"Muskrat Love" - Captain & Tennille

The database now reports that commercial 45 copies of The Captain & Tennille's "Muskrat Love" runs 3:40. The song is shown with a 3:29 time on the various artist CD '70s Party (Killer) Classics (Rhino 75233), but contains no comment that accounts for the significant run time difference (unlike in the 10th edition of Top 40 Music on Compact Disc which previously had reported that this particular disc contained the "45 length"). Should this 3:29 length of "Muskrat Love" on the Rhino CD have a comment indicating it's an early fade of the 45 and LP length? Or was there perhaps a DJ 45 length of this song that ran 3:29?

Now the pieces of the puzzle all fall into place. My dj copy of "Muskrat Love" states a run time of (3:28) and actually runs (3:29) so the Rhino 75233 cd contains the dj edit. According to Paul Haney, the commercial 45 really is the same as the LP version running (3:46)

I only have a promo of this. What is the difference between the promo edit and the LP/commercial 45? Just an early fade perhaps? I really, really detest this song and can't say I've ever listened very closely to it.
Interestingly, there's no indication on the promo copy that it's an edit...strange, since A&M would usually indicate it (even in cases like "Jackie Blue" where the promo & commercial 45s were the same edit from the album).

sriv94 wrote: Hykker wrote: I only have a promo of this. What is the difference between the promo edit and the LP/commercial 45? Just an early fade perhaps? I really, really detest this song and can't say I've ever listened very closely to it. I don't blame you. :) I've always thought the difference was just the length of the fade, but I can't confirm that.

Yeah, it just fades out early. There's a long synthesizer "bongo" solo at the end after the rest of the music fades on the album length version.

Everybody seems to hate "Muskrat Love," but, you know, it's intended to be a silly, humorous novelty song. It's not supposed to be serious or romantic.

Incidentally, Captain and Tennille had no intention of ever releasing the song as a single. The third single from their second album was scheduled to be either "Wedding Song" or "Song of Joy." (It's unclear which was the intended A-side, since when this 45 was finally released as part of A&M's Forget-Me-Nots series, it appears from the matrix that the "A" and "B" sides were switched, with the old number on each side being scribbled out.)

But, as often happened in the '70s, some radio stations started playing the song and callers started requesting it, so A&M scrapped the third planned single and replaced it with "Muskrat Love."

eriejwg wrote: Now that it's been determined to be a fade, anyone have fade points?

I timed the stereo side of my DJ 45, which runs (3:30.8) Begin the fade at 3:20 until the end. Serves 12. :)