"Call Me" - Blondie

I agree with Todd on the 45/LP notation.

Nearly all the CDs out there include the 45 version of the song. I'll try to decipher the mastering history.

The first analog transfer is on the US Best Of Blondie CD (copyright 1981), where it runs 3:32 and 142.0 BPM throughout (played with a click track). At the very, very end of the tail, I think I hear bleed-through from one of the other tracks on Best Of - it's not a big deal, but it's still a little weird to hear. The same analog transfer is used on:

• Priority's Rock Of The '80s Vol. 1 (1990; also clips at -3 dB on bottom half of waveform on left channel)
• PolyTel Canada's Rock With The '80s (1990; digitally exactly 0.33 dB louder)
• Priority's Mega-Hits Dance Classics Vol. 13 (1993; small amount of compression/limiting added)
• Cema's Greatest Hits Of The 80's Vol. 4 New Wave Hits (1994; differently EQ'd digital clone)
• Cema's 2-CD Cool Rock (1995; digitally identical)
• Time-Life's Sounds Of The Eighties Vol. 25 Rolling Stone 1980-1981 (1995)
• Rebound's Disco Nights Vol. 10 Disco's Greatest Movie Hits (1996; way too much compression/limiting added - avoid)
• Rebound's Classic Rock '80s (1997)

Bill Inglot did a new analog transfer for Billboard Top Hits 1980 (1992), which runs 3:29 at 143.2 BPM throughout. The same analog transfer is used on:

• Rhino's Billboard Top Dance Hits 1980 (1992; digitally identical)
• Time-Life's Guitar Rock Vol. 4 1980-1981 (1994)
• JCI's Only Rock 'N Roll 1980-1984 (1994)
• Warner Special Products' 2-CD Rock Box (1994)
• Time-Life's Sounds Of The Seventies Vol. 38 Celebration (1994; adds a little extra compression/limiting - avoid)
• Time-Life's Sounds Of The Eighties Vol. 7 1980 (1995; differently EQ'd digital clone)
• Warner Special Products' Eighteen Disco Superhits (1996)
• Madacy's Rock On 1980 (1996; digitally exactly 0.4 dB louder than Rock Box)
• Time-Life's Another Lost Decade At The Movies (2005; differently EQ'd digital clone)

There was a new analog transfer done for Chrysalis's 2-CD The Platinum Collection (1994), which runs 3:30 and 142.5 BPM throughout. There a digitally identical clone on 10 Best Series (1997).

There are a bunch of others that I couldn't identify:

• Chrysalis' UK Best Of (1983; 142.7 BPM)
• Warner Special Products' 2-CD Good Times (1991; 142.7 BPM)
• EMI Australia's 5-CD Eighties Complete Vol. 1 (1997; 142.4 BPM)
• Disky Europe's 8-CD Greatest Hits Of The '80s (1998; 142.8 BPM, compressed)
• Simitar's Number Ones Eighties Rock (1998, 141.9 BPM)
• Time-Life's 2-CD Modern Rock Vol. 5 Dance (1999; 143.3 BPM)
• Disky Europe's 8-CD Greatest Hits Of The 80s (2002; 142.8 BPM)
• Rhino's 7-CD Like Omigod (2002; 143.0 BPM)
• EMI Europe's 2-CD Best Of 1980-1981 (2003; 142.6 BPM)

There's also a Spanish version, released on Salsoul Records in 1980, and first appearing on CD on Chrysalis's Blonde And Beyond (1993; 141.6 BPM).

There's a dreadful remix that grazed the bottom of the UK charts in 1989. It first appeared on Once More Into The Bleach, and also appears on EMI UK's Time To Remember 1989 (1997). Bleh.

As you probably know, I usually prefer early '90s Bill Inglot mastering, which typically uses the lowest-generation source tapes in existence, and doesn't add any noise reduction or extra compression/limiting. I recommend Rhino's Billboard Top Hits 1980 (1992) for the 45 version of "Call Me".

The LP version runs 8:02 - it's kinda rare on CD so grab it when you can find it. (The American Gigolo soundtrack was on Polydor! Who knew?)

Edited by crapfromthepast

Good ear, VJ!

There were a handful of tracks on the Billboard discs that were re-edited from great-sounding source tapes. "Kiss On My List" is one that springs to mind - it sounds great, but it misses the 45 edit point by a beat or two (i.e., cuts to a different part of the song too early or too late by a beat or two).

The version on is Billboard Top Hits 1980 (1992) is indeed an edit of the LP version, and is not the true 45 version. I'm 99% sure that this new version originated on this disc, and didn't exist when the song was a hit in 1980.

The group of CDs following the BB listing are also this edit of the LP version/mix, as well as Rhino's Hard Rock Cafe New Wave (1997), which I didn't have back then, and Time-Life's 2-CD Modern Rock Vol. 5 Dance (1999).

All the others are the true 45 version.

Out of the remaining discs, the sound on the US and UK Best Of Blondie is muddy, the sound on The Platinum Collection is a little loud and aggressive, and the sound on Like Omigod is VERY clear and crisp, but way too loud and clips a lot.

Overall, I prefer The Platinum Collection for the true 45 version.

If there's an incorrect edit on the Air Supply, please post details in a
separate thread for the song. Pat's database has the Billboard disc
listed as "45 version."

vinyljay69 wrote: You seem to have inside information ;). Do you know why they simply didn't use the single masters? Were they inaccessible at the time? Perhaps lost? Deteriorated?

I wouldn't call it inside information; it's more like outside information but viewed through a hundred different windows.

I've done a lot of A/B comparisons, for the different masterings of hundreds of tracks. After a while, I noticed patterns. If there was a slightly incorrect edit on a track with great sound quality, I could usually trace it back to a Rhino disc from the early 1990s.

I (I say I, but it's really we here on the board) noticed some small discrepancies on a few tracks:

• EVERY 1'S A WINNER - Hot Chocolate (Have A Nice Day Vol. 22 cleans up the poor edit from the 45, and extends longer than the 45)
• YOU MAKE ME FEEL LIKE DANCING - Leo Sayer (Billboard Top Hits 1977 fixes the poor edit from the 45)
• LE FREAK - Chic (The Disco Years Vol. 4 stars with great-sounding tapes of the LP version, shortens the choruses to match the 45, and doesn't fade early, to produce a version significantly longer than the 45)
• HOT STUFF - Donna Summer (The Disco Years Vol. 5 runs significantly longer than the 45 edit)
• FRESH - Kool And The Gang (Disco Years Vol. 4 includes the edit that's on the 45 but keeps the LP fade)
• DREAM WEAVER - Gary Wright (Billboard Top Hits 1976 has a homemade edit, which runs 9 seconds longer than the 45)
• KISS ON MY LIST - Daryl Hall And John Oates (Billboard Top Hits 1981 comes really close to getting the 45 edit)
• ADDICTED TO LOVE - Robert Palmer (Billboard Top Hits 1986 recreates the weird edit from The Island Story but with better source tapes and a longer fade)

This list isn't complete, and isn't intended to be disparaging to the Rhino discs. All the above have fantastic sound quality. I think it's a logical conclusion that Bill Inglot (or whoever worked with him at Rhino) decided that the album version source tapes sounded significantly better than the 45 source tapes, and decided to recreate the 45 using the album version source tapes. He basically did what we editors do here on the board, but with real deadline and budget constraints. If an edit is off by a fraction of a beat, he likely didn't notice.

Edited by crapfromthepast