"The Beautiful Ones" is a smoldering, ethereal ballad on Prince's 1984 masterpiece Purple Rain. Only the kinky explosions of "Darling Nikki," which appears on the record shortly afterwards, can match the ecstatic hurt of "The Beautiful Ones," and no other performance in the Purple Rain movie comes close: Prince unleashes a series of dangerously unhinged screams, punctuates his verses with emphatic hand gestures, and ends the song lying on his back, completely spent.
Video surfaced online today of Beyoncé playing "The Beautiful Ones" last night during the Dallas stop on her Formation tour. She has paid tribute to Prince multiple times already, mainly with Purple Rain cuts: at a recent Miami show, she sang a version of the title track. Back in October, she sang a snippet of "Darling Nikki" to honor Nicki Minaj. Watch her rendition of "The Beautiful Ones" above.
