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crapfromthepast
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| Posted: 14 February 2007 at 7:24pm | IP Logged
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Did you ever wonder why the very first note in "St. Elmo's Fire" started mid-beat? For 20+ years, I'd just assumed that's the way it was recorded, even though that doesn't really make much sense.
Well, I just noticed two CDs where the first note starts on an actual downbeat! Like you'd expect from a pop song!
Apparently, there's a bad edit somewhere in the vaults that has lived on for 20+ years, and an unedited tape that has also lived on for 20+ years, although in relative obscurity.
Starts on downbeat:
- Time-Life's Sounds Of The Eighties - 1985 (1994)
- Rhino's Like Omigod box
Missing the first 0.1 sec of the intro, causing the song to start slightly after the downbeat:
- Razor & Tie's Totally '80s (1993; mastered by Steve Hoffman)
- The "A" List Disc 31 (1994)
- Warner Special Products' After Hours (1990)
- Mercury [W. Germany] Hits On CD - Volume 4 (1986)
- Sessions/Warner Special Products' Night Beat (1988)
- Virgin/EMI [UK] Now That's What I Call Music 1985 (1993)
- BR Music [Holland] 1 Hit Wonders and Hard to Find Classics (1999)
Neat!
I also noticed that the above two CDs are left/right reversed from the rest of them. Easiest to tell from the first drum fill at about 0:17; the two above pan left-to-right, while all the others pan right-to-left.
Besides the above 2, are there any other CDs that have the downbeat included in the song? The TM Century library? Any John Parr collections?
Edited by crapfromthepast on 14 February 2007 at 7:37pm
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edtop40
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| Posted: 14 February 2007 at 8:09pm | IP Logged
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the question is...which version is on the commercial 45.....and the answer is....the truncated one...the 45 is identical to the version from the cd "essential 80's"....hope this helps....
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EdisonLite
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| Posted: 14 February 2007 at 8:54pm | IP Logged
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<Besides the above 2, are there any other CDs that have the downbeat included in the song? >
Yes, Crap, the Rhino CD "Billboard Top Hits 1985" has the full beat.
(And incidentally, the soundtrack CD has the clipped note!)
I brought this issue to Pat's attention once (long before this board appeared) and mentioned it might be worth mentioning which versions have the clipped notes and which didn't. I remember he responded that the soundtrack has the clipped note. So it certainly wouldn't make sense to say that there's an error on those CDs, even though it sounds like one.
I know the soundtrack CD has the clipped note. Does anyone know about the soundtrack LP?
Edited by EdisonLite on 14 February 2007 at 8:58pm
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budaniel
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| Posted: 15 February 2007 at 6:15am | IP Logged
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The truncated version is also on:
"The Brat Pack Years" (Mars Entertainment)
"Only Rock 'n Roll 1985-1989" (JCI)
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budaniel
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| Posted: 12 November 2007 at 7:20pm | IP Logged
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has anyone found a version that isn't truncated at the beginning but also has the correct left/right stereo separation?
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eriejwg
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| Posted: 12 November 2007 at 8:21pm | IP Logged
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Would there be a way to take the proper version, and just switch channels, say in Audition?
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crapfromthepast
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| Posted: 12 November 2007 at 9:30pm | IP Logged
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eriejwg wrote:
| Would there be a way to take the proper version, and just switch channels, say in Audition? |
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Yes - that's a very easy thing to do in the audio editing software I use (Cool Edit Pro), and should be really easy in most other tools.
I was a little partial to the Steve Hoffman mastering on Totally '80s, so I recreated the opening note by looping the first downbeat of the song. It's pretty seamless if you time your splice to fall on one of the cymbal hits.
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crapfromthepast
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| Posted: 01 May 2012 at 6:47pm | IP Logged
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4-1/2 years later, I revisited "St. Elmo's Fire".
I still think the truncated opening note was a mastering mistake, on both the 45 and the soundtrack. And yet, that's the only way it appeared, anywhere, until 1994.
The song appeared on three compilations in the '80s - Mercury W. Germany's Hits On CD Vol. 4 (1986), Atlantic's Hit Singles 1980-1988 (1988) and Warner Special Products' 2-CD Night Beat (1988). All sound OK, not spectacular, and all have the truncated opening note.
The 50-CD promo set The A List Disc 31 (1994) appears to use the same analog transfer as Hit Singles 1980-1988, with no noise reduction.
I have three compilations that all use the same analog transfer as Night Beat - Warner Special Products' 3-CD After Hours (1990; digitally exactly 2.2 dB louder), Razor & Tie's 2-CD Totally '80s (1993) and JCI's Only Rock 'N Roll 1985-1989 (1994). All sound just like Night Beat, which is OK, not spectacular.
EMI UK's 2-CD Now 1985 (1993) and BR Music Holland's One Hit Wonders And Hard To Find Hits (1999) both fade early - avoid.
Then, for Rhino's Billboard Top Hits 1985 (1994), Bill Inglot found a source tape that had the opening note intact! And sounded quite a bit clearer than the previous discs! Oddly, it had its left and right channels reversed, although that's easily fixed.
I have four compilations that all use the same analog transfer as Billboard - Time-Life's Sounds Of The Eighties Vol. 2 1985 (1994), Time-Life's Sounds Of The Eighties Vol. 31 Movie Hits Of The '80s (1996; differently EQ'd digital clone), Rhino's 7-CD Like Omigod (2002, much too loud and clips a lot) and Time-Life's Another Lost Decade At The Movies (2005; digitally identical to Movie Hits).
For sound quality, I'd recommend Billboard Top Hits 1985, but you need to flip the left and right channels to make it match the 45 and LP versions.
Edited by crapfromthepast on 02 May 2012 at 7:01am
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davidclark
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| Posted: 01 May 2012 at 10:45pm | IP Logged
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does Pat's comment on this song of "remixed" refer to simply the switching
of channels? I always wondered about what remixed meant for this track. I
have it on only the Time Life 80s disc, so I can not compare with a non-
remixed version.
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Todd Ireland
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| Posted: 02 May 2012 at 11:51pm | IP Logged
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I'm not aware of any instance where the database specifies comments for recordings where the left/right channels are reversed, so I doubt this is what is being referenced here by the "remixed" comment. Perhaps Pat can clarify this for us.
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Pat Downey
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| Posted: 04 May 2012 at 8:47am | IP Logged
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You are correct todd, I do not consider switched channels to be a remix. With regards to this John Parr song, my handwritten note to self says that some cd appearances have a high hat in the introduction although I must admit when I pulled out one or two cd's with the remix comment I did not notice the high hat being noticeably louder than the original cd release. Anyone else notice this difference?
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crapfromthepast
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| Posted: 04 May 2012 at 9:48am | IP Logged
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Pat - I'm not sure if your note is simply referring to the
increased clarity from the Rhino source tape. Compared
with the more common version that cuts off part of the
opening note, the difference is pretty striking. And if
you weren't expecting a hi-hat in the opposite channel
(because the Rhino version has L/R channels switched), it
might have appeared that the hi-hat came out of nowhere.
Just a thought.
I've never encountered any real remix of the song myself.
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Top 40 Music on Compact Disc : Chat Board
Topic: John Parr - St. Elmo’s Fire
