"Baby I Lied" - Deborah Allen

todd....i know this may have been touched on before, but, are we sure abagon's 45's you are referencing are USA commercial 45's and not imports of some kind....i find it hard to believe that there so many discrepancies that you're are encountering.......lmk....edtop40

my commercial 45 has "pb 13600a-2" then it has "pb 13583 a-2" crossed out...then it says "master mix" about an inch away from that.....hope this helps..

I have a couple of the earliest "Baby I Lied" pressings, prior to the songs's first appearance on the August 20, 1983 Billboard Country chart, and two months before it crossed over to the Hot 100.

During the early '80s, RCA Nashville had a practice of servicing select country stations with two promo 45 variations for most releases. These were always mailed separately. One was on the typical cream-colored RCA promo 45 label.

The second featured ever-changing colors for both the label color and the print, which utilized a different type font than the standard promos. Often, though not always, these second variations were pressed on colored vinyl, as were the early-'80s Elvis Presley DJ 45s in this series.

Some of the resulting color combinations were just plain odd, and "Baby I Lied" was no exception: an orange label with light red print on green vinyl.

This stereo/stereo promo's matrix number on one side is PB-13600-A-1X, followed by PB-13583-A1 (with a single looping line drawn through it, but the numbers are still plainly visible) followed by Master-Mix (with a tiny HW scrawled beneath it.) The matrix number is identical on the other side, except that the "X" is missing.

RCA Nashville followed the promos with the mailing of a commercial copy (with pic sleeve) that included a promo insert dated August 12, 1983. This insert mentioned the "beautiful" picture sleeve and the hopes that the record would become a breaker in R & R (with you-know-who's help.)

This early commercial pressing (styrene) matches Ed's matrix info above, except that all letters are upper case. In addition, there is a lone "A1" in the dead wax well ahead of the matrix numbers. Unlike the colored vinyl promo, the incorrect matrix number is scratched through multiple times with straight lines.

Edited by Yah Shure

I recently noticed that in 2000, there was a compilation CD released here in the U.S. by Deborah Allen, simply titled The Best of..., on Curb D2-77962 (or at least, it was marketed that way). It features her lone top 40 hit, 1984's "Baby I Lied" (track 1); however, this CD is NOT currently shown in the on-line database. Page on Discogs: DEBORAH ALLEN - "The Best of..." (U.S. CD) I'm well aware that Curb is notorious for including re-recordings on their CDs, and indeed, the printed time for "Baby I Lied" on this one is "3:35", which - if accurate - differs significantly from its six current db listings, where the song ranges from (4:03)-(4:07). I don't have the CD myself, but from looking at a photo of the back cover art, there is NO indication that The Best of... features any re-recordings. However, while reading the customer reviews for Curb 77962 over on Amazon, I did notice that several people stated that "Baby I Lied" is a new version, including someone who had this to say about the CD:

This is actually not a "Best of" collection. This is a misnomer by Curb records. The only "rerecord" is Baby I Lied. The rest of the set is all new material by Deborah.

So even if the CD does actually have a re-recording - as appears likely - shouldn't it still be listed in the db just as a warning, especially since Curb elected to call it The Best of...???

Oh, and Yah Shure: I realize it's been six years now since your post above, but I found it VERY interesting - great info! Thanks for including the pics, too...

EdisonLite wrote: After this 2000 album, I see she had a 2003 and 2006 album, both released on Renaissance Records, notorious for many bootleg CDs (many taken straight from vinyl), after years of being a legit label that was legitimately licensing recordings from Sony, etc. I can't imagine these two albums were taken from vinyl, if they were recorded in 2003 and 2006, but does anyone know anything about these two albums, e.g. are they really of 2003 and 2006 recordings and not just some early demos from the early part of her career before making it?

I don't own either CD myself, but after reading your post above and researching it on-line, it's clear that 2003's Hands On and 2006's Memphis Princess were both albums of then-new recordings. Oh, and guess what??? Memphis Princess even included a re-recording of "Baby I Lied" as a hidden bonus track! Here's a quote from yet another customer review on Amazon, which implies it may be the same version that was on 2000's The Best of..., although that would make it the only "old" recording on the otherwise new album:

Remember to listen to the unlisted Track 15, a slower, edgier version of her smash, 'Baby I Lied', which was also on her Best of CD. Look for more releases soon from Renaissance Records and Deb, and check out the deborahallenbabyilied fan site.

Pages for both albums on Amazon, w/ customer reviews:
DEBORAH ALLEN - "Hands On" (2003)
DEBORAH ALLEN - "Memphis Princess" (2006)

Both CDs are apparently long out-of-print, though, and will set you back some serious $$$. There's currently one used copy of Memphis Princess listed on eBay from a seller in Germany, w/ excellent photos: DEBORAH ALLEN - "Memphis Princess" (U.S. CD) Note that the back insert states that Renaissance licensed the recordings from Allen herself...

Oh, and here's a link to the fan site that the Amazon reviewer was referring to, which is still updated regularly, and has additional details about both albums: Deborah Allen fan site

As for the sound quality of these particular CDs, I don't know...