Prince & The Revolution was the credited backing band on Prince's biggest run — Purple Rain (1984), Around the World in a Day (1985), and Parade (1986) — with Wendy Melvoin, Lisa Coleman, Bobby Z, Brown Mark, and Doctor Fink central to the Minneapolis sound. Purple Rain is the obvious place to start. Browse Prince & The Revolution vinyl, CDs, and reissues at Wax Trax Records.
Prince & The Revolution was the credited backing band for Prince Rogers Nelson from approximately 1979 to October 1986. The credit was used on his most commercially successful era of Warner Bros. albums - Purple Rain (1984), Around the World in a Day (1985), and Parade (1986) - as well as the Purple Rain (1984) film. The band's members included Wendy Melvoin (guitar, from 1983), Lisa Coleman (keyboards, from 1980), Bobby Z (Robert Rivkin, drums, from 1979), Brown Mark (Mark Brown, bass, from 1981), Doctor Fink (Matthew Fink, keyboards, from 1979), and Dez Dickerson (guitar, 1979-1983). The band was central to the Minneapolis sound and the Purple Rain era. Prince dissolved The Revolution in October 1986, with creative tensions over Prince's creative authority and Prince solo direction. Wendy & Lisa (Melvoin / Coleman) pursued solo and parallel work as the duo Wendy and Lisa. See the separate Prince collection page for the wider catalog and context of Prince's career, and the Prince & The Revolution credit for the Purple Rain era releases. The Revolution reformed without Prince in 2012 for occasional touring, performing The Revolution-credited material. They have continued performing intermittently after Prince's 2016 death as a tribute project.
Prince & The Revolution's sound is foundational to the Minneapolis sound - combining funk, R&B, pop, rock, soul, and electronic with Prince's distinctive multi-octave vocal delivery, virtuosic multi-instrumental compositions across the band, and varied compositional approaches across the central Purple Rain era. Their foundational influence on the Minneapolis sound is widely documented.
Original Warner Bros. Records and Paisley Park Records pressings of the Prince & The Revolution catalog are foundational items in popular music collecting, with collector premiums on rare pressings.
Listeners new to Prince & The Revolution typically start with Purple Rain (1984).
