I was 14 too! Went to a record store with my best mate, and we put on headphones and listened to a sample of each trak in the store. He bought it and we talked about it all the way home. Different things grabbed us - ATWIAD, PP, America, PL, Ladder, Temptation (i.e. mos tof the album). My first reaction to RB was that it was "too poppy sounding" (just like I did to S&C a few years later and Lolita this year).
When we got home and lsitened again, we found that we'd missed Tambourine (we thought that the songs on one side of the cover were Side A, and the other Side B). What a great surprise! We put it on and it clinched the album for us. Still one of my faves (I place Tambourine with songs like Dance On - fascinating hidden album gems).

Love the original atrwork, BTW - never seen that!

I really Loved this cd. One of my top 5. Poplife was playing the last time I saw my favorite Auntee alive. Everytime I hear Poplife I always smile because I remember the last moment I saw her.

Great cd and better remixes.

HAPPY BDAY ATWIAD!!!!

I was 16 when this album came out and it definately threw folks off!! My mother nor any of my friends could figure out why I loved Prince so much and especially that so-called "weird" album. LOL!!!! So I stayed in my own little "Prince world". It was GREAT!! Still is.....

First off, kudos on your research! Job well done.

The first thing that sticks out in my mind about getting this album: ATWIAD may have been the first '2nd' album I'd bought by an artist. I remember that the local radio stations weren't playing a 'single' - it's as though Rasberry Beret, Pop Life & Paisley Park were all released all at once - so it felt like I was getting an album that had been in the charts for a year (it was probably the week after release). PP was the clincher: it was a song of polar opposites, fit for a funeral or a carnival.

It's also the first time that I bought an album that I bought that my friends weren't 'getting'. Everybody loved PR, everybody played PR...but this was an album that I quickly learned I had to listen to on my own. Not necessarily a negative experience...it was a divergence I learned to nurture.

I was -5 years old when this came out!
All I have to say is that it is a great and brilliant album, it is my favourite album by Prince! My favourite album of all time actually.
It's awesome.

It's so cool to read about other's memories when ATWIAD came out, since I was too young to experience it.

I didn't discover it until I was 15...ten years later. I used to play it in my walkman almost every day of my long bus ride to and from school.

I was on a classs trip in Paris when it camee out. I bought the tape and everyone wanted to hear it played on the tour bus. I had already listened to it and warned them it's not "Purple Rain, part 2"

Everyone listened to the first song, and was soon talking over the music.

Sure it has it's Sgt Pepper's style to it, but I think this album has held up for the most part, its all over the place and definitely Prince having fun with music.
to me it's Prince really doing the Beatles, and they had their weird albums as did the Stones!

This had to come out very quickly after the PR madness. I know PR came out in 84, but what month. Also curious how much time passed between the first single from Around and the last from PR. Had to be close

My first P album , i was only 10/11 , i loved it
[Edited 4/25/06 5:44am]

runningbear said:

'Purple Rain' (the album) was released on 25th June, 1984 (the movie opened in America 27th July 1984 - a $7million gamble, but which went on to gross more than $65 million and ultimately, thrust Prince to the forefront of the public psyche). The album spent an incredible 24 consecutive weeks at #1 in America, becoming one of the top soundtracks ever. According to one source, the album sold more than a million copies on the day of its release.

Prince won 3 Grammy Awards for Best Rock Vocal Performance by a Duo or Group, Best Album of Original Score Written for a Motion Picture or TV Special ('Purple Rain') and Best R&B Song (songwriter) (Chaka Khan's 'I Feel for You') and was nominated for Album of the Year ('Purple Rain'). 'Purple Rain' also won an Oscar for Best Original Score in 1985.

'Around The World In A Day' was released on 22nd April, 1985 and was Prince and The Revolution's 1985 follow-up to 'Purple Rain'. The album was released with minimal publicity, simply turning up in record stores to the surprise of fans. Prince decided to go in the opposite direction of 'Purple Rain' and instead of giving fans what they expected, he challenged them to new sounds.

The album confused and disappointed many fair-weather fans by going off in a psychedelic direction, but his core audience (who were worried about him potentially selling out after the successes of '1999' and 'Purple Rain') loved it and ate up the new music with gusto. A happy medium for all was the hit single 'Raspberry Beret'.

Alledgedly, Prince had been writing songs for the album as far back as 1983, so this album should not be viewed as a backlash creation to the success of Purple Rain, it seems more likely that it was very much a planned musical strategy.

Prince at his best W/The Revolution

Jamzone333 said:

well said!

andykeen said:

This should have been called "THE WHITE ALBUM" because it's Prince's whitest album.

Those Dirty Mind Fans were pissed and considered him a funk sellout didn't they?