Boston promo 45 for Don’t Look Back

80smusicfreak wrote: TimNeely wrote: For example, Guns N' Roses' 45s were released on 45 as they appeared on the albums -- even the almost 9-minute-long "November Rain." Perhaps, but when it comes to determining the true "hit single" versions, I'm wondering just how relevant is what actually appeared on the vinyl 45s here??? Not to stray too far off topic, but I've been meaning to bring up this issue for quite some time now, and this seems like as good an opportunity as any... :-) Let's not forget, by the time Guns n' Roses first hit the singles charts in June of '88, we Americans had a choice of singles formats in retail stores: vinyl 45 or cassette single. And guess what??? We Yanks chose the cassette single - by then, it was already king! That means the cassette version of EVERY commercial Guns n' Roses single released from 1988-94 outsold its vinyl (or later, CD) counterpart(s). Therefore, why are we considering the "45 versions" (in the literal sense) to be the "official" versions here, especially when as a promotional/sales gimmick, record labels often put different edits/mixes of the same hit song on different formats??? (And quite a number of examples by other artists have already been exposed here on Pat's board!) Who knows, maybe the band had something in their contract that said only the singles on vinyl couldn't be edited/remixed ("Sweet Child o' Mine" notwithstanding)??? I'm not saying that the lengths/versions found on any of the cassette singles from Guns n' Roses do, in fact, differ from the vinyl 45s - I honestly don't know, but it's a REAL possibility there's an example or two - but logically, shouldn't the "cassette single" versions be considered the official "hit single" versions in this group's case??? Yet for whatever reason, when it comes to post-1987 hits, the "singles purists" here always seem to put all the weight on what appeared on either the vinyl 45s or CD singles, even though the cassette was the dominant singles format in the U.S. from 1988-97 (a full ten years!). Only when a hit from that decade was issued exclusively on cassette single does the tape format seem to matter to folks around here - hmmm... My point to all this: If the song was a hit from that time period - as all Guns n' Roses tunes were - and you're going by what is heard on either the vinyl 45 or CD single, you may be fooling yourself, not to mention keeping Pat's database from being completely accurate... (*steps off soapbox*)

Greg:

According to Joel Whitburn in his Top Pop Singles 1955-1999 book, the cassette single was recognized as the standard configuration on the Billboard Hot 100 chart from 1990 to December 5, 1998. As a result, there are a number of folks on this board like edtop40 and myself who've gone to great lengths to post pertinent cassette single info when necessary. Ed in particular regularly makes it a point to recognize the cassette single as the undisputed single version for Top 40 hits during this time period. And when different versions of a particular Top 40 hit exist from one physical single configuration to another, Pat duly updates all related info in the database and allows the reader to decide for himself which format should be considered the "true" single version. So unless I'm missing something, I honestly don't see anybody doing anything here to prevent the database from being anything less than completely accurate.

I'm sure I'm in the minority here, but I regard the "hit" version as being the version that got all the airplay that made it a hit in the first place, regardless of what format it appeared on or even if it was commercially available at all.

An example off the top of my head -

Milli Vanilli's "All Or Nothing": The only version I ever heard (or played) on the radio was the LP version, which was even included on their promo sampler "Hits That Shook The World". There was no 45 for the song, and the cassette single had a drastic remix on it, which got little or no airplay back then.

In general, unless there's a huge difference between album and single versions, I tend to lean toward using the LP versions until around 1984, and the 45s from around 1984 onward. There's no hard, fast line in the sand, but around '84, there were a lot of single-only remixes, like "The Reflex", "Adult Education", "It's My Life", "She Bop", and a few others. Before '84, it was primarily edits for the 45, rather than remixes.

So I'll use the full LP versions of "Paradise By The Dashboard Light", Diesel's "Sausalito Summernight", Aldo Nova's "Fantasy", Saga's "On The Loose", and so forth, because that's what got played back then.

I'll also use the 45 edits of "Slow Ride", "My Sharona", "My Life", and some other classic rock songs that got substantial airplay in their shortened forms on pop radio.

That's not to trivialize the intent of this forum, or of those who prefer single versions. I understand that the cassette single was the single format adopted by Billboard and used for the Hot 100 chart methodology, and I completely respect that many collectors seek out the version on those cassette singles. But when I'm compiling my own pop library for radio and mobile DJ work, I'll use the version that most would readily recognize, rather than what they could buy back then.

There's plenty of overlap between the library "hit" compiling that I'm doing and those hunting for the single versions, and there's plenty to be learned in the process and shared with the forum...

Speaking as one who actually worked on the radio and played the promo versions, those are the versions I've been trying to acquire.

Luckily, for the last 15 years, I've have subscription services like RPM and now JonesTM to get the 'hit' versions.

As a mobile dj, I've owned it all over the years. Vinyl, which I unfortunately sold, then cassette singles, CD's and now, for the last 5 years, digital.

The very first commercial radio station I worked at from 1977-1979 got their current music from Record Source International. Most of the time, for the major hits on 45, we'd hit the local G.C. Murphy or Fisher's Big Wheel, at that time, and buy them there.

Edited by eriejwg

Man! I started collecting 45s at a very young age (about 4), and I used to have my parents drive me to Fisher's Big Wheel to buy 45s!