Five of Prince’s best songs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n5MfZzlHyzs

As His Royal Purpleness comes to Malahide Castle to give his fans an overdose of his greatest hits, we pick five Prince classics.

Given his huge back catalogue it's hard to pick just five Prince tracks to highlight the diminutive star's talent, but here are five Prince tracks that have stood the test of time.

After cancelling his last Dublin gig three years ago, Prince has promised something special to make up for things this time round.

And so to whet your appetite if you're going, or to demonstrate what you're missing if you're not, we give you a medley of hits performed live at the Brit Awards (above) and, in no particular order...

Purple Rain

Well, when we said 'no particular order we obviously weren't talking about Purple Rain - Prince's epic gospel anthem and stadium rouser. Think of it as his 'Hey Jude' or his 'Stairway to Heaven'.

Rasberry Beret

A deceptively sweet and simple, Beatleseque upbeat love song.

Kiss

When Kiss first came out it was a shock to the system featuring pure falsetto Prince rather than the soulful Prince that we'd mostly been treated to until then.

But before long it was sitting at the top of the singles chart. It's simple and it's pretty cool - not even subsequent cover versions could dent its appeal.

I Could Never Take The Place of Your Man

This is one of those tracks that showcases Prince's talent, featuring a bit of jangly folk rock, moves into a stretch of trippy Latin and features a smooth guitar solo.

When Doves Cry

According to Prince's lyrics this song explains "what it sounds like when doves cry". We've very little experience in the noise that birds' tears make - to be honest we didn't even realise that birds cried at all let alone that they made a noise.

But if Prince believes "this is what it sounds like..." we're not going to quibble given that he's the one who's got the global fanbase.