Glenn Frey - "The Heat Is On"

My commercial 45 (MCA 52512, 1984, printed 3:45, actual 3:45) runs 149.5 BPM and has the "knocky" sound on the intro panned left.

The CD that matches the 45 most closely is Rhino's Billboard Top Hits - 1985 (1994). It runs at effectively the same tempo/pitch (technically, 149.8 BPM, so it's about 0.2% faster than the 45, which is insignificant), and it has the "knocky" sound on the intro panned left. It's mastered a bit loud so it clips, but it still sounds mighty nice.

There is a batch of CDs that use the same analog transfer as the Billboard CD:

• Madacy's Rock On - 1985 (1996) (a digital clone, 1.4 dB quieter than Billboard)
• Time-Life's Sounds Of The Eighties - Cinemax Movie Hits Of The '80s (1996)(differently EQ'd digital clone)
• Time-Life's Sounds Of The Eighties - 1985 (1994)(levels drop 1 dB about halfway through, then another 1 dB later on - very odd)
• JCI's Only Dance - 1985-1989 (1995)(same level drops as above)

I bring all of this up because I found a pair of CDs that run too fast (150.6 BPM, or about 0.7% faster than the 45), have their left/right channels reversed, and sound a little muffled, like they came from a higher-generation source tape:

• Warner Special Products' After Hours (1990, 3-CD set)
• Razor & Tie's Totally '80s (1993, 2-CD set) (uses same analog transfer as After Hours)

I prefer the sound on the Billboard CD, and the first batch listed above.

Edited by crapfromthepast

NightAire wrote: G Upon playing this on the air, it occurred to me that I remember hearing it on the radio without the intro "noise" & "whoosh." However, I find no trace of any version on vinyl or CD edited by the record label that way.

Wasn't that the version that was used in the video?

Holy cow! Just listening to a tape of KELI in Tulsa from 1984... and there's "The Heat Is On" with all but that last "whooOOSSHHH!" trimmed from it... so at least I know where I heard it edited!

I can annoy the former MD from there and ask him if he remembers trimming that intro. He loves it when I ask him about songs he carted up 27 years ago. ;-)

My trim of the same song started right on the downbeat; I'm guessing that would have been pretty tough to get right with analog equipment.

...and I just heard the edited intro on 98.5 KDES ("Classic Hits") out of Southern California.

WHERE did this version COME from?? Has every MD edited the intro? Possible, but it seems more likely there was an edit released, somewhere...