Prince albums discography

Prince's albums discography consists of 39 studio albums (including four soundtrack albums and one posthumous album), five live albums, and numerous compilations. Two albums of demo material have been released posthumously. Prince also released several albums under various group names. See Prince singles discography for his singles and extended plays, and Prince videography for his music videos and video albums.

Prince has sold over 100 million records worldwide, including 36.5 million certified units in the United States, and over 10 million records in the United Kingdom. Rolling Stone ranked him at No. 27 on its list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time.

In the weeks following his death in April 2016, 19 different Prince albums charted on the Billboard 200 all at the same time, and he became the first and only artist ever to have 5 albums in the Billboard top 10 simultaneously.

Overview

Prince signed a record deal with Warner Bros. Records when he was 19, soon releasing the albums For You (1978) and Prince (1979). He went on to achieve critical success with the influential albums Dirty Mind (1980), Controversy (1981), and 1999 (1982). His sixth album, Purple Rain (1984), was recorded with his new backing band the Revolution, and was also the soundtrack to the film of the same name in which he starred. Purple Rain garnered continued success for Prince and was a major commercial achievement, spending six consecutive months atop the Billboard 200 chart. The soundtrack also won Prince the Academy Award for Best Original Song Score. After disbanding the Revolution, Prince released the album Sign o' the Times (1987), widely hailed by critics as the greatest work of his career.