while Prince had success across his whole career, it was really this moment in 1984 when he dominated all corners of culture that his star status was well and truly locked into history.
