Purple Rain
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50 free Purple Rain trivia questions with answers — music quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
In the summer of 1984, Prince had the biggest film, album and single in America at the same moment, and all three shared a purple theme. Purple Rain turned a cult favourite from Minneapolis into one of the defining stars of the decade, and four decades on its songs still turn up on the biggest stages, at award ceremonies and in television drama. This quiz covers all three sides of the story. There are questions on the film's plot, cast and troubled route to the screen; on the album's hit singles, chart battles and awards; and on the title song itself, from the night it was recorded to the well-known names who nearly had a hand in it. The tour, the controversy the record stirred up in Washington and the tributes that followed Prince's death are here too. It is pitched for anyone who has seen the film or worn out the record, with a few deeper cuts for devoted fans. Every answer comes with a short explanation, so you will leave knowing more than you arrived with.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which blockbuster, after seven weeks at number one, did the film Purple Rain knock off the top of the US box office?
Ghostbusters
Ghostbusters took the top spot straight back a week later, in its ninth weekend on release. Purple Rain still earned almost ten times its $7.2 million budget.
Q 02Which singer was sent a ten-minute instrumental of Purple Rain to write lyrics for, but felt too overwhelmed?
Stevie Nicks
Stevie Nicks listened to the tape and told Prince it was too much for her. He then worked the song up with his band in a single six-hour rehearsal.
Q 03At which 2007 event in Florida did Prince close his set with Purple Rain just as a real downpour began?
The Super Bowl
The Super Bowl had never had rain during a halftime show before. Prince is said to have asked the producers whether they could make it rain harder.
Q 04Which political spouse co-founded a music watchdog group in 1985 after hearing her daughter play a Purple Rain track?
Tipper Gore
Tipper Gore's group, the PMRC, put that track first on its list of fifteen objectionable songs. Her husband, then a senator, later became vice president.
Q 05Which company built the customized motorcycle that Prince rides in the film Purple Rain and on the album cover?
Honda
Honda built the bike, a modest CM400A Hondamatic that was customized for the film. The riding scenes were shot on a road along the Minnesota River.
Q 06Prince phoned a member of which band, worried the song Purple Rain sounded too much like their ballad Faithfully?
Journey
Journey keyboardist Jonathan Cain listened and reassured him that the two songs only shared the same four chords. Faithfully had been in the charts shortly before Prince recorded his song.
Q 07Which movie star did studio executives allegedly suggest, at a first meeting, to replace Prince in Purple Rain?
John Travolta
John Travolta was the name floated, the story goes. Every studio approached had rejected the idea of a film led by a musician, so Prince's manager produced it himself.
Q 08With Purple Rain, Prince joined the Beatles and which singer in holding America's top film, album and single at once?
Elvis Presley
Elvis Presley and the Beatles were the only acts to have managed it before. Prince's album then stayed at number one for 24 straight weeks.
Q 09Which Minneapolis club, a former Greyhound bus depot, is the main setting of the film Purple Rain?
First Avenue
First Avenue was paid $100,000 and closed for 25 days so the film could shoot there. More than 400 stars on its outside walls honour acts who have played the club.
Q 10Which Purple Rain single, Billboard's top song of 1984, did Prince write overnight once the director wanted one more?
When Doves Cry
When Doves Cry famously has no bass line: Prince took it out because the track sounded too conventional with it. He played every instrument on the recording himself.
Q 11Which Netflix series used the song Purple Rain in a climactic sequence of its 2025 series finale?
Stranger Things
Stranger Things had already sent a Kate Bush hit back up the charts, and its co-creator credits that success for the Prince estate saying yes.
Q 12Which singer joined Prince to open the 2004 Grammy Awards with a medley that began with Purple Rain?
Beyoncé
Beyoncé won five Grammys that same night, more than any other artist. The medley slipped one of her own hits in among three Prince songs.
Q 13Almost everyone in the film Purple Rain uses the actor's real name, but Prince's character goes by which nickname?
The Kid
Q 21Which opening track of Purple Rain begins with a funeral-style organ and Prince delivering a spoken eulogy?
Let's Go Crazy
Let's Go Crazy became the album's second number one single in America. It also opens the film, and the tour that followed opened with it too.
