Claim: Prince had an album which sold over one million copies.

Purple Rain is the sixth studio album by American recording artist Prince , the first to feature his backing band The Revolution , and is the soundtrack album to the 1984 film of the same name . It was released on June 25 , 1984 by Warner Bros. . Records . To date , it has sold over 25 million copies worldwide , making it the sixth-best-selling soundtrack album of all time .   Purple Rain is regularly ranked among the best albums in music history , and is widely regarded as Prince 's magnum opus . Time magazine ranked it the 15th greatest album of all time in 1993 , and it placed 18th on VH1 's Greatest Rock and Roll Albums of All Time countdown . Rolling Stone ranked it the second-best album of the 1980s and 76th on their list of the `` 500 Greatest Albums of All Time '' . The first two singles from Purple Rain , `` When Doves Cry '' and `` Let 's Go Crazy '' , topped the US singles charts , and were hits around the world , while the title track went to number two on the Billboard Hot 100 . The album was certified thirteen-times platinum -LRB- diamond -RRB- by the RIAA .   In 2007 , the editors of Vanity Fair labeled it the best soundtrack of all time , and Tempo magazine named it the greatest album of the 1980s . The 1,000 th issue of Entertainment Weekly dated July 4 , 2008 , listed Purple Rain at number one on their list of the top 100 best albums of the past 25 years . In 2013 , the magazine also listed the album at number two on their list of the 100 Greatest Albums ever . In 2012 , Slant Magazine listed the album at # 2 on its list of `` Best Albums of the 1980s '' behind only Michael Jackson 's Thriller . In the same year , the album was added to the Library of Congress 's National Recording Registry list of sound recordings that `` are culturally , historically , or aesthetically important '' .