Purple Rain (short version) - Prince - MP3 instrumental karaoke

Perhaps the most iconic song in Prince's songbook, "Purple Rain" was originally intended to be a country song featuring Stevie Nicks. After the Fleetwood Mac frontwoman declined Prince's invitation to collaborate, the Minnesota-born artist showed it to his band The Revolution, who quickly took it out of country territory and turned it into an R&B-inflected power ballad. It was first recorded during a charity concert for the Minnesota Dance Theatre on August 3, 1983, and was included in his 1984 namesake album, which also served as the soundtrack for the film of the same name. The original version of the track clocked in at 11 minutes, but Prince decided to remove the song's third verse, shortening it to 8 minutes. It was released as the album's third single and peaked at Number 2 on the Billboard Hot 100, just behind Wham's "Wake Me Up Before You Go Go." A song about faith in the face of adversity, "Purple Rain" won an Oscar for Best Original Song Score in 1984. It was also the last song Prince ever played live before his untimely death in 2016.