Musical Monday - Let's Go Crazy by Prince

#1 on the Billboard Hot 100: September 29, 1984 through October 6, 1984.

#1 on the Cash Box Top 100: September 29, 1984 through October 6, 1984.

#1 on the U.K. Chart: Never.

Let's Go Crazy was the third big hit from Prince's Purple Rain album, which he made to accompany the movie of the same name that he starred in. All of the footage from this video is drawn from that movie, including the somehwat hilarious attempts to make Prince's puppet-band Morris Day and the Time into credible rivals for Prince in the fictional dance club that made up the heart of the movie. The footage also features a lot of Apollonia, who played Prince's girlfriend playing a character that shared her name so Prince could manufacture another band to promote: Apollonia 6 (which had previously been named Vanity 6 before the singer Vanity left that group).

Even though this song was pretty much the third-most popular song from this album, falling behind When Doves Cry and Purple Rain, it is my personal favorite. In large part, my affection for the song stems from the fact that Prince flashes his guitar skills in the closing segment of the song - I don't know if the quote is accurate, but supposedly when someone asked Eric Clapton how it felt to be the best guitarist in the world he responded with "I don't know, you'll have to ask Prince". I can't really claim to be qualified to make an assessment as to who the top dog in the axe-wielding department is, but Prince is definitely up there and shows it off here.

Previous Musical Monday: Missing You by John Waite

Subsequent Musical Monday: Freedom by Wham!

Previous #1 on the Billboard Hot 100: Missing You by John Waite

Subsequent #1 on the Billboard Hot 100: I Just Called to Say I Love You by Stevie Wonder

Previous #1 on the Cash Box Top 100: Missing You by John Waite

Subsequent #1 on the Cash Box Top 100: I Just Called to Say I Love You by Stevie Wonder

List of #1 Singles from the Billboard Hot 100 for 1980-1989
List of #1 Singles from the Cash Box Top 100 for 1980-1989
List of #1 Singles on the U.K. Chart for 1980-1989

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