Spin Celebrates “Purple Rain” With Tribute Album

Expect a heavy dose of purple with the next issue of Spin magazine.

To celebrate the 25th anniversary of Prince’s iconic Purple Rain, the music monthly has put together a 10-page, comprehensive oral history of the film and album – plus a free, downloadable tribute album that features nine bands doing song-for-song covers of the record’s famous tracks.

Known as Purplish Rain, the nine-song tribute album features, get this, Apollonia, who starred in the movie, performing a cover of “When Doves Cry” recorded with Greg Dulli and his band, the Twilight Singers.

“It was a fun challenge,” says Dulli on Spin.com. “I can guarantee you that what we do sounds nothing like what you expect. The only thing you’ll recognize is the lyrics.”

The Apollonia/Dulli duet is currently streaming at SPIN.com.

Other cover versions on the album include Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings doing “Take Me With U,” Of Montreal’s take on “Computer Blue,” a punk-mariachi version of “I Would Die 4 U” and Lavender Diamond’s rendition of the title track.

The complete album will be available for download when the magazine hits newsstands June 23. Yes, the album download is free, but if you’re not a subscriber you’ll at least need to flip through the issue to obtain the clue in the magazine article necessary for access.

“We approached a bunch of bands, and we got nine who were really into it,” Doug Brod, SPIN’s Editor told Billboard.com. “All these bands did it for free – they paid for all of their recording time and they mastered all the tracks themselves.”

It seems other Prince-related cover records have annoyed the artist, but thankfully Spin cleared all of the tracks for use on the tribute collection and are covering the royalty expenses. Whew… their souls can now avoid eternal damnation.

According to Billboard, Brian Raftery, who spoke to most of the key players from the “Purple Rain” film and album project, curated the 10-page oral history.

Interestingly, but not really, Prince did not participate.

Tracklist for Purplish Rain:

1. “Let’s Go Crazy” Riverboat Gamblers
2. “Take Me With U” Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings
3. “The Beautiful Ones” Fol Chen
4. “Computer Blue” Of Montreal
5. “Darling Nikki” Chairlift
6. “When Doves Cry” The Twilight Singers
7. “I Would Die 4 U” Mariachi El Bronx
8. “Baby I’m A Star” Craig Wedren
9. “Purple Rain” Lavender Diamond

What’s your favorite memory from the “Purple Rain” movie?

* We tried to post some totally awesome clips from the movie and maybe a few videos from the album, but, well, Prince is not having any of it.