Barbra Streisand "Promises"

Well, I was going to report that as far I recalled, the
45 was merely an early fade of the LP version. But I
bought this LP years later, so I never actually compared
the two before.
It turns out you cannot create the single from the album,
they are completely different mixes.

A few things i noticed: the drums on the album have a lot
of reverb, the 45 drums do not. Her vocals are louder on
the album, lower on the 45. In the intro the LP has a
loud synth playing with the horn, but that's almost mixed
out of the 45. Too many other minor differences to list.

I've never noticed this song on any of her comps, so I
guess the best source for this 45 would be a mint 45.

Side note; FWIW, I think the LP version has a "fuller"
sound, and the kick drum is louder so you feel the beat
more. So I think the LP mix would have sounded better on
radio. I'm not sure what they were going for in the 45
mix. Nonetheless, the 45 is what I remember hearing, for
this song's short radio run. MM

MM

hi mark, thanks for the info. edison basically asked the question i wanted to
know about making a "sort-of" single edit using the lp version. also there is
an "extended" version on youtube that runs 5:55 (which is what it also says
on the photo of the 12" vinyl in said video). it sounds like it is slightly sped
up and is missing some instruments (a lot dryer than the regular lp
version)...i am guessing the 45 mix could be an edit of this version?

Hykker wrote: EdisonLite wrote: Very interesting, Mark. This WOULD be a song (single mix) I'd ask my Sony contact to release in some form - but Barbra Streisand is one of the 2 or 3 "off- limits" artists that we can't even request releases for (Neil Diamond being another.) Why is that? Do these artists so tightly control their catalog that the label has no say whatsoever on releases?

Babs has it in her contract that nothing gets released from her catalog without her consent. This is why the original hit 45 mix of The Way We Were remains unreleased to this day. Billy Joel and Neil Diamond are the other two Sony acts that have been problematic for us collectors as well.....

I never understood why they buried her vocal in the mix. Takes all the life out of it. Had they just issued the LP Mix instead I'm willing to bet it would've charted much stronger.

Edited by Glenpwood

Thanks for the heads-up on the 12" being on youtube. I
used to own it, and I now was wondering what mix was on
the 12". It is indeed the 45 mix. The 45 is sped up also
and yes, has that dry, sparse sound to it.
So yes, the 45 can be edited from the 12" single.

From the LP version, there would be no edits, you just
need to fade it early. Start your fade around 3:42 and
end it around 3:54. Remember the 45 is sped up, so it
runs 3:52.

Note tho, if one is making the 45 from the 12" single,
there would be an edit needed because the 12" version
loops a chorus twice (a very lazy way to extend it I
think).

MM

So are you saying that since January, Universal owns all of Neil's Columbia material, and NOT Columbia? In this case, Sony wouldn't be able to put Neil's stuff at all. And this is a shame because Universal is even less likely to care about putting out his single mixes (like "I Dreamed a Dream" and "On the Way to the Sky") which have never seen the light of day on CD.