30 years ago, Prince's 'Purple Rain' saturated pop culture

The world was going crazy for Prince in the late summer of 1984.

The classic soundtrack for his film Purple Rain, released in June of that year, hit No. 1 on Aug. 4 -- 30 years ago today -- and stayed there until January 1985. That album produced four of His Royal Badness' biggest hits -- Let's Go Crazy, When Doves Cry, I Would Die 4 U and, of course, Purple Rain.

The movie itself hit theaters on July 27, 1984, and finished as the year's 11th-highest-grossing film -- right between Splash and Amadeus (pretty good company).
"(The movie) Purple Rain is basically a long-form music video, a bunch of performances strung together by a romance on the side. Prince became a megastar. It was a hit movie, a hit album and had a zillion hit singles. It was like killing 17 birds with one stone." -- Keith Caulfield, Billboard
It was a pretty spectacular welcome to the mainstream for a guy who was previously best known for performing in skimpy underwear:

Get your lighters in the air for the Purple Rain trailer: