Toy Soldiers - Martika

Pat:

I have a U.K. import Martika CD not available in the U.S. called The Best of Martika: More Than You Know released in 1997 (Columbia 4885812). The CD jacket states that "Toy Soldiers" is the single version. I pulled out my copy and noticed that the song contains the children's chorus introduction but fades out at 4:18, which is :34 sooner than the LP version. This sounds very similar to your description of "Toy Soldiers" on the CD you reviewed, Pat. I'm wondering if there's a different commercial or promo single pressing where the song fades early like this?

My import CD also claims it contains the single version of "I Feel the Earth Move" and "More Than You Know". I can assure everyone that "I Feel the Earth Move" is definitely not the single version here as it runs 4:12, unlike the 45 which finishes at 4:04. In fact, I can tell the producers of the import disc pulled the track directly from Martika's 1989 self-titled debut album (Columbia 44290) because when "I Feel the Earth Move" ends you can actually hear a split second of the intro to "Water", which is the song that seamlessly follows "I Feel the Earth Move" on the debut album. The underlying point here is the CD jacket is not always correct when it states a song is the "single version" (unless of course the single version was different in Europe than in the U.S.).   

Meanwhile, I listened to the alleged single version of "More Than You Know" on the import CD and here are some things I found to be different than the LP version: 1) the song is missing the very first two notes; 2) the mix is slightly different overall; and 3) the fade begins sooner and lasts approximately :07 longer than the that of the LP version. The song's run time on the import disc is 4:03. Does this entire description match anyone's 45 or cassette single copy of "More Than You Know"?

<if anyone has another 45 version other than the 4:52 version, please step forward.>

I don't have the 45, but I do have a friend who produced & co-wrote "Toy Soldiers", and we had a discussion on this very subject three years ago. I'll have to confirm it with him, but as I recall, the shorter version which is missing the acapella intro (and can be found on Rhino's "Billboard Top Hits 1989") was a version submitted to radio after the song began taking off. Apparently, there was a need for a shorter version, but this isn't an edit because the word "soldiers" at the end of the acapella section overlaps with the instrumentation that comes next (on the original version), and on this version the instrumentation starts cold, and obviously you don't hear the second syllable of "soldiers". So I guess this version can be described as "radio version", although I think many radio stations did not play this version, so that might be misleading.

The above was supposed to say "It's Not What You're Doing" was mixed by Keith Cohen.

And just to be clear, though I do not have the Martika album, the version on the album was not mixed by Humberto.

I do have the LP version of "Toy Soldiers" on Martika's self-titled 1989 CD (Columbia 44290) and the liner notes say that the song was mixed by Michael McDonald at Garden Rake Studio in Sherman Oaks, California. (This wouldn't be the Michael McDonald of Doobie Brothers fame, would it???) So apparently, the single versions of "Toy Soldiers" were indeed remixed.

My memory is very hazy here, but I ever so vaguely seem to recall hearing the 4:36 version from the Billboard Top Hits - 1989 (Rhino 71644) on a local Adult Contemporary radio station and wondering what had happened to the children's chorus intro. And EdisonLite brings up a good point... The intro without the children's chorus would have had to come directly from the multi-track master tapes to prevent the vocal bleedover during the instrumental introduction. So this version must have been intended for radio airplay unless it was an alternate take that got axed in favor of the full-length versions.