Aerosmith "Janie’s Got A Gun"

Does anyone know if there was a difference between the DJ 45 and the commercial 45 on "Janie's Got A Gun"? I have it on a TM Century Gold Disc, which contains DJ versions of most songs, and not only is it shorter, but it has different lyrics.

In the last verse, the LP version says "She's gonna take him down easy and put a bullet in his brain." But the version that top 40 radio stations played (and on my TM disc), those lyrics are "She's gonna take him down easy, he's standing in the pouring rain." Were those lyrics used on the commercial 45 as well?

Todd, run time is 4:23. My copy of the book says "LP Version" next to the Big Ones CD. He must have changed it since the 8th Edition.

I'm guessing that the version I have is the CHR Edit/Remix and that the printed time on the promo single is incorrect. The version on TM Century's Gold Disc runs exactly 4:23 and does not include the "intro" part that's on the LP version.

FYI, this is one song, that according to Billboard and Whitburn's books, there was no commercial 45 for. I remember reading something about it at the time that Geffen wanted to release it cassette-only "to see how it would do". Even though it was an eventual top 5 hit, no 45 was ever pressed to my knowledge.

Does anyone know if there was a promo 45? It was released right around the time labels stopped doing promos on vinyl.

Todd Ireland wrote: Aaron: Yes, Pat now has "Janie's Got a Gun" listed as being the 45 version on Aerosmith's Big Ones (Geffen 24716), Young Lust: The Aerosmith Anthology (Geffen 069493119), and O Yeah! Ultimate Aerosmith Hits (Columbia 86700).

   

I just checked. I haven't paid any attention to the lengths, but all three of these CDs contain the "put a bullet in his brain" lyric.

pat....my cassingle issued as geffen 22727 states on the cassingles face "lp version" (5:29)....but as we know it isn't really the lp version....this should be noted in the db...

Interesting find, eriejwg. What's the run time?

aaron...where did you find that half second of unique noise that starts the single version.....was it on the promo cd single of the song???

torcan wrote: FYI, this is one song, that according to Billboard and Whitburn's books, there was no commercial 45 for. I remember reading something about it at the time that Geffen wanted to release it cassette-only "to see how it would do". Even though it was an eventual top 5 hit, no 45 was ever pressed to my knowledge. Does anyone know if there was a promo 45? It was released right around the time labels stopped doing promos on vinyl.

There was not then, nor has there ever been, a U.S. 45 for "Janie's Got a Gun," either stock or promo.

Another single released around the same time by a Warner Bros. label that was not issued on 7-inch at the time was "Personal Jesus" by Depeche Mode. (It later appeared on a Back To Back Hits 45.)


Edited by TimNeely

MCT1 wrote: I suspect that the failure of "Janie's Got A Gun" to appear on a Back to Back Hits reissue is tied to the subsequent announcement that Geffen was being sold to MCA. Warner had no incentive to put out a BTBH single of a song it was about to lose distribution rights over -- IINM, none of the singles from Pump came out as BTBH issues, though all but "Janie's Got A Gun" exist as regular-issue 45s -- and MCA was not big on reissue 45s. I don't think they ever really had a reissue series for material that came out on the post-1973 MCA label. That has always struck me as odd, since all of the other major labels had active reissue series well into the '80s, some into the '90s. It seems like they kept a few select titles in print under thier original catalog number (I think I have a copy of one of Elton John's '70s titles on an '80s style blue rainbow label), and that was it.

I think you're right in regards to "Janie's Got a Gun." Had Geffen stayed with Warner Bros., it likely would have shown up on a BTBH 45.

MCA, like its corporate predecessor Decca, was of two minds when it came to reissue singles. Decca had a series of 45s with numbers in the 25000s, some of which were back-to-back style reissues, but many of which were unique to that numbering system. The hit version of "Shangri-La" by Robert Maxwell, for example, has a number in the 25000s, and it wasn't released until 1964. Many of Earl Grant's instrumental 45s were in this series, too. But Decca also kept many singles in print all the way until 1972 with the same catalog number (the most common example is Bing Crosby's "White Christmas," which had the number 23776 all the way from 78 rpm days).

MCA had a series of back-to-back reissues in the 1980s, mostly of country hits, that it called "Double Play" (the 45s featured the graphic of a baseball on the label). The singles were mixed in with the numbers of the standard pop series. But it also kept some of its earlier songs in print with the original catalog numbers, such as Elton John's "Step Into Christmas," which was originally issued in 1973 as part of a special 65000 series reserved for holiday singles but appears on the black rainbow, tan and blue rainbow labels.

The closest thing MCA ever had to a dedicated reissue series on 45 was the Collectables 90000 series, which began in the early 1990s.

MCT1 wrote: "Janie's Got A Gun" and "Personal Jesus" were both released right around the time Warner initially began cutting back on releasing vinyl 45s. The decision not to release "Janie's Got A Gun" as a 45 does seem kind of strange, as it could have been predicted at the time of its release to likely be a big hit. Most of the other Warner titles that went 45-less in that time period were lower profile releases. "Personal Jesus" seems a bit more understandable, as Depeche Mode didn't have a much of a singles-chart track record in the U.S. I believe that the next two singles after this by both bands were released as 45s.

Warners was trying to decide whether to continue releasing 45s at all in this period. It eventually decided to continue, resuming its singles in early 1990 with 19999 and counting backwards as usual. But even after that, Warner Bros.'s decisions as to what to release on 45 and what not to release were inscrutable at best. At the same time Warners didn't issue either "Janie's Got a Gun" or "Personal Jesus," it DID issue "Oh Father" by Madonna and a reissue of "You Win Again" by the Bee Gees with a new catalog number.

Indeed, every Aerosmith single that came out through 1997 was issued on an American 45 except "Janie's Got a Gun." Geffen never even went back and put it on a B-side, as some other labels did when they "missed" a hit on 7-inch.