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crapfromthepast MusicFan
Joined: 14 September 2006 Location: United States
Online Status: Offline Posts: 2241
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Posted: 16 October 2020 at 7:24am | IP Logged
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"Maybe" wasn't a big hit for the Three Degrees, peaking only at #29 in 1970.
The LP version runs 5:36 and is found on just one US CD - Marsil Productions/Sony Music's Always And Forever. It's pretty obscure. I don't own it.
The 45 version runs 4:07 and is also found on just one US CD - Rhino's multi-CD Can You Dig It (2001). This is a terrific set, in my opinion, but pricey.
And finally, there's a 3:37 version on Rhino's Didn't It Blow Your Mind Vol. 2 (1991), and a few other compilations that likely base their masterings on this disc.
This 3:37 version deletes 0:00-0:07 and 0:41-1:04 of the 45 version. This odd edit severely trims the spoken intro and makes it sound like the bass player missed a few beats.
I was baffled why this even exists. It's not a promo 45 edit; the promo 45s are the same as the commercial 45s. Rhino would never have deliberately edited the song this way if a tape didn't already exist.
I think I may have found the source of this 3:37 edit. There's a 4-song EP released in Brazil in 1971 (a year after "Maybe" was a hit), with catalog number RCA ROD-21001. The EP includes "I Do Take You", "You're The Fool", "Sugar On Sunday", and "Maybe". The orange RCA label has a printed time of 3:40 for "Maybe". Here's a Discogs listing for the EP. I can't confirm that the 3:37 edit is what really appears on this EP, but it makes me feel better knowing that the edit may have originated on a real record somewhere in the world, rather than on a Rhino disc in 1991.
__________________ There's a lot of crap on the radio, but there's only one Crap From The Past.
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crapfromthepast MusicFan
Joined: 14 September 2006 Location: United States
Online Status: Offline Posts: 2241
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Posted: 16 October 2020 at 7:40am | IP Logged
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One more detail:
The Three Degrees released an earlier song called "Maybe" in 1965 on Swan Records S-4245. No album from 1965, just a 45. The 1965 song is completely different from the 1970 song, even though they were both written and produced by Richard Barrett. The 1965 Swan 45 has a printed time of 2:19 and runs pretty close to that.
Under the 1965 listing, Discogs also shows a single-sided acetate from Bell Sound Studios, with a hand-written time of 3:35 on the label. I don't know what to make of that, since the song only runs about 2:19. It could be a huge timing error by whoever wrote the time on the label, or could actually be an acetate from 1970/71 with the later version of the song and the 3:37 edit from the Rhino disc. Here's the Discogs listing for the acetate. I dunno.
__________________ There's a lot of crap on the radio, but there's only one Crap From The Past.
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ChicagoBill MusicFan
Joined: 06 November 2019 Location: United States
Online Status: Offline Posts: 193
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Posted: 16 October 2020 at 9:58am | IP Logged
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'Maybe' this will help (pun!). I have the 'Complete Swan
Recordings' on Sequel U.K. NEM CD 631 (1992) in which it
is 2:17.5 and Mono except for a little more bottom end
in the left channel (re-channeled?) and licensed through
Roller Coaster (dubious?). I then listened to my 45 RPM
single, Roulette 7079 Mono (4:08) and compared it to my
'Roulette Years', also on Sequel U.K. NEM CD 753 (1996)
licensed through EMI Special Markets, mastered at Abbey
Road Studios and that times out to 3:38. To my untrained
ears it seems they cut :20 seconds out of the intro
(rap) from 1:51 down to a 1:31 intro. -Bill.
Edited by ChicagoBill on 16 October 2020 at 10:00am
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AutumnAarilyn MusicFan
Joined: 22 August 2019
Online Status: Offline Posts: 181
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Posted: 16 October 2020 at 9:06pm | IP Logged
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Big Break records in the UK released a nice double disc
set in 2012 covering their complete recordings at the
Roulette label.
https://www.discogs.com/The-Three-Degrees-
Maybe/release/3957690
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