The Very Best of Prince does not include the US number 1 hit "
Batdance" most likely due to the licensing of the character
Batman. Music critic
Stephen Thomas Erlewine believed that the Batman album was unofficially being written out of Prince's discography.[1] All the songs included in this compilation were all previously included in the 3-disc box set The Hits/The B-Sides (1993), with the exception of "
Money Don't Matter 2 Night".
Commercial performance
On the chart dated August 18, 2001, The Very Best of Prince debuted at number 66 on the US
Billboard 200.[5] As of September 21, 2004, the album was certified platinum by the
Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for selling 1 million copies in the United States.[6]
The Very Best of Prince sold 179,000
album-equivalent units (100,000 in pure album sales) in the week following Prince's death,[7] thus allowing the album to re-enter the Billboard 200 at number one; this makes the album Prince's fifth number-one on the chart.[8] The following week the album fell to number two on the Billboard 200 chart, selling 391,000 equivalent copies (216,000 in pure album sales) behind
Beyoncé's Lemonade.[9] In 2016, the album has sold 660,000 recognized copies in the United States in addition to the over 2 million copies sold prior to 2016.[10]
Track listing
All songs are written by and credited to
Prince, except where noted.
* Sales figures based on certification alone. ^ Shipments figures based on certification alone. ‡ Sales+streaming figures based on certification alone.
The Very Best of Prince does not include the US number 1 hit "
Batdance" most likely due to the licensing of the character
Batman. Music critic
Stephen Thomas Erlewine believed that the Batman album was unofficially being written out of Prince's discography.[1] All the songs included in this compilation were all previously included in the 3-disc box set The Hits/The B-Sides (1993), with the exception of "
Money Don't Matter 2 Night".
Commercial performance
On the chart dated August 18, 2001, The Very Best of Prince debuted at number 66 on the US
Billboard 200.[5] As of September 21, 2004, the album was certified platinum by the
Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for selling 1 million copies in the United States.[6]
The Very Best of Prince sold 179,000
album-equivalent units (100,000 in pure album sales) in the week following Prince's death,[7] thus allowing the album to re-enter the Billboard 200 at number one; this makes the album Prince's fifth number-one on the chart.[8] The following week the album fell to number two on the Billboard 200 chart, selling 391,000 equivalent copies (216,000 in pure album sales) behind
Beyoncé's Lemonade.[9] In 2016, the album has sold 660,000 recognized copies in the United States in addition to the over 2 million copies sold prior to 2016.[10]
Track listing
All songs are written by and credited to
Prince, except where noted.
* Sales figures based on certification alone. ^ Shipments figures based on certification alone. ‡ Sales+streaming figures based on certification alone.