Top 25 All-Time Prince Funk Jams

As we all try to come to grips with the passing of an all-time great and personal favorite in Prince, here is my list of his 25 greatest funk tracks. Most of the media coverage focuses on his pop legacy and mainstream hits like “Purple Rain,” but he was as important and critical to the history of funk music as anyone, right there with James Brown, Sly Stone and George Clinton. He drew from all their styles and yet had the amazing talent to make it uniquely his own thing rather than just a mimic. When I first heard songs like “Housequake” and “Sign ‘O’ the Times” and “Girls and Boys,” etc., there was nothing else like them. He had the ability to be massively innovative while still hitting the groove as hard and dirty as anyone has ever done it. And Lord could he bring the funk live, like an elastic freight train leaving its tracks for the stratosphere.