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AndrewChouffi
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| Posted: 10 May 2006 at 9:13am | IP Logged
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Hi People,
Was there a USA promo 45 of Stevie Wonder's "Isn't She Lovely"?
Any & all info would be appreciated.
Andy
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jimct
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| Posted: 10 May 2006 at 12:22pm | IP Logged
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Never was, Andy. There was a bonus 4-song "EP" included inside the "Songs In The Key Of Life" 2-LP set, but "Isn't She Lovely" was included as part of the actual LPs. My local Top 40 station never played the "baby" intro - sounded great - it just kicked in with the keyboards as the first note. Because of that, as a listener, I also wondered about a different issuance on it. But, within a year and a half, I was working there, and I asked staff members who were there at that time what the deal was on it. They said they dubbed it to reel-to-reel tape, chopped off the baby intro, and just carted it up.
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eric_a
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| Posted: 10 May 2006 at 12:59pm | IP Logged
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There's a short (~3:45) edit on a TM Century Golddisc. Did they cut that themselves?
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jimct
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| Posted: 10 May 2006 at 1:09pm | IP Logged
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Simply because it was so long, by Top 40 standards, I would imagine there were many different attempts at an "in-house" edit, done by both radio and the TM's of the world - TM is a subscription service, and it's just good business by them to provide radio-friendly versions of long cuts that their clients (radio) could use, legit or otherwise....
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sriv94
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| Posted: 10 May 2006 at 1:21pm | IP Logged
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It may not be sanctioned, but it's funny--all the radio edits I've heard pretty much follow the same formula (snip the baby cries and edit the instrumental ending so that only two verses remain).
I should point out that the import version of Stevie Wonder's The Definitive Collection has a (3:21) version (snipping the baby cries, having one instrumental line at the beginning before the vocals kick in and fading out the [unedited] instrumental ending way early).
Edited by sriv94 on 10 May 2006 at 1:22pm
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Gary Mack
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| Posted: 10 May 2006 at 4:35pm | IP Logged
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AndrewChouffi wrote:
Hi People,
Was there a USA promo 45 of Stevie Wonder's "Isn't She Lovely"?
Any & all info would be appreciated.
Andy |
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Not only was there no promo version, Tamla/Motown couldn't even supply one thanks to Mr. Wonder. Stevie didn't want an edited version and prevented it's release. From what the record company told me and numerous other Top 40 programmers at the time, they were begging Stevie and he still said No. Hey, it's art....I guess.
GM
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Jeff H.
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| Posted: 10 May 2006 at 9:31pm | IP Logged
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eric_a wrote:
| There's a short (~3:45) edit on a TM Century Golddisc. Did they cut that themselves? |
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I'm pretty sure that they did. TM Century actually did a good job editing the song since they nearly cut the song in half, down from it's original length of 6:40. They cut most of the intro, and long instrumental passage in the middle. Yet it still manages to sound pretty complete down the cold ending on the long version. The oldies stations in my area play this version.
It's rather ironic that Stevie wouldn't allow an edited version of "Isn't She Lovely" to be released as a single. The other two singles released, "Another Star" and "As" were both dramatically edited down from their original LP lengths when released as 45's. Both of those singles barely scraped the bottom half of the top 40.
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Paul Haney
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| Posted: 26 August 2010 at 9:46am | IP Logged
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Bumping this up for those interested.
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sriv94
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Jeff H. wrote:
| It's rather ironic that Stevie wouldn't allow an edited version of "Isn't She Lovely" to be released as a single. The other two singles released, "Another Star" and "As" were both dramatically edited down from their original LP lengths when released as 45's. Both of those singles barely scraped the bottom half of the top 40. |
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In the case of "As" it's just a very early fade. I Don't remember the LP version of "Another Star" to know if the 45 was an edit or a fade.
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AndrewChouffi
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| Posted: 13 April 2019 at 7:16am | IP Logged
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Bump this thread!
I noticed on Discogs a picture of a "promo 45" of "Isn't She Lovely".
Is this picture a clever bootleg?
Any information?
It's shown on YouTube also.
