Top 40 Music on Compact Disc: "The Letter"

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Topic: "The Letter" - Joe Cocker

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Todd Ireland
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Posted: 01 May 2006 at 10:07pm \| IP Logged

I know the 45 version of Joe Cocker's "The Letter" is now available on CD, but I'm just wondering... Is the 45 an edit of the LP version, or is there something present on the 45 version that cannot be extracted from the LP?

AndrewChouffi
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Posted: 01 May 2006 at 10:30pm \| IP Logged

It's a different (earlier) take, live-in-studio.

Todd Ireland
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Posted: 01 May 2006 at 10:37pm \| IP Logged

Thanks for the info, Andrew. Guess I'll have to purchase Cocker's updated Mad Dogs & Englishmen deluxe double-CD set after all.

Todd Ireland
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Posted: 11 February 2009 at 6:19pm \| IP Logged

FYI... Commercial and promo 45 copies of "The Letter" list the artist as "Joe Cocker with Leon Russell & The Shelter People" on the record label.

Edited by Todd Ireland on 11 February 2009 at 6:20pm

jimct
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Posted: 11 February 2009 at 8:25pm \| IP Logged

That's correct, Todd. As Andy indicated earlier, Joe, Leon & The Shelter People were ALL in the studio at the exact same time, cranking out the hit, "live-in-the-studio" version of the song.

Todd Ireland
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Posted: 12 February 2009 at 9:31am \| IP Logged

The artist credits are also significant because my 7th Edition copy of Joel Whitburn's Billboard Book of Top 40 Hits does correctly state the aforementioned artist listing for "The Letter" under Joe Cocker, but this song does not show up for Leon Russell as a Top 10 hit and a third Top 40 entry under his own artist listing. I don't know if this has been corrected in a later edition, so perhaps this should be brought to Paul Haney's attention if it hasn't.

Edited by Todd Ireland on 12 February 2009 at 9:36am

Paul Haney
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Posted: 12 February 2009 at 10:37am \| IP Logged

Todd Ireland wrote:

For the Top Pop Singles 1955-2006 book, there is a trivia note at the end of Leon Russell's bio to also see Joe Cocker's "The Letter". This note should also be put in the Top 40 book.

Just to let everyone here know that a new Top Pop Singles 1955-2008 book is in the works and should be out sometime this summer. Also, a new 9th edition of the Top 40 book should be out sometime in 2010.

AndrewChouffi
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Posted: 12 February 2009 at 2:13pm \| IP Logged

Hi Paul,

Not to hijack this thread, but I feel compelled to respond to your note that there will be another update to Top Pop Singles!

I purchase every Top Pop Singles (and most other books, too).

Unfortunately I find I don't access the 2006 book as much as I do the 2002 book for the following important reason: The Airplay/Sales breakdown is eliminated where the charts were available from 1984 on.

This is important to me because it helps me determine better how it became a hit and if the song reached radio listeners.

Please see if this feature can be restored to the forthcoming book!

Thank you!

Andy

JMD1961
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Posted: 15 February 2009 at 7:45am \| IP Logged

On a similar note, I've been less happy with the Top 40 Hits books since they continued into the '90s. I know it would take a lot more work, but to just say a song was a "top 40 hit" based on Hot 100 placement to me is doing the genre a great disservice.

In the 90s, and even to today, the Hot 100 more of a multi-format chart. To me, data should be included from Billboard's sub-charts, like Top 40 Mainstream. It was done for the '50s, when multiple Pop charts existed. Why not for the '90s?

Brian W.
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Posted: 16 February 2009 at 6:17pm \| IP Logged

Paul Haney wrote:

Just to let everyone here know that a new Top Pop Singles 1955-2008 book is in the works and should be out sometime this summer. Also, a new 9th edition of the Top 40 book should be out sometime in 2010.

Paul, has Record Research considered releasing these as e-books for electronic book readers such as Kindle and MS Reader? Books sold in these formats are DRM'd.

Paul Haney
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Posted: 17 February 2009 at 7:24am \| IP Logged

Andrew: Sorry, but that information will not be in the new edition.

