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Yah Shure
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| Posted: 03 June 2013 at 5:45pm | IP Logged
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jimct wrote:
| But in my own radio travels, I can never recall an instance where we later got in an "official" promo 45 for a song that we'd first gotten in as a TP (which happened often), where the official promo wasn't an exact clone of the TP's audio contents. (Not for A&M, but for Columbia, a TP would often be on vinyl, whereas the regular promo would be styrene. |
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Well, there was that ABBA "Take A Chance On Me" test pressing (which thankfully never made it any further) but yes, TPs for the most part matched the regular DJ 45s, with their primary role being to get immediate airplay on key stations before the label copy (or perhaps a mono or stereo flip side) had been prepared for the regular DJ 45 pressing run(s). And all this after any reference acetates had been cut to ascertain from the client that the cutting utilized the proper take, the track translated to wax like it had sounded upon playback in the studio and all the other technical fine-tuning aspects. That whole chain of events must've been fascinating. (I only ever got one acetate from Columbia: a ten-inch mono of Neil Diamond's "If You Know What I Mean" with typewritten copy on a Columbia Reference Recording label.)
Agreed, those vinyl Columbia TPs from Santa Maria were really nice. Were Columbia-pressed vinyl DJ 45s that much of a rarity on the east coast? We got them maybe a third of the time in the midwest, with the rest coming from Terre Haute on styrene. When Terre Haute began pressing some DJ 45s on vinyl in the mid-'70s, it wasn't unusual to get both vinyl and styrene DJ 45s of the same title from that plant. (You could tell a Terre Haute vinyl DJ 45 from those pressed in Santa Maria: the former used heat seal labels, which appeared to be pasted on like those on the styrene 45s. Santa Marias were flush and smooth; pressed right into the disc.)
One of the more interesting TPs I have is Conway Twitty's "Somebody's Needing Somebody" on Warner from '84. The B-side of this Specialty pressing has that plant's uniquely-patterned no-play backing plate with a blank white label. The only machine-printed copy on the A-side's plain white label is the record and matrix numbers on the right and CONWAY TWITTY on the bottom, neither of which are in the usual WB fonts. The person who picked up Sharpie duty? Conway Twitty, himself, with a very nice autograph on the top of the label. Still, no other writing; not even title. For that, you'll need to unfold the 8 1/2x11 photocopy stuffed inside the plain white sleeve, which shows the paste-up typesetting composition just as it would later appear on the regular DJ 45. Seeing all the individually cut-out pieces manually pasted in place was further proof that those test pressings could get out the door faster than the regular DJs when speed was of the absolute essence.
And was that, perhaps, the case with "Earache My Eye"? Did Ode give this record such a rush priority that they bypassed the regular DJ 45 stage entirely, in favor of getting a red-hot novelty into both a handful of key stations via the TP and the rest of radio and retail via stocks without having to "stop the presses" for a standard promo run?
Or did they think that most stations simply had to have "Turn That Thing Down" too? :) Come to think of it, is that why I only encountered stock copies of the 1972 first-issue "Santa Claus And His Old Lady" at the stations I worked at... so that "Dave" might somehow sneak in under the radar? :)
Questions, questions...
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jimct
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| Posted: 03 June 2013 at 7:21pm | IP Logged
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John, yes, vinyl Columbia promos were very rare for us to get into the
station here in CT then. About 10%. When we got Willie Nelson's "Always
On My Mind" in on vinyl in '82, which was great (and yes, on that Santa
Maria "flush, pressed into disc" label!) and asked our label rep for more
just like it, he'd always say, "I know, I know. Sorry. All I can do is promise
to send you as many styrene replacement copies as you need. Most bigger
stations play off cart now, so the styrene promos aren't that big a deal
anymore." (When we switched over from AM to FM in mid-'79, the then-
PD decided to switch us back over to vinyl. It stayed that way until the
station was sold on 1/1/83 - the new owners were quite amused by us
still using vinyl on-air, and switched us over to "stereo carts" immediately.
