blind melon "no rain" cassingle image

Green it is, matching the CD's label.

Edited by Yah Shure

Paul Haney wrote: That Blind Melon cassingle was cut-out VERY early on and it was near-impossible to find one as the song was peaking in popularity.

That seemed to be the rule rather than the exception with cassette singles...very limited production runs and if a song was a big hit the singles were pretty much all gone by the time the song peaked. I suppose it cut back on returns, but probably resulted in a lot of lost sales too.

paul...i guess with no internet or ebay in 1993 it WAS probably a tough find...

Paul Haney wrote: Hykker wrote: Paul Haney wrote: That Blind Melon cassingle was cut-out VERY early on and it was near-impossible to find one as the song was peaking in popularity. That seemed to be the rule rather than the exception with cassette singles...very limited production runs and if a song was a big hit the singles were pretty much all gone by the time the song peaked. I suppose it cut back on returns, but probably resulted in a lot of lost sales too. It's true that many cassingles were a limited run (usually around 500,000), but "No Rain" proved to be an even more limited run. I looked high and low for that cassingle for several months back in 1993 and there were NONE to be found. It was the single toughest thing I've ever tried to track down.

Labels started doing that in the 1993-98 period so that the songs could make the Billboard Hot 100. They issued the singles long enough to say "hey, we released a single," and they then discontinued them promptly, often the same day they came out. "No Rain" was far from the only single that was released to manipulate the charts; it was simply one of the first.

You then had some "cash-in" labels come along and record sound-alike versions of the hits to sell as singles, often with fake artist names that were similar to or a pun on the "real" names. (My favorite of these fake group names was the cash-in of Aqua's "Barbie Girl," recorded by "Velva Blu.") Some of those cash-ins even charted on their own based on sales.


Edited by TimNeely

Just today, I obtained another promo CD single for "No Rain." This one is clearly mislabeled, so it's probably best to list the printed tracks followed by the actual tracks.

DPRO-79693 (printed info)
1. No Rain (LP Version) (3:15)
2. No Rain (Live) (6:00)
3. Drive (Live) (5:00)
4. Soak The Sin (Live) (3:50)

I'm guessing that the above track listing is based on the commercial CD single, because here's what's actually on the disc:

1. No Rain (LP Version) (actual 3:35)
2. No Rain (Edit) (actual 3:22)*
3. No Rain (Live) (actual 5:24)
4. Drive (Live) (actual 5:40)
5. Soak The Sin (Live) (actual 3:41)

*This is an early fade of the LP version and NOT the edit found on the 2-track promo. Although the track is not listed on the printed artwork, some copies have a sticker on the jewel case that say "No Rain Edit (3:17) Second Track."

Edited by aaronk