According to the DVD with the film "Purple Rain", the director asked the Prince to write a song in accordance with one of the themes of the film, which refers to the involvement in the difficulties of parental relations and love intrigue. The next morning the Prince presented two songs, one of which was "When Doves Cry".
The song topped the US chart for 5 weeks, from July 7, 1984 to August 4, 1984.
Billboard magazine put the song on the 1 st line in the rating of the best singles of the year, although in the American Top 40 rating the Prince's song took the second place. The reason for this was that this year the American Top 40 rating did not take into account the data from Billboard.
In 2006, the VH1 channel, in the program "The 100 Greatest Songs of the '80s", awarded the Prince's song the 5th place.
"When Doves Cry" was chosen as the best single of the year at The Village Voice Pazz & Jop critics' poll.