A REVOLUTIONARY SOFT SELL OF PRINCE LP

What would you say about a pop superstar who released a new album without any hoopla at all--no single, no video, no ads, not even a merchandising display at the local record store?

Easy. Either he’s crazy or he’s Prince--or both.

With fans lining up each morning to buy “Around the World in a Day,” the debate has already begun--is His Bad Self’s latest album a psychedelic tour de force or a bizarre self-indulgence? The arguments may rage for months, but no one is going to accuse Prince’s management of over-hyping this provocative new aural adventure. Although Warner Bros. has already shipped an astounding 2.7 million copies, there has been little of the familiar grind of star-making machinery that accompanies the release of such superstar projects.

As Warners creative-marketing chief Jeff Ayeroff put it: “We haven’t done a thing. This has got to be the easiest album I’ve ever worked on.”

Following strict instructions from Prince’s management team, the label has taken a hands-off approach, letting the record generate its own excitement. Warners hasn’t released a single from the album, nor has it taken out any ads, sent out any merchandising material or (gasp!) made any preparations, at least for the present time, to shoot a video. “Prince’s management hasn’t even let us run a plain old ad in Billboard just announcing that the record had been shipped to the stores,” Ayeroff said. “Any merchandising in the stores is stuff they’ve done on their own. In a way, it’s very refreshing--it’s merchandising anarchy.”

The Warners promotion team is taking a similarly low-key attitude. “Our response has been very enthusiastic, but we’re really not pushing any particular song,” said promotion chief Russ Thyret. “Essentially, we’re just servicing stations with the record and letting the stations pick what they like. Personally, I think three or four cuts will eventually surface, but we’re working the whole album.”

If anyone’s upset by this laissez faire approach, it’s certainly not local stores, which said they had lines of fans waiting for them to open early last week. “We haven’t had this much excitement in a long time,” said Lee Cohen, an exec at the 34-store Licorice Pizza chain. “It’s almost like in the old days, when the Beatles came out with an album and everybody got it at the same time.”

BUT ON THE FM DIAL: Radio, easily rock’s most conservative medium, has taken a typically timid approach to the new Prince disc. Many local programmers have put the record on the back burner, waiting to see what sort of audience response develops. As Paula Matthews, program director at KIQQ-FM, put it: “We were kind of nonplussed by it. We certainly didn’t find anything that was so outstanding that would make us rush out and play it. For now, we’re going to sit back and see what tracks do well in our research studies.”

However, KROQ-FM programmer Rick Carroll was more enthusiastic: “We think it’s going to be as big as ‘Purple Rain.’ The only record I’d compare it to is ‘Sgt. Pepper’s.’ We’re playing a cut from it every two hours.”

According to Lenny Beer, an exec at MusicVision, a prominent radio promotion and research firm, the mixed radio response has largely been caused by Warners’ low-decibel promotional strategy. “The Top 40 stations are practically in shock,” Beer said. “For once, they’ve actually been forced to listen to a record. It’s very confusing for them.

“Most Top 40 programmers don’t really listen to new albums. The record companies send them an advance cassette with a couple of hot tracks on it and the programmers listen to 40 seconds of the song to decide if they want to play it or not. But the Warners promo men are just handing them the record and telling them to play what they like. So they’re a little bewildered--they’re even calling us and asking us what to play.”

According to Jon Scott, another MusicVision exec, it may be several weeks before it’s clear whether the album is a hit with radio or not. “Right now, it’s about an even split between stations going right on the record and stations holding back,” he said. “The most popular tracks seem to be ‘Raspberry Beret’ and ‘Pop Life.’ But since there isn’t a single out, a lot of programmers have been very cautious about making any commitment.

“You have to remember that when ‘Purple Rain’ first came out, probably 80% of the album-rock stations didn’t go on the record right away. They had to be convinced, and it took a long time for them to see that Prince was a viable artist.”

Prince management execs would not comment.

“HOW LOW CAN YOU GO” DEP’T.: Who are “The Biggest Bozos of the ‘80s”? According to a cover story in the new issue of the always-irreverent Creem magazine, honors go out to such stellar pop artists as Billy Idol, Madonna, Ratt, Motley Crue, Frankie Goes to Hollywood and the Alarm. But the real news is that the writer awarding these boobie prizes was none other than Anastasia Finn, 46, a self-described suburban homemaker turned music critic who alternated her scathing critical remarks with digressions about her home life, including her youngest son’s vasectomy, her purchase of a stack of Marshall amps at a yard sale and her husband’s “affair with that slut in his office.” Here’s how some of the pop stars fared.

