George Benson-"Greatest Love Of All"

My opinion, for consistency, is to leave the LP/long 45 versions with no designation since they are the same. For sure, CDs with the "short 45 version" should be labeled accordingly.

I could only find one commercial short 45 vinyl copy of George Benson's "Greatest Love of All" uploaded on YouTube, and it's from a reputable user named "AnotherProf", whose turntable speed seems to be fairly reliable overall. (I can't recall an instance offhand when I have found the 45 run times on any of his videos to be off by anything more than maybe one second.) What's interesting here is that his 45 copy runs 3:32, just like all database appearances containing the short 45 length:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jjWywlM2xac

Now, I exercise great caution with utilizing YouTube videos as a means of definitively determining run times because, obviously, there could be several factors in play here. For example, the fade at the very end of this video is pretty abrupt. Is this reflective of what's on the 45 itself, or did the video creator possibly "help along" the fade in the final second(s) by potting down the volume himself? Also, was his turntable speed properly calibrated at the time when his video was created? Of course, we really have no way of knowing for certain, even if the speed may appear to sound "normal" (at least, to my ears, anyway). Or are we perhaps looking at a case here where there are two different 45 pressings with differing lengths of 3:35 and 3:32? This would certainly not be a first.

Another possibility is that perhaps Jim's 3:35 timing was slightly off, for whatever reason. I would say this is probably the least likely scenario, however, because he was always a stickler for accuracy with this sort of thing, and his 45 timings have historically reflected this.

Does anyone else in the forum have a commercial 45 pressing of either, or both, the long 45 and short 45 versions of "Greatest Love of All" who are willing to time and report their findings for us?

By the way, on an unrelated side note, I very recently picked up a copy of The Greatest soundtrack CD on the Varese Sarabande label, and it's a treat to be able to hear a couple of tracks on it -- "Stand by Me" and "I Am the Greatest" -- sung by Cassius Clay, or better known around the world as Muhammad Ali himself! These songs were released as a double-sided single in 1964, and both sides actually cracked the Billboard Bubbling Under the Hot 100 singles chart. I have to say, I was pleasantly surprised to hear how reasonably well the legendary boxer could carry a tune... Better than I had imagined, anyway!

CD versions with the short version run just a tad faster than the actual 45 and fade about a second sooner. It's fairly insignificant, but that's what accounts for the :03 difference.