The Hits/B-Sides (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
B-Sides
1. Hello
2. 200 Balloons
3. Escape
4. Gotta Stop (Messin' About)
5. Horny Toad
6. Feel You Up
7. Girl
8. I Love U In Me
9. Erotic City
10.Shockadelica
11.Irresistible Bitch
12.Scarlet Pussy
13.La,La,La,He,He,Hee
14.She's Always in My Hair
15.17 Days
16.How Come U Don't Call Me Anymore
17.Another Lonely Christmas
18.God
19.4 the Tears in Your Eyes
20.Power Fantastic
If you were even a casual Prince fan in 1993, you were faced with a dilemma. You could buy The Hits 1. Or The Hits 2. But if you wanted the whole picture—and let’s face it, you did—you needed to get The Hits/The B-Sides. Not only did this tidy little package bundle both greatest hits discs together, but it added a third disc packed with unreleased tracks, deep cuts, and what would traditionally be labeled as “leftovers.” Except that, in this case, they absolutely weren’t.
This third disc, the so-called B-sides collection, is where this release goes from solid to essential. Prince wasn’t your average hitmaker padding out an extra disc with filler. These are legitimate songs—many of them brilliant—that never made it onto the albums for one reason or another. Honestly, with a little repackaging and polish, this bonus material could’ve been a standalone album and no one would’ve batted an eye. In fact, it might’ve topped the charts. That’s how good it is. Sure, a couple of tracks feel like curiosities, but most of it is top-shelf Prince.
As for the actual hits? It’s all here. When Doves Cry, Kiss, Little Red Corvette, 1999, Sign “☮” the Times—the heavyweights, the radio staples, the game-changers. A few of them are trimmed down to their single edits, but that’s a small concession considering the volume of material crammed onto these two discs. And the editing is tastefully done. Unless you're going over these with a stopwatch, you probably won't even notice the differences.
There’s also a sense of clarity here that helps the compilation shine. While Prince’s post-Lovesexy output from 1988 onward remained prolific, it didn’t always hit with the same consistency. The genius was still there, but it came peppered with detours, distractions, and the occasional overreach. What The Hits/The B-Sides does so well is remind you just how untouchable his imperial phase really was. This is the era where everything clicked, where he couldn’t miss. If there were ever a Prince compilation to own, it’s this one. Even if it is technically three discs, it feels more like one unified masterwork than three separate collections.
So no, most artists couldn’t get away with something like this. But Prince could—and did. And for once, the marketing gimmick paid off. This isn’t just a best-of. It’s the kind of retrospective that actually earns its weight. It’s not the whole story, of course. But it’s the best chapter. And that’s more than enough.
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