The Hits 1 / The Hits 2 (1993)
The Hits 1
1. When Doves Cry
2. Pop Life
3. Soft and Wet
4. I Feel For You
5. Why You Wanna Treat Me So Bad?
6. When You Were Mine
7. Uptown
8. Let's Go Crazy
9. 1999
10.I Could Never Take the Place of Your Man
11.Nothing Compares 2 U
12.Adore
13.Pink Cashmere
14.Alphabet St.
15.Sign 'O' the Times
16.Thieves in the Temple
17.Diamonds and Pearls
18.7
The Hits 2
1. Controversy
2. Dirty Mind
3. I Wanna Be Your Lover
4. Head
5. Do Me Baby
6. Delirious
7. Little Red Corvette
8. I Would Die 4 U
9. Raspberry Beret
10.If I Was Your Girlfriend
11.Kiss
12.Peach
13.U Got the Look
14.Sexy MF
15.Gett Off
16.Cream
17.Pope
18.Purple Rain
There’s really no getting around it—The Hits 1 and The Hits 2 are half-measures. Not because the material isn’t phenomenal (it is), and not because they don’t each contain enough great songs to power a dozen lesser compilations (they do), but because the decision to split this thing into two separate single discs instead of just issuing a proper double album makes absolutely no sense. Especially when, in the same year, Warner Bros. released The Hits/The B-Sides, a triple-CD version that includes everything here, along with a whole other disc of B-sides that’s every bit as essential. So why bother with either of these individually?
That’s the real problem. There’s no clear distinction between the two volumes. The tracklists don’t divide neatly by era or style—both have early classics and later triumphs, both toss in a couple of oddities, and both are confusingly padded with “bonus” cuts that don’t really justify their presence. The music here is all excellent, yet neither disc feels complete on its own. If you buy just one, you’re guaranteed to miss something major. That’s not a great way to introduce people to one of the most important artists of the last half-century.
Still, if you focus purely on what’s here, it’s hard to complain. Whether it’s the seismic grooves of 1999, the effortless cool of Kiss, or the unshakable melancholy of Sometimes It Snows in April, nearly every track delivers. Some of these were huge chart smashes, others are deep cuts that somehow missed the spotlight, but the consistency is undeniable. In fact, it’s kind of shocking how many of these so-called “lesser-known” songs hold their own against the biggest hits. Prince didn’t just have depth—he had an entire ocean of great music.
One caveat: there are a handful of radio edits scattered across both albums. Purists might grumble, but the edits are mostly tasteful, and given the need to cram so many tracks onto a single disc, the tradeoff is understandable. You don’t feel shortchanged. But again, if you really want the full experience, just spring for The Hits/The B-Sides. It costs a bit more, but it’s worth every penny.
If that’s still too much Prince for one sitting, the more concise The Very Best of Prince was released years later and offers a compact tour through much of the same material. But even that one comes up short—not because of poor song choices, but because the man’s catalog is simply too deep to shrink down to a single disc. You’re better off diving into the big ones. Just make sure you grab both volumes—or better yet, all three. Anything less is doing it wrong.
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