Genesis-"Tonight, Tonight, Tonight"

Although the five current database CDs that state "45 Version" for this song all run (4:27), my commercial 45 has both a listed and an actual time of (4:32).

How different does the "edited radio remix" sound from the original mix? The 4:27 version on the Genesis "hits" compilation doesn't sound remixed to me. I think they just faded the 45 version a tad too early.

Edited by aaronk

Sounds like you got it perfect, eriejwg! Thanks for the tip.

edtop40 wrote: my commercial 45 issued as atlantic 89290 does not state a version on the label but does list a run time of

Ed, thanks for all the great scans! In this one, you can see "Edit Version" on the back of the picture sleeve. Also, in the fine print on the 45, it says "Edited from the Atlantic LP..."

Edited by aaronk

All the files running 4:27 start to fade earlier than the last 25 seconds or so of the LP version. As I noted last year, if you paste the end of the LP version on to the version from Hits, for example, it fades in the same place as the 45 and runs 4:32.

The things I discover by accident, lol.

I never realized "In the Glow of the Night", a personal favorite album cut of mine from Genesis' Invisible Touch LP, was issued as the B-side of the "Tonight, Tonight, Tonight" 45. I would be very interested to hear how "Glow" was faded out on the 45 since it segues into "Part Two - The Last Domino" on the album.

Yes, I do, Ed! Thanks!

Am I correct that the 45 version can't be just edited down from the album version due to some "overlapping" of elements of the album version in the 45 edit (particularly at 2:39)?

Also, Gary, you mentioned a 4:27 edited radio remix; is this an edit of the 11:45 12" single version, or a different editing of the album version?

I'm also curious if anybody knows which of the two versions mentioned above got the most radio airplay across the United States. Having not heard Gary's remix, the edit/mix on "Turn It On Again - The Hits" sounds right to me (although I understand from your above posts it fades early; that's why I love this place!).

I've found one copy of this song (from a dubious source) that has significantly different edit points... sloppy edits, too... leading me to think it was somebody's attempt to re-create the edit from memory. I have no way of knowing if it came from a CD this way or not.

Thanks in advance for your guidance!

I just pulled out my stock 45, which is different from Ed's copy. This one has a black and white picture sleeve, and the back of the sleeve says "Remix" next to the A-side. The 45 itself does not have remix printed anywhere on the label. Above the run time, it just says "VOCAL" and below the song title in the fine print "From Atlantic LP..." This is different from Ed's copy which says "Edited from Atlantic LP..." I don't hear anything remixed about this 45, other than the crossfade at 2:40.

One other thing of note is that at 2:37, the high frequencies jump in volume for almost a full second. This same glitch can be heard on the Atlantic Year In Review 1987 CD, which contains the full 45 version.

As of now, I don't think any of the 45 versions on vinyl or CD are remixed. I believe this was accidentally printed on the early black and white 45 sleeve and also the disc label of the UK CD single.

The EQ glitch sounds to me like a pre-emphasis error in a digital premaster (at the time, this was a videocassette-based digital transfer of the analog master tape). To compensate for digital noise in those early digital converters, it was common to use pre-emphasis, which boosted high frequencies before digitization. When played back, an analog de-emphasis EQ is supposed to be applied, based on flags in the digital data stream saying whether pre-emphasis had been in applied from moment to moment. For whatever reason, the flags at 2:38 suddenly flip and the de-emphasis is briefly turned off. (The same system was used on CDs, but I'm talking about at an earlier stage.)

The problem got worse. On the Atlantic Year in Review 1987, the glitch is actually longer, starting sooner and rapidly cutting in & out!

I don't have the 45, so can't say much about it, but here's a comparison of a few masterings I do have:

• The US promo CD Atlantic Year in Review 1987 (PR 2187-2) has the long glitch and runs 4:31. If you crank up the volume in the fadeout, you can hear that after the electronic snares, there's the chorus "tonight, tonight, to-nigh-igh—" which gets cut off before the final "t".

• The UK CD single (DRAW 412) has the short glitch and runs 4:29 (not 4:27), ending 0.3s sooner ("tonight, tonight, to-nigh"), and it's very quiet in the last few seconds.

• The US 12" (0-86722, ARC pressing) has the short glitch and runs 4:28.7, the fade ending after the first of the three "tonight"s.

• The CD Turn It On Again - The Hits does not have the glitch, and runs 4:27.9, the fade ending after the first "to".

• The CD Platinum Collection does not have the glitch, is more dynamically compressed, and runs 4:27.9, the fade ending right before the first "to".

Meanwhile, the album version's fade goes all the way past the three "tonight"s and even gets in the "ah-hah" and some more electronic snares in before it reaches zero.

Where does the 45 fade end?

Edited by mjb50