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crapfromthepast
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| Posted: 21 May 2015 at 8:40pm | IP Logged
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A real gem from 1978, which still sounds great on the air (even if I'm the only one playing it).
LP version (runs 4:46)
Your options are really limited here.
You can get a fairly obscure 2-CD compilation from Mystic Music/Warner Special Products called Good Times (1991), which is what I have. It sounds OK here, maybe not from the lowest-generation source tapes, but a good dynamic range, a reasonable EQ, and no evidence of noise reduction. It runs 105.3 BPM throughout (live drummer playing over a drum machine).
As of 2015, your only other option for the LP version is Culture Factory's release of the Whatever Happened To Benny Santini? CD, which I don't have.
45 edit (runs about 3:33)
It's just one edit, but it's painful. Once you hear it, you'll never unhear it, much like the edit in "While You See A Chance".
The 45 edit is available on Eric's Hard To Find 45s On CD Vol. 8: Seventies Pop Classics (2002), but this disc uses extremely heavy-handed noise reduction - avoid. There's a digitally identical clone on Time-Life's 2-CD Classic Soft Rock Vol. 6 The Air That I Breathe (2006), which also shows the effect of the noise reduction on the Eric disc - also avoid. I would bet that the later Time-Life collections that feature the song also have the same mastering, so avoid those as well.
To recreate the 45 edit using the LP version on Good Times as the source, remove the 128 beats from 2:53.2-4:06.2 so that there's an obvious-sounding edit at "ooh".
Non-hit 1988 rerecording from New Light Through Old Windows album (runs 4:03)
It turns up on Time-Life's 2-CD Singers And Songwriters Vol. 15 '70s (2001). It runs 110.2 BPM throughout.
Edited by crapfromthepast on 22 May 2015 at 7:02am
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eriejwg
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| Posted: 21 May 2015 at 9:03pm | IP Logged
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There are some easy listening stations in some markets
(Miami) that are playing this song on a regular basis.
Sadly, the LP version is non existent in the digital
download world. Only the re-recording is available.
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The Hits Man
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| Posted: 21 May 2015 at 11:03pm | IP Logged
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If anyone needs the album version, I have it from the
original Magnet CD. I also have a nice 45 edit of the
song that I recreated from it.
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Hykker
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| Posted: 22 May 2015 at 7:10am | IP Logged
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Quote:
45 edit (runs about 3:33)
It's just one edit, but it's painful. Once you hear
it, you'll never unhear it, much like the edit in
"While You See A Chance". |
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I wouldn't go so far as to say it's a "painful" edit. It's
a bit abrupt, but creatively it makes more sense than the
way the chorus segues into the next verse on the album ver.
which I always thought a bit awkward-sounding.
I hate to admit it, but I've never noticed the edit in
WYSAC (granted, it's not high on my "favorite songs" list).
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EdisonLite
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| Posted: 22 May 2015 at 8:05am | IP Logged
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<I hate to admit it, but I've never noticed the edit in
WYSAC (granted, it's not high on my "favorite songs" list).>
Consider yourself fortunate. I do like the song a lot and had only known the single version (from the radio, and I think, the single). Then in the CD era when I heard and got used to the album version, once I went back to hearing the single, it was indeed a painful edit, perhaps the most painful one I've heard. And like cptf says, you'll never unhear it. The same is somewhat true of the edit on Aerosmith's "Dream On". I only knew the single version for years, and mix-wise I like it better, and I've only somehwat gotten used to the forced it after hearing the longer album version.
In "while you see a chance" they edit the "your way" into an "eeeee" sound (can't recall the word) - but they edit between the two vowels. In "Dream On", if I recall, they edit the "everybody's got their dues in life to pay" into an "Oh". Again, a vowel going into a wrong vowel. I guess this one was never noticeable to me as a kid in 1973 because it's conceivable that Steven Tyler might have sung "Everybody's got your dues in life to pay, oh". But it's just beyond comprehensible that Steve Winwood would sing "Your way EEEEEEEEEEE". Plus, with the other instruments around it - the edit all just sounds way off.
Edited by EdisonLite on 22 May 2015 at 8:07am
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eriejwg
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| Posted: 22 May 2015 at 12:51pm | IP Logged
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Ron gave me a chance to hear the clarity of the LP version. The noise reduced ending of the 45 version
really is a shame and that's all that seems to be out there. I'm surprised someone else hasn't done a redo
on the edit and re-released it.
