In addition to being a fine album in its own right, Prince's 'Purple Rain' was named as the greatest soundtrack of all-time in a US magazine writers' poll. The editors of Vanity Fair magazine, for a one-off publication called Movies Rock, called it a combination of "funk, R&B, pop, metal, and even psychedelia into a sound that defined the '80s".

Prince won three Grammy Awards for the work from this soundtrack and was nominated for Album of the Year. Prince also scooped an Oscar for Best Original Song Score in 1985.