Rolling Stone declares ‘Purple Rain’ the greatest soundtrack album of all time

The list-loving Rolling Stone cultural arbiters love them some “Purple Rain,” declaring that the 1984 Prince project is the greatest movie soundtrack album ever.

In a list of the 101 Greatest Soundtracks of All Time published this week, Prince commanded three spots — “Parade” (the soundtrack to “Under the Cherry Moon”) at No. 47, “Batman” at No. 86 and “Purple Rain” at No. 1.

“When it comes to rock & roll mythmaking at the movies, you can’t get any purpler than this,” Rolling Stone said of “Purple Rain.” “At its core, ‘Purple Rain’ is really an ordinary melodrama about a struggling musician with girl troubles — however, that musician happens to be Prince at the peak of his historic creative streak.”

Rolling Stone points out that in August 1984 Prince had the No. 1 movie, album and song in the country.

Soundtracks to two movies made by the St. Louis Park-reared Coen Brothers also made the list — “O, Brother Where Art Thou?” at No. 13 and “The Big Lebowski” at 37. Minneapolis singer/songwriter Paul Westerberg is heard on the soundtrack to “Singles,” which rated No. 30.

Rounding out the Top 10 after “Purple Rain” were “Help,” “The Harder They Come,” “A Hard Day’s Night,” “Saturday Night Fever,” “Superfly,” “Pulp Fiction,” “The Graduate,” “American Graffiti” and “Wild Style.”

All of the Top 10 films were from the last century. The most recent soundtrack to make the list was “Black Panther” from 2018, at No. 22.

In 2013, in a similar ranking, Rolling Stone put “Help” at the top, with “Purple Rain” second.

In late 2023, Rolling Stone rated “Purple Rain” as the eighth best album of all time.

The 2024 soundtrack list was compiled by six male Rolling Stone staffers, including Will Hermes and Jon Dolan, both of whom worked years ago at City Pages, a Twin Cities alt-weekly.