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jimct MusicFan
Joined: 07 April 2006 Location: United States
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Posted: 07 April 2014 at 10:50pm | IP Logged
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I have been looking for a promo 45 for this 1972 Top 10 hit for many years. I
have finally located/ordered one. The label scan for it indicated a shorter,
(3:25) length on its mono side, with the stock (3:45) version found on its
stereo side. Offhand, I don't remember hearing a shorter version when it was
a current, but perhaps my memory will "kick in" once I hear it. I will follow up
with more details when it arrives....
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EdisonLite MusicFan
Joined: 18 October 2004 Location: United States
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Posted: 07 April 2014 at 11:15pm | IP Logged
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It surprises me that a top 10 hit like this would be so hard to find as a promo 45 - especially after 42 years and with the help of ebay and amazon and sites like gemm. (But I don't buy a lot of promo 45s, so maybe I just don't know. - I'll buy a promo 45 when something's really unique, like the promo of Garfunkel's "All I Know" which has a completely different ending on the mono side.) And I've even occasionally bought one to see what the dj edit was.
So it comes as a surprise to me how hard it can be to find a promo of a top 10 hit - unless, of course, all that was ever pressed for a 45 was the stock copy.)
And "Garden Party", btw, was the 6th 45 I ever bought. It holds a lot of sentiment for me. So maybe that adds to the fact that I'm surprised how scarce its promo is.
Edited by EdisonLite on 08 April 2014 at 9:45am
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Yah Shure MusicFan
Joined: 11 December 2007 Location: United States
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Posted: 08 April 2014 at 6:49am | IP Logged
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I wasn't aware that the "Garden Party" DJ 45 was scarce. After listening to the 3:25 mono side, I'll paraphrase Mr. Nelson:
If you bought the mono Garden Party
It might've set you back a buck
But if a shorter cut you wanted to hear
I guess you're out of luck
Yes, unfortunately the listed time of 3:25 was probably nothing more than a deliberate ploy to trick deejays into thinking they could backtime smoothly into the top-of-the-hour network newscast with a cold-ending song in under three-thirty. The actual time of my mono side is 3:45. The stereo side states "3:45".
Edited by Yah Shure on 02 August 2014 at 6:59am
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Hykker MusicFan
Joined: 30 October 2007 Location: United States
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Posted: 08 April 2014 at 2:29pm | IP Logged
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Come to think of it, Rick Nelson promos in general seem
to
be pretty scarce...can't say I've seen many of them
around
either (other than his late 70s/80s stuff on Epic). It's
not like they've all been worn out, those old
Decca 45s wore like iron!
Can't say I ever noticed a difference between the long &
short versions while playing them back in "the day",
though
I do recall hearing a (custom?) edit on the Drake "Solid
Gold" format where one of the repeated choruses at the
end
was cut out. John, if you're looking for a good home for
one of your duplicates....
Edited by Hykker on 08 April 2014 at 2:31pm
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KentT MusicFan
Joined: 25 May 2008 Location: United States
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Posted: 05 July 2014 at 9:06pm | IP Logged
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Every 45 of this in station archives I inherited was a
stock Decca 45 with a "Sample Copy" sticker or a unlabeled
Stock Decca 45. Never saw a Promo 45 of this. And the
stations I worked for got great service from Decca, UNI,
and Kapp, and MCA past that. So, that promo only 45 must
have been an early servicing which we didn't get or which
got discarded and we got normal 45 singles when the track
began creeping up the chart. Appears the promo didn't get
reserviced and labeled stock 45 singles sent instead.
__________________ I turn up the good and turn down the bad!
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EdisonLite MusicFan
Joined: 18 October 2004 Location: United States
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Posted: 06 July 2014 at 10:52am | IP Logged
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Was this fairly common in '72 - for Decca to not issue an actual promo 45 for one of their singles (just a stock copy with a "sample copy" sticker?
And if it wasn't common practice, do you radio guys think there are any implications here, such as that Decca didn't believe this would be a hit so they never pressed promos?
