Top 40 Music on Compact Disc: In-house radio edits

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Paul Haney
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Posted: 14 August 2015 at 11:24am \| IP Logged

I remember hearing some "in-house" radio edits back in the day for long songs that weren't issued as promo 45s (several Elton John hits spring to mind). Now, I realize that these edits were in no way "official" and are very difficult, if not impossible, to track down today. However, have any of the skilled editors here ever tried their own custom edits on some of these hits? If so, I'd be curious to hear some of the results.

crapfromthepast
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Posted: 14 August 2015 at 11:53am \| IP Logged

I know that Aaron reproduced an edit of "99 Luftballons" and "99 Red Balloons", to mimic an edit originally done by American Top 40. But I can't think of many others.

I'm sure there were in-house edits of "Isn't She Lovely", but I haven't attempted to reproduce any of them.

I think we discussed "Erotic City" by Prince on the board, but I don't think we ever attempted the in-house edits that Z100/New York or WPLJ/New York used. Z100 used a snare thwack to replace the bad words; WPLJ cut out every full line of the song that included a bad word, making for a weird-sounding song structure.

We can't really reproduce the customized edits for "We Built This City" or "Hot In The City".

I started listening to the radio around 1979, and I don't remember any songs being trimmed for length after that period.

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sriv94
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Posted: 14 August 2015 at 4:03pm \| IP Logged

I did for some of the WLS versions of Elton John's mid-1970s stuff.
The one for "Someone Saved My Life Tonight" stands out--they took a
large chunk of the song out from about the (4:15) mark to the "someone
saved...someone saved...someone saved my life tonight" ending, then
sped it up.

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EdisonLite
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Posted: 14 August 2015 at 9:12pm \| IP Logged

<I'm sure there were in-house edits of "Isn't She Lovely">

I did an edit on "Isn't She Lovely" - turns out that what was later used on the UK version of the "Song Review" CD was very close to what I did.

I've done edits of other long songs, though none of Elton John's, but Paul you didn't mention any other songs specifically. Were there specific ones you had in mind?

Paul Haney
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Posted: 15 August 2015 at 5:06am \| IP Logged

I'm thinking mainly of 1970s songs that were over 6 minutes or so.

Some examples:
Do You Feel Like We Do - Peter Frampton
Papa Was A Rollin' Stone - Temptations
Someone Saved My Life Tonight - Elton John
Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds - Elton John
Philadelphia Freedom - Elton John
All My Love - Led Zeppelin

Also, some 1980s hits like "Paradise City" by Guns N' Roses, and "One More Try" and "Father Figure" by George Michael.

I've been on an "official radio edit" kick lately and it just seems to me that some of these super-long singles are crying out to be shortened a bit!

Paul Haney
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Posted: 15 August 2015 at 5:06am \| IP Logged

sriv94 wrote:

Doug, those are the some of the exact ones I had in mind. I'd love to hear those sometime!

Fetta
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Posted: 15 August 2015 at 8:16am \| IP Logged

I know that I received a Paradise City or Patience edit (I can't recall) from someone in this group (I would say probably Aaron or Ron) a while back.

Also like Ron said, Aaron replicated the AT TOP 40 version of "99 Luftballons" and "99 Red Balloons" which was slightly different than the one played in NY, which I was able to replicate using Aaron's edit (just one minor change).

Hykker
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Posted: 15 August 2015 at 5:49pm \| IP Logged

Paul Haney wrote:

sriv94 wrote:

I did for some of the
WLS versions of Elton John's mid-1970s stuff.
The one for "Someone Saved My Life Tonight" stands out--
they took a
large chunk of the song out from about the (4:15) mark to
the "someone
saved...someone saved...someone saved my life tonight"
ending, then
sped it up.

Doug, those are the some of the exact ones I had in mind.
I'd love to hear those sometime!

Me too.
The station I did weekends at in 1975 also played a house
edit of that, I kick myself for not making a dub of it.
Don't recall exactly what got cut out, but I do remember
our production director leaving IN the "it's 4:00 in the
morning, dammit", which other edits I've heard removed.

In 1969 WRKO in Boston did an interesting edit of
"Suite:Judy Blue Eyes". I can only guess that they got
wind that this would be the next single and wanted to scoop
the competiton, but 7:20 was way too long so they made a
custom edit of the album version which they continued to
play even after an official single was issued. They cut
out the whole "Tuesday morning, Sunday in the afternoon
part. I have a re-creation of it if anyone's interested
(referenced from an off-air recording of their edit).

