late 90’s airplay hits/promo cd singles

I have a a few on your list, but I don't have any of the country promos.

Celine Dion- To Love you More - Sony BSK 41204-
2 tracks- Radio Edit (4:39) and Album version (5:28)
This was not easy to find when it came out.

Brian McKnight- Anytime - Mercury MECP 349-
1 track- Radio Edit (4:08)

Will Smith- Men In Black - Columbia CSK 0787 -
3 tracks- Album mix (3:48), MIB Master mix (3:40), Track Masters Instrumental (3:48)

Travolta/Newton-John- The Grease Megamix-
Polydor PRCDP 00326 - 4 tracks:
1. radio edit (3:57)
2. thurman/dutrey radio edit (4:26)
3. album version (4:51)
4. 12" version (5:52)


As far as the others on your list. I remember that there was a promo for #1 Crush by Garbage.
I do not believe "I Go Blind" was released on promo. I never could find a copy and wound up finding it on an import single for another Hootie song. It was an album track that was being played while the record company was promoting "Sad Caper" as a single.
I never saw a promo for "Uninvited". I bought an import single of "Head over Feet" after I could not find a promo copy.
I don't think "All over You" by Live was released on promo CD.
I hope this helps you out.

While looking at some of the big airplay hits of the '90s, I started to make a
list of songs that I've never found on a promo CD single. The list I've
come up with so far is:

Alanis Morissette "Head Over Feet" (#1 R&R)
Alanis Morissette "Uninvited" (#1 R&R)
Counting Crows "Einstein On The Beach" (#45 BB - #1 Modern Rock)
Hootie & The Blowfish "I Go Blind" (#24 R&R)
Janet Jackson "Where Are You Now" (#30 BB)
Live "All Over You" (#33 BB)
Pearl Jam "Better Man" (#24 R&R)
Stone Temple Pilots "Big Empty" (#35 R&R)

Edited by aaronk

In my 30 years working at my local Top 40 station, I can't remember
*any* other song where we made a record company 1/100th as mad at
us for ever playing a song as we did Atlantic, by playing "I Go Blind".
1996/97 was, perhaps the last year or so that we would either call in or
fax our playlist to the trade mags (as opposed to Soundscan
technology, where the major publications would monitor us 24/7, and
generate the actual number of spins songs would get per week.) And I
wouldn't be half surprised if a wacky song situation, like "I Go Blind"
didn't result in speeding up the trade mag industry's "we've gotta shift
to Soundscan ASAP" timeline. But this song situation was only the #2
reason why the trade mags wanted a methodology change.

The #1 reason was that some stations would add a song to their "public
playlist", but then only play it rarely, if ever. This was mainly done for
"business reasons" between the station, such as "we'll have Group A
swing by your station/sing a song or two live/you can invite 3 winners
to the studio for autographs"-type thing, if we would add two unknown
songs, by Group B and C to our playlist. This was not "payola". Payola
was a direct transfer of cash, etc. from a record label to a DJ, bypassing
station ownership. Basically, the first scenario is the same as a record
label buying 25 :60 commercials on a station, saying "Buy the new
Alanis Morissette album." Perfectly legal.

The group most annoyed with such individual station/record company
arrangements like this, however, were the trade magazines. And
understandably so. Don't get me wrong. Only a small percentage of
reporting stations would engage in such "cozy label dealings" more
than once/twice a year. And, generally speaking, smaller-size, smaller
market stations, who had less working capital to work with, to budget
for contests/giveaways during the rating sweeps. Luckily, some
inadvertent "self-policing" was always taking place. Reporting stations
had to be mindful that their weekly "adds" were out there, for all other
subscribing stations to see, and if too many "red herrings" appeared
from one station, it would quickly become obvious, to both the trade
mags and other MDs/PDs. In fact, such stations ran the risk of being
dropped as a reporting station, which would very negatively affect both
a station's and its personnel's prestige, as well as the level of its record
service. (Not to mention getting an industry rep for having a "tin ear!")
All this was a good thing. Because when any of those songs did "get
through", be it legal or not, it made radio's reported lists less "merit-
based", as to which songs stations were adding, and exactly why. Any
"influenced adds" could potentially eat away at the credibility of the
trade mag's overall calculations, through no fault of their own. Because
it obscured the truth a bit. Was this unknown song by this new group
getting all these adds "on its own", because it was an absolute smash,
or could there be some "special label assistance?" The labels always
wanted the trade mags to think that every add were 100% on the up-
and-up. Not always true. The best safeguard the trade mags had was
the large number of total reporting stations they had. Like any sample -
the larger the number, the more accurate the data.

I felt this background info was necessary, to make my main point here.

A much less common, but equally undesirable "skew" of reported
playlist info was that there were also songs that we *were* playing,
even in heavy and/or medium current airplay, that would not appear on
our reported playlist at all. The "Poster Child Song" for this category
was "I Go Blind." Here's why:

Hootie & The Blowfish's 1994 debut album, "Cracked Rear View"
produced 4 huge Top 40 hits. Atlantic had very high hopes for an
equally successful 2nd album, but, in Sept. of '95, its release was still
many months away. So when the Reprise label was preparing an album
of mostly "featured on an episode" tracks from the hit TV show
"Friends", Atlantic was both asked, and agreed to furnish a rejected
track from Hootie's debut LP to appear on it. But with one caveat:
Reprise couldn't 1) issue a promo CD single for it, or 2) try to
specifically promote the track to radio. And Reprise kept their word, on
both counts. Why did Atlantic agree to this at the time? (I was told all
this privately, much later.) 1) It might enable the band to maintain a
small degree of public visibility, until the "Fairweather Johnson" album
was ready. 2) Such arrangements were commonplace among the labels,
over many years, with no real downside ever resulting for a label. So
which song did Atlantic end up furnishing to Reprise, for "Friends"? You
guessed it - "I Go Blind."

