Producers: Prince and the Revolution
Track listing: Around the World in a Day / Paisley Park / Condition of the Heart / Raspberry Beret / Tamborine / America / Pop Life / The Ladder / Temptation
June 1, 1985
3 weeks
Prince wasn’t content merely to bask in the success of Purple Rain — instead, he mounted the massive Purple Rain Tour. And when they weren’t performing, Prince and the Revolution were busy writing and recording their next album, Around the World in a Day. It would have been easy to just duplicate the approach of the wildly successful Purple Rain, but instead Prince took a left turn, opting to explore neo-psychedelia with his own personal twist.
However, the elfin pop star did succumb to some of the usual trappings that often accompany superstar status. Around the World in a Day marked Prince’s first album released on his own custom label, Paisley Park (also the name of the new state-of-the art studio where most of the album was recorded). Yet while Prince enjoyed the spoils of his success, he also mocked them in the track “Pop Life,” which includes the lyric, “What u putting in your nose/Is that where all you money goes.” Prince protege Sheila E. performed drums on the track.
Engineer David Leonard recalls that Prince generally preferred to let his music do the talking. “He was always a moody guy who never really chatted about what he was feeling,” Leonard recalls. Those feelings apparently were often about sexual desire and religion, as Leonard discovered when he recorded the track “Temptation” at Capitol Records studios in Hollywood. The religious theme was also prevalent in “The Ladder,” a song Prince co-wrote with his father, John L. Nelson.
While Prince’s band, the Revolution (featuring Lisa Coleman on keyboards and backing vocals, Wendy Melvoin on guitar and vocals, Bobby Z on percussion, Brown Mark on bass and backing vocals, and Matt Fink on keyboards and backing vocals), took a more active role, sharing writing and production credits on several songs, Prince still occasionally worked solo, as evidenced by the songs “Condition of the Heart” and “Tamborine,” on which he played all the instruments.
Not all the tracks included on Around the World in a Day were new. “‘Raspberry Beret’ was an old song. “He wrote that before I met him,” says engineer Peggy McCreary, who began working with Prince in on 1981’s Controversy.
On Around the World in a Day, Prince continued to explore the use of strings, and even opted for finger cymbals and darbuka on the title track. The use of the additional instrumentation gave the sessions “a Beatles flavor,” McCreary says.
While Prince was faced with the awesome task of following up Purple Rain, he seemed unfazed by the challenge during the making of Around the World in a Day. “I never sensed any pressure like that from Prince,” says McCreary. “He did what he felt in his heart, and that’s where his genius lies.”
Of course, Around the World in a Day couldn’t match the blockbuster success of Purple Rain, but it did quite well in its own right, hitting Number One in its fourth week on the chart (just 20 weeks after the end of Purple Rain‘s 24-week run) and spawning the hits “Raspberry Beret,” which peaked at number two, and “Pop Life,” which reached number seven.
THE TOP FIVE
Week of June 1, 1985
1. Around the World in a Day, Prince and the Revolution
2. No Jacket Required, Phil Collins
3. Born in the U.S.A., Bruce Springsteen
4. Beverly Hills Cop, Soundtrack
5. Diamond Life, Sade