Forty years ago this week Prince released the album that took him from star to icon. Purple Rain yielded his first number one pop single (“When Doves Cry”) and then his second (“Let’s Go Crazy”), with the title track blocked from the top spot by Wham’s “Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go.” The album itself held the number one position on the Billboard 200 for almost half a year and the movie (which arrived in July of 1984) earned ten times its $7 million budget.

Thank you for signing up!

By clicking submit, you agree to our terms of service and acknowledge we may use your information to send you emails, product samples, and promotions on this website and other properties. You can opt out anytime.

In a just world, no one would have to think about posthumous Prince projects. The musical genius was only 57 when he died of an accidental overdose in 2016, four months after the release of his 39th studio album. Since then—just as with Elvis Presley, Michael Jackson and countless others—the prospect of music from his storied vault was almost too good to be true. Prince died without a will, so the process of settling his estate took years, but that didn’t stop the flow of reissues, compilations and box sets—damn good ones, in fact.

But in a business as unpredictable as the music industry, nothing is guaranteed. A quickly-settled lawsuit among the heirs back in January (half of whom are represented by the music publisher and management company Primary Wave, the other half represented by a brain trust that includes Prince’s former lawyer) suggests discord among the ranks. Fans have been baffled by borderline unprofessional social media messaging, and it seems likely that the 40th anniversary of the Purple Rain film and soundtrack will pass with nothing more than a 4K home video release and a Dolby Atmos remix to commemorate the occasion.

Still, there are dozens of titles to rediscover, and even a few to hear for the first time, thanks to the work of the Prince estate. Here are 10 of the best.

The Truth (Record Store Day vinyl, 2021)

In 2018, Sony Music inked a deal to distribute Prince’s material issued between 1995 and 2010—an era that saw him change his name to a symbol in protest of his contract with Warner Bros. Records and flit from label to label, adopting unique release strategies to get his music out to a loyal fan base. One........

© Observer