| Author |
|
abagon
MusicFan
Joined: 01 March 2008
Location: Japan
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 618
|
| Posted: 03 September 2008 at 11:07pm | IP Logged
|
|
|
FRANKIE GOES TO HOLLYWOOD - "Relax"
The actual commercial 45 running time is (3:53), the listed time is "3:56" on the record label. (Island 7-99805)
|
| Back to Top |
|
| |
crapfromthepast
MusicFan
Joined: 14 September 2006
Location: United States
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 2243
|
| Posted: 29 September 2009 at 7:59pm | IP Logged
|
|
|
Been spending some more time with this song - not as simple as I thought.
The first time the 45 was released in the US, it stiffed, peaking at #67 in May 1984. That 45 was on purple-label Island 7-99805, printed 3:02, actual about 3:01, BPM starts at 115.0 ends at 114.9, designation of "EDIT", matrix number ST-IL-45980-1, copyright 1983 ZTT, Produced by Trevor Horn.
I can see why it tanked - it sounds like an unfinished mix, compared to what came later. It has no lead-in
"hiyaas", starts with the bass/drumbeats, lacks most of the sound effects like the "waterfall" before the "huh", and is missing the overdubbed "come!" at the end of the song and instead ends with a "hey!".
I know this edit/mix appeared on one of the Island 12" singles (I used to own it). It's also on the 2-CD The Island Story and The A-List Disc 28, where it's taken from vinyl. Not the hit mix - not even close.
Then, the extremely common 3:54 version, which I'm 99% sure is the album version (I'll need someone else to check this). In the break at 2:03, the line "don't do it" has no reverb on it.
This version shows up on:- a promo sampler called ZTT Backtrax (1998), where it's listed as "from the album WELCOME TO THE PLEASUREDOME" - that's why I think this is the album version
- Razor & Tie's Awesome '80s
- Time-Life's Sounds Of The Eighties - 1985
- JCI's Only Dance 1985-1989
- Columbia Germany's Pop And Wave Vol. 5
- UK's Now 26
- Iceland's Pottpett 80's
The song runs 115.2-115.3 BPM, start to finish, on all of these CDs.
There's a slightly different mix on a promo 45 - white label, ISLAND at top in colored block letter on black horizontal stripe, Island PR 695, printed 3:55, actual 3:54, 115.2-115.4 BPM beginning-to-end, Produced by Trevor Horn, Engineered by Steve Lipson, matrix number ST-PR-45797-1, same version in stereo on both sides.
The mix is overall punchier than the album version, and now the line "don't do it" at 2:03 has an echo on it.
This mix turns up on exactly one CD of mine - Time-Life's Modern Rock - 1984-1989, where it runs 114.9-115.0 BPM start to finish.
But that's not the commercial 45 version! There's an even more punched-up mix on the commercial 45!
My commercial 45 is blue label, "Island" in pink script at top, Island 7-99805 (same catalog # as original release!), copyright 1983 ZTT, Produced by Trevor Horn (no engineer credit), printed 3:56, actual 3:54, 115.2 BPM throughout, matrix number ST-IL-45719-1. I have two copies of the commercial 45, both with different picture sleeves (one has two marginally-clad people bound back-to-back in an uncomfortable-looking pose, and the other has black-and-white square graphics with "RELAX" and some other text in color on top of it - both say 1983 as the copyright date).
This, too, has an echo on the "don't do it" at 2:03, but on one of the echo'd "don't do it"s, there's an echoey kick-drumbeat. (There's another one at 0:16.) There may be more subtle mix differences, too, like the panning of some of the crazy accent percussion, but the echoey drumbeat is easiest to spot.
This commercial 45 version turns up on Rhino's Just Can't Get Enough Vol. 13, where it runs a tiny bit slow at 114.7 BPM throughout. The echoey drumbeats at 0:16 and 2:03 are really pronounced in this version.
That's four versions of this song, three of which are incredibly similar and two of which I didn't even know existed until I started poking around...
Edited by crapfromthepast on 29 September 2009 at 8:36pm
|
| Back to Top |
|
| |
Brian W.