Andy
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KentT
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| Posted: 13 April 2019 at 8:43am | IP Logged
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Yes, it is either a bootleg or fantasy item. Tamla wasn't
allowed to even service a promo 45. Catalog number prefix
on that 45 isn't Tamla's. If this had been serviced, the
station I worked at would have gotten copies. Motown was
very excellent about Promo 45 single service. Always got
them dependably, and major act LP discs from them.
Edited by KentT on 13 April 2019 at 8:50am
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aaronk
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I'm also going with fantasy item. Some of the label was likely scanned from a different Stevie Wonder 45, but you can see places where the fonts don't match. For instance "Single Version 3:26" looks like a different font and even looks crookedly pasted in. The 6s also look different between the run time and copyright date.
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Yah Shure
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There's no question it's a fantasy item. As Aaron says, the "6"s are different and the fonts don't match. I compared the scans to my promo 45s of "I Wish" and "Sir Duke", and the bogus mock-up was lifted directly from the latter. There are several additional giveaways:
* The title fonts on Nashville-pressed promos on both "I Wish" and "Sir Duke" are the same font and same size as the artist fonts. The "ISN'T SHE LOVELY" is in a smaller font size than the artist.
* The quotation mark fonts around the song titles of the above two promos match. The ones on the fantasy item are entirely different.
* The "SINGLE VERSION 3:26" and "ALBUM VERSION 5:00" designations are conveniently right where the matrix numbers and listed times would be on the "Sir Duke" promo. I have also never seen the numeral "5" in a font like that on any legit 1976 or 1977 Tamla promo 45 pressed in Nashville.
* Ditto for the "LOVELY 1" sitting right where the "T 54281F" catalog number would be.
* The discogs label scans are monochrome, which obscures any definition in the playing area, thus making it even more difficult, if not impossible, to distinguish between a legit promo pressing and a photoshopped paste job.
* The fact that the fantasy item appears on a typeset Tamla promo label at all. Even if Motown ever did arrange to have a promo 45 sent or hand-delivered to a very, very select number of key reporting stations, it would never have gotten to the typesetting stage for the labels. You'd have been looking either at acetate copies or plain white-label (test pressing) copies with handwritten title and artist. No way would an independent like Motown have spent the additional bucks to have the facility in Nashville do typesetting for a pressing run of only a handful of copies.
I worked for a major independent distributor in Minneapolis at the time all of the singles from Songs In The Key Of Life were issued. We got every promo item Motown sent out, including 45s, LPs, posters and other in-store display items, all of which were delivered to my office. An "Isn't She Lovely" promo 45 was never among them.
Edited by Yah Shure on 13 April 2019 at 10:43am
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AndrewChouffi
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| Posted: 13 April 2019 at 11:37am | IP Logged
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Thanks everybody!!
Andy
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prisdeej
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| Posted: 13 April 2019 at 12:26pm | IP Logged
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Yah Shure wrote:
* The "SINGLE VERSION 3:26" and "ALBUM VERSION 5:00" designations are
conveniently right where the matrix numbers and listed times would be on the
"Sir Duke" promo. I have also never seen the numeral "5" in a font like that on
any legit 1976 or 1977 Tamla promo 45 pressed in Nashville.
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What struck me as odd is I don't think I've ever seen the phrase "single
version" on a 45 RPM record, much less ever.
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jebsib
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| Posted: 15 April 2019 at 10:06am | IP Logged
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Never knew until the other day that "Isn't She Lovely" actually did earn a
Billboard chart ranking back in 1977: AC #23. Was bowled over!
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Paul Haney
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| Posted: 16 April 2019 at 4:06am | IP Logged
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jebsib wrote:
Never knew until the other day that "Isn't
She Lovely" actually did earn a
Billboard chart ranking back in 1977: AC #23. Was bowled
over! |
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Billboard did allow album cuts on the AC charts.
"Love Song" by Elton John peaked at #18 in 1976 and "More
Than A Woman" by the Bee Gees peaked at #39 in 1978.
Edited by Paul Haney on 16 April 2019 at 4:07am
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KentT
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| Posted: 16 April 2019 at 5:09am | IP Logged
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Nashville pressings of this would have if legitimate, been
pressed at Southern Plastics (now United Record Pressing).
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Top 40 Music on Compact Disc : Chat Board
Topic: Promo 45 of "Isn’t She Lovely"?
