Duran Duran held on to the top spot of the Hot 100 the week of July 20, 1985, with ‘A View to a Kill,’ but hot on their heels was Prince with ‘Raspberry Beret.’ The song peaked there, one of three Prince songs to stall out one slot short of #1 (‘Purple Rain’ and ‘U Got the Look’ are the other two).
This is one of 18 top ten songs for Prince, and one of 13 in his signature decade. The 80s also accounted for four of his five #1 hits.
‘Raspberry Beret’ was the leadoff single of Around the World in a Day, Prince’s follow-up to 1984’s smash hit Purple Rain. This psychedelic pop album was met with a mixed response from critics and fans alike, and apart from today’s SOTD and the song ‘Pop Life,’ it was largely forgotten.
This song was first demoed a few year earlier in a less psychedelic style before being reworked with The Revolution into something more appropriate for the new album. In any form, this is one of Prince’s most accessible and catchy tunes.
One, two
One, two, three, uh!
[Verse 1]
Yeah
I was working part time in a five-and-dime
My boss was Mr. McGee
He told me several times that he didn’t like my kind
‘Cause I was a bit too leisurely
Seems that I was busy doing something close to nothing
But different than the day before
That’s when I saw her, ooh, I saw her
She walked in through the out door, out door
[Chorus]
She wore a raspberry beret
The kind you find in a second-hand store
Raspberry beret
And if it was warm, she wouldn’t wear much more
Raspberry beret, I think I love her
[Verse 2]
Built like she was, she had the nerve to ask me
If I planned to do her any harm
So, look here, I put her on the back of my bike and, uh, we went riding
Down by old man Johnson’s farm
I said, now, overcast days never turned me on
But something ’bout the clouds and her mixed
She wasn’t too bright, but I could tell when she kissed me
She knew how to get her kicks
[Chorus]
She wore a raspberry beret
The kind you find in a second-hand store
Raspberry beret
And if it was warm, she wouldn’t wear much more
Raspberry beret, I think I love her
[Verse 3]
The rain sounds so cool when it hits the barn roof
And the horses wonder who you are
Thunder drowns out what the lightning sees
You feel like a movie star
Listen, they say the first time ain’t the greatest
But I tell you, if I had the chance to do it all again, ooh
I wouldn’t change a stroke ’cause, baby, I’m the most
With a girl as fine as she was then
[Chorus]
(Raspberry beret) Oh!
The kind you find (The kind you find)
The kind you find (In a second-hand store)
Oh, no, no
(Raspberry beret)
(And if it was warm)
Where have all the raspberry women gone? (She wouldn’t wear much more)
Yeah (Raspberry beret)
Aah!
I think I, I think I, I think I love her!
(Raspberry beret)
No, no, no
No, no, no (The kind you find)
(In a second-hand store)
(Raspberry beret)
Tell me
Where have all the raspberry women gone? (And if it was warm she wouldn’t wear much more)
(Raspberry beret)
Ooh, uh, I think I love
Meet Me In Montauk 
I’d never heard the demo of this song before. Too long, but very cool.