RichM921
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Posted: 15 August 2015 at 8:54pm \| IP Logged

There is an edit of "Someone Saved My Life Tonight" which gets
played on our local classic hits station which closely describes what
you are mentioning. The station is an affiliate of the Cumulus "Classic
Hits" format, so apparently this homemade edit is still in use nationally,
at least on Cumulus stations.

Jody Thornton
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Posted: 17 August 2015 at 9:00am \| IP Logged

I've done tons of custom edits for my own car CD listening and in-house music system listening. Some are imitations of custom edits I've heard over the years, or of promo edits I can't seem to find at all. Many times, I much prefer my own edits.

Songs include:

No Reply At All - Genesis (refrain before third verse removed)
Rapture - Blondie (an LP Edit similar to Stereo Rock)
Celebration - Kool and the Gang (an edit similar to Stereo Rock. Only once do they sing "Yahoo" on each chorus)
Don't Stand So Close to Me - Police (final four measures of instrumental break removed, and intro fades up just before light percussion begins)
Passion - Rod Stewart (an LP Edit similar to Stereo Rock, where the final eight measures of the piano intro are removed, and the second refrain is down to a single instance)
De Do Do Do, De Da Da Da - Police (intro and first chorus spliced in half)
(Just Like) Starting Over - John Lennon (an edit similar to Stereo Rock, whereby the sustained "Somehwere..." and the drums are overlapped, removing the silence)
Do You Really Want to Hurt Me - Culture Club (turns out that it's identical to the promo single removing the long instrumental section. However, I never ever knew this was actually issued as a promo record. I thought Stereo Rock just created the custom edit at the second last "Make me cry". Things you learn on this forum)
Turn it On Again - Genesis (imitation of an edit on a British compilation, whereby the intro starts after "1, 2, 3, 4..." and the instrumental section before the final repeat chorus is halved)
She's Out of My Life - Michael Jackson (remixed in a sustained note of strings lightly overtop of the first line of the second verse "She's out of my hands...". I always recalled hearing something else there back when the song was released in 1980, but never found a record that sounded as I remembered it.
Dirty Laundry - Don Henley (it appears that I must have heard a custom edit, because no one here can corroborate the existence of a promo that halves both of the guitar solos....hmmmmm. Oh well, that's what I ended up doing)

There must be dozen and dozens more, but that's a start...lol

Edited by Jody Thornton on 17 August 2015 at 9:04am

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995wlol
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Posted: 17 August 2015 at 11:05am \| IP Logged

I've recreated a number of in-house edits from the 80s that were aired on WLOL Minneapolis:

Guns N' Roses - Paradise City and Patience
Yes - Owner of a Lonely Heart (crossfade edit during the instrumental break)
Naked Eyes - Always Something There To Remind Me (single-length edit of the US extended version)
Hall & Oates - Jingle Bell Rock (spliced to create a duet version with Daryl and John)

Two other custom edits that I have not tried to recreate:

Romantics - Talking In Your Sleep (splices the LP and 12" versions)
One Night In Bangkok (spliced to create a duet with both Murray Head and Robey--I can't recreate it exactly because it includes additional gong sound effects at the beginning and end, plus I'm missing the first few seconds from when I recorded it off the radio)

Beginning in May 1990 when WLOL moved to dance/top 40, a good portion of the music was composed of in-house edits--mostly edited from 12" and dub mixes.

Paul Haney
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Posted: 17 August 2015 at 12:29pm \| IP Logged

Doug was kind enough to send me some WLS custom edits from the 1970s.

The following are terrific and match what I remember from back in the day:
Papa Was A Rollin' Stone - Temptations (3:35)
Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds - Elton John (4:41)
Philadelphia Freedom - Elton John (4:25)

The edits for "Pinball Wizard" and "Someone Saved My Life Tonight" are not so great. In fact, the edits are pretty bad, so I think I'll stick with the longer versions on those two.

I'm always up for hearing more!

sriv94
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Posted: 17 August 2015 at 2:28pm \| IP Logged

Actually, AT40's edit of "SSMLT" isn't bad. I'll send you that at some
point.

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Michaeldila
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Posted: 17 August 2015 at 4:38pm \| IP Logged

i definitely remember edited versions of madonna's "spotlight" "like a prayer"
and "bad girl"...all under 4:20 minutes long.

DJghr1
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Posted: 25 August 2015 at 5:29pm \| IP Logged

I made a custom edit of "I'm So Excited" by the Pointer
Sisters which I used the 1984 45 version and added the
12" cold outro. Also I made one for "Isn't She Lovely"
which sounds much like the version played nowadays on
many classic hits stations, with his vocals starting
@22 seconds, running time 3:38. Feel free to PM me if
you need a copy for review.
George

Steve Carras
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Posted: 25 August 2015 at 8:03pm \| IP Logged

KHJ 93 in Los Angeles did these in 1974:
"Band on the Run"-Wings- edited from the DJ copy so as to REMOVE the second part ("never never get outta here..")

