‘When Doves Cry’ at 35

'In the wake of his successful “1999” album, Prince ventured into new creative territories when he decided he wanted to make a feature-length movie. “He wanted something that could be his version of A Hard Day’s Night,” says Prince and the Revolution guitarist Wendy Melvoin. “Sort of an exaggerated version of his own life story.”  “When Doves Cry” was released on May 16, 1984, as the first single off of the Purple Rain album, giving momentum to the film’s July 1984 release. “Nobody believed that this was going to be such a catalyst for the kind of success that it had,” author Alan Light says. “To be able to do something that’s that experimental and that bold, and have it be that popular and connect that universally, it’s just unbelievable. It takes an artist of that magnitude to be able to pull that off”.' -- Studio 360