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crapfromthepast MusicFan
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Posted: 30 March 2014 at 7:57pm | IP Logged
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In college, we used to joke the by the end of "Into The Night", Benny's vocals deteriorate into just screaming. Still, the song endures; it's still a favorite on Delilah's radio show.
"Into The Night" was one of a handful of songs revived between 1987 and 1989, along with "What About Me", "Send Me An Angel", "When I'm With You", "Red Red Wine", "Valerie", "At This Moment", "Where Are You Now", "In Your Eyes", and others. It was the original 1980 recording of "Into The Night" that was a hit again in 1989.
Non-hit 1989 rerecording
Curb Records, always willing to seize an opportunity, had Benny rerecord "Into The Night" along with some new stuff, and put out the Benny Mardones album in 1989. The difference between the original and the Curb remake is not subtle. The 1989 version has the late '80s big drum sounds, and virtually drowns is late '80s electronic reverb. This remake was not a hit, and appears only on Curb discs, plus Razor & Tie's Easy Rock (2001).
All other discs include the hit version, recorded in 1980, charting in 1980, and charting again in 1989, all on Polydor.
1980 album and commercial 45 version
The hit version first appeared on the single-artist Benny Mardones CD issue of his Never Run Never Hide album, on Polydor. I don't have this disc myself, but it's generally considered to have pretty good sound. It runs 4:29 here. My hunch is that EMI's collection Retro Lunchbox Gooey Love Songs (1997) is sourced from Never Run Never Hide - it sounds quite good.
Rhino did a new analog transfer for Radio Daze Vol. 3 (1995), where it runs two seconds longer at 4:31. Sound quality is about the same as Never Run Never Hide, but this one gets my vote because of the longer running time. The same analog transfer is used for:- Time-Life's 2-CD Body Talk Vol. 13 Just The Two Of Us (1997; digitally exactly 2 dB quieter)
- Time-Life's 2-CD Classic Soft Rock Vol. 3 Into The Night (2006; differently EQ'd digital clone)
All of the above sound good.
swaitek's 50-CD A List Disc 3 (1994) has noise reduction, and may be sourced from vinyl - avoid.
1980 (?) promo 45 version
The promo 45 starts with an edit of the album version that cuts out the second repetition of the intro by editing out 0:09 to 0:24 (cymbal hit to cymbal hit). At the end of the song, the promo 45 cuts out Benny's screaming, and loops a few measures of just background singers singing "Fly, to the night" to form the last 12 seconds of the promo 45. The promo 45 runs 3:45.
I assume that this promo 45 came out in 1980? Can anyone confirm? Was there a 1989 promo 45 or promo CD single?
The following paragraph is incorrect, but I'm leaving it in so that subsequent posts make sense.
1980 (and 1989?) commercial 45
I'm a little hampered by not having the vinyl for this track. I have a file from Aaron for this track. The 45 is an edit of the album version that cuts out the second repetition of the intro by editing out 0:09 to 0:24 (cymbal hit to cymbal hit). That would put the 45 length at about 4:15. Can anyone confirm? Is this true for both the 1980 Polydor and 1989 Polydor 45s? (Was there even a 1989 Polydor 45? I may be confusing this with the "Unchained Melody" Verve/Curb 45 debacle.
* Red text above is corrected, based on subsequent posts.
Edited by crapfromthepast on 31 March 2014 at 11:22am
__________________ There's a lot of crap on the radio, but there's only one Crap From The Past.
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aaronk Admin Group
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Posted: 30 March 2014 at 10:13pm | IP Logged
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crapfromthepast wrote:
1980 (and 1989?) commercial 45
I'm a little hampered by not having the vinyl for this track.
I have a file from Aaron for this track. The 45 is an edit of the album
version that cuts out the second repetition of the intro by editing out
0:09 to 0:24 (cymbal hit to cymbal hit). That would put the 45 length at
about 4:15. Can anyone confirm? Is this true for both the 1980
Polydor and 1989 Polydor 45s? (Was there even a 1989 Polydor 45? I
may be confusing this with the "Unchained Melody" Verve/Curb 45
debacle.)
1980 (?) promo 45 version
I have another file from Aaron for this track. The promo 45 starts with
the same edit as the commercial 45. At the end of the song, the promo
45 cuts out Benny's screaming, and loops a few measures of just
background singers singing "Fly, to the night" to form the last 12
seconds of the promo 45. The promo 45 runs 3:45.
I assume that this promo 45 came out in 1980? Can anyone confirm?
Was there a 1989 promo 45 or promo CD single? |
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Ron, this is totally a goof up by me on that file. The 45, as far as I know,
is the same as the full LP version. I was using it to create the promo
edit, which is correct, and somehow my original file was mistakenly
saved after I made the first edit. I didn't notice this until a couple years
later. The only edited version is what appears on the promo 45. Sorry
for the confusion!