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80smusicfreak
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| Posted: 22 May 2015 at 8:40pm | IP Logged
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crapfromthepast wrote:
| A real gem from 1978, which still sounds great on the air (even if I'm the only one playing it). |
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Couldn't agree more - and keep spinning it! :-) This is one of those songs/artists I discovered in the mid '80s, thanks to collecting classic K-tel compilations. Although I was 10 at the time "Fool (If You Think it's Over)" was a hit in the Summer of '78, I don't recall ever hearing it on the radio when I lived in the SF Bay Area at the time. However, by 1985-86, I'd started buying any & all pop-, rock-, disco-, and a/c-oriented K-tel compilations I could find, as a quick way to gather up many of the older top 40 hits I'd heard on the radio as a kid from the mid '70s to early '80s. One of the fun parts of collecting those V/A comps from K-tel (and Ronco) was also discovering "new" old songs that I'd never heard before, and "Fool (If You Think it's Over)" fell in that category; it was included on both Spotlight (1979) and Reflections (also 1979). Loved it from the first time I heard it on whichever of those two I found first (probably Reflections)... :-)
As a result, I quickly tracked down Rea's first two albums on cassette, Whatever Happened to Benny Santini? (1978) and Deltics (1979), and liked them both. To my disappointment, at that time (1986), my research indicated that while Chris was still recording & releasing new albums over in Europe, he apparently hadn't had a U.S. record deal since 1983! Therefore, I was pleasantly surprised the following year when his next album, Dancing with Strangers (1987), actually came out here - but on MOTOWN, of all labels! (Still bought the cassette, though.) That summer, I was definitely rooting for him as I watched "Let's Dance" move up the "Hot 100" in Billboard (his first U.S. chart hit since '82), but alas, it stalled at #81 (and #84 in Cash Box). After he switched to Geffen in '88, I continued to follow him as "Working on It" became another minor pop hit, and amazingly, it shot all the way to #1 on the "Album Rock Tracks" (AOR) chart in Billboard in early '89. It seemed like after more than ten years, Chris had FINALLY broken through here in the States - but unfortunately, once again, his success was short-lived... :-(
By about 1990, although long out-of-print here in the U.S., I'd also found his third & fourth albums, Tennis (1980) and Chris Rea (1982), on cassette. I immediately fell in love w/ the title track from Tennis, w/ its pulsing bassline from Chris throughout. While not released as a single Stateside, it was issued as such in the U.K. and elsewhere, and about five years ago, I was totally SHOCKED when I discovered that Chris had actually made a video for it back in 1980, after deciding to look it up on YouTube! While its subject matter is apparently confusing to some, it's actually a powerful political statement about how many people were seemingly ignoring the serious state of foreign affairs at the time, in favor of much more casual topics, such as the sport that became its title. Great song, and it's easy to see why Columbia backed off releasing it as a single here. Original video on YouTube: CHRIS REA - "Tennis" (1980) (Oh, and BTW, now we know where Billy Idol got his idea for the exploding kitchen appliances in his video for "White Wedding" more than two years later!) Of course, "Loving You" off the s/t album managed to climb to #88 in Billboard and #75 in Cash Box in the Spring of '82. About ten years ago, I actually saw the original video for it air ONCE on VH-1 Classic (of all places), and at that time, I'd never seen it before - but of course, the idiots at VH-1 had the artist & title WRONG when they flashed the info at both the beginning & end of it (*sigh*)! Original video on YouTube: CHRIS REA - "Loving You" (1982) Another song of Chris's that has become a classic over time is his seasonal tune, "Driving Home for Christmas" (1986). While never released as a single here in the States, over the last 10 years or so, it's become one of the holiday tunes I hear fairly often over the Muzak systems while out shopping, and even occasionally on the radio, too! Again, on YouTube (you might just recognize it!): CHRIS REA - "Driving Home for Christmas" (1986)
Anyway, there's no question CR's very underrated here! Admittedly, his vocal style/heavy British accent might be a bit of an acquired taste for us Yanks; I have to believe that's the only reason he never quite caught on here, which is a shame. (On the strength of "Fool...", he was even nominated for the "Best New Artist" Grammy in 1979, although he didn't win - instead, it went to, um, A Taste of Honey!) I continued to follow Chris and buy his new albums up through 1993's Espresso Logic, after which he again lost his U.S. record deal. I've always wanted to see him live, but AFAIK, he's resisted crossing the big pond and performing here in the U.S. for at least the last 20 years (*sigh*). He still tours Europe fairly regularly, though...
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| As of 2015, your only other option for the LP version [of "Fool..."] is Culture Factory's release of the Whatever Happened To Benny Santini? CD, which I don't have. |
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Like The Hits Man, I, too, have the original U.K. import CD of Whatever Happened to Benny Santini? on Magnet, dating from the mid to late '80s. (Most of CR's back catalog has pretty much remained in print on CD there over the last 30 years.) I don't have the 2014 U.S. re-issue on Culture Factory, but am considering it. (I'd admittedly long given up on the album ever coming out on CD here!) Does anyone here have it, and can report on the sound quality and any other pertinent details??? Also, what about the Culture Factory label in general??? I know they're fairly new to the game, and I've yet to buy any of their releases. It looks like all of their CD titles come in cardboard sleeves vs. plastic jewel cases???
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MMathews
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| Posted: 22 May 2015 at 10:35pm | IP Logged
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AOR formats were kinder to Chris in the 80's. I would
occasionally hear one of his new releases on AOR.
The biggest as you mentioned was 1989's "Working On It" ..
very heavy airplay on our AOR station on Long Island.
They also played his next 1989 single which was the
haunting "The Road To Hell" ... great song, and I think
was his biggest UK hit.
He's an underrated rock vocalist. Too bad he didn't do
better in the U.S.
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edtop40
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| Posted: 05 April 2017 at 3:53pm | IP Logged
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the db states all commercial 45 copies run 3:35 (the 45's
face states the run time as 3:35) while mine
runs 3:33 and so does crap's......pat can you review this
one for amendment?
Edited by edtop40 on 05 April 2017 at 3:55pm
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AdvprosD
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Based on the notes I read here, I went out and bought the album "...Benny Santini." I always liked the single "Fool" but, have become a believer in the whole album after just one listen!
I can't believe I waited all this time to actually get this one. Sort of the same with Boz Scaggs. I had the album "Silk Degrees" since it was new, and didn't buy any others.
Last year I finally bought "Hits" and then a couple others after that.
There sure are some good suggestions here. Maybe I can take some time and listen to more than just V/A discs for a while.
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Topic: Chris Rea - Fool (If You Think It’s Over)