MusicFan
Joined: 13 October 2004
Location: United States
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 2507
|
| Posted: 29 September 2009 at 9:49pm | IP Logged
|
|
|
Wow, that's an amazing analysis of all the different versions of this song, Crap! What a labyrinth. At least the hit 45 version has been issued on CD.
|
| Back to Top |
|
| |
crapfromthepast
MusicFan
Joined: 14 September 2006
Location: United States
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 2243
|
| Posted: 17 August 2020 at 10:47pm | IP Logged
|
|
|
A listener of mine, Aaron E. from Australia, pointed out an error in my giant post from above. At the time of my post, I didn't have any full-length Frankie Goes To Hollywood CDs (and still don't, actually), and it led to my mislabeling two of the four versions. Thanks to Robert, Chuck, and Jeff, I can confirm the following:- What I called the "promo 45 mix" is actually the album version. It's also used on the promo 45, as reported above.
- What I called the "LP version" is actually a 1993 remix from the Bang!... The Greatest Hits Of Frankie Goes To Hollywood CD, which was actually released as a single in the UK and hit the UK charts again. I didn't know any of this.
- There are too many versions of the UK releases of the song to keep track of. Maybe I'll revisit all this in another 11 years.
That said, I will update the info from my post above.
Non-hit original 45 version
The first time the 45 was released in the US, it stiffed, peaking at #67 in May 1984. That 45 was on purple-label Island 7-99805, printed 3:02, actual about 3:01, designation of "EDIT", matrix number ST-IL-45980-1, copyright 1983 ZTT, Produced by Trevor Horn.
This version was actually the last three minutes of one of the 12" single versions (the 12" with a matrix ending in "-4U", according to Wikipedia). It's shorter than the other three later versions by about a minute, and is missing lots of the production flourishes that appeared on the later versions.
It appears on:- Island's 2-CD The Island Story (1987)
- swaitek's promo 50-CD The A List Disc 28 (1994) - taken from vinyl
LP version
This version shows up as "Relax (Come Fighting)" in discographies.
Listen for lots of echo on the line "don't do it" at 2:03, while the backing track just repeats over and over without anything else happening.
The LP version turns up (unsurprisingly) on Island's Welcome To The Pleasuredome (copyright 1984, released 1985). The original pressing on Island 90232 is digitally identical to a rerelease on ZTT/Universal 53199. Both sound quite nice. There's a differently-EQ'd digital clone on:- Time-Life's 2-CD Modern Rock Vol. 13 1984-1989 (2000) - I believe that the Modern Rock series is entirely made up of LP versions, and this track is consistent with that belief
The LP version also appears on a promo 45: white label, ISLAND at top in colored block letter on black horizontal stripe, Island PR 695, printed 3:55, actual 3:54, Produced by Trevor Horn, Engineered by Steve Lipson, matrix number ST-PR-45797-1.
Hit 45 version
Listen for lots of echo on the line "don't do it" at 2:03, but on one of the echo'd "don't do it"s, there's an echoey kick-drumbeat. (There's another one at 0:16.) There may be more subtle mix differences between this version and the LP version, but the echoey drumbeat is easiest to spot.
This is the version that peaked at #10 in March 1985.
I only have one CD with the commercial 45 version: Rhino's Just Can't Get Enough Vol. 13 (1994), which sounds quite nice.
1993 remix
This version shows up as "Classic 1993 Version" in discographies. It was released as a single in 1993 and charted in the UK.
Listen for no echo at all on the line "don't do it" at 2:03. Overall, this version feels more clear and less reverb-y than the LP and 45 versions from the '80s. The vocals are emphasized nicely, much like the 1992 Hollywood Records remix of "Under Pressure". For better or worse, this 1993 remix is the one that turns up on lots of compilations downstream.
