"Nicole" - Point Blank

Edtop40 has brought to my attention that the 45 version of Point Blank's "Nicole" runs 3:45 and has never been issued on CD. The one and only CD appearance of this song listed in the 10th edition is the LP version.

I seem to recall the intro being edited, though I'm anxious to find out if that's the case, and where the beginning/ending points are.

To recreate the 45 version:

Keep 00.00-04.728
Remove 04.728-13.880
Keep 13.880-end

There's a slightly earlier fade at the end, with song completely faded out by 3:44.5.

While out on my record-store travels last week, I discovered a third U.S. CD that features this elusive (yet great) top 40 hit, and since it had some other songs on it that I've always liked, I bought it. It's an out-of-print 14-track V/A compilation from 2003, titled Southern Rock: Greatest Hits (although if you go by the front cover art, the full title is Southern Rock: 14 Greatest Hits/The Pure Gold Collection; the shorter title is what is given on the spines and the disc itself). It's on Compass Productions/Universal Music Special Markets B0001267-02, so it's apparently one of those "Target-exclusive" or "Wal Mart-exclusive" CDs - but nevertheless, this is the first (and I assume, only) time the song has been made available on CD directly from Universal (owner of the group's label, MCA), as the other two appearances were on K-tel and Renaissance. Actual time is (3:56), so it appears to again be the LP version...

Complete track listing for this CD is as follows (bold = top 40 hits by Pat's standards, so there are plenty of other tracks on this collection that also belong in the database):

01) "The Devil Went Down to Georgia" - THE CHARLIE DANIELS BAND
02) "Gimme Three Steps" - LYNYRD SKYNYRD
03) "Caught Up in You" - .38 SPECIAL
04) "Fooled Around and Fell in Love" - ELVIN BISHOP
05) "If You Wanna Get to Heaven" - OZARK MOUNTAIN DAREDEVILS
06) "Keep Your Hands to Yourself" - GEORGIA SATELLITES
07) "There Goes Another Love Song" - THE OUTLAWS
08) "Flirtin' With Disaster" - MOLLY HATCHET
09) "Can't You See (Live)" - MARSHALL TUCKER BAND
10) "One Way Out" - ALLMAN BROTHERS BAND
11) "Imaginary Lover" - ATLANTA RHYTHM SECTION
12) "Train Train" - BLACKFOOT
13) "Nicole" - POINT BLANK
14) "That Smell" - LYNYRD SKYNYRD

Now since this CD is old enough to have made the 10th edition of Pat's book from 2004, I decided to check the other top 40 hits there, and made an interesting discovery: Under all eight of the other songs from this collection that qualify (except "Nicole"), Pat DOES show a recently-released CD from the time (since it appears at the end of all the listings in bold), simply titled Southern Rock, on Compass Productions 973071009 - while stating "(this cd is available for sale at Target stores only)". I don't have that particular CD, but curiously, my CD does state that the last two tracks ("Nicole" and "That Smell") are, in fact, "BONUS TRACKS" - so I'm assuming the CD I just found is an expanded edition of Compass Productions 973071009, already in Pat's database. (And for the record, yes, "The Devil Went Down to Georgia" on this CD is also the LP version w/ the "son of a b*tch" lyric, and the actual timings on all the other songs seem to match, which is why I didn't bother giving them in the list above.) So I don't know if the shorter 12-track version that Pat already knows about was sold at Target and this 14-track edition was maybe sold at Wal Mart, or what - but mine DOES have a UPC (bar) code on the back, so it was clearly a retail CD somewhere. Checking eBay, I see there are currently two copies of this same expanded 14-track CD available, both used: Copy #1; Copy #2...

It's really a shame that Point Blank didn't achieve greater success, although they did score four lesser hits on Billboard's "Bubbling Under" and/or AOR charts ("Let Me Stay With You Tonight", "On a Roll", "Let Her Go", "Great White Line"). While I don't remember ever hearing any of their "hits" on the radio in SoCal in the early '80s (or seeing any of their videos on MTV, for that matter), I've been a huge fan since the release of their 1988 hits collection, Mean to Your Queenie, on MCA Special Products 20467, which I bought on cassette, and played often! Although it's a bit skimpy at just eight tracks (it was a budget compilation, after all), it does include four of their five "hits", plus some earlier singles - but nothing from their first two albums, which were on Arista. There's currently only one copy on eBay: Point Blank - "Mean to Your Queenie" hits collection (buy it!). Anyway, I thought it was great stuff, so I quickly tracked down all six of their other albums on cassette, just so I had everything. :-) (Some were admittedly a bit tough to find, as they were all out-of-print by the late '80s.) Sadly, the Mean to Your Queenie collection is now long out-of-print, too, and appears to have been cassette-only, as I've searched for it on CD as well for about the last ten years, and have never run across it in that format (be it in stores or on eBay) - but that's not too surprising, since it wasn't until the end of '88 that the majors started putting out all new releases on CD here in the U.S. Of course, it's not even listed in their discography on the band's Wikipedia page - and furthermore, I noticed that the group's name is actually given as "POINT BREAK"(!) by Universal on the spine of the rear tray insert of the V/A CD I just picked up! Ah, no respect... :-(

Edited by 80smusicfreak