Q 22Which Purple Rain track ends with a hidden vocal recorded backwards, heard after the music gives way to wind and rain?
Darling Nikki
Darling Nikki was engineered to sound raw and live next to the slick tracks around it. On tour, the backwards message was played the right way round.
Q 23Which Purple Rain single is a duet between Prince and his co-star Apollonia, first meant for her own group's album?
Take Me with U
The Kid fronts a band called the Revolution, just as Prince did in real life. It was his first role in a feature film.
Q 14Purple Rain swapped the US number one album spot back and forth during 1984 and 1985 with a record by which act?
Bruce Springsteen
Bruce Springsteen's Born in the U.S.A. gave up the top spot to Purple Rain and later took it back. The two were also rivals for the Album of the Year Grammy, and both lost.
Q 15Purple Rain lost the 1985 Grammy for Album of the Year to Can't Slow Down, a record by which singer?
Lionel Richie
Lionel Richie's record had been one of the best sellers of 1984. Prince still left with Grammys that night, including one for writing Chaka Khan's hit I Feel for You.
Q 16Which former high-school bandmate of Prince plays his preening rival, under his own first name, in the film Purple Rain?
Morris Day
Morris Day fronted The Time, the rival band in the film, and was reportedly thrown out of the cast's acting classes for clowning around.
Q 17In the film Purple Rain, Apollonia strips off and jumps into water she wrongly believes is which Minnesota landmark?
Lake Minnetonka
Lake Minnetonka is where Prince's character tells her to purify herself; only once she is in does he say this isn't it. Dave Chappelle later spoofed the scene on his sketch show.
Q 18Before the Revolution reworked it, the song Purple Rain was first written by Prince in which genre?
Country
Country was the feel Prince first had in mind, until a bandmate's guitar chords took the song somewhere new. The live take was later cut from 11 minutes to under nine.
Q 19The single Purple Rain stalled at number two in America behind a hit from the duo fronted by which singer?
George Michael
George Michael and Wham! held the top spot with Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go for both weeks. The two singles before it from the album had each reached number one.
Q 20Which actress, then a college student, turned down the female lead in Purple Rain before Apollonia Kotero was cast?
Jennifer Beals
Jennifer Beals, fresh from Flashdance, wanted to concentrate on her studies at Yale. Prince's first choice, the singer leading his own girl group, had already walked away.
Take Me with U was the last US single from the album. A member of the Revolution reportedly doubled Apollonia's vocal on the record.
Q 24Which singer, Prince's first choice for the female lead in Purple Rain, quit before filming and signed with Motown?
Vanity
Vanity led a trio that was renamed around her replacement for the film. She went on to star in the 1985 film The Last Dragon.
Q 25Which film editor was hired to direct Purple Rain after pitching his own take on the story on the spot?
Albert Magnoli
Albert Magnoli got the job after the director of Reckless, a film he had edited, turned it down and passed it to him. He briefly managed Prince's career in 1989.
Q 26Clarence Williams III, the troubled parent of Prince's character in Purple Rain, starred as a cop in which TV series?
The Mod Squad
The Mod Squad made him a star as undercover officer Linc Hayes from 1968 to 1973. In Purple Rain his character is a tormented musician with a hidden box of his own compositions.
Q 27Which 1990 film, written and directed by Prince himself, is the sequel that revisits his Purple Rain character?
Graffiti Bridge
Graffiti Bridge brought back his old rival from The Time as well, now fighting him for control of a club. It was Prince's last major role in a cinema film.
Q 28Which institution chose the film Purple Rain for the National Film Registry in 2019, having already honoured the album?
The Library of Congress
The Library of Congress added the album to its National Recording Registry in 2012. Both lists are reserved for works judged culturally, historically or aesthetically significant.
Q 29Which artist, then riding high with The Glamorous Life, was the opening act on the Purple Rain Tour?
Sheila E.
Sheila E. had released her debut album that year and often joined Prince for long jams at the end of the show. The Time, despite their part in the film, were not invited on the tour.
Q 30In which city did the Purple Rain Tour begin in November 1984, on the stage of Joe Louis Arena?
Detroit
Detroit hosted the opening night, though Prince had quietly tried the show out at a small Cincinnati club six weeks earlier.