The 40th Anniversary reissue of Prince’s 1985 Around the World in a Day album is being released on November 21 with B-sides and remixes as the estate’s archival series continues.
Prince faced a major challenge in following the massive commercial success of 1984’s Purple Rain album, but unlike many artists tempted to repeat a winning formula, he changed direction. Forty years later, a new deluxe edition mixed in the immersive Dolby Atmos format revisits the artist’s left turn with its varied musical palette and colorful packaging, both of which echo the atmosphere of the 1960s.
There are no demos included among the remastered anniversary collection’s bonus material to shed new light on Prince’s creative process, but the new deluxe edition includes all of the non-LP tracks that were issued in that era. The exclusion of any previously unreleased Vault tracks on the reissue reportedly disappointed fans months ago.
A New Direction
By the time Prince’s seventh studio album was released on April 22, 1985, its breakthrough predecessor – the soundtrack to Purple Rain – had already been certified for selling more than nine million copies in the U.S. in a year. While Around the World in a Day has still only sold two million copies in America to date, much of the record’s importance lies in Prince’s artistic statements signifying his intent to find new creative challenges.
There’s little doubt that many critics and listeners who bought the multiplatinum movie soundtrack album were initially bemused by Prince’s psychedelically tinged experimental change of direction on Around the World in a Day, despite the commercial appeal of tracks like the singles “Raspberry Beret” (U.S. #2; U.K. #25) and “Pop Life” (U.S. #7; U.K. #60).
CHICAGO – DECEMBER 10: Prince performs live on stage at Rosemont Horizon in Chicago on December 10 1984 during his Purple Rain tour (Photo by Richard E. Aaron/Redferns)
Redferns
One of Prince’s key engineers in this era, Susan Rogers, recalls that “We did a lot of those recordings before Purple Rain was released. We did some of them afterwards.” She also recognizes that some press claims that Around the World in a Day was already completed before the release of the Purple Rain album are not entirely accurate: “It’s true in the sense that we had sequenced an album together, Side A and Side B, but with Prince, albums were always coming together and being taken apart as new music came along.”
As the New York Times reported when the album debuted in 1985, there were no plans to release singles, seemingly undermining the commercial benefits Prince and Warner Bros. Records might have gained from the chart-topping album success of Purple Rain less than a year earlier. Rogers says “My guess is that he was very conscious that he was taking a commercial risk. He was smart enough to recognize that he couldn’t simply repeat himself and do Purple Rain 2 on the next record. He had to keep growing as an artist and try a new way of expressing himself, so he did.”
The Album’s Artwork
Warner Bros. art director Laura LiPuma began working with Prince on Purple Rain’s graphics, and Around the World in a Day represented a further step in their fruitful artistic collaboration that lasted throughout his commercial peak until 1988’s Lovesexy.
LiPuma emphasizes that as an art director “you’re like the producer,” outsourcing aspects of the work and combining all of the album’s visual elements, in this case including overseeing the branded logo for Prince’s new Paisley Park record label. Around the World in a Day was its first release.
In the 1960s and 1970s, the gatefold sleeve that typically housed double albums was commonplace, but by the 1980s the format was rare. Asked whether Prince’s use of a gatefold package for the album signified his commercial supremacy, LiPuma responds, “Absolutely. One hundred percent.”
Prince specified that there would be no type anywhere on the record’s jacket, so an identifying sticker had to be designed to allay the concerns of the Warner Bros. executives who were still enjoying the enormous commercial success of Purple Rain. LiPuma secured Prince’s approval of the sticker featuring a boy holding a balloon in a hastily arranged, brief backstage meeting at California’s Cow Palace venue.
DETROIT, MI – NOVEMBER 4: American singer Prince (1958-2016) performs onstage during the 1984 Purple Rain Tour on November 4, 1984, at the Joe Louis Arena in Detroit, Michigan. (Photo by Ross Marino/Getty Images)
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The Cover Painting
A key part of the allure of Around the World in a Day is its illustrated album cover. Prince presented artist Doug Henders with fifteen points of handwritten instructions for the album’s illustrated sleeve. Speaking from his New York base, Henders notes that he “didn’t follow them literally” and only used roughly half of them to create a vivid visual experience for Prince and his audiences. Recalling the cover’s impact, he says “I think if there is an achievement of the album, it is kind of joyful, [with] almost like circus-like surrealism, but it’s also enigmatic. It’s like a mystery. People engage in a forensic examination [of the cover painting’s characters].”
Henders shot Polaroids of Prince’s group members, friends and family members, basing his surreal portraits on those photos. Using his knowledge of Prince’s preferences from working on the Purple Rain film and tour – creating murals, stage design, and videotaping rehearsals – Henders populated the album’s universe without fully hearing what would become the finished record. He even included himself in the painting’s often referenced cloud suit, while also employing the contour of a female figure to shape the landscape. Excerpts from the cover were also used for the sleeves of the singles “Raspberry Beret,” “Pop Life,” and “America,” although Henders’ artwork was uncredited on those belatedly issued discs.
The record and its cover art were debuted at the end of the Purple Rain tour for Warner Bros. executives who were yet to hear the music. Henders’ painting sat on an easel as he, Prince, The Revolution, family members and company staffers gathered at the label’s Los Angeles headquarters to listen, and Around the World in a Day passed its preview audition.
After leaving the Prince entourage before the musician made the 1986 film, Under the Cherry Moon, Henders needed to put some distance between himself those intense years in Minneapolis because “all anybody ever asked me was about Prince,” overshadowing the rest of his own creative body of work.
Forty Years Later
As the 2 CD/3 LP deluxe edition of the chart-topping Around the World in a Day reaches audiences, fans may reflect on how well the record’s aural and visual elements complement each other. In retrospect, the mostly optimistic album’s explorations proved a refreshing antidote to the works of less adventurous mid-1980s platinum performers.
It was also the prelude to yet another artistic shift for Prince. The panoramic color illustrations featured on Around the World in a Day were soon starkly contrasted by the black and white photography of Prince on 1986’s Parade album, a record that may be due for its own fortieth anniversary in 2026.