(Credits: Far Out / Allen Beaulieu)
Fri 3 April 2026 3:00, UK
Some artists work their entire career to try and get just one number one single; some never get there at all, like Bob Dylan or Bruce Springsteen, but then, you have artists like Prince, who have too many chart toppers to even handle.
Over the course of his career, Prince had more than his fair share of hits. Especially after the release of Purple Rain in 1984, the artist hit the mainstream full force, gaining the number one spot for ‘When Doves Cry’ and ‘Let’s Go Crazy’ from that same record.
From that moment on, his music fell into an odd pattern. His singles seemed to either top the charts or fall to the bottom, reflecting the type of artist he was. In a way, it’s a kind of badge of honour as Prince never dulled himself down for easy wins. It was more than obvious that he could make chart toppers if he wanted to, but at the same time, he still wanted to boldly experiment, and was fine with that leading to lower stats. If anything, he welcomed it.
In the end, he earned five Billboard number ones during his career, and a huge 15 worldwide number ones, but that number doesn’t reflect his entire career. Alongside making his own music and being prolific with his own record releases, Prince was forever on fire, writing for other artists. The number there is rumoured to be in the 300s as the man never seemed to tire of his craft, constantly churning out tracks for himself, for other bands, or for up-and-coming names. Sometimes he’d write them fully solo and simply hand them out, or sometimes he’d be open to co-writing with a few names he really admired, but either way, that ups his total number of chart toppers significantly.
The most famous track he wrote for someone else is surely Sinéad O’Connor’s ‘Nothing Compares 2 U’. Initially, it was written for his funk side band, The Family, but it only gained huge attention when sung by the Irish icon. ‘Stand Back’ by Stevie Nicks is another great one, as Prince helped the Fleetwood Mac star write this solo track.
But in one instance, his songwriting for other people ended up going head-to-head with his own work. He ended up in a chart battle with himself, as in 1986, his song ‘Kiss’ was fighting with The Bangles ‘Manic Monday’, which he had also written, for the top spot.
Initially, it was supposed to be a duet between him and Apollonia 6, but at the last minute, he pulled the tune from their album. After holding onto it for two years, it was offered to The Bangles under a pseudonym. When they took the track, they had no idea that the songwriter, ‘Christopher’, was actually Prince. The prevailing rumour was that the track landed in their lap as a kind of gift from a secret admirer, as the artist was hoping to woo the band’s guitarist, Susanna Hoffs.
Whether that worked is unknown, but what definitely did work was the song. By the week after its release, it was storming the charts. However, it could only land at number two, because Prince was hogging number one for himself with ‘Kiss’.
Maybe the band could have been a little mad that their song’s own creator was capping its success, but for Prince, he was laughing straight to the bank with two mega hits on his hands.