This 1993 remixed apepared first on ZTT's Bang!... The Greatest Hits Of Frankie Goes To Hollywood (1993). The US and UK versions of this CD are digitally identical for this track. The same analog transfer is used on:- EMI Virgin PolyGram UK's 2-CD Now That's What I Call Music UK Vol. 26 (1993) - absolute polarity inverted (insignificant)
- Razor & Tie's 2-CD Awesome '80s (1994)
- Sony Germany's 2-CD Pop And Wave Vol. 5 (1994)
- Time-Life's Sounds Of The Eighties Vol. 2 1985 (1994)
- JCI's Only Dance 1985-1989 (1995)
- EMI-Capitol's 2-CD Entertainment Weekly Presents Smash Hits (1996) - digitally exactly 2.34 dB quieter than Awesome '80s
- ZTT's promo ZTT Baktrax (1998) - digitally exactly 2 dB quieter
- Skifan Iceland's 2-CD Pottţétt 80's 1 (1999)
- Universal's Pure '80s (1999) - differently-EQ'd digital clone of Awesome '80s but with added compression and truncated fade; avoid
- Disky UK's 8-CD More Greatest Hits Of The '80s (2000) - differently-EQ'd digital clone with added severe compression/limiting/clipping; avoid
- Varese Sarabande's Totally Oldies Vol. 5 Then '80s (2003) - differently-EQ'd digital clone of Sounds Of The Eighties Vol. 2 1985 with added compression/limiting; too loud and clips a lot; avoid
Of the discs listed above, everything not labeled "avoid" sounds about the same, with nice dynamic range, nice EQ, no truncated fade, and no evidence of noise reduction.
If you have a version on CD and need to identify it...
...you can identify it by tempo. Windows has a free program called MixMeister BPM Analyzer that can analyze .wav and .mp3 audio files to give values of tempo in BPM. Virtual DJ (and other DJ software) does similar stuff.- 114.7 BPM - Hit 45 version
- 115.0 BPM and about 3 minutes long - Non-hit original 45 version
- 115.0 BPM and about 4 minutes long - LP version
- 115.3 BPM - 1993 remix
My recommendations
Non-hit original 45 version: Island's 2-CD The Island Story (1987)
LP version: Island's Welcome To The Pleasuredome if you want a FGTH CD, or Time-Life's 2-CD Modern Rock Vol. 13 1984-1989 (2000) if you want a compilation
45 version: Rhino's Just Can't Get Enough Vol. 13 (1994)
1993 remix: ZTT's Bang!... The Greatest Hits Of Frankie Goes To Hollywood (1993) if you want a FGTH CD, or Time-Life's Sounds Of The Eighties Vol. 2 1985 (1994) if you want a compilation
__________________
There's a lot of crap on the radio, but there's only one Crap From The Past.
|
| Back to Top |
|
| |
Bellenger1981
MusicFan
Joined: 18 July 2019
Location: United States
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 228
|
| Posted: 18 August 2020 at 4:09pm | IP Logged
|
|
|
Incredible! Ron, thank you for your time spent figuring
out these versions of "Relax"!
__________________
Jason Bellenger
Byron Center, Michigan, USA
|
| Back to Top |
|
| |
EternalStatic
MusicFan
Joined: 28 September 2019
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 253
|
| Posted: 16 December 2020 at 4:41pm | IP Logged
|
|
|
Fantastic post and analysis!
I am currently trying to re-create the original U.S. "Edit" (the non-hit mix) by taking it from the end of the "New York Mix" 12" Version as described above. It's easy enough, but I am wondering if someone with either The Island
Story or the original 1983 U.S. 45 might be able to advise on whether this Youtube video indeed agrees with the edit in question correctly, specifically the very beginning of the track:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MhogBQibV6g
If so, then the way it was cut from the long mix is a bit annoying, as the edit keeps an odd number of beats (5) before the first chord change, when they could have easily taken the one additional beat prior to make it an even 6.
Personally, I may keep the extra beat for my own copy, but would just like to know what I'm dealing with for accuracy's sake. Thanks for any help!
|
| Back to Top |
|
| |
crapfromthepast
MusicFan
Joined: 14 September 2006
Location: United States
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 2243
|
| Posted: 16 December 2020 at 6:53pm | IP Logged
|
|
|
That's it.
__________________
There's a lot of crap on the radio, but there's only one Crap From The Past.
|
| Back to Top |
|
| |
EternalStatic
MusicFan
Joined: 28 September 2019
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 253
|
| Posted: 16 December 2020 at 8:08pm | IP Logged
|
|
|
Thank you!
|
| Back to Top |
|
| |
mjb50
MusicFan
Joined: 28 April 2021
Location: United States
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 310
|
| Posted: 06 June 2021 at 4:27pm | IP Logged
|
|
|
Ron—respectfully—I think you have made some errors here.
