“PRINCE WAS

SHY. AND

HE SMELLED

REAL GOOD.

LIKE PURPLE.”

Apollonia Kotero

DICKERSON Prince was the game-changer. One of the reasons the area had always been cover-band-dominated was there wasn’t a template of “Do this, put together a showcase, get A&R people.” Nobody knew anything about that. So there was no label presence until Prince. Once that happened, people started coming in. So you have Hüsker Dü and Soul Asylum and the Suburbs and those bands benefiting from that.

To prepare for Purple Rain’s grueling production
schedule—Magnoli had only eight weeks to
shoot—Prince enrolled the cast members in dance
and acting classes at Minnesota Dance Theatre.

LEEDS You had one guy who couldn’t do a
push-up and someone like Prince who could do
splits in his sleep.

COLEMAN I wish I had films of those things, because it was hilarious. We took a proper jazz/ ballet class, and we were doing jazz hands. And imagine Jellybean, the drummer from the Time, doing pirouettes across the floor. JOHNSON That was bizarre for me, being a kid from the streets. FINK We’d sit in a circle and play mind-devel-opment and memory games. The dancing was required for a while. Then Prince didn’t make it mandatory after several weeks, because some people were not into it. It was mainly to get in shape. The instructor was playing the old Jane Fonda workouts first thing in the day.

For the film’s love interest, Prince cast Vanity,
née Denise Matthews, as an aspiring singer torn
between the affections of the Kid and Morris.

MAGNOLI When I met Vanity, I was at [night-club] First Avenue, in the mezzanine area. Before anyone even said a word, I felt a quickening in the air. Within seconds, people started buzzing, “Vanity’s here, Vanity’s here.” I saw her coming through, one of the most beautiful women you could ever lay your eyes on, packed into latex or whatever second skin, looking exquisite. COLEMAN Vanity was supposed to be the lead, but she left right before the film. It almost tanked the film. I don’t know what happened. Maybe it was a personal issue between her and Prince. They were dating. MELVOIN My only speculation was that they had a big blowout. That’s what I heard. They

had a huge blowout and she bolted. MAGNOLI What happened was—and it’s the Hollywood story—Martin Scorsese was casting for The Last Temptation of Christ, and they gave her an offer to play Mary Magdalene. She came to me and said, “Listen, I’ve got this offer, my agent wants me to take it, what should I do?” I felt bad for her because I knew she was in a terrible bind. In the end, she and her representative made the determination that they would do the Scorsese project, which then got delayed because of financing. CHRISTINE HARRIS (secretary to Pure Heart Ministries and Denise Matthews) Being that Denise did not appear in Purple Rain, she would not have anything to add to your story. God bless. JILL JONES (actress, singer) When she pulled out, a good friend of mine, Gina Gershon, auditioned for it. That would’ve been a totally different film. MAGNOLI I saw hundreds of girls, and Apollonia was the last one. She came in with sweat-pants and a sweatshirt on, no desire to glam up or impress. I called Prince and said, “You gotta come and see this girl.” APOLLONIA KOTERO (actress) I was in South America and Mexico—singing in nightclubs, doing commercials, TV series, films. I had to submit my tape with songs and the acting reel, meet the producers in L.A., and meet Prince in Minnesota. He was shy. And he smelled real good. Like purple. [Laughs] We sat there and stared at each other for the longest time. COLEMAN Apollonia came and saved the day. But she was not a singer. She was an actress. So the poor thing was thrown into the studio: “Here, you have to sing this.” She was like, “Oh my God, I don’t know how to sing.” And she did the best she could. I doubled her vocals on “Take Me With U” to make it sound a little better. KOTERO I don’t remember that. But I would imagine she’s on [the song].

Much of the Purple Rain soundtrack was recorded
over the summer of 1983 at a warehouse in subur-
ban Minneapolis and live onstage at First Avenue.

MARK CARDENAS (keyboardist, the Time, 1983–84) On one side of the warehouse was Prince’s huge stage; on the other side was the Time’s little club set-up. It was a constant reminder of how big Prince was and how little the Time were.

MELVOIN [For the title song] Prince came in with the melody and the words and an idea of what the verses were like. I came up with the opening chords, and everybody started playing their parts.

BOBBY Z. My first reaction was, “Wow, this is almost a country song.” It had a different feel than anything we’d been rehearsing for the rest of the album. I realize now it was probably, in his mind, the centerpiece of the story. But that’s Prince— his ability to thread the needle, so to speak. BLINN The first time you hear that song, you realize that this person who’s built like a jockey and speaks barely above a whisper can just knock something out of the park.

Purple Rain
by the
Numbers

$

140,017,340

Total U.S. box-office gross, in 2009 dollars

24
Weeks soundtrack spent at No. 1
on the Billboard chart

9

Ranking of Purple Rain on list of best-selling soundtracks…of 2007

400A
Model number of Prince’s 1984
purple Honda motorcycle

1,700,000

Tickets sold for 1984–85 Purple Rain tour

0
Feature films directed by Albert
Magnoli before Purple Rain

78
Occurrences of the word “U”
in Purple Rain’s lyrics

33°

Degrees Fahrenheit, on average, of Lake Minnetonka in winter

BY SARAH DUPUIS AND ERIK MYERS