__________________ Aaron Kannowski
Uptown Sound
91.9 The Peak - Classic Hip Hop
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cmmmbase MusicFan
Joined: 04 May 2006 Location: United States
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Posted: 31 March 2014 at 5:06am | IP Logged
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There was a 1989 Polydor 45. The Curb re-recording also
appeared on a 45.
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MCT1 MusicFan
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Posted: 31 March 2014 at 7:50am | IP Logged
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Confirming what cmmmbase posted, there is a 1989 Polydor 45. The 1980 original has the catalog number 2091 and lists a time of 4:29 on the label. The 1989 re-release has the catalog number 889 368-7 and lists a time of 4:30 on the label.
The 1989 Polydor 45 is a regular 45, not part of the oldies/reissue "Timepieces" series. I am assuming it was also released as a cassette single, as one would have expected any regular single release from that time period to be. If it hadn't been, given the rapidly declining sales of 45s in that era, I don't see how it could have gotten as high on the chart as it did (#20 Hot 100, #17 in Sales). My Joel Whitburn Hot 100 book (of late '90s vintage) states that the re-recording was released as a single on Curb 10549. I assume the Curb version came out on cassette single. It may have also been available on 45, but if a Curb 45 exists, it's pretty obscure; I've never seen one.
In the case of "Unchained Melody", the 45 that was commercially available from Polydor was a Timepieces series reissue. I believe this happened to already be in the catalog as an oldies reissue, and wasn't released specifically to capitalize on the song's use in the movie "Ghost". For some reason Polydor did not want to officially re-release "Unchained Melody" as a regular single (presumably to force people to go out and buy a Righteous Brothers compliation album?), and the Timepieces release was only available on 45, not cassette. Since most Top 40 listeners in 1990 were buying singles on cassette, this created an opening for the Curb version, which was available in that format. This resulted in a situation where most of the airplay was the original version, but most of the sales was the Curb re-recording. Taken together, the song was probably a top five hit, but because the sales and airplay were split across two distinct releases, both peaked outside the top ten. (Billboard, which at the time required a single to be commercially available to chart on the Hot 100, allowed the original to chart based on the existence of the Timepieces 45, even though it was only available in a format that was of little to no interest to most Top 40 consumers in 1990. At some point after this, apparently without making any kind of formal announcement, Billboard decided that availability only as a vinyl 45 was no longer sufficient to count as "commercially available" for purposes of the Hot 100.) & nbsp;
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crapfromthepast MusicFan
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Posted: 31 March 2014 at 8:11am | IP Logged
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My apologies, all.
Went back and edited my original post to indicate that the 45s are the same as the LP.
Corrections are in red.
Edited by crapfromthepast on 31 March 2014 at 8:20am
__________________ There's a lot of crap on the radio, but there's only one Crap From The Past.
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cmmmbase MusicFan
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Posted: 31 March 2014 at 9:25am | IP Logged
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MCT1 - I do have the Curb 45, so I can confirm the
existence of it (picked it up about a year ago).
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eriejwg MusicFan
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Posted: 31 March 2014 at 1:16pm | IP Logged
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The promo 45 edit is my go to version of this song.
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torcan MusicFan
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Posted: 31 March 2014 at 1:34pm | IP Logged
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crapfromthepast wrote:
"Into The Night" was one of a handful of songs revived between 1987 and 1989, along with "What About Me", "Send Me An Angel", "When I'm With You", "Red Red Wine", "Valerie", "At This Moment", "Where Are You Now", "In Your Eyes", and others. It was the original 1980 recording of "Into The Night" that was a hit again in 1989.
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I've always been fascinated by this era and why so many songs came back.
Does anybody know why DJs were so enthusiastic about reviving old hits around this period? I can understand something once in a while coming back, maybe from a movie soundtrack or greatest hits album being released, etc., but to have so many at the same time...it seems every week I was opening up Billboard and another golden oldie was re-entering the Hot 100.
I don't think there's ever been another period with so many old songs re-entering.
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torcan MusicFan
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Posted: 31 March 2014 at 1:42pm | IP Logged
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MCT1 wrote:
(Billboard, which at the time required a single to be commercially available to chart on the Hot 100, allowed the original to chart based on the existence of the Timepieces 45, even though it was only available in a format that was of little to no interest to most Top 40 consumers in 1990. At some point after this, apparently without making any kind of formal announcement, Billboard decided that availability only as a vinyl 45 was no longer sufficient to count as "commercially available" for purposes of the Hot 100.) & nbsp; |
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You're right, MCT1. Vinyl 45s were still considered "commercial" singles all through 1990. The rule change happened sometime before "I'll Be There for You" by the Rembrandts charted, but there was no note in Billboard.