JMD: I get what you're saying, but it's just not going to happen at this time.

Brian: It's something we're currently looking into.

AndrewChouffi
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Posted: 17 February 2009 at 11:22am \| IP Logged

To Paul Haney:

Thanks for responding!

...but Damn.

There were just too many top-5 Hot 100 hits during that confused Hot 100 period that got there by default of lack of CD Single competition (or by being virtually given away). I'm confident the record labels LOST money instead of profiting, and certainly the publishers made next-to-nothing because of the virtually non-existant airplay the tracks received.

I realize this is not Record Research Inc.'s fault, but the "footnotes" indicating, say Sales "1", Airplay "74" give the future historians a solid indication what may have been going on here & prevent revisionist history.

If it's not too late, please give Mr. Whitburn a copy of this message.

Thank You!

Andy

cmmmbase
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Posted: 17 February 2009 at 1:26pm \| IP Logged

It is dissapointing in regards to the Whitburn books when research is taken out of the books such as airplay/sales info, songs that charted only on the sales chart and in the case of the most recent Adult Contemporary book, singles b-side info. This just means keep your old editions of the respective books, I guess.

Edited by cmmmbase on 17 February 2009 at 1:28pm

AdvprosD
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Posted: 29 April 2022 at 2:51pm \| IP Logged

AndrewChouffi wrote:

It's a different (earlier) take, live-in-studio.

You wouldn't happen to have the running time for this version would you?

I have been collecting a variety of imported Time-Life CDs, and this one stood out. This version sounds very similar on my CD, but I can tell that it has a rather
"Live" sound to it. The collection I have is called "Flower Power Generation 1970." And the issue is from Australia. Other tracks sound interestingly different too.

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sriv94
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Posted: 29 April 2022 at 8:02pm \| IP Logged

My copy from the deluxe CD runs (4:08). (My LP version runs about (4:14)--there are various differences,
including but not limited to crowd noise, a slightly longer "my baby she wrote me a letter" refrain near
the end [although it starts a little earlier on the LP than it does the 45], and a longer held note at the
end.)

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AdvprosD
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Posted: 30 April 2022 at 12:08pm \| IP Logged

Thanks for the info Doug. I did an ear time test and noted though this has a listed time of 4:18, It starts at about 00:01 and finishes at 04:15. Making it,
as 04:14 as I can tell for all practical purposes.

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vanmeter
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Posted: 23 May 2022 at 12:03pm \| IP Logged

AdvprosD wrote:

I'm not entirely sure reading this if everybody is truly clear (despite it being stated very early in the thread) that there are two different recordings, and the one from the Mad Dogs LP is not the hit single - that version has audible crowd noise and there's a lot of air/atmosphere around the opening piano figure. This was what was on the Forget Me Nots single for years, not the actual hit recording, which to my ears sounds like it was recorded in a rehearsal hall or such - there is no crowd noise in any way, and the ambience is very flat. Everybody may know this but again it's not entirely apparent that it's been stated outright reading the post.

Edited by vanmeter on 23 May 2022 at 12:04pm

Yah Shure
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Posted: 23 May 2022 at 5:47pm \| IP Logged

vanmeter wrote:

...sounds like it was recorded in a rehearsal hall...

That's it! The liner notes for the Mad Dogs & Englishmen 35th Anniversary deluxe edition include "The Mad Dog Diary" timeline written by John Mendelsohn:

14th MARCH 1970. Some three hundred people turn out to watch the new band (which now includes eleven singers as well as ten players) rehearse for twelve hours on the A&M sound-stage.

15th MARCH 1970. Another twelve-hour rehearsal is held and a private airplane is hired.

16th MARCH 1970. Eleven more rehearsal hours are put under the collective belt.

17th MARCH 1970. Yet another marathon rehearsal is staged, this one recorded in its entirety, with "The Letter"/"Space Captain" single resulting.

<snip>

27th and 28th MARCH 1970. Four appearances later, Joe Cocker, Mad Dogs & Englishmen arrive at the Fillmore East, wherein this album was recorded in its entirety, the lion's share coming from the Friday evening shows.

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