| Author |
|
Gary Mack
MusicFan
Joined: 06 February 2006
Location: United States
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 158
|
| Posted: 07 August 2007 at 6:48pm | IP Logged
|
|
|
Jim,
Absolutely correct. I was in regular contact with Motown and their local distributor at the time, for our station, KFJZ-FM (Z-97), was far and away the dominant Top 40 in Dallas/Fort Worth at the time. We charted Isn't She Lovely extremely high based on our call-out research and request activity. Motown asked us to hold off (we didn't), then admitted that they pressured Stevie to OK a 45 release. He refused. Tensions were so high that Motown had to back off for fear of completely alienating their main artist. So there was never a 45 of that song in the US, ever.
GM
|
| Back to Top |
|
| |
jimct
MusicFan
Joined: 07 April 2006
Location: United States
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 3906
|
| Posted: 07 August 2007 at 11:10pm | IP Logged
|
|
|
Thanks, Gary. As always, your "in the trenches" recollections/contributions to this Board continue to be absolutely invaluable to us all.
|
| Back to Top |
|
| |
EdisonLite
MusicFan
Joined: 18 October 2004
Location: United States
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 2237
|
| Posted: 30 May 2015 at 11:52pm | IP Logged
|
|
|
Going back to this thread from nearly 8 years ago (!) ... I now have the import version of "Song Review" (which is a single disc set, not double like the US), and which includes an edit of "Isn't She Lovely". In fact, the CD opens with the song. Basically, they start the song about 0:30 in, on the downbeat, and simply fade early - it comes to about 3:19.
I do believe Jim is correct that there were NEVER any edits done of this song back in the '70s; furthermore, I wondered if this may have been a single overseas, so I did some checking. The wikipedia page for Stevie Wonder's discography lists "Isn't She Lovely" (because it peaked on the AC chart) but also lists 9 countries in total for all his singles - and "Isn't She Lovely" just didn't chart in any other country listed. Nine countries isn't a whole lot (and Australia is not even listed on the Stevie Wonder singles page), but there seems to be no evidence that this ever came out as a single anywhere. I believe this edit was made for this import CD (released in 1996 and probably created in 1996) in order to fit 21 songs on this one-disc set - which times out at 78:47, making it impossible for the 6-minute version to be included without cutting out another song.
Edited by EdisonLite on 31 May 2015 at 12:13am
|
| Back to Top |
|
| |
EdisonLite
MusicFan
Joined: 18 October 2004
Location: United States
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 2237
|
| Posted: 30 May 2015 at 11:59pm | IP Logged
|
|
|
After writing the above post, I thought I'd check one more site - discogs.com - because it's got a lot of info on singles, and I found this:
http://www.discogs.com/Stevie-Wonder-Isnt-She-Lovely/release /1312786
(In order for the above link to work, you must remove the space after the word "release". For some reason, I can't get rid of the space by editing, and I didn't put it there in the first place.)
It was released in the UK as a 12" "limited edition", on Motown. It actually says "limited edition" on the 12" label. Discogs describes it as an "unofficial release", though I don't see those words on the label. I think it might better be described as a "promo release". Sadly, I can't tell if a time is listed on the 12" label.
UPDATE: I just did an ebay search on this song, and it seems to have come out in Poland as a "flexi". I assume that's some kind of vinyl, as the seller has it listed under:
Music-->Records
But I don't know if this was '77 or was even a legitimate release. And my gut instinct is that the edit was not used on this (but I could be wrong.)
Edited by EdisonLite on 31 May 2015 at 12:14am
|
| Back to Top |
|
| |
|
|
Active Topics 
Memberlist 
Search 
Help
Register 
Login
Top 40 Music on Compact Disc : Chat Board
Topic: Stevie Wonder "Isn’t She Lovely"
