Kiss

“Kiss” is the lead single off of his eighth album “Parade” and is one of his most iconic songs. It was originally written for the funk band “Mararati” who declined the song, so Prince released it instead.

The song is funky and upbeat with an almost urban beat. “Kiss” is Prince’s message to all women that they don’t have to be “rich”, “cool” or “any particular sign” he’s more likely to be with. The song is one of the few tracks that existed before the time of where women started calling out media and music for their sexist and rigid expectations of what a woman should look and act like to be deemed attractive by their male counterparts. In this regard, Prince was culturally and politically ahead of his time, as he was in a lot of his other songs.

The music video was directed by Rebecca Blake but there is no clear date on its initial release date, but it was uploaded onto Prince’s YouTube channel in August 2017. Again, all of Prince’s music videos consist of him singing on a stage with a microphone, essentially almost like a filmed concert, accompanied by some members of his backing band “The Revolution”.

Release Date: 5th February 1986

Songwriter/s: Prince

Producer/s: Prince

Music Video Release Date: 11th August 2017

Music Video Director: Rebecca Blake

Chart Rankings, Awards & Certifications: It has Silver certification in the UK and Gold in the US, #19 in the 1986 US Billboard Hot 100 and #25 in the Australia Kent Music Report. “Kiss” was nominated for Grammy Award for “Best R&B Song” and won another Grammy Award for “Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group”. NME ranked the song #4 in their list of “The 150 Greatest Singles of All Time”.