Purple Rain Guitar Solo?

A few days ago I was listening to a podcast and they were discussing the various tributes that were going on for Prince and at one point the conversation turned to people paying tribute to Prince by singing Purple Rain. I have to say a lot of them are very good but some of them....well.

 Someone asked if it was necessary to have a guitar solo in the song?  Hmmm.....at first I was like duh, "of course you do" but I know I've heard a lot of pretty good versions without the solo.

Now no one could do it any better than Prince (Wendy Maybe) and no one ever will but maybe that's why a lot of the tributes fall flat?  What do you all think? There is a poll question on the side bar. The Purple Rain discussion starts around the 31 minute mark.

http://podcastjuice.net/prince-podcast-bet-awards-tribute-review/