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Yah Shure MusicFan
Joined: 11 December 2007 Location: United States
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Posted: 06 July 2014 at 12:58pm | IP Logged
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Gordon, we always received regular DJ 45 service from Decca at my college station in 1972. That included our four yellow-label DJ copies of "Garden Party," one of which went into the on-air library. In fact, I can't recall any Rick Nelson Decca 45s we *didn't* get on DJ 45s, from the 1970 blue-label "She Belongs To Me" to the Fall '71 yellow "Love Minus Zero/No Limit" and on through the MCA dark brown-label short/long "Palace Guard" and white-label "Lifestream," "Windfall," "One Night Stand" and "Try (To Fall In Love)" releases.
The only instance I can recall where we didn't receive a standard Decca/MCA DJ 45 was because there wasn't one. When Elton John's "Pinball Wizard" became an airplay smash via Polydor, the local MCA branch office had "sample copy"-stickered 45s of the stock reissue black rainbow MCA 60174 original version of "Pinball Wizard" by the Who available. It was probably intended for any stations that may have requested a copy, since MCA never did a mass mailing of it.
The local MCA branch office was where I'd go to get extra promo 45s (out of the half-dozen extra DJ copies I picked up of Elton's "Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds," only one was clean enough to cart up for airplay.) When they'd exhausted their initial allotments of DJ 45s, they'd get "sample copy"-stickered stocks to cover any further promo needs. The other local branch offices in town would follow a similar pattern, using their own hand-stamped or stickered policies on the stock copies (except for WEA, which didn't bother to mark stocks.)
In some instances, a record could take many months to break. Most stations would date stamp promo 45s as they arrived, and as storage space was often quite limited, titles which had been around a few months without any signs of becoming hits would be routinely tossed. To keep the momentum going once these very slow-breaking records began to catch on, it behooved the labels to reservice the 45 pronto, under the assumption that every station might need a fresh copy. These copies came in the form of releases that were either identical to the original promo 45s, were specially-designated reservice promo 45s (like the CBS labels' "special rush reservice") or were stickered/hand-stamped stock 45s, with the latter being more likely if time was of the essence and the supplies of the initial promo pressings had already been depleted. In rare instances - such as with "Earache My Eye" - no regular DJ 45s have yet been verified. "Garden Party" might well have been something of a sleeper hit and could account for the scarcity of remaining promo 45s.
Edited by Yah Shure on 06 July 2014 at 2:25pm
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KentT MusicFan
Joined: 25 May 2008 Location: United States
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Posted: 26 July 2014 at 6:22am | IP Logged
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All of which makes sense. The stations I worked for didn't
keep promo singles beyond 3-4 months unless it was played
on air regularly. I seem to remember Garden Party was a
record which took around 6 months to catch on, and when the
oldies revival caught on, began getting airplay. I suspect
that is why I have no Promos of this track. All the other
Rick Nelson Decca/MCA titles in that era, I do. "She
Belongs To Me" was one we played on air a lot. We had a
freeform FM sibling, and the track caught on and got great
response. Our PD loved the record, and added it on the AM
side, and it got great response.
__________________ I turn up the good and turn down the bad!
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TomDiehl1 MusicFan
Joined: 13 January 2006 Location: United States
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Posted: 26 July 2014 at 1:45pm | IP Logged
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I seem to think my promo copy of Garden Party is on a
blue label promo, not yellow. I also don't recall offhand
if it is mono/stereo or if it has different times on
either side. Most of my collection is still in storage 9
hours away from where I live now.
That said, I like to collect promo 45s, and unfortunately
don't have the budget right now to do so....i've been out
of work since November which has essentially put a
complete halt to my record buying. But if anyone out
there has duplicate promos that they don't want or need
anymore, I'd gladly accept any donations. Especially ones
with writing or stickers on the label or cue burn
(seriously, I love knowing that my promos actually got
played on the air).
__________________ Live in stereo.
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Hykker MusicFan
Joined: 30 October 2007 Location: United States
Online Status: Offline Posts: 1386
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Posted: 26 July 2014 at 5:51pm | IP Logged
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TomDiehl1 wrote:
But if anyone out
there has duplicate promos that they don't want or need
anymore, I'd gladly accept any donations. Especially ones
with writing or stickers on the label or cue burn
(seriously, I love knowing that my promos actually got
played on the air).
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Same here. I'd say at least half the promos in my
collection are well-used copies that I obtained during
house-cleanings at stations I was at.
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