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The Very Best of Prince is a greatest hits album by American recording artist Prince. It was released on July 31, 2001, by Warner Bros. Records. The album contains most of his commercially successful singles from 1979 to 1991 including the US number 1s "When Doves Cry", "Let's Go Crazy", "Kiss" and "Cream".
The Very Best of Prince does not include the US number 1 hit "Batdance" most likely due to the licensing of the character Batman. Music critic Stephen Thomas Erlewine believed that the Batman album was unofficially being written out of Prince's discography. As of September 21, 2004, the album was certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for selling 1 million copies in the United States. thus allowing the album to re-enter the Billboard 200 at number one on the chart dating May 7, 2016; this makes the album Prince's fifth number-one on the chart. The following week the album fell to number two on the Billboard 200 chart, selling 391,000 equivalent copies (216,000 in pure album sales) behind Beyoncé's Lemonade. In 2016 alone, the album sold 660,000 recognized copies in the United States in addition to the over 2 million copies sold prior to 2016.
Track listing
All songs are written by and credited to Prince, except where noted.
Personnel
- Prince – lead vocals and various instruments
The Revolution
- Lisa Coleman – keyboards, vocals
- Wendy Melvoin – guitar, vocals
- Bobby Z. – drums, percussion
- Brown Mark – bass guitar, vocals
- Matt (Dr.) Fink – keyboards, vocals
The New Power Generation
- Levi Seacer Jr. – rhythm guitar, backing vocals
- Tony M. – rapping, backing vocals
- Tommy Barbarella – "PurpleAxxe" sampling, keyboards
- Kirk Johnson – percussion, backing vocals
- Damon Dickson – percussion, backing vocals
- Sonny T. – bass, backing vocals
- Michael B. – drums
- Rosie Gaines – vocals, "PurpleAxxe" sampling, organ
Additional musicians
- Jill Jones – co-lead vocals (on "1999")
- Dez Dickerson – co-lead vocals (on "1999" & "Little Red Corvette"), lead guitar (on "Little Red Corvette")
- Mazarati – backing vocals (on "Kiss")
- Sheena Easton – vocals (on "U Got the Look")
- Sheila E. – drums, percussion (on "U Got the Look" & "Alphabet St."), vocals (on "Alphabet St.")
- Cat Glover – rap (on "Alphabet St.")
- Eric Leeds – brass, vocals (on "Alphabet St."), flute (on "Gett Off")
Charts
Weekly charts
{| class="wikitable sortable plainrowheaders" style="text-align:center"
|+Weekly chart performance for The Very Best of Prince
! scope="col" | Chart (2001)
! scope="col" | Peak<br />position
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!scope="row"|Spanish Albums (AFYVE)
|align="center"|18
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{| class="wikitable sortable plainrowheaders" style="text-align:center"
|+2011 weekly chart performance for The Very Best of Prince
!scope="col"|Chart (2011)
!scope="col"|Peak<br />position
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{| class="wikitable sortable plainrowheaders" style="text-align:center"
|+2016 weekly chart performance for The Very Best of Prince
! scope="col"| Chart (2016)
! scope="col"| Peak<br /> position
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Monthly charts
{| class="wikitable sortable plainrowheaders" style="text-align:center"
|+Monthly chart performance for The Very Best of Prince
! scope="col"| Chart (2016)
! scope="col"| Peak<br />position
|-
!scope="row"|Argentine Monthly Albums (CAPIF)
| 3
|}
Year-end charts
{| class="wikitable sortable plainrowheaders" style="text-align:center"
|+2001 year-end chart performance for The Very Best of Prince
! scope="col"| Chart (2001)
! scope="col"| Position
|-
! scope="row"|Canadian R&B Albums (Nielsen SoundScan)
|47
|-
! scope="row"| Dutch Albums (Album Top 100)
| 32
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! scope="row"| UK Albums (OCC)
| 75
|}
{|class="wikitable plainrowheaders" style="text-align:center"
|+2002 year-end chart performance for The Very Best of Prince
!scope="col"|Chart (2002)
!scope="col"|Position
|-
!scope="row"|Canadian R&B Albums (Nielsen SoundScan)
| 131
|}
{| class="wikitable sortable plainrowheaders" style="text-align:center"
|+2016 year-end chart performance for The Very Best of Prince
! scope="col"| Chart (2016)
! scope="col"| Position
|-
! scope="row"| Australian Albums (ARIA)
| 19
|-
! scope="row"| New Zealand Albums (RMNZ)
| 30
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! scope="row"| Swiss Albums (Schweizer Hitparade)
| 77
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! scope="row"| UK Albums (OCC)
| 42
|-
! scope="row"| US Billboard 200
| 14
|}