‘Purple Rain’ is the soundtrack to the autobiographical film of the same name and the first to feature Prince’s band, The Revolution, with Prince stepping back ever so slightly from playing everything on the record. Prince lifted the title from the lyrics of America’s 1972 song, ‘Ventura Highway;’ “Wishin' on a falling star/Waitin' for the early train/Sorry boy, but I've been hit by a purple rain.” While original composer of the phrase, Gerry Beckley had no explanation as to what it meant, Prince interpreted it as “When there's blood in the sky – red and blue = purple ... purple rain pertains to the end of the world and being with the one you love and letting your faith/god guide you through the purple rain.”

True to form, in 1986 Prince was working on multiple projects at the same time; ‘Dream Factory,’ an album with his band, the Revolution, and ‘Camille,’ a solo project that saw Prince take on an androgynous character, which had him singing the songs in a higher, female-sounding voice. And once again, true to form, Prince decided to spontaneously disband The Revolution. He consolidated the two projects into one album, threw in some new songs and decided to call the triple album ‘Crystal Ball.’ The label were not keen on the idea of trying to sell a triple album, and so they comprised. Prince cut some songs, rejigged the tracklisting and the final result was ‘Sign O’ The Times.’