Prince reportedly struggled to realise ‘Purple Rain’ exactly as he first imagined it, despite the song becoming the defining centrepiece of his 1984 album and film. The story underlines how a work can acquire its lasting form through revision and collaboration rather than by matching an artist’s original plan.

The track began as a different, more country-influenced idea, and Prince initially approached Stevie Nicks to help write it. After that collaboration did not happen, members of the Revolution helped reshape the arrangement; the eventual recording was captured live at First Avenue in Minneapolis in 1983 and released the following year.