Sunset Sound (Studio 2), April 27, 1982 (basic tracking of unreleased 1982 version) Flying Cloud Drive Warehouse (Eden Prairie, Minnesota), September 7 or 12, 1984 (basic tracking of album version)
The US B-side, "She's Always in My Hair", is a rock and roll number, with guitar and organs and emotional lyrics screamed toward the end. The UK B-side was "Hello", which was included on the U.S. release of "Pop Life".
Cash Box described the single as "an immediately accessible track, melodic and teasingly sexual."[4]Greg TateofSpin said it was, "a typical Prince sex fantasy set to an arrangement reminiscent of the softer side of Abbey Road."[5]
Following Prince's death, "Raspberry Beret" re-charted on the Billboard Hot 100 at number 33 on the chart dated the week of May 14, 2016. As of April 30, 2016, it has sold 691,421 copies in the United States.[6]
The video for the song was filmed on June 5, 1985 at S.I.R. in Los Angeles.[7] It was directed primarily by Prince, with animation created by Colossal Pictures co-founder Drew Takahashi. It combines footage of Prince & The Revolution performing the song surrounded by dancers and overlaid with various animations. The video uses an extended version of the song with a longer intro. Guitarist Pat SmearofGerms and Foo Fighters fame, appears as one of the background dancers in the video but, according to bandmate Dave Grohl, he was nearly fired. In the 2010 book I Want My MTV, Grohl elaborates further: "everyone has to do a synchronized dance. Pat [couldn’t] dance so they sent him home[...] Prince whispers in the bodyguard's ear. The bodyguard says, "You can stay. He likes your hair."[8] It also features the debut of actress Jackie Swanson who hands Prince his guitar.
In the same book, producer Simon Fields also recalled production on the video: "For 'Raspberry Beret', we filmed a whole video, then Prince got a Japanese animator to do a completely different video and we mashed the two up."[8]
In an interview with Prince’s hair stylist Earl Jones, he stated that Prince damaged his hair so badly prior to the Raspberry Beret video that "the hairstyle [in the video] was literally all I could do with it."[9]
"Raspberry Beret" remained a perennial live favourite in Prince's concerts for many years. It was initially performed in a full version for his 1986 Hit N Run World Tour whilst later performances including those on his Lovesexy Tour feature it as a stripped-down piece performed solely by Prince on piano, often as part of a medley with other songs from around the same period.
In 2016, Paste ranked the song number eight on their list of the 50 greatest Prince songs,[10] and in 2022, American Songwriter ranked the song number four on their list of the 10 greatest Prince songs.[11]
