The first “purple rain” musical reference, researchers at Zero to 180 assert, comes from Stevie Wonder — though to be fair, from the pen of Ted Hull.  Most intriguingly of all: “Purple Rain Drops” would spend its entire adult life as a B-side, never to be included on a 12-inch long-playing record album:

“Purple Rain Drops”     Stevie Wonder     1965

Produced by Clarence Paul (brother of Lowman Pauling from The “5” Royales, King recording artists), “Purple Rain Drops” would grace the flip side of Wonder’s early hit, “Uptight (Everything’s Alright),” released exactly two years after President Kennedy’s assassination.

US                                                               Canada

  UK                                                                Australia

My favorite, and most evocative, of three European picture sleeves – from the Netherlands:

Picture sleeve for French 45 in which “Purple Rain Drops” is final of four tracks:

Picture sleeve for Norwegian 45:

30 years later, “Purple Rain Drops” would appear on an “unofficial” Belgian CD release – Rare Tracks from Detroit, Vol. 4, issued in 1996 – fittingly, as the last song on the disc.

Three years hence in 1968, a Columbus, Ohio garage combo would use Purple Reign as its band name — is it possible that the musicians had originally been moved to do so out of respect for the Stevie Wonder B-side?