Sign o' the Times

Prince built the song almost entirely on the Fairlight CMI sampling synthesizer, which supplies the keyboard riff and the sampled bass, and he sang and played everything himself. Every Fairlight sound on it is a factory preset, the orchestra hit near the end included. It had been meant for two shelved albums, Dream Factory and Crystal Ball. The arrangement is sparse and electronic, and a blues- and funk-influenced guitar part was cut from the single edit. The lyrics are more downcast than anything on his earlier singles and touch on AIDS, gang violence, natural disasters, poverty, the crack epidemic, the Challenger disaster, the Strategic Defense Initiative and the threat of nuclear war. Pitchfork's Nelson George heard it as Prince's version of The Message, with minimalist production in the style of Run-DMC.

BBC Culture noted that some DJs read the lyrics on air as an introduction. The single, released on 18 February 1987, reached number three on the Hot 100, number one on the R&B chart and number ten in the United Kingdom, and sold 200,000 copies in the United States by July. It was voted best single of 1987 in the Pazz & Jop poll and came first among songs in the NME critics' poll. Rolling Stone ranked it number 304 on its 2010 list of the 500 greatest songs. Its video, directed by Bill Konersman, has text animation that is considered one of the earliest lyric videos. The B-side was La, La, La, He, He, Hee, which Sheena Easton dared him to write, earning her a shared credit.

Live

Logged performances of it number 345. The earliest was at Paisley Park in Chanhassen on 2 April 1987, and the latest at Muzique in Montreal on 22 March 2016.