Prince The Most Beautiful Girl In The World

By the mid-90s, Prince Rogers (Known colloquially by his eponymous stage name Prince) and Warner Brothers Records were on very shaky terms. The influential pop singer/songwriter had clashed with his longtime label over various rights issues, but it was their refusal to release Prince's music at a frequent clip that made him search for an exit. Though he was contractually beholden to Warner Brothers, he fulfilled his obligation by releasing B-sides and discarded material to the label under his Prince moniker, while putting the music he wanted to put out under the name "The Artist", represented by an unpronouncable symbol. This bucking of the system would be put to a test in 1994, when simultaneous albums by both Prince (Under Warner Brothers) and The Artist (Under Prince's own imprint NPG) would see release; Come, under Prince's name, and The Gold Experience, under The Artist's. Prince's plan, ostensibly to entice people away from Warner Brothers (Which was releasing sub-par Prince material) to his own independent releases, seemed to work when The Gold Experience reached critical and commercial acclaim, while Come received mixed-to-middling response.
Much of The Gold Experience's success can be attributed
to its lead single, the track "The Most Beautiful Girl In The
World". The single, which fused R&B, soft-rock, and
Prince's own funk-pop stylings, showed that "The Artist"
could find commercial success without having to rely on
his old title. And "The Most Beautiful Girl In The World"
was indeed commercially successful, reaching #3
on the Billboard Hot 100, and would become his
only #1 UK Single