Billy Idol: “The most obnoxious solo artist in the history of Western popular music. His videos seem to be geared to the clientele of gay leather bars.”

Madonna: “Her hair looks as though it was last brushed in 1976. To call her the Pia Zadora of new-wave disco is to insult Pia Zadora.”

Motley Crue: “These guys don’t want to make love to women nearly as much as they want to humiliate them.”

The Alarm: “The only group in the world to use more hair-spray than Motley Crue. Around the Finn house, we refer to these guys as U1 1/2.”

Frankie Goes to Hollywood: “It isn’t any old band that can actually make a mother nostalgic for the Village People.”

A Flock of Seagulls: “A bunch of hairdressers with delusions of grandeur.”

VIDEORGY: Film director Jonathan Demme (who did such a great job on the Talking Heads film, “Stop Making Sense”) has just finished the video for “Perfect Kiss,” a new clip from New Order. . . . And the upcoming installment of “The Cutting Edge,” which airs tonight at 8:30 on MTV, will include an interview with the Talking Heads’ David Byrne, conducted by Byrne himself; “King of Rock,” a new video from Run-D.M.C., and performances by the Minutemen, Los Cruzados and guest emcees the Bangles.

MOVIN’ ‘N’ GROOVIN: Who says no one ever walks in L.A.? Leave it to I.R.S. Records, one of the industry’s most innovative labels, to find a unique way to celebrate its new three-year exclusive distribution pact with MCA Records (which marks the end of the label’s long association with A&M; Records). Since the new distribution deal entails packing up and moving to new headquarters, I.R.S. has decided to celebrate the occasion with a unique rite-of-passage ritual. Using a variety of surface streets, the label’s staff will trek this Friday afternoon from its current home on the A&M; lot on La Brea Avenue near Sunset to its new headquarters in Universal City. The company’s entire 60-person staff will be on hand for the forced march as well as various artists (yes, fans, the Go-Go’s have been invited).

AND NOW HERE’S THE NEWS: Despite KROQ-FM’s strong showing in the new Arbitron rating survey (which showed the station moving up to a 2.9 share of the L.A. radio market), KROQ has been rocked by a new series of personnel changes. According to Program Director Rick Carroll, the station has dismissed General Manager Michael Brandt as well as a half-dozen deejays, including Michael (The Hose) Evans, John Logic, Eddie X and Wild Bill Scott. Carroll said that Pat Welsh, who had left the station earlier, will return as general manager, while longtime staffer April Whitney returns as a weekend deejay. “This won’t affect our format at all, except that you may hear a little less talk,” Carroll said. “It’s basically a move to cut some fat out of our budget and give the station a leaner look.” ... Meanwhile, the Bangles are due to return to the video-waves, courtesy of Cyndi Lauper, who cast them as the loves of several pirates’ life in her upcoming “Goonies” video (gee, one of those pirates wouldn’t by any chance be Hulk Hogan?). The group also has a new song, “I Got Nothing,” on “The Goonies” sound-track album, due out at the end of May, with the Richard Donner-directed film to follow in June.

AND WAIT, THERE’S MORE: With all the talk about lawsuits flying back and forth between John Fogerty and his former label, Fantasy Records, it comes as no surprise to find the San Francisco-based company going out of its way to needle its former meal ticket. In the latest skirmish, a Fantasy promotion exec, writing in a trade publication, has touted one of its new releases as a record by “the founding member and original vocalist for Creedence Clearwater Real ... Tom Fogerty.” But John Fogerty fans could rightfully claim this new billing is a little misleading. According to Fantasy’s own Tom Fogerty bio, Tom only sang lead in the Golliwogs, a pre-Creedence unit. . . . And haven’t you always wondered (well, almost always wondered) what records Randy Newman would take along if he were planning on being standed on a desert island? Spike Jones, perhaps? Social Distortion? Maybe a fistful of Debby Boone singles? You can find out Monday when the songwriter appears as the guest “castaway” on John McNally’s “Castaway’s Choice” at 2 p.m. on KCRW-FM (89.9). We won’t give away exactly which albums Newman picked, but we’ll give you a hint--he’s a big fan of classical music.