Happily, the TP is now on its way. But, sadly, this merchant is one of the
very few where painfully-slow Media Mail was his *only* shipping option.
So patience, my friends!
Edited by jimct on 03 June 2013 at 7:23pm
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EdisonLite
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| Posted: 03 June 2013 at 11:53pm | IP Logged
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Yah Shure writes:
"Well, there was that ABBA "Take A Chance On Me" test pressing (which thankfully never made it any further)"
How did that differ from the edited promo 45s?
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Paul Haney
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| Posted: 04 June 2013 at 4:50am | IP Logged
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EdisonLite wrote:
| If that's the case, it doesn't mention the title "Earache My Eye", which seems odd to me. Also, they were a comedy act, so it's also odd they'd edit out the comedy portion of the record. (The rock song portion wasn't supposed to be considered hilarious, was it?) |
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Gordon, that was just pure speculation on my part. The only other way you can get to (3:15) and have the entire skit on that record is to shorten up the song. Perhaps that's what they did. As mentioned earlier, I only heard the entire thing on my local stations back in the day. BTW, I do think the song is pretty funny. A nice send-up of the glam rock that was popular at the time.
Let's hope Jim's post office gets that record to him soon:)
Edited by Paul Haney on 04 June 2013 at 4:51am
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Yah Shure
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| Posted: 04 June 2013 at 8:43am | IP Logged
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EdisonLite wrote:
Yah Shure writes:
"Well, there was that ABBA "Take A Chance On Me" test pressing (which thankfully never made it any further)"
How did that differ from the edited promo 45s? |
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It's the (3:25) white-label test pressing discussed in the "Take A Chance On Me" thread.
That test pressing was a bit unusual, in that it was a test-marketing of the proposed DJ 45 for a track which had already been picking up some airplay as an LP cut for a number of weeks. Evidently, not everyone at Atlantic was convinced that their initial edit was their best shot for airplay. Why not ask some broadcasters what they thought? Enter the test pressing (mastered by Capitol in L.A. and pressed by Monarch.) Radio's response confirmed the label's doubts, with the initial edit being scrapped in favor of the one issued on the official DJ 45, mastered by Atlantic in New York.
In my opinion, the listener familiarity already gained through that early "LP cut" airplay may have been one of the factors in leading Atlantic to retool the DJ 45 to more closely resemble the album track.
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EdisonLite
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| Posted: 04 June 2013 at 10:31am | IP Logged
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do you recall what they edited out of this first test pressing for "Take a Chance on Me"? This is one song that I like to hear all the way through, I don't even care for the dj 45 version.
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aaronk
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| Posted: 04 June 2013 at 4:10pm | IP Logged
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The main difference on the TP of the Abba song is the spoken parts being edited out.
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jimct
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| Posted: 07 June 2013 at 11:39am | IP Logged
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I have just received the TP from San Diego. I gave it a quick initial listen;
listed (3:15); actual (3:14). This edit makes the "Take A Chance On Me" TP
edit, that John describes above, sound like a Grammy winner. (And
Gordon's not gonna be happy, either.)
The TP short version starts exactly as the commercial 45 does. And,
except for when the record is "put back on the turntable", after the
comedy bit, at the very end, the entire Alice Bowie vocal portion is
included. Transition to comedy: the same. Then, the very start of the
comedy bit is included. But this absolutely horrendous version ends, after
"Dad" poorly removes the LP from the turntable, and the son yells out,
"HEY....you ruined my record, man - I just bought it." That's it. Ends cold.
It sounds atrocious! No radio station in their right mind would've ever
played this "short TP version." I think Steve's station was clearly on the
right track, with their in-house edit, where they shortened the Alice Bowie
segment, and left in the full comedy bit. Ode should've done the exact
same thing - a clear no-brainer. But they didn't.
Well, at least we now know where Ode's head was at (stoned, obviously) in
1974. I now think John's theory has major merit. That that the entire
promo 45 run was cancelled, and the whole radio world just ended up
getting stock copies shipped to them!
