Roberta 'Big Brown Eyes' Hernandez introduced me to Prince in 1980 or 1981. Those first few albums impressed but after Purple Rain my engagement wandered and dissipated and was lost in the flash and the MTVery of Prince and the 80s. I'm sure Roberta never stopped listening.

But I will say and I have long believed and sworn to this: the last great radio single by anybody was "Little Red Corvette."

Photograph: Backstage at The Bottom Line, Greenwich Village 1980 | Deborah Feingold/Corbis

Tags: music, gone