Elton John's "Don't Let the sun Go Down on Me" (which I'm surprised was even played with the innuendo:D) lost a second verse/chorus and went straight from first or (after 2nd verse edit) Chorus 2

Kiki Dee's "I've Got the Music in Me" in the DJ edit was already short but the station took out the open piano notes. The single just starts out with the drums/tambourine!)

Three Dog Night's "Show Must Go On" lost the first part of the sample of "March of the Gladiators".

Kool & The Gang's "Hollywood Swingin'" was faded after the vocal (but then most of it is a long 2:40 instrumental, applying to all after the second chorus.)

Reunion's "Life is a Rock" missed the first half of its first chorus ("Life...is a rock...but the radio Rolled Me/Gotta turn it up louder/so my DJ told Me"..and just went to "At the end of the rainbow/lies..a golden oldie). Otherwise same.

From 1974 to exactly a year later, 1975:
Miracles "Love Machine": After playing the OFFICIAL Chelsea Records DJ edit that combined parts one and two of Disco Tex's "Get Dancin'" with the Sex-o-lettes in 1974-75, KHJ did a similar edit (unless there WAS an OFFICIAL one like it) of The Miracles's "Love Machine"(Epic) with 1st chorus, 1st verse, 2nd chorus, choral break then when to the final chorus with "push it push it baby", so that line like "gentle as a lamb..":(2nd verse between 3rd and 4rd chorus and second bridge,all gone but picks up as mentioned on the fifth verse, then plays most of part 2).

Edited by Steve Carras on 25 August 2015 at 8:10pm

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Hykker
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Posted: 26 August 2015 at 6:08pm \| IP Logged

Steve Carras wrote:

I'm not sure if these were KHJ-specific edits or RKO-
General corporate ones. I remember hearing similar ones on
WRKO as well. Paul Drew, RKO's VP of Programming at the
time was a stickler for lengths, I've heard that there was
a limit of 3:30 on songs (though this was the time when
Elton John cranked out marathon song after marathon song
and I'm sure some leeway was granted for a must-add artist
like him).

In late '68/early '69 WRKO had quite a few house edits they
aired (most of which weren't very big hits)...a couple that
come to mind were "Someday Soon" - Judy Collins
(instrumental bridge shortened) & "I Can't Turn You Loose"
- Chambers Brothers (2nd verse removed).

Quote:

Reunion's "Life is a Rock" missed the first half of its
first chorus ("Life...is a rock...but the radio Rolled
Me/Gotta turn it up louder/so my DJ told Me"..and just went
to "At the end of the rainbow/lies..a golden oldie).
Otherwise same.

Don't remember that, but WRKO (as did many stations) played
a custom version where the chorus went "life is a rock but
RKO rolled me". Did KHJ play a similar one?

Edited by Hykker on 26 August 2015 at 6:20pm

sriv94
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Posted: 26 August 2015 at 8:05pm \| IP Logged

Steve Carras wrote:

Elton John's "Don't Let the sun Go Down on Me" (which I'm surprised was even played with the innuendo:D) lost a second verse/chorus and went straight from first or
(after 2nd verse edit) Chorus 2

WLS did that edit as well, but I didn't include it in my care package to Paul because I couldn't remember where to start and end the edit.

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garye
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Posted: 23 February 2021 at 8:35pm \| IP Logged

An older thread and some thoughts.
Recently have gotten on the in-house edits bandwagon
and giving a try to some old classics edited as radio
did.
Example: "Philadelphia Freedom" edited down to 4:09
with fade.
"Do You Feel" from ol' Pete down to 6:11. Any shorter
I think would ruin the song. I just edited the LP
version and then used to 45 from the talkbox break to
the end and corrected pitch.
Even Traffic's "Low Spark Of High Heeled Boys" from
11:30 to 4:20 just for fun.
Have done that and enjoy those and other edits over
this last year. See what happens when you get bored?
PS: distilled "Thick AsA Brick" from jethro Tull to
5:48 recreating the edit AOR KILT FM in the 70's used
when playing the record.
And no will not touch "Stairway to Heaven"! Afraid of
what Zep fans might do to me! LOL

edtop40
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Posted: 24 February 2021 at 4:34am \| IP Logged

one that i don't think has been discussed is Janet
Jackson's 'where are you now' which on the lp runs
5:47....i asked Todd to try and come up with a shorter
version and he did an excellent job editing it down to
4:31....if anyone wants to check out his work.....let me
know...

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