The Hits Collection Prince video

Warner Music Vision

video

This is not the kind of music that comes from Minneapolis

The Hits Collection was released on VHS in 1993 and was eventually reissued in DVD format on 8 June 1999. The original home video version peaked at number 2 in Billboard’s Top Music Videos chart, it was certified Gold by the RIAA on 6 December 1993.

The Hits Collection brings together fifteen of Prince’s most popular promotional videos, those for his greatest hits when under the tenure with Warner Bros Records from 1978 to 1993. The Hits Collection also includes the video to a new song (Peach) at that time and accompanied the release of The Hits / The B-Sides triple CD compilation. At the other end of the spectrum, is Prince’s first music video I Wanna Be Your Lover, produced in 1979. The video for Sign O’ The Times was very forward thinking in its day, what is in essence a simple lyric video it was the first of its kind. Throughout his career Prince produced a total of 124 promotional videos – many of these not even attached to a commercial single to promote.

Always keen to keep a lid on production cost since that expense came out of the artist’s pocket rather than the label’s, Prince videos tend to be toward the basic and low budget end. He was not interested in making big budget shoots to the scale of Thriller. Prince was also aware of the importance MTV. Prince’s most lavish promos were Gett Off and Partyman. But the majority of his videos were recorded live, filmed on set during tour rehearsals or between shows such as the promos for I Wanna Be Your Lover, Uptown, Dirty Mind, Controversy, 1999, Little Red Corvette and Glam Slam, using his stage as the backdrop for the video, this was to showcase Prince as a performer. His first story led video was for When Doves Cry in 1984. The collection does not include videos shot for Purple Rain and Batman albums. Others were produced from previously shot footage – Prince was always tasking his photographers to shoot video of anything and everything and some was repurposed into additional videos as montages, an example of such is Letitgo which comprised entirely of footage from previous videos. Production standards ramped up when Prince’s Paisley Park Studios came operational in September 1987.

Prince’s notable videos following the release of the 1993 The Hits Collection, include The Most Beautiful Girl In The World, Eye Hate U and Dolphin of 1994, Dinner With Delores (1995), The Holy River (1997), The Greatest Romance Ever Sold (1999), U Make My Sun Shine (2001), Musicology and Call My Name (2004), Salma Hayak’s directorial debut Te Amo Corazón (2005), Black Sweat (shot in Prince’s LA living room in 2006), Guitar (2007), Rock And Roll Love Affair (2012) and, Breakfast Can Wait and Screwdriver of 2013.