Well, there's no contest over the Number One spot, right? Purple Rain is the summer album of all summer albums, the peak of the purple pyramid, the blood-and-thunder blockbuster all hot-weather pretenders have tried to match ever since. The summer of '84 was already a hit-packed pop-radio orgy of historic proportions, but Prince topped everyone with the mutant electro-blues of "When Doves Cry." Then he just kept rolling from "Let's Go Crazy" to "I Would Die 4 U." And the majestic guitar heroics of the title hymn purify your soul in the waters of Lake Minnetonka.

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