A friend of mine who owns a record store in upstate NY stated that the head of the label that released "I'll Be There for You" didn't want it out on a 45 because then it would chart, and rather lowly since there was no cassette single. He was alerted that 45s no longer counted, so if he released one it wouldn't chart. He checked it out with Billboard and a few weeks later there was a 45 of the song.
The song eventually did chart when the follow-up was released and had "I'll Be There for You" on the B-side. It was still receiving significant airplay at the time.
Billboard also changed another Hot 100 rule in late 1991 without announcing it. Remember when they started going by Soundscan in Nov '91? Originally there was a 20-20 rule (20 weeks on and below position No. 20 and the song would be removed). After about a month, it was switched to a 20-40 rule (anything below the top 40 was removed). Those changes were announced.
About a month after that, it became the 20-50 rule we still have today, but there was no announcement for that either. I wondered why songs with over 20 weeks were still listed but they'd fallen into the 40s on the chart. Eventually in Michael Ellis' column that rule was mentioned.
Edited by torcan on 31 March 2014 at 1:45pm
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crapfromthepast MusicFan
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Posted: 31 March 2014 at 1:59pm | IP Logged
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torcan wrote:
I've always been fascinated by this era and why so many songs came back.
Does anybody know why DJs were so enthusiastic about reviving old hits around this period? I can understand something once in a while coming back, maybe from a movie soundtrack or greatest hits album being released, etc., but to have so many at the same time...it seems every week I was opening up Billboard and another golden oldie was re-entering the Hot 100.
I don't think there's ever been another period with so many old songs re-entering. |
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As far as I know, this period is indeed unique for reviving past hits and non-hits.
The idea of digging up a unjustly-forgotten gem wasn't new at the time. I think it was Scott Shannon (pre-Z100) that revived Charlene's "I've Never Been To Be" in 1981, years after it flopped in 1976 or 1977.
As I recall, the one song that opened the floodgates was "At This Moment", which didn't do much on its first release in 1981. It was used on a TV episode of Family Ties in 1985. The folks at Rhino Records realized that there was literally no way to buy the song at the time, because Alfa Records went belly-up in the US in 1982. So they rereleased Billy Vera's By Request album and put out a 45 of "At This Moment", which hit #1 in early 1987. It became Rhino's first and only hit single.
I think individual DJs were responsible for "When I'm With You" and "Red Red Wine" (Scott Shannon again?) The remixed "Valerie" was a hit because Island Records needed a single to promote the Chronicles greatest hits album. "In Your Eyes" was from the soundtrack of Say Anything - that's the song playing on John Cusack's iconic overhead boom box. "Send Me An Angel" was Curb Records cashing in; Curb also put out the first Real Life record in 1984, and I don't know why they chose to rerecord. As for "Where Are You Now", "What About Me", and "Into The Night", I have no idea who brought them back, but it was definitely a trendy thing to do for a while.
I forgot about Modern English rerecording "I Melt With You" in 1990. Bleh. I seem to also remember "The Felony" by Fanatic making a second go-round around that time.
And "One Simple Thing" by the Stabilizers got significant airplay in Minneapolis in 1991, four years after it wasn't a hit in 1987. Still don't know why.
__________________ There's a lot of crap on the radio, but there's only one Crap From The Past.
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80smusicfreak MusicFan
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Posted: 31 March 2014 at 7:46pm | IP Logged
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"Slow...slow...quick, quick...slow..."
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80smusicfreak MusicFan
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Posted: 31 March 2014 at 7:52pm | IP Logged
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crapfromthepast wrote:
I seem to also remember "The Felony" by Fanatic making a second go-round around that time. |
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Other way around, of course. "The Fanatic" was pretty big in SoCal in '83 (where I lived at the time). Most folks don't realize that Felony went on to record & release additional material on indie labels through the '80s & early '90s, which are hard to find today. Have them all on cassette - pretty good stuff, actually...
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eriejwg MusicFan
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Posted: 31 March 2014 at 8:37pm | IP Logged
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Stabilizers were from here in Erie, PA. 2 members of the
band, Dave Christensen and Rich Nevens are Facebook
friends. We played the early mixes (from cassette) of the
song "Underground" on K104 in Erie in 1984-1985. In
1985ish, they performed in front of folks in Erie with
Columbia Records in attendance. Rich and Dave were signed
and headed to California.
When the Stabilizers album was released, it went over
huge in Erie (of course) and in Minneapolis. It pretty
much bombed everywhere else. There was talk of material
for a 2nd album on a different label but not sure why
that never came to fruition.
Edited by eriejwg on 31 March 2014 at 8:39pm
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Paul Haney MusicFan
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"Red Red Wine" was brought back by Guy Zapoleon of KZZP-FM in Phoenix. A&M was reluctant to re-release the song as they were promoting the band's new single, "Breakfast In Bed". However, when other stations started adding "Red Red Wine" and the new single stiffed, A&M changed gears and re-promoted "Wine".
