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edtop40
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| Posted: 24 December 2013 at 7:38am | IP Logged
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my commercial 45 for the mamas and papas song 'twelve
thirty (young girls are coming to the canyon)' issued as
dunhill 4099 lists the run time on the label as 3:20 and
does indeed run that length...you'll need to fade the 3:23
version for 0:08 from 3:12 to 3:20 effectively re-create
the vinyl 45 version.....this 45 run time info s/b added
to the db....
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edtop40
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bwolfe
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| Posted: 28 December 2013 at 12:40pm | IP Logged
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My promo copy lists the title as simply "Twelve Thirty". Meanwhile my stock copy has the entire title as listed by edtop40. Did the store bought 45 ever have the title as only "Twelve Thirty"?
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the way it was heard on the radio
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jimct
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| Posted: 28 December 2013 at 4:47pm | IP Logged
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Nice pickup! I suspect that all initial pressings, be it promo or stock, only
had the title as "Twelve Thirty". (Although most copies had the addendum,
45cat does currently show a stock copy without it.)
Starting in high school, the staff at my local mom-and-pop record shop
joked that they'd legally adopted me, I was there so much. I absorbed a
lot. (Like second-hand smoke! And I know that many others here on Pat's
board were similarly "adopted".) Obviously, the record companies
wanted to sell records. Not only would they have relationships with radio,
they did with retail, as well. And if retail was noticing any customer
confusion, while folks were trying to buy an item, the labels wanted to
know about it. In this case, customers were likely asking to buy the 45
about "young girls coming to the canyon." This line was part of the
hook/refrain, and was repeated several times. Whereas the "Twelve Thirty"
lyric was mentioned just once, early on. Retailers know buyers often come
in to buy, with just a lyric in tow. But still, they can't know the lyrics to
*every* brand new 45 getting airplay. Bottom line: if the retailer couldn't
match up the customer lyric to the right song - no sale. (The year before,
retailers obviously knew that the "no one's gettin' fat except Mama Cass"
lyric was "Creeque Alley", even though it was never sung at all, because of
the Mama Cass mention.) For "Twelve Thirty", by simply adding the lyrics
buyers were asking for, in parens, to the title, it would end any potentially
lost sales. (My thanks to my old retail buddies Wayne and Joe, for
explaining this to me, when I didn't know why, way back in the day!)
Edited by jimct on 28 December 2013 at 5:22pm
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Yah Shure
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| Posted: 28 December 2013 at 9:54pm | IP Logged
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So very true, Jim (and now we know that you really were raised on vinyl.) :)
I witnessed this same situation back in the days of the original Napster, and it happened to involve another Dunhill 45:
My Napster niche was providing obscure, out-of-print needledrops of things that hadn't already been posted. One of those was a non-charting 1975 Michael Franks-penned 45 by Jerry Cole & Trinity on Warner Brothers, called "Susanna's Song (In The California Morning)" (picture Lobo doing "Dancing In The Moonlight.") Susanna's name is mentioned a couple of times during the course of "her" song, but it never appears during the hook, nor is the actual "Susanna's Song" song title ever sung during the record.
The original Napster allowed someone downloading a song to listen to it as the download progressed. One day, I noticed someone uploading "Susanna's Song" for a spell, then aborting the transfer. After the initial happiness in seeing someone show interest in such an off-the-radar record turned to dismay when they bailed on it, I sent the other party an instant message, inquiring as to why they'd cut it short. The response was that they were looking for a song about a California morning, but the Jerry Cole record wasn't it.
I then suggested another song in my shared folder: "November Snow" by Rejoice!, the early-'69 Dunhill single. Bingo! The other party was elated to have finally ended a thirty-year quest for a song they'd never been able to identify. "November Snow" - a heartbreaking tale of the things a stillborn child would never grow up to see - begins and ends with the line "November snow, stretching far away, on a California morning." Those are the only times the song title shows up during the song, while the California morning theme recurs throughout.
In this case, I think the lack of any "(On A California Morning)" subtitle cost Dunhill a potential hit. Had it not been for the listing on KDWB's 6+30 survey, I'm not entirely sure even I would have known which record to look for in the store. The exclamation mark in the artist name further added to the confusion. Was it "Rejoice!" by November Snow or the other way around? Small wonder the record peaked at #126! I ended up putting double single-quotation marks around the song title.
The label may not have included a subtitle, but I added one to the Napster file name in an effort to help anyone else searching for that California morning find their way through the November snow. In the end, I was pleasantly surprised by the number of users who sought out such a forgotten gem of a record.
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Hykker
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| Posted: 29 December 2013 at 2:54pm | IP Logged
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Yah Shure wrote:
The exclamation mark in the artist name further added to
the confusion. Was it "Rejoice!" by November Snow or the
other way around? Small wonder the record peaked at
#126! I ended up putting double single-quotation marks
around the song title.
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I remember similar confusion in late '71 with the "Wild
Life" album by Wings. I don't recall there being much
hoopla about Macca having a new band called Wings, most
seemed to think the album title was "Wings Wild Life" by
Paul McCartney.
Back on topic, my copy of "Twelve Thirty" contains the
subtitle.
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Topic: mama & the papas twelve thirty
