Purple Rain — the record and the film — came out thirty years ago this month and Prince recently reunited with Apollonia to celebrate the date.

Prince was a musical prodigy who transformed himself from “the new Stevie Wonder” into a genre blurring phenom who had as much impact on the culture of the 1980′s as established superstars like Michael Jackson and Bruce Springsteen who were dominating the charts and the mega-tour scene.

The album Purple Reign included hits like When Doves Cry, Let’s Go Crazy and the epic title ballad. The recording introduced his band The Revolution and proved that Prince could make complex, sexual, personal music while still catching the ear of a mass audience.

Here’s a doc about the purple one’s reign during the 1980′s.

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