I love this song always have since 1st listen. I was pleased and surprised when he performed it on the Oprah Winfrey show! He slid in2 the crowd and got mobbed, my favorite part. My only complaint is the 7:42 length on the album, very unnecessary. Not sure if there were any other performances of this song, but i did appreciate Prince choosing 2 do this one. His song choices on certain live appearances sometimes made me think that he was actually aware of what we as fans liked and wanted 2 see.

I love the Oprah performance, and that he put "Opraahh" into it. I wonder if he did two performances, because that 'Oprah' shot and some others look very close up. It's a bit like the glamour shot, then the regular shots. (I remember TLC joking about this when they were making "Diggin' On You" video.)

I've always said, and it's probably not a huge revelation, that Prince extended a lot of those songs for the sake of the 60 minute time on each disk. There are tag endings on a lot of songs, and things like "Sleep Around", "New World", and "Joint 2 Joint" that he was adding parts to them for the sake of the time gag.

All that aside, it is a good song. I did edit it down a bit on my end, and kept the best bits, and good flow to it. I like it better. It gets a bit droning at points. "We Gets Up" does too.

This song would have been a perfect first single from Emancipation

Fave song on the album.

Love this song. One of my favs on this album!

SoulAlive said:

RJOrion said:

teiemka said:

RJOrion said:

i always thought that, too...

Definitely much better than BBGW, again one of those Prince WTF moments. You battle your record label for 5 years and then after your emancipation your first single is a cover. [Edited 7/1/17 11:23am]

Right. A crazily misguided decision. "Sleep Around" would have kicked the whole project off with so much more momentum than a syrupy ballad.

its funny, 2 see others shared similar ideas about this, because my wife and i also thought at the time Sleep Around would have made an awesome/obvious single. Either that or Somebody's Somebody. I never ever listen 2 BBGW.

This is one of the Emancipation tracks that I've never particularly cared for.

TheEnglishGent said:

This is one of the Emancipation tracks that I've never particularly cared for.

+1...I overall liked the Emancipation album but never felt Sleep Around.

Love this one, and that instrumental part in the middle, with the full horns, gives me chills.

Sad lost opportunity for a single: it could have moved the clubs crowds in Summer '97

databank said:

Sad lost opportunity for a single: it could have moved the clubs crowds in Summer '97

seriously! should've been the lead single of the album

One of the real "saving grace" of the entire 3CD set.

Love that song. The "Opraaahh" shot was an insert. Not sure if it was taken from a second performance but my guess is that he missed it the first time and they just shot that particular part after the audience left and inserted into the performance.

Lazy but listenable album track (and yes, indulgently long, like so much of 'Emacipation'). Hit single? Don't kid yourselves, that ship had sailed for P at that point.

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The song DID make a nice addition to the Jam of the Year tour set list.

CAL3 said:

Lazy but listenable album track (and yes, indulgently long, like so much of 'Emacipation'). Hit single? Don't kid yourselves, that ship had sailed for P at that point.

.

The song DID make a nice addition to the Jam of the Year tour set list.

GTFO with "lazy." It's catchy as hell. I'll give you long, but a single edit would have fixed that. The hit single ship certainly had not sailed. It was only one year out from "I Hate U," which hit #12 in the US. Had he chosen more wisely to kick off the Emancipation era with a proper single it might have gained a bit more traction as a project. When I saw Prince on the JOTY tour in '97 the crowd went nuts when he played that song.

brassneck said:

CAL3 said:

Lazy but listenable album track (and yes, indulgently long, like so much of 'Emacipation'). Hit single? Don't kid yourselves, that ship had sailed for P at that point.

.

The song DID make a nice addition to the Jam of the Year tour set list.

GTFO with "lazy." It's catchy as hell. I'll give you long, but a single edit would have fixed that. The hit single ship certainly had not sailed. It was only one year out from "I Hate U," which hit #12 in the US. Had he chosen more wisely to kick off the Emancipation era with a proper single it might have gained a bit more traction as a project. When I saw Prince on the JOTY tour in '97 the crowd went nuts when he played that song.

Yeah some "fans" kill me with that lazy description when it comes 2 some of Prince's work, when actually he proved 2 b the antithesis of the word. Made it look ez is more like it! Sleep Around had life and style and just maybe simple enough 4 the masses 2 consume!