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Paul Haney
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| Posted: 07 June 2013 at 12:18pm | IP Logged
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Paul Haney wrote:
| Could it be just the song and the first bit of the skit ("you ruined my record, man, I just bought it")??? |
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Thanks for the details, Jim. Well, looks like that Haney guy was right:)
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EdisonLite
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| Posted: 07 June 2013 at 12:53pm | IP Logged
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jimct wrote:
(And Gordon's not gonna be happy, either.)
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Jim, you're right about that. Perhaps this guy should have moved over to Columbia Records, where he could have edited the latest Barbra Streisand record by taking out ... ya know.. the parts she sings on, and leave the rest in for the audience to hear.
Nuts, man!
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jimct
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| Posted: 07 June 2013 at 2:33pm | IP Logged
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Paul, that was one *heck* of a deduction! Major kudos to you!!!!!! No wonder
(we hope) Mr. Whitburn pays you the big bucks! :)
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Yah Shure
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| Posted: 07 June 2013 at 3:36pm | IP Logged
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Oh, wow, man. That's a bummer, man.
Y'know, you were right, Jim: you never would've forgiven yourself if you'd passed on it. Bad as the edit turned out to be, at least you have a real rarity.
A really bad rarity, but a real rarity, nonetheless. ;)
Thanks very much for getting to the bottom of this mystery. In view of the TP edit's awfulness, I'll offer a few additional theories:
1) The edit was seriously considered for use on the probably-cancelled DJ 45 until it was auditioned for the artists, themselves. Tommy Chong's reaction upon hearing it: "Hey! You ruined my record, man!" Edit cancelled.
2) This TP - like the later ABBA TP - was floated to radio as an opinion-gathering vehicle. Radio spoke and the labels listened. The 3:15 edit was tossed.
3) Uh........... I forgot what I was gonna say, man.
4) Jim was correct: we now know who won Grammy's Worst Vinyl Editing categories for 1974 and 1978.
5) Paul Haney wins the grand prize (one complimentary punch on his Don Leary's Record Club card) and receives Milton Bradley's home edition of the Name That Edit game! Batteries not included.
6) The entire panel participates in a syndicated version of Name That Edit. The show is cancelled less than three minutes and fifteen seconds into its first airing.
7) Convinced that the concept still has hit potential, Fox retools the syndicated fiasco and re-releases it as a reality series: Name That Edit: Island Records. The panelists are divided into two tribes: Stereo and Mono. Rifts develop between the various DJ 45 version, commercial 45 version, 12-inch version, LP version and neither/nor factions. Tensions flare as participants are forced to survive on styrene kibble salvaged from abandoned jukeboxes and landfilled cutouts strewn about the island. Hykker unearths a rare promo copy of "Idol With The Golden Head" by the Coasters (Atco 6098), and then..... and then..... and then attempts to designate it as the official immunity idol. In a stunning turn of events. his tribemates vote him off the island because the record had fallen well short of the top 40. The show is an overnight sensation (hit record) and shows no signs of letting up in its eleventh season.
---
Seriously, this one's been a fun ride. Thanks again, Jim!
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Hykker
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| Posted: 08 June 2013 at 11:16am | IP Logged
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Yah Shure wrote:
4) Jim was correct: we now know who won Grammy's Worst
Vinyl Editing categories for 1974 and 1978. |
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I dunno..."Jet" was certainly a major contender in '74.
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Yah Shure
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| Posted: 08 June 2013 at 1:11pm | IP Logged
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Yeah, okay... maybe a tie was in order. :)
At least the "Jet" edit made it onto a real DJ 45. As did "Junior's Farm" later that year with the obvious dropout on the mono side. Were Cheech & Chong's hazy atmospheres wafting down the same hallway or something?
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Top 40 Music on Compact Disc : Chat Board
Topic: "Earache My Eye..." - Cheech & Chong