If I understand correctly, you claim you have a retail 7" with catalog number 7-99805 containing the 3:02 edit, with purple labels, and that this version is was what charted in mid-1984. And you claim to have once had a 12" with this edit on it, too.
I can't verify these claims, and I'm skeptical that you have access to extremely rare records that no one in 37 years of heavily collecting this thoroughly discographied band has ever noticed.
The actual situation with this song is much more mundane.
The first US release was on promo 12" (DMD 691) with yellow/aquamarine labels and a company sleeve, and also on retail 12" in the common retail "two bodies" sleeve (0-96975). This was in either late Dec. 1983 or early Jan. 1984. It hit the Billboard dance charts later in January 1984. The A-side contained the 3rd UK 12" version, which is the ~7:20 mix (I time it at a bit over 7:21); unlike the meandering, noodly version on the first two UK 12"s, this is a straightforward extended version, the first half of which is instrumental. The B-side contains the 3:54 single version (always "3:56" on the labels) which was the hit version in the UK and elsewhere, immediately followed by the 4:24 instrumental version, which has an acapella intro.
The video debuted on MTV in mid-February. There were no US 45s out yet. There is even an ad in an early March issue of R&R magazine which implies that only the 12" was available for radio stations to play the song from. That situation was quickly rectified, though.
• The 1st DJ copy (7-99805, teal skyscraper labels) says 3:02 and Edit, and this duration is correct. It is, as already mentioned, the last few minutes of the 12" A-side. This 45 appeared in approximately the 2nd week of March 1984. Cash Box mentioned it (w/3:02 duration) in their March 24th issue.
• The 2nd DJ copy (PR 600, stencil labels) says 3:56 and actually runs 3:54; they contain the standard hit single version, same as on the B-side of the 12". These came with a "Dear Programmer" card from late March or maybe early April 1984, essentially encouraging the play of this version instead of the dull 3:02 edit.
• The 3rd DJ copy (PR ̶5̶9̶5̶ 695 and 12" PR 696, stencil labels) say 3:55 and contain the 3:55 LP version, which as you have noticed is a very slightly different mix than the regular single version. The LP came out in October 1984 and these promos were not released until circa December 1984; they coincide with the debut of the new "checkerboard" picture sleeves for the 7" & 12", the back cover of which thanks fans for support of the November 1984 live shows.
• All [OK, most; see posts below] US retail 45s have catalog # 7-99805 and contain the hit single version; they say 3:56 and run 3:54. There are several label and sleeve variations. This single first charted on the Hot 100 at #84 and peaked at #67; this was in April & May 1984, so we know the retail 45 was out no later than April 1984. Due to a new promotional push announced in December 1984, it charted again at #70 in January 1985 and reached #10 that March.
Although the 3:02 version may have gotten US radio play in 1984, the far more common 3:54 version was out at the same time, was the only retail version, was the version in the video, and had been promoted to radio as the million-selling hit. It's likely that it was played just as much as the 3:02 first-promo version, if not more.
Meanwhile, Canada was the only region that got the 3:02 version on a retail 45. [apparently not; see subsequent posts...]
Trying to ascertain release dates by label & company sleeve designs is tricky. If you got a retail 45 of "Relax", it may have light-blue labels with pink script "Island" and purple rim text—this is the standard design Island US used in 1984 and early 1985. The sleeve will either be the original "two bodies" p/s, the "checkerboard" p/s, or the old pinkish/reddish company sleeve with blue script "Island" and ©1982 on the back. Or you might have the purple/skyscraper labels with green neon-style "Island". AFAIK these did not come in picture sleeves; they were only in the old pinkish/reddish company sleeve.
The skyscraper labels were the standard design in 1982 & 1983 and were resurrected in 1985 for the "Welcome to the Pleasuredome" single. The only other example of these labels on a post-1983 release is on "Relax". Given the ubiquity of the blue labels in 1984 and this special case for 1985, and the fact that the record got its second wind in 1985, I'm inclined to believe the purple/skyscraper-label copies are really from 1985.
The above is the result of a lot of research on my part, and I'm happy to share my info sources (most are online), but I wanted to keep this post fairly concise. If I've made any mistakes, I'm happy to admit it and make corrections; please share what you have.
