Open Your Heart, Open Your Mind
A Wonderful Trip Through Our Time
It’s been five years since I wrote about Prince and the Revolution’s Around The World In A Day (1985) album. It was his quick and rather quiet follow-up to the gigantic monolith that was (and still is) Purple Rain.
Here we are again.
April 7, 2025, marked forty years since Around The World In A Day was released. Prince didn’t want a big promotion. He just let the album out into the wild, and let the public — and confused radio stations — figure it out. There were no lead singles at first, but radio stations focused on “Raspberry Beret” in quick fashion. The album’s rectitude has been debated for decades; did Prince lose his funk? Did he forget his roots? Why isn’t this album funky? (Plot twist: it is.)
During a radio interview with Prince and the Electrifying Mojo on Prince’s 28th birthday, June 7, 1986, while in Detroit to play a couple of Hit n’ Run shows to support Parade (1986), Prince defended his post-Purple Rain headscratcher, saying the album was funky, and that (at the time) it was “my favorite!” Prince said he had an “f-you attitude,” and was “making something for myself, and my fans.” He wanted to give them a letter as a token of appreciation to those who had supported him. For me, the implication was “before you heard Purple Rain,” since that album gained him a huge white audience and a larger Top 40 listening audience.
So, has Around The World In A Day really stood the test of time? Are people still scratching their heads? I would say no. The 1980s music scene was a constant and ever-evolving landscape of new sounds, dances, production techniques, performances, costumes, make-up, and more. Around The World In A Day only stands out because maybe it didn’t sink to the norms of what was popular at the time. Even Prince said it would have been too easy to open that album with the guitar solo from “Let’s Go Crazy.” He was right. And while the tracklist mirrors that of Purple Rain in many ways, Around The World In A Day, the album with only three videos (one on the fly well after), minimal promotion, a host of rock magazine critiques, and fans’ debates, not only fits the idea of “different” in the 80s, but also balks at it. Yet it suffered from minimal promotion (mostly on Prince’s part, because Warner Bros. certainly put ads in magazines and elsewhere), and less than a year of being out on its own (while songs from Purple Rain were still trickling through radio and in car stereos) before its successor Parade was released. Parade also had it better with an attached tour, movie, videos, and 12" single releases.
Around The World In A Day was the little album that could, and did.
Today, September 11, 2025, the Prince estate announced the long-awaited release of the remastered version of Around The World In A Day. It seems the release has already been met with much criticism from the hardcore fan base. Even people on prince.org, a warbly and GUI-outdated, yet semi-active fan forum, are posting “DO NOT buy the ATWIAD release.” Girl, calm down.
Around The World In A Day was recorded while Purple Rain was still being fed to the masses (movie, singles, album, you name it). During the Purple Rain World Tour, Prince continued to record music that would become his 1985 release. A fellow fan and I had discussed earlier this year as to what exists in the way of vault material from this short period during the latter part of 1984, through the release in April 1985?
I could only think of a couple of minor things. “4 The Tears In Your Eyes,” a song for the USA For Africa project; there exists the album version and a video “live” version. The early 1982 version of “Raspberry Beret.” Also, the title track with the bass added, a track that runs longer in time length, and has more guitars up front, as well as the bass. And where is Jonathan Melvoin’s version, the originator of the track? Besides that, what else possibly exists from this very short period? Not enough to fill a compact disc.
For me, the hope was a remastered album that clarified all that mobile studio, on-the-fly nuance that the album possesses. Not that it’s bad, but some of the hiss, or airy parts that shouldn’t be so airy, the flattened parts — those can be cleaned and cleared. Around The World In A Day should be even more listenable than it has been for the past forty years without a remastering process.
Earlier this year, the estate released the remastered track “America (12” Version)” from the album as a taste of the album. It was gratifying to hear things that previous innumerable listens had never given me. The album’s tracklist is the same, plus a bonus track. The second CD contains all the singles and B-sides. At a roughly $22 (US) price point, it’s fair for what it is. (The single remastered album is around $16 (US).) It’s what we wanted. We wanted these 80s albums remastered. Not over-digitized, just cleaned up a bit; whatever that means to people like Bernie Grundman, et al.
So yeah, naysayers, we will be buying Around The World In A Day. The little album that could. After the Netflix fiasco and the vaults’ stranglehold, the vault is free again. It’s not going to rain. We want a two or three big, honkin’ releases a year. We won’t get it. The estate is pacing itself again, and we have to do that as well. I’m as big a fan as anyone. I want all the music. But I’m willing to wait to get it in the right way. And if this release is any indication, then the 2026 release for the 40th anniversary of Parade is right on track. That album has a plethora of outtakes from the era, from the Mazarati take on “Kiss,” to the majority of material from Jill Jones and The Family (the latter of which feels like it should be on Around The World In A Day deluxe, but was released much later in 1985), and outtakes for Parade itself. How much of all that we get remains to be seen.
But let’s take a minute and give Around The World In A Day its moment. It deserves it.
Or don’t. I’m hopping on the train. It’s leaving all day, ya know?
Around The World In A Day (2025 Remaster) Tracklist
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CD1: Around The World In A Day (2025 Remaster)
- Around The World In A Day
- Paisley Park
- Condition of the Heart
- Raspberry Beret
- Tamborine
- America
- Pop Life
- The Ladder
- Temptation
- America (12" version) (Bonus Track)
CD2: B-Sides and Bonus Track (2025 Remaster)
Raspberry Beret (New Mix) (a.k.a. Extended Remix)
- She’s Always In My Hair (7 Version)
- She’s Always In My Hair (New Mix)
- Paisley Park (Remix)
- Pop Life (Fresh Dance Mix)
- Pop Life (Extended Version)
- Hello (7 Version)
- Hello (Fresh Dance Mix)
- Girl (7 Version)
- Girl (12 Version)
- 4 The Tears In Your Eyes (We Are The World Album Version)
- 4 The Tears In Your Eyes (The Hits/The B-Sides Version)
Pre-Order the album.
Suggested listening:
Ernest Sewell was born & raised in Oklahoma. He’s settled in upstate New York for the past twenty-seven years. He’s authored and published two books.
Since early 2024, Ernest has been fighting Hodgkin’s Lymphoma and is in the process of getting a stem cell transplant. He shares his home with a friend, a cat, and his vinyl collection. He is also a quilter, voracious reader, and avid cook.