Well, from Atlantic's standpoint, the perfect storm then ensued. The
"Friends" TV show became the rage of prime time. The TV album went
platinum, and with little effort from Reprise at all, both big sales and
big buzz were still attached to the album, by May of 1996. Which was
the very same month that "Fairweather Johnson" was released. And
Atlantic pulled out all the marketing and promotional stops for it. But
when the first P CD S from it, "Old Man & Me" was basically a mid-
charter, we took note. And when the second P CD S, "Tucker's Town"
came out, we thought that track was just OK, as well. And this song
wasn't getting much early audience response, either. At this point, we
realized that the 2nd LP wasn't nearly as strong as the first one was.

We'd known of the "I Go Blind" track, for months already. Some AOR
stations had been playing it. We always liked it, too. But Atlantic kept
telling us that the "Killer New Hootie Album" would be out any week
now, and to sit tight. So we did. But after the first two songs basically
flopped, we began to wish that the 2nd album had something half as
catchy as "I Go Blind" on it. But it didn't. We'd never forgotten about it.
And, apparently, we were *far* from the only Top 40 station getting our
"Hootie Instructions" from Atlantic. So we made a unanimous decision.
In our own station's best interests. We started playing "I Go Blind".

I still have every 1996 reported playlist we generated. I also still have
about half of the "internal info sheets." This page indicated both the
actual "raw spins data" per week, as well as which songs we'd decided
were going to be in "high" (play 3 per hour; 7 total songs), "medium"
(play 2 per hour; 10 total songs), and "light" (play 1 per hour; 5 total
songs, and played only during the lighter-commercial-hours of 7P-5A)
airplay rotation categories. The earliest internal sheet with "I Go Blind"
shown on it, for us, was 10/1/96, in light rotation. (FYI, "Tucker's
Town" was still in medium rotation that same week, and obviously
appeared on the playlist we reported to the trade mags. But we didn't
*dare* officially report "I Go Blind", however, fearing that us doing so
would send our local Atlantic rep into an epileptic seizure!) Radio and
the record labels would always try to both get along and keep the
peace, as best we could. But our bottom lines are different - let's face it
- we care about us getting the highest ratings possible the most, and
they care about selling records more than they do our ratings. Us not
reporting "I Go Blind" was a compromise, of sorts. We played both the
Hootie track WE wanted to play the most, while still playing the one
Atlantic wanted us to play the most. They are usually one and the same.
But not here. (We even added the third P CD S, "Sad Caper", on
10/22/96, still trying to respect our friends at Atlantic, but gave it just
2 off-hour spins a day, for 5 weeks. Because, for all 5 of these weeks,
we were "otherwise pre-occupied" with Hootie, as you will read next.)

You aren't gonna believe this next stat: for *twenty-two* straight
weeks - from 10/15/1996 to 3/11/1997 - we played "I Go Blind" in
"high" rotation at our station. That's 7-8 spins a day - for FIVE solid
months!!!! In fact, "I Go Blind" was played SO many times, for so long,
that it was one of just a handful of songs, ever, to make our year-end
Top 100 Hits on-air countdown for two consecutive years (which I alone
compiled, based 100% on spins as a current, during that year - no
labels to appease!) For both 1996 (#36 in most spins) *and* 1997 (even
higher - #14 in most spins!!!)

Yet you will not have found "I Go Blind" to have ever appeared on a
single one of our officially reported weekly surveys, during any of those
five months. Why? Because Atlantic obviously didn't want to see it
"chart". It wasn't on their label. And the *last* thing Reprise ever wanted
to see was "I Go Blind" charting anywhere - especially into 1997 - all
that would do was to flare up the old, bad feelings with Atlantic over
the song, like "Guys, are you *sure* you weren't working "I Go Blind" to
radio? Because over here, we all still think that that one damn song
caused Hootie's entire second album to flop!!!!"

The moral of the story? (And the reason I decided to post all this!)
Reprise was prohibited from making a P CD S for "I Go Blind", as a pre-
condition to use the track. That info came directly from the mouth of
the Atlantic rep serving our region at the time.

My longest post ever? Probably! (Anybody still out there?) Zzzzzzzzzzz.
Guess not.    :)

Edited by jimct

Great stories! In 1996/97, I'd severed my top 40 ties and
was concentrating on the left end of the dial in Rochester,
NY. Although I'd worked at 98PXY in 1990, all my inside
connections had left by then.

From the point of view of a listener, top 40 radio
certainly positioned "I Go Blind" as the follow-up to "Old
Man And Me". I didn't even realize it was on another label
at the time. I certainly didn't realize it was a remake
(how on earth did Hootie And The Blowfish cross paths with
the Canadian band 54-40?)

jimct wrote: My longest post ever? Probably! (Anybody still out there?) Zzzzzzzzzzz. Guess not.    :)

I read the whole thing! I love these stories!