"Diamonds and Pearls" is the title track

Diamonds and Pearls

Diamonds and Pearls is the thirteenth studio album by American recording artist Prince, released October 1, 1991, on Paisley Park Records and Warner Bros. Records. It is his first album to have The New Power Generation, his backing band at the time, receive co-billing...

 to Prince

Prince (musician)

Prince Rogers Nelson , often known simply as Prince, is an American singer, songwriter, musician, and actor. Prince has produced ten platinum albums and thirty Top 40 singles during his career. Prince founded his own recording studio and label; writing, self-producing and playing most, or all, of...

 and The New Power Generation's 1991 hit album

Diamonds and Pearls

Diamonds and Pearls is the thirteenth studio album by American recording artist Prince, released October 1, 1991, on Paisley Park Records and Warner Bros. Records. It is his first album to have The New Power Generation, his backing band at the time, receive co-billing...

. The song is an upbeat ballad, given a rock

Rock music

Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...

 edge with guitar

Guitar

The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...

 and heavy drum

Drum

The drum is a member of the percussion group of musical instruments, which is technically classified as the membranophones. Drums consist of at least one membrane, called a drumhead or drum skin, that is stretched over a shell and struck, either directly with the player's hands, or with a...

ming. The song also features the powerful vocals of NPG member Rosie Gaines

Rosie Gaines

Rosie Gaines is an American vocalist, musician, singer-songwriter, and record producer from Pittsburg, California. She released a number of dance hits, the most notable being "Closer Than Close".-Ensemble career:...

. The ballad is an expression of love and not lust, as is the theme on some of the other singles from the album. The song was a top 10 hit, reaching #3 in the U.S. and the top spot on the R&B charts.

The B-side

A-side and B-side

A-side and B-side originally referred to the two sides of gramophone records on which singles were released beginning in the 1950s. The terms have come to refer to the types of song conventionally placed on each side of the record, with the A-side being the featured song , while the B-side, or...

 is a mix of excerpts of other Diamonds and Pearls tracks, which serves to promote the album. There was no extended version of the song released. The UK B-side included some of the mixes on the "Cream

Cream (song)

"Cream" is a song by Prince and The New Power Generation, from the 1991 album Diamonds and Pearls. Prince states that he wrote the song while standing in front of a mirror....

" maxi single

Maxi single

A maxi single or maxi-single is a music single release with more than the usual two tracks of an a-side song and a b-side song.-The first maxi singles:...

.

The repeated lyric "If I gave you diamonds and pearls, would you be a happy boy or a girl?" echoes the lyrics "I'll buy you diamonds and pearls only if you're good girl" from Prince's 1982 song, "International Lover".

Rapper Lil Wayne

Lil Wayne

Dwayne Michael Carter, Jr. , better known by his stage name Lil Wayne, is an American rapper. At the age of nine, Lil Wayne joined Cash Money Records as the youngest member of the label, and half of the duo, The B.G.'z, with B.G.. In 1997, Lil Wayne joined the group Hot Boys, which also included...

 sampled the song on his mixtape Da Drought, with the term "Diamonds & Girls".

Polish jazz pianist Marcin Wasilewski covered the song with his trio on their 2008 album January released on the ECM Records label.

Chart performance

"Diamonds and Pearls" was very successful stateside, receiving massive airplay and peaking at #2 on the Hot 100 Airplay, and #11 on the R&B/Hip-Hop airplay (it was on the decline when the chart first appeared in April 1992). It was a moderate hit in the UK peaking at #25.

Peak positions

Chart (1992)	Peak position
U.S. Billboard Hot 100 Billboard Hot 100 The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday...	3
U.S. Billboard Hot R&B Songs Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs, is a chart released weekly by Billboard in the United States.The chart, initiated in 1942, is used to track the success of popular music songs in urban, or primarily African American, venues. Dominated over the years at various times by jazz, rhythm and blues, doo-wop, soul,...	1
UK Singles Chart UK Singles Chart The UK Singles Chart is compiled by The Official Charts Company on behalf of the British record-industry. The full chart contains the top selling 200 singles in the United Kingdom based upon combined record sales and download numbers, though some media outlets only list the Top 40 or the Top 75 ...	25
Australian Singles Chart ARIA Charts The ARIA charts are the main Australian music sales charts, issued weekly by the Australian Recording Industry Association. The charts are a record of the highest selling singles and albums in various genres in Australia. ARIA commenced compiling its own charts in-house from the week ending 26 June...	13

End of year charts

End of year chart (1992)	Position
U.S. Billboard Hot 100	25

US 7" and Japan CD

1. "Diamonds and Pearls" (edit) – 4:20
2. "X-cerpts from the Songs: Thunder, Daddy Pop, Strollin', Money Don't Matter 2 Night, Push, Live 4 Love" – 5:04

UK 12"

1. "Diamonds and Pearls" (LP version) – 4:45
2. "Do Your Dance" (Housebangers) – 4:23
3. "Cream" (N.P.G. Mix) – 5:47
4. "Things Have Gotta Change" (Tony M. Rap) – 3:57

UK CD

1. "Diamonds and Pearls" (LP version) – 4:45
2. "2 the Wire" (Creamy Instrumental) – 3:13
3. "Do Your Dance" (KC's Remix) – 5:58