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* Brown Mark - bass guitar, vocals
* Bobby Z. - drums
* Lisa Coleman - keyboards, vocals (generally credited as "[[Wendy and Lisa]]")
* Wendy Melvoin - guitar, vocals (generally credited as "Wendy and Lisa", replaced Dez Dickerson in 1983)
* Doctor Fink - keyboards, vocals
Now christened "[[The Revolution]]", Prince made ''1999'', his breakthrough album into the US mainstream - mostly on the backs of the hit singles "1999" ([[Lyrical Dissonance|a catchy funk tune about nuclear armageddon]]) and "Little Red Corvette" (an entire [[Dual-Meaning Chorus|Dual-Meaning Song]] using cars as a metaphor for a bad relationship).
Prince's next project was a small film where he played a troubled musical prodigy who is trying to become a star despite his [[Jerkass]] behaviour threatening to drive away his bandmates. The Revolution and other associates all appeared using their real names, except Prince's character who was named "The Kid". You might have heard of the movie, it was named ''[[Purple Rain]]''. 1984 thus turned out to be Prince's best year: the soundtrack album ''Purple Rain'' was a massive success, spending 6 consecutive months at #1 on the US charts, the film got nominated for Academy Awards and grossed over $80 million at the box office, and four of the singles drawn from it were smash hits: "When Doves Cry", "Let's Go Crazy", "Purple Rain" and "I Would Die 4 U". ''Purple Rain'' not only introduced Prince's [[Xtreme Kool Letterz]] spelling system but also showed a more theatrical yet still highly catchy variation on the Minneapolis sound, emphasising the pop and rock aspects and having louder guitars but still keeping the stylistic mishmash intact, making it a crossover success.
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Following a successful tour marred by occasional tension within the band, Prince & the Revolution released another successful album, ''Around the World in a Day'', this time amplifying the psychedelic elements hinted at with ''Purple Rain'' to a vaguely [[The Beatles (band)|Beatlesque]] sound. The resulting tour worsened intra-band tension due to Prince's recruitment of additional members (Susannah Melvoin, Eric Leeds, Atlanta Bliss, Jerome Benton, Wally Salford, Greg Brooks). He also began a new film project named ''Under the Cherry Moon''. While ''Purple Rain'' had a lukewarm-but-positive reception, ''Cherry Moon'' was savaged by critics due to bad plot and acting, but the film's soundtrack album ''Parade'' did just as well on the charts.
Since the intra-band tension had grown to severe levels by now, Prince disbanded The Revolution in 1986, firing almost everyone (Brown Mark quit by himself) besides Doctor Fink. A new lineup was assembled, including guitarist Miko Weaver, drummer [[Sheila E.]], Bliss and Leeds on horns, bassist Levi Seacer, Jr. and keyboardist Boni Boyer. Some of them appeared on ''Sign the Times'', Prince's first solo effort after the disintegration of The Revolution. While this earned a much better reception critically and commercially, it marked the beginning of Prince's feud with Warner Bros. Records, after they scrapped his plan to originally release a triple album and forced him to reduce it to a double album -- possibly a rare case of positive [[Executive Meddling]]. He then was tapped to create the soundtrack for the 1989 [[Tim Burton]] ''[[Batman]]'' film ([[Michael Jackson]] had been in talks to do it, but it never panned out).
After the rest of his old bandmates drifted away (Dr. Fink, Sheila E., Leeds, Bliss, and so on), Prince debuted a new backing band, [[The New Power Generation]], in 1990. Its members have included:
* Levi Seacer, Jr. - rhythm guitar (1991-1993)
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Prince has written more than one thousand songs. Most have been released under his own name, some have been released under [[Stage Names|pseudonyms]] and [[Pen Name|pen names]], while others have been recorded and released by other artists. Associates and "spinoff bands" of the latter have mostly involved others recording vocals over his own songs with his own lyrics (Vanity 6, Apollonia 6, Mazarati, Madhouse, The Family), with some such spinoff bands managing to win creative independence (Sheila E., The Time), or others not being involved with him at all (Wendy & Lisa - considering Prince's conflicts with them led to The Revolution breaking up, that's not at all surprising). We have a page for them over at [[Prince's Associates]].
Prince reportedly has hundreds of unreleased songs in his "vault". He won seven [[Grammy
He also was apparently [[Chappelle's Show|really good at basketball]].
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{{reflist}}
{{BET Lifetime Achievement Award}}
[[Category:Musicians]]▼
{{Rolling Stone's 100 Greatest Guitarists}}
[[Category:The Eighties]]▼
{{Total Guitar's 100 greatest guitarists of all time}}
[[Category:Music]]▼
[[Category:Pages with working Wikipedia tabs]]▼
[[Category:{{PAGENAME}}]]
[[Category:Actors]]
[[Category:Directors]]
▲[[Category:Names to Know in Music]]
▲[[Category:Pages with working Wikipedia tabs]]
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