Also, different topic here, but I don't think the 1993 release was a new remix made in 1993; it sounds way too much like it was just a shelved original-era mix that was unearthed in 1993 and became the version released on way too many compilations thereafter.
Edited by mjb50 on 06 June 2021 at 8:11pm
|
| Back to Top |
|
| |
aaronk
Admin Group
Joined: 16 January 2005
Location: United States
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 6514
|
| Posted: 06 June 2021 at 5:38pm | IP Logged
|
|
|
A minor correction: The 3rd promo 45 is PR 695 (not PR 595).
__________________
Aaron Kannowski
Uptown Sound
91.9 The Peak - Classic Hip Hop
|
| Back to Top |
|
| |
mjb50
MusicFan
Joined: 28 April 2021
Location: United States
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 310
|
| Posted: 06 June 2021 at 7:06pm | IP Logged
|
|
|
Fixed; thanks!
(By the way, I apologize about the formatting of my
posts, but it seems to be something amiss with the
forum software. For some reason, the "soft" line
breaks in the editing box are turned into hard line
breaks in my posts. For example, in this edit, I'm
using the default 56-character-wide box, and so now
this paragraph is getting posted with that relatively
narrow width.
It seems other people have been able to post without
this problem, at least in the past. I posted about it
in the Forum Problems section.
Edited by mjb50 on 06 June 2021 at 7:18pm
|
| Back to Top |
|
| |
crapfromthepast
MusicFan
Joined: 14 September 2006
Location: United States
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 2243
|
| Posted: 06 June 2021 at 7:17pm | IP Logged
|
|
|
mjb50 wrote:
| I can't verify these claims, and I'm skeptical that you have access to extremely rare records that no one in 37 years of heavily collecting this thoroughly discographied band has ever noticed. |
|
|
Yup, it exists.
Edited by crapfromthepast on 06 June 2021 at 7:18pm
__________________
There's a lot of crap on the radio, but there's only one Crap From The Past.
|
| Back to Top |
|
| |
mjb50
MusicFan
Joined: 28 April 2021
Location: United States
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 310
|
| Posted: 06 June 2021 at 7:25pm | IP Logged
|
|
|
Hallelulah! That's awesome!!
How did this not turn up before, I wonder.
When did you get it?
|
| Back to Top |
|
| |
crapfromthepast
MusicFan
Joined: 14 September 2006
Location: United States
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 2243
|
| Posted: 06 June 2021 at 7:38pm | IP Logged
|
|
|
I know for a fact that I didn't buy it when it was a current hit. I bought the back-to-back sleeve version when the song was in the top ten.
As for where it actually came from, I have no idea. It's been in a box filed under "F" for at least two decades. It's box #5 of about 14 or 15, in case I need to go digging again.
I suppose I should enter this on Discogs, but I don't really want to venture into the rat's nest of "Relax" releases on there.
I couldn't easily find the 12" single. My 12" vinyl filing system fell apart when I moved into my current house nine years ago. The crates end at Percy Faith and pick up with Gary's Gang. I found one Funkadelic album filed in an unsorted crate, but no FGTH.
Unrelated: I found a way around the line-break problem, which seems to only happen on Google Chrome. Look at the text box into which you're typing, and hover your cursor over a gray box with two diagonal lines at the bottom-right corner of the text box. Drag that box to the right. Neat, huh? Now resize the text in Chrome to be teeny-tiny, and drag the little box off the end of the Chrome window. (It helps if you size the Chrome window to be narrow.) Keep dragging and re-dragging until all your text appears on the proper lines. I'm sure there's a better fix out there, but this one really works.
Edited by crapfromthepast on 06 June 2021 at 7:41pm
__________________
There's a lot of crap on the radio, but there's only one Crap From The Past.
|
| Back to Top |
|
| |
mjb50
MusicFan
Joined: 28 April 2021
Location: United States
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 310
|
| Posted: 06 June 2021 at 8:08pm | IP Logged
|
|
|
Indeed, I'm using a Chromium-based browser (Edge, Chrome, Brave ... doesn't matter which). I normally resize the box to as wide as I can go on my screen with the browser window maximized, but I still get stuck with line breaks at whatever size I set it to. Your workaround to make the box so wide that each paragraph is on one line probably does work. Trying it on this one now.