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Jody Thornton MusicFan
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Posted: 28 January 2015 at 6:17am | IP Logged
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torcan wrote:
You're right, MCT1. Vinyl 45s were still considered "commercial" singles all through 1990. The rule change happened sometime before "I'll Be There for You" by the Rembrandts charted, but there was no note in Billboard.
A friend of mine who owns a record store in upstate NY stated that the head of the label that released "I'll Be There for You" didn't want it out on a 45 because then it would chart, and rather lowly since there was no cassette single. He was alerted that 45s no longer counted, so if he released one it wouldn't chart. He checked it out with Billboard and a few weeks later there was a 45 of the song.
The song eventually did chart when the follow-up was released and had "I'll Be There for You" on the B-side. It was still receiving significant airplay at the time.
Billboard also changed another Hot 100 rule in late 1991 without announcing it. Remember when they started going by Soundscan in Nov '91? Originally there was a 20-20 rule (20 weeks on and below position No. 20 and the song would be removed). After about a month, it was switched to a 20-40 rule (anything below the top 40 was removed). Those changes were announced.
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Regarding your friend in upstate NY, it sounds as if he had access to a LOT more 45-rpm discs than here in Ontario. It almost sounds like they were a somewhat regularly though lightly stocked item in the 1990s. Whereas here, they were GONE as of April of 1990, unless you went to Toronto (and that was even slim pickings until they completely disappeared in 1992 there at Sam's)
There was a used shop in Hamilton and used ordered some 45s for me through the 90s, but even that was hit and miss.
__________________ Cheers,
Jody Thornton
(Richmond Hill, Ontario)
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Smokin' TomGary MusicFan
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Posted: 28 January 2015 at 3:29pm | IP Logged
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My Polydor whit label promo 45 has stock #PD 2091 80 NP 4980 with deadwax on the Long Version PD 2091.80NP. 4980-S-DW with a listed time of 4:29. Deadwax on Short Version side is PD 2091.80NP. 4980-SHORT-S-PW with a listed time of 3:43. This was a 1980 release.
At a CT radio station we had the longer version on a cart and it was only played on a Saturday night 70's show. The cart broke and I dubbed the Short Version onto another cart. The next week that cart broke and a couple of weeks later the 70's show was cancelled. In CT the Short Version was the popular version played on most stations.
The song recalls the true story of Benny dating a 16 year old girl. When her parents found out, they were forced to break up. IIRC, the source for this was American Top 40.
Edited by Smokin' TomGary on 28 January 2015 at 3:30pm
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aaronk Admin Group
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As Benny tells it, the song "Into The Night" was not about a girl he dated, but rather a girl who lived in the same building as he did. This girl, along with her siblings, did chores/errands for Benny. She was in charge of walking his dog every morning. Benny's band mate and writing partner, Robert Tepper ("No Easy Way Out"), saw her walk into Benny's apartment one morning and said "Oh, my!" Benny's reply was, "She's just 16 years old. Leave her alone." They then proceeded to write the hit song that morning.
Here's an audio interview of Benny telling the full story:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U3_UM8rcGe4
__________________ Aaron Kannowski
Uptown Sound
91.9 The Peak - Classic Hip Hop
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Jody Thornton MusicFan
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Posted: 01 July 2020 at 1:50pm | IP Logged
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Just revisiting this upon Benny's passing. Listen to "a heart" at 1:31 on the video version.
Benny's 1980 Video
That's different isn't it?
I always thought that the stock 45-rpm disc was the same as the radio edit, and that the screams were just faded off early, rather than removed. Was there a different Canadian 45?
__________________ Cheers,
Jody Thornton
(Richmond Hill, Ontario)
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Paul C MusicFan
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Posted: 01 July 2020 at 3:19pm | IP Logged
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Jody Thornton wrote:
I always thought that the stock 45-rpm disc was the same
as the radio edit, and that the screams were just faded
off early, rather than removed. Was there a different
Canadian 45?
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The 1980 US promo 45 version appeared on the 1980
Canadian commercial 45.
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Jody Thornton MusicFan
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Posted: 01 July 2020 at 4:13pm | IP Logged
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Paul C wrote:
Jody Thornton wrote:
I always thought that the stock 45-rpm disc was the same
as the radio edit, and that the screams were just faded
off early, rather than removed. Was there a different
Canadian 45?
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The 1980 US promo 45 version appeared on the 1980
Canadian commercial 45. |
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Thank you so much. I thought I was losing my mind. I couldn't remember where I ripped my MP3 from, and I didn't want to go searching. Plus that "a heart" at 1:31 is different on the 45-rpm promo version. It's what I was more familiar with.
__________________ Cheers,
Jody Thornton
(Richmond Hill, Ontario)
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