Country Single Edits/Mixes

Is there a version of this board for country music?
There were many country singles edited, remixed or
otherwise changed for radio and/or singles. Take the
Judds. "Love Can Build A Bridge" was faded early while
"Born To Be Blue" and "Grandpa (Tell Me 'Bout The Good
Old Days)" were trimmed. Just like Pop, I have been
curious how many of these songs are available in their
single form or can be re-created from the album
versions.

Funny...it was that CD that prompted my question!

The "Grandpa" 45 is 3:56 vs. 4:12 on the album. There
are so many others that I can think of like KT Oslin
("Do Ya")," Ronnie Milsap ("Lost In The Fifties
Tonight"), Sylvia ("Like Nothing Ever Happened") and
Alabama ("Mountain Music") just to name a few.

Scanner, you mentioned Alabama, and in skimming through my promo 45s, here are a few more with differences:

"My Home's In Alabama": the long side of the MDJ promo 45 is listed at 6:24; the short side, along with the stock 45, lists 3:58.

"Roll On (Eighteen Wheeler)": the short version side eliminates the trucker's intro, so the song starts cold.

"There's No Way": the spoken "There's no way" at the end is mixed out on the "without spoken part" side, at least on the yellow vinyl promo 45. Don't have the standard black promo 45 to compare.

"The Closer You Get" runs 3:35 and 4:32 on the promo 45.

"If You're Gonna Play In Texas (You Gotta Have A Fiddle In The Band)": The 3:20 yellow-label promo 45 (NOT the standard promo cream-colored label) I got at KOMA came with this letter inside the sleeve, from RCA's Dallas regional promotion manager:

You may have gotten a copy of ALABAMA'S single... "IF YOU'RE GONNA PLAY IN TEXAS" with an "EYES OF TEXAS" intro. This is a copy of the record without that intro. I apologize for any confusion that we may have caused.

Guess that was too much Texas for Alabama to handle. ;) The "mistake" release with the rogue intro was labeled "special version" on the tan promo label with dark red print. We received duplicate service from RCA: the standard cream-label/black vinyl promo 45s pressed in Indianapolis, and the promo 45 pressings which I believe were done in Nashville, mastered by Masterphonics (the actual label fonts on these were different than the Indy ones.) The label colors and the label print colors on the Nashville promos varied from release to release, and the vinyl ranged from black to red, light blue, dark blue, yellow, gold, green, orange... you name it. I kept every one of those just because they were so unique.

Three non-Alabama hits come immediately to mind:

Steve Earle - "Guitar Town": the "Jap guitar" lyric on the LP/CD version was changed to "cheap guitar" on both the promo and stock 45s.

George Strait - "Amarillo By Morning": The 45 is a remix, with a different fiddle line during the intro. It starts off with everything pretty much mixed to the center, whereas the stereo separation is evident from the first note on the album mix. On the guitar during the last chorus, the first note starts out in the left channel, then the instrument quickly pans to the center and remains there. On the album version, the guitar stays put in the left channel over that same chorus. I've never found the 45 mix on any George Strait compilation.

Gene Watson - "Speak Softly (You're Talking To My Heart)": We played this initially as an album cut, and when the 45 was released, I was really disappointed to find that they'd remixed it and toned it down. The single lacks the same driving beat that the LP version shared with Gene's previous hit, "Fourteen Carat Mind." I believe the album version is available on CD, but I haven't picked it up. The single mix seems to be more readily available digitally.    

Edited by Yah Shure

Gene Watson - "Speak Softly (You're Talking To My
Heart)": We played this initially as an album cut,
and when the 45 was released, I was really
disappointed to find that they'd remixed it and toned
it down. The single lacks the same driving beat that
the LP version shared with Gene's previous hit,
"Fourteen Carat Mind." I believe the album version is
available on CD, but I haven't picked it up. The
single mix seems to be more readily available
digitally.    [/QUOTE]

Isn't there a 1 minute difference between those two
mixes - with the album version being the shorter of
the two? (I need to pull my Gene Watson lp's and 45's
to compare....)

Stanko wrote: Some RCA country promos in that era were even different mixes or re-sings of the album versions. There’s the infamous Dolly Parton “Think About Love” promo that offered heavier drums and added vocal parts. Warner Bros also edited songs for radio, too in the 80’s.

Was this just an album vs single version issue, or were
the promos significantly different than commercial 45s
too?
I don't recall seeing many country singles at record
stores around here (New England). Maybe different in
other regions.