Boston promo 45 for Don’t Look Back

After a 1-year break from this thread, I actually have a real "Don't Look Back" question.

Compared with the version I have on three Time-Life CDs (AM Gold - 1978, Sounds Of The Seventies - AM Nuggets, Guitar Rock - 1978-1979), the version on Music By Mail's Rock This Way sounds much cleaner and runs about 1.9% faster. Rock This Way runs 5:57.

Was there a pitch difference between the LP and the 45? I sold off my Boston LPs years ago, and this is right before I started collecting 45s, so I don't have a vinyl copy of this song at all.

I don't have an original LP to compare with but the 12" promo "Don't Look Back" has a label time of 5:53 but runs 6:01. (That's the side without "The Journey") The DJ 45 (both sides) have a label time of 4:05 but both run 4:06. The pitch of all three of these is about the same, I couldn't determine much of a difference, any slight difference might have simply been due to mastering from different machines. That doesn't answer the main question as to whether or not the stock 45 is pitched different than the original LP, someone else will have to check that, but the DJ copies, 12" and 45 rpm were very close to being the same pitch.

crapfromthepast wrote: Was there a pitch difference between the LP and the 45?

Ron, although the stock 45 runs a tad faster, I wouldn't call it a significant difference. Because the LP cut tracks into "The Journey", I timed them both up to the beginning of the last note, which occurs at 5:50.205 on the stock 45, and at 5:50.820 on the LP, a difference of .615 of a second.