More than any other release in his four-decade-long recording career, Prince’s iconic double album Sign O’ The Times captured the artist in a period of complete reinvention. Primarily recorded between the end of 1985 and beginning of 1987, the era saw the dissolution of his band The Revolution, the end of his engagement to Susannah Melvoin, and the creation (and ultimate abandonment) of the albums Dream Factory, Camille, and Crystal Ball. By the end of that period of transformation, Prince emerged with one of his most urgent and wide-ranging releases to date–an epochal double album that would be hailed as a creative, critical, and commercial triumph. On the sobering “Sign ‘O’ the Times” (No. 6), Prince enumerated a catalog of social ills (AIDS, crack, gang violence) over a skeletal funk track. Other hits from the album included “U Got the Look” (No. 2), a duet with Sheena Easton, and “I Could Never Take the Place of Your Man” (No. 10).
