The Hits/B-Sides (1993)
The Hits 1
1. When Doves Cry
2. Pop Life
3. Soft and Wet
4. I Feel For You
5. Why You Wanna Treat Me So Bad?
6. When You Were Mine
7. Uptown
8. Let's Go Crazy
9. 1999
10.I Could Never Take the Place of Your Man
11.Nothing Compares 2 U
12.Adore
13.Pink Cashmere
14.Alphabet St.
15.Sign 'O' the Times
16.Thieves in the Temple
17.Diamonds and Pearls
18.7
The Hits 2
1. Controversy
2. Dirty Mind
3. I Wanna Be Your Lover
4. Head
5. Do Me Baby
6. Delirious
7. Little Red Corvette
8. I Would Die 4 U
9. Raspberry Beret
10.If I Was Your Girlfriend
11.Kiss
12.Peach
13.U Got the Look
14.Sexy MF
15.Gett Off
16.Cream
17.Pope
18.Purple Rain
B-Sides
1. Hello
2. 200 Balloons
3. Escape
4. Gotta Stop (Messin' About)
5. Horny Toad
6. Feel You Up
7. Girl
8. I Love U In Me
9. Erotic City
10.Shockadelica
11.Irresistible Bitch
12.Scarlet Pussy
13.La,La,La,He,He,Hee
14.She's Always in My Hair
15.17 Days
16.How Come U Don't Call Me Anymore
17.Another Lonely Christmas
18.God
19.4 the Tears in Your Eyes
20.Power Fantastic
Prince released two greatest hits compact discs separately in 1993. If you were any sort of fan, however, you really needed to buy both. If you wanted to buy both together, in the same package, you needed this release which also came with a third disc of unreleased material. Now, 90-95% of artists really couldn’t pull something like this off and make it legitimate. The thought being that no one really wants to spend extra money for an entire disc of “leftovers”. Prince, fortunately is the exception.
The bonus disc here easily can stand next to the majority of his other work. You almost feel that had a bit more care gone into the third disc, it could have easily been released by itself as a “new” cd and could have easily dominated the charts. There are a couple of inconsequential throwaways, but most is top notch.
The two discs with the hits have a lot of breathing room, but even so, several of the songs have been “shaved” to their single versions as to make more room for more cuts. This was fine by me as most of the trimming isn’t that noticeable, and it makes room for a lot more material that the casual fan might not quite be aware of.
Sadly, since 1988, Prince’s career never really managed to stay on fire. He would continue to put out great material, but it was also intertwined with a lot of mediocrity. This record manages to capture his best period. In other words, if he ever released another hits package exclusively from 1994 up until his death in 2016, it wouldn’t come close to replicating the greatness here. If you could only buy one prince cd, this is the one to buy – even if it is, technically, three cds.
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