I feel your pain with records getting lost in a move. In fact, my copy of "Relax" with the 7" checkerboard sleeve is one of the casualties of my last move. No one else had access to it, all my records are in one place now, and yet... poof, it's gone, along with several others I know I didn't intentionally get rid of.
Anyway, the Cash Box mention doesn't actually say promo or retail, just the catalog number and 3:02. So on reconsideration, I think you're right that this was available as the initial retail release. This would be what came out in March '84, and then I believe it was replaced with the 3:54 version very soon after.
|
| Back to Top |
|
| |
NightAire
MusicFan
Joined: 20 February 2010
Location: United States
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 998
|
| Posted: 03 September 2021 at 9:39am | IP Logged
|
|
|
What a mess! As is often the case, it's Ron the rescue to try to untangle the various versions, mixes, lengths, and pressings.
I'm wondering what radio was playing at the time: the LP version, or the hit 45 version? Seems they're close enough that audio processing could make it difficult to confirm which my local station was running.
I want to replace the copy I'm currently airing (some phasing issues when listening in mono on my Echo Dot) and that's when the trouble started... Fourty-eleven-billion different copies of "Relax" in my library... :-D
__________________
Gene Savage
http://www.BlackLightRadio.com
http://www.facebook.com/TulsaSavage
Owasso, Oklahoma USA
|
| Back to Top |
|
| |
MMathews
MusicFan
Joined: 18 August 2005
Location: United States
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 978
|
| Posted: 07 September 2021 at 4:27pm | IP Logged
|
|
|
When the song debuted on new wave radio in '83, I bought
the above pictured 45 with the 3:01 version.
This version was also on the 12" but as part of the "long
version" ... as I recall the whole first part of the 12"
was a dub instrumental, then at about 4:20 the 3:01 mix
was tacked on to the end and that's how it finished.
The following year I bought the newer "hit" 45.
MM
|
| Back to Top |
|
| |
mjb50
MusicFan
Joined: 28 April 2021
Location: United States
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 310
|
| Posted: 08 September 2021 at 3:21pm | IP Logged
|
|
|
I don't know...my research, summarized above, suggests there was no US 7" (at retail, at least) until March 1984, when the pictured 45 with 3:01 version was first reviewed in Cash Box. Also as I mentioned, an R&R magazine ad from February was encouraging radio to play the 12", which had been out since circa late December '83; no mention of any 7" before then.
But to answer the question of what version was heard in the U.S., it depends on when we're talking about. The song had a long life. You could've heard it as early as November 1983 if you had the import singles (the song came out the last week of October in the UK). December for the domestic 12", which also contained the hit single version. Otherwise, March 1984 for the first 45 with the 3:01 edit of the 12" version, followed soon after by the 45 with the hit version, then the album itself in October '84, and 45s containing the album version around December '84, with the song finally becoming a big hit in '85!
Personally I regard the album version as superior, but the differences between it and the original hit single are almost impossible to notice, and even the 3:01 version isn't that different.
|
| Back to Top |
|
| |
MCT1
MusicFan
Joined: 26 December 2007
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 92
|
| Posted: 07 April 2022 at 8:23pm | IP Logged
|
|
|
A few points to add to the discussion:
--The 12” single appeared in Billboard’s single review
column in the January 7, 1984 issue, and the 45 appeared
in the February 4, 1984 issue (showing the running time
as 3:02). This suggests that the 12” had been released
by late December 1983, and the 45 by late January 1984,
at least in promotional form.
--I have always assumed that the “dancing couple” picture
sleeve was used with the single’s first release in 1984,
and the “checkerboard” sleeve was used with the single’s
second release in 1985. The checkerboard sleeve
certainly didn’t exist until the time of the single’s
second release (as ‘mjb50’ noted, the back of the sleeve
makes reference to events which took place in the fall of
1984), and it made sense to me that the dancing couple
sleeve would have come earlier, since it has the same
artwork used in the U.K. I don’t know that for a fact,
though, and comments earlier in this thread by ‘mjb50’
suggest that the first release didn’t come with a picture
sleeve, and both picture sleeves were then used with the
second release. FWIW, two books that I have, a 1990s
Joel Whitburn Hot 100 book and an early 2000s Goldmine
price guide edited by Tim Neely, both show the first
release as not having with a picture sleeve, and the
second release as having one. Neither gives any
indication that there were two different sleeves,
however, so it's not clear if Whitburn and Neely were
aware of the existence of both sleeves at the time (if
they only knew about the checkerboard sleeve, they may
have assumed that the first release didn’t come with a
sleeve, based on the checkerboard sleeve clearly not yet
existing at the time of the first release).
