Single Stories: Prince and the Revolution, “Take Me With U”

33 years ago today, Prince and the Revolution released the fifth and final single from the soundtrack to Prince’s movie debut.

Written – as you might reasonably expect – by Prince himself, “Take Me With U” followed on the heels of “When Doves Cry,” “Let’s Go Crazy,” “Purple Rain,” and “I Would Die 4 U,” and you may well be musing on the mere fact that the Purple Rain soundtrack spawned five singles at all, being as it was a relatively rare scenario in the ‘80s for an album to secure enough popularity to even warrant the consideration of releasing that many singles, let alone actually doing it. More than just a soundtrack album, PURPLE RAIN quickly became the soundtrack to 1984 and into 1985, and its popularity is such that it’s fair to say that it’s considered the soundtrack to more than a few people’s lives.

Funnily enough, “Take Me With U” wasn’t originally intended as a Prince and the Revolution song. The plan had been for the track to make its debut on the self-titled album by the Prince-created group Apollonia 6. Instead, Prince sang the track on PURPLE RAIN as a duet with Apollonia.

Given that “When Doves Cry” and “Let’s Go Crazy” were both #1 hits, after which “Purple Rain” hit #2 and “I Would Die 4 U” hit #8, it’s not entirely surprising that “Take Me With U” topped out at a lesser spot on the Hot 100, climbing only to #28. Still, we’re talking about a situation where an article released five singles from an album and managed to hit the top 40 with all five of ‘em.

In short, there was virtually no radio listener in America who could look at Prince without saying, “Baby, you’re a star.”