Bruce Hornsby - The Way It Is

My book indicates "LP Length" next to all instances of Bruce Hornsby & The Range "The Way It Is." I checked the commercial 45, and it has the full (4:54) LP version. I believe there are DJ copies of this 45 that run somewhere around (4:38), but the book should probably remove the comment "LP Length" since the LP and 45 are the same.

If someone can supply information contrary to this, please post!

The info I'm about to present was NOT included in the 10th edition of Pat's book, and after searching this chat board for all threads concerning Bruce Hornsby's three top 40 hits from his 1986 debut album, The Way it Is - the title track, "Mandolin Rain", and "Every Little Kiss" - I was a bit surprised to see it apparently hasn't been brought up here before, either. (But in the event Pat has since added this info to his on-line database, please disregard...)

Like its debut single, "Every Little Kiss", Hornsby's album, The Way it Is, was issued TWICE here in the U.S. The rare first pressings were released in April of '86 on RCA 8058. In addition to the different catalog no., these first pressings also had different versions of some of the songs, as well as a different front cover photo - one that shows Hornsby turning, in a strange blur. (Gets my vote for one of the worst album covers ever - what on Earth were the folks at RCA thinking when they originally OK'd it???) If you've never seen one of these original pressings, here's the page for it on Discogs: Bruce Hornsby - "The Way it Is". The album subsequently debuted at #178 on the "Top Pop Albums" chart in the June 21, 1986, issue of Billboard - and at that time, it still had the original cover, track versions, and "8058" catalog no., as shown on the actual chart printed in the magazine. In fact, it retained that original cover/no. for its first 13 weeks on "Top Pop Albums", until the September 13 issue. The lead single was "Every Little Kiss" on RCA 14361, which pretty much flopped - peaking at #72 on the "Hot 100" in the August 23 issue...

Ah, but then RCA launched its promotion of the album's second single - the title track - on RCA 5023, on or about September 1. This is also when the label decided to scrap the original album cover as well as re-issue it w/ a new catalog no., while changing the versions of some of the songs, now on RCA 5904. This change was first reflected in the September 20, 1986, issue of Billboard's chart, the front page of which - not coincidentally - also featured an ad from RCA for the album w/ the new cover art. The re-issue w/ the new cover art/track versions/catalog no. also signaled a raise in the album's suggested list price. Also in that issue, the title track debuted at #86 on the "Hot 100", and of course, the rest is history: The single went all the way to #1, the album rocketed into the top five (eventually going multi-platinum), third single "Mandolin Rain" (RCA 5087) hit #4, followed by a re-issue/remix of "Every Little Kiss" (RCA 5165) hitting #14...

So needless to say, the vast majority of the album's sales (probably 95%) occurred AFTER The Way it Is was re-issued on RCA 5904, some 4-5 months after initially hitting store shelves. I first bought the album on cassette myself in the fall of '86, but by then, it already had the new cover art/track versions/catalog no./higher list price. Then about 1988, I remember first stumbling across a used cassette w/ the original cover on RCA 8058, and grabbing it; within a year, I'd picked up a couple more originals on cassette, and seen it on LP as well. I wasn't buying (and therefore, searching for) CDs then, but w/o going back and scanning my old issues of Billboard from '86, I speculated that originals on RCA 8058 more than likely didn't exist in the digital format. Then flash forward to about 2000, as I'm visiting one of my favorite used record stores in NYC, and finally expanding my music collection to include CDs. I'm digging through their bins of used CDs, and decided to pull out what looked like an older copy of The Way it Is. When I turned it to see the front cover, my eyes popped and my jaw dropped at the same time - RCA 8058 DID exist on CD! :-) I just recently added a second copy on CD to my collection as a back-up, which is what prompted me to check both Pat's book and this chat board...

Of course, being one of the early titles to be issued on CD, both of my copies are Japan-for-U.S. pressings, and in smooth cases. Without a doubt, the CD is by far the rarest of the three music formats that these first pressings of The Way it Is were issued on. The actual timings of the three top 40 hits on RCA 8058 are:

"The Way it Is": (4:57)
"Mandolin Rain": (5:18)
"Every Little Kiss": (5:47)

A couple of the above timings differ by a mere one second vs. the ones given in the 10th edition of Pat's book for the later (common) version on RCA 5904, and as far as I know, none of the hits were among the songs that were changed on the re-issue. Two songs that WERE changed were "Down the Road Tonight" and "The River Runs Low"; not sure if there were others as well...

COMMENTARY: Alas, for whatever reason, you won't find this info in any of Joel Whitburn's chart books, such as Top Pop Albums, even though The Way it Is actually DID chart for 13 weeks in Billboard in its original incarnation on RCA 8058. (Unless it was added in the 7th edition??? Admittedly, the most recent one I have is the 6th edition from 2006.) To be fair, Whitburn does usually seem to go out of his way to include info in his singles books when the labels, catalog nos., B-sides, etc., changed during a song's chart run, so why hasn't he done the same for albums as well??? (I can cite quite a few others from the '80s, just off the top of my head - and no, none of them are noted in his album books, either.) I'd think info like this would certainly help collectors, even if it just appears in fine print as a footnote under the album titles in question - and after all, isn't the primary goal of his books to ACCURATELY reflect what actually charted???

The database states that some DJ copies of The Way It Is run 4:34. Can anyone shed any light on this version, please? Is it an edit or simply an earlier fade of the 45/LP? Incidentally, I notice that the video clip fades around this point. Any information on fade or edit points would be appreciated, thanks.

The promo 45 does indeed have an early fade of the LP/commercial 45 version.

I don't have fade points handy here at work - will post more tonight.

Thanks for the info, guys. Although I'm still a little unsure of the actual running time. Database says 4:34, Doug says 4:36 and Aaron says 4:38.