Prince & The Revolution - Around The World In A Day (coverart)
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Prince And The Revolution’s groundbreaking Billboard No. 1 album Around The World In A Day celebrates its 40th anniversary with a Deluxe Edition, newly remastered by Bernie Grundman. The album has also been meticulously remixed in Dolby Atmos by Prince protégé and Grammy-nominated engineer Chris James, drawn from the original multi-track masters.
In addition to the remaster album, the set features extended versions of all the A and B sides, with the remix of Paisley Park making its digital debut, along with the extended version of Girl,Hello (Fresh Dance Mix) and the nearly 22-minute 12” version of America.
Released on April 22, 1985, Around The World In A Day landed just 15 days after the curtain fell on Prince’s era-defining Purple Rain Tour. Today, surprise album drops are routine. Back then, it was unthinkable. Only Prince could — and did — pull it off.
Purple Rain had torn up the rulebook of pop stardom. Warner Bros. wanted to cash in, with a European leg of the tour already booked and millions guaranteed. Prince walked away. Instead, he handed in Around The World In A Day: A psychedelic, inward-facing detour that blindsided the label. His demand? It was to be experienced as one uninterrupted story. No lead single. No staged rollout. No hype machine.
Raspberry Beret was finally serviced to radio in the U.S. a month after the album’s release, which was an eternity in the mid-’80s hit factory. Yet Prince was vindicated. Without a tour, without videos, without even fresh promo shots (the only ones came from the later Raspberry Beret and America video shoots), the album flew off shelves, selling over two million copies and spinning off multiple Billboard Top 10 singles. Prince didn’t just defy the rules — he proved he didn’t need them.
Prince - Raspberry Beret videosnapshot
The record ultimately yielded four commercial singles: Raspberry Beret with its spectacular kaleidoscopic video featuring Prince in a suit inspired by the clouds and sky on the sleeve; Paisley Park (released only overseas); Pop Life; and America. Several songs had been teased on the Purple Rain tour, though the bulk of the album had been finished by the end of 1984. Raspberry Beret dated back to 1982 but was later re-recorded in September ’84, while Pop Life was the first new track cut for the project, and Temptation was the last.
Even its packaging was a statement: A swirl of psychedelic colours and faces painted by Doug Henders, who was working on the Purple Rain Tour and travelling with the painting, working on it between shows. The final result was far removed from the stark, iconic imagery of Purple Rain.
And in true Prince fashion, by the time the world heard it, he was already somewhere else. On April 21, 1985 — the day before the album’s release — Prince returned to Sunset Sound to record Sometimes It Snows In April, the haunting closer to his next album Parade, which would also serve as the soundtrack to Under The Cherry Moon. Bold, iconic, and unmistakably Prince.
Prince remains an iconic American musician, singer, songwriter, bandleader, performer, multi-instrumentalist, record producer, actor, film director, and a pioneer in artists’ rights and freedoms. Born Prince Rogers Nelson in Minneapolis, he released his debut LP For You in 1978 and went on to become one of the most successful recording artists of all time, eventually selling more than 150 million albums.
Over his 40-year career, his work received unprecedented critical praise as well as official recognition of his achievements including seven Grammy Awards, seven Brit Awards, six American Music Awards, four MTV Video Music Awards, NAACP Awards, a Grammy President’s Merit Award, a Billboard Icon Award, a Golden Globe, and an Academy Award (for Best Original Song Score for the film Purple Rain). His albums 1999 (1982), Purple Rain (1984) and Sign O’ The Times (1987) frequently appear in rankings of the greatest albums of all time. He has been inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame, the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame, the U.K. Music Hall of Fame, the Rhythm and Blues Music Hall of Fame, and more.
Prince was a leader in philanthropy, giving privately and without fanfare to countless charities and causes that he championed, and a trailblazer in music, fashion, art, and practically all forms of entertainment.”