--I have always thought that the 3:02 version
corresponded to the first release in 1984, and the 3:56
version to the second release in 1985. I may have gotten
that idea from the previously referenced Whitburn book,
which indicates that the second release is a different
mix from the first one. I had recently come to the
conclusion that the 3:56 version has to have appeared
much earlier than the time of the second release,
however, after realizing that the catalog number of the
PR 600 promo (which contains the 3:56 version) suggests a
March or April 1984 release. The earlier discussion in
this thread has clinched that for me. The 3:56 version
came out partway through the first release, early enough
in relation to when the song charted that the 3:56
version was arguably the hit version both times.
--I have always struggled to figure out where the purple
label copies with the 3:56 version fit into the
chronology. I had noticed that Island used the purple
labels for the 1985 follow-up “Welcome To the
Pleasuredome”. Were the purple label 3:56 versions
pressed in 1985 during the second release as part of the
same purple label revival as “Welcome To the
Pleasuredome”? Or are they late first release pressings
from early 1984? Earlier in the thread, ‘mjb50’
indicated that he thinks they’re from 1985. Now that
we’ve confirmed that the 3:56 version replaced the 3:02
version so early on, though, I think they’re from 1984 –
it just makes too much sense to me that this is where
they come from.
So, this is the chronology of the 45, as I see it:
1) The 45 was first released around January 1984.
Stock copies had purple labels with the 3:02 version.
They may have possibly come with the “dancing couple”
picture sleeve, or they may not have come with any
picture sleeve at all; exactly when Island used the
dancing couple sleeve is not entirely clear to me (they
definitely did not come with the checkerboard sleeve).
Promo 45s had the same catalog number as stock copies (7-
99805) and used the same 3:02 version as stock copies.
2) Around March or April 1984, Island decided to
substitute the 3:56 version on the B-side of the 12”
single as the 45 version. Promo 45s with the catalog
number PR 600 were issued to make this version available
for promotional purposes. Stock copies switched to the
3:56 version at this point, presumably still using the
purple label.
3) Around December 1984 or January 1985, the single
was re-released, this time on the blue label, still using
the 3:56 version. Second release copies were definitely
available with the “checkerboard” picture sleeve, and may
have possibly also been available with the “dancing
couple” picture sleeve (exactly when Island used the
dancing couple sleeve is not entirely clear to me).
About the same time, Island issued a new promo 45, PR
695, containing the 3:55 LP version (a promo 12” with the
same version also appeared as PR 696), which is overall
fairly similar to the 3:56 version. (Why did Island
issue the LP version on promotional singles if they
weren’t going to use it on stock singles? Was the PR 600
promo with the 3:56 version also re-serviced to radio at
this time as well?)
4) Copies of the 3:56 stock 45 also exist on the
black label that Island introduced in 1985. These are
very late pressings of the second release.
Edited by MCT1 on 07 April 2022 at 8:25pm
|
| Back to Top |
|
| |
mjb50
MusicFan
Joined: 28 April 2021
Location: United States
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 310
|
| Posted: 08 April 2022 at 4:50pm | IP Logged
|
|
|
MCT1 wrote:
| the 45 appeared in the February 4, 1984 issue (showing the running time as 3:02). |
|
|
Thanks; I totally missed that earlier mention because it was buried in the wrong file in the worldradiohistory.com archive. I
found it now and agree that they got the record in January, because the "February 4th" issue would've been in shops several days
earlier, having gone to press over the previous weekend. Per their reviews policy, it must have been a retail copy, too.
Interesting that this is well before the Cash Box mention!
|
| Back to Top |
|
| |
|
|
Active Topics 
Memberlist 
Search 
Help
Register 
Login
Top 40 Music on Compact Disc : Chat Board
Topic: FRANKIE GOES TO HOLLYWOOD - "Relax"
