Classic 1985 Follow-Up to Purple Rain Back in Print!

Prince arrived on the scene in the late-70s, and it didn’t take long for him to upend the music world with his startling music and arresting demeanor. He rewrote the rulebook, forging a synthesis of black funk and white rock that served as a blueprint for cutting-edge music in the ’80s. He made dance music that rocked and rock music that had a bristling, funky backbone. From the beginning, his music was androgynous, sly, sexy and provocative. His colorful image and revolutionary music made him a figure comparable in paradigm-shifting impact to Little Richard, James Brown, Jimi Hendrix and George Clinton.

For any other artist following up such a defining record as Purple Rain (1984) would have been a monumental task, but Prince already had another classic album, Around the World in a Day, in the can. A tour de force of psychedelic soul originally released in 1985, it became his second consecutive No. 1 album and the first to appear on his own Paisley Park label (a Warner Bros. subsidiary). With Prince-mania in full effect, Around the World in a Day generated two more Top 10 hits with the equally cool and captivating cuts “Raspberry Beret” (No. 2) and “Pop Life” (No. 7).