George McCrae - Rock Your Baby

A nice rhythm-box soul hit from 1974, and the first taste of success for the guys who would later form KC and the Sunshine Band.

45 version

The true 45 version appears on Priority's Mega-Hits Dance Classics Vol. 2 (1989), where it runs 3:12, and sounds fine, even though it's too loud and clips a bit.

Good thing Priority released it when it did, because every CD from 1990 onward used the LP mix. It's the same situation as "Get Down Tonight": the 45 came out first, the song got a new mix for the LP, and Rhino trimmed down the LP mix for the CD release of the song in 1990.

LP mix and LP length

It's on a few discs, and runs about 6:22. I have a file from the 1988 original release of the Canadian disc Dance Classics, which sounds fine to my ears.

LP mix faded to 45 length

The LP mix faded to the 45 length first appeared on Rhino's Get Down Tonight The Best Of T.K. Records (1990), where it runs 3:18. It sounds great here - terrific dynamic range, nice EQ, low-generation source tapes, and no evidence of NR. The same analog transfer is used on:

• Rhino's Billboard Top R&B Hits 1974 (1990) - digitally identical
• Rhino's Didn't It Blow Your Mind Vol. 13 (1991) - digitally identical
• Razor & Tie's 2-CD Sweet '70s Soul (1991)
• Rhino's cheapie Disco Hits Vol. 1 (1992) - digitally exactly 0.477 dB quieter

Time-Life's Sounds Of The Seventies Vol. 15 1974 Take Two (1991) uses the same analog transfer as Get Down Tonight, but adds noise reduction! Listen to the hi-hat completely disappear on the fade of the Time-Life disc, and compare to the Rhino disc, where the hi-hat stays intact to the end of the fade. Avoid the Time-Life disc for "Rock Your Baby". And also avoid these discs, which are based on the mastering of the Time-Life disc and also have noise reduction:

• Warner Special Products' 18 Disco Superhits (1996)
• JCI's Only Dance 1970-1974 (1996)
• Madacy's Rock On 1974 (1996) - digitally exactly 1.9 dB louder
• Time-Life's Solid Gold Soul Vol. 9 1974 (1996) - differently-EQ'd digital clone
• Time-Life's Sounds Of The Seventies Vol. 43 '70s Dance Party 1972-1974 (1997) - differently-EQ'd digital clone
• Time-Life's AM Gold Vol. 29 #1 Hits Of The '70s '70-'74 (2000) - digitally identical
• Time-Life's 2-CD Seventies Music Explosion Vol. 1 Sunshine (2005)

Finally, I have a few foreign discs that seem to be new analog transfers of the same source tape that Rhino used. None of these have noise reduction:

• EMI UK's Time To Remember 1974 (1996)
• Disky UK's Beat Goes On Vol. 5 (1997)
• EMI Australia's 5-CD Seventies Complete Vol. 1 (1997) - fades a little early
• Disky UK's 5-CD Wow That Was The 70's (1999) - compressed
• Disky UK's 8-CD Greatest Hits Of The '70s (2000) - missing first two beats of song

My recommendations

For the true 45 version, go with Priority's Mega-Hits Dance Classics Vol. 2 (1989).

For the LP mix faded to the 45 length, go with Rhino's Get Down Tonight The Best Of T.K. Records (1990).

I don't have enough versions of the LP version to make a recommendation.

Edited by crapfromthepast

When Rhino purchased Roulette Records in 1989, the T.K. catalogue came with it. Roulette had purchased T.K. about ten years before. Rhino was very displeased with the tapes they received from Roulette (but, of course, didn't want to mess with Morris Levy). For example, there were no Tommy James tapes at all. Rhino went looking for usable Tommy James tapes and found the tapes they would eventually use in the possession of Tommy James himself. (I'm recalling this from a Goldmine article from at least 25 years ago.) Tommy James did not have copies of the single masters; these would long be believed to have been lost forever until they were discovered in the EMI vaults in the UK about twenty years later.

My guess is that Rhino (now owned by Warner Brothers) did not receive the single masters of "Rock Your Baby" and "Get Down Tonight" from Roulette back in 1989.

Had a chance to listen to the lone 45 version listed in
the database and it actually fades 5 seconds early
compared to the actual 45.

I went back and re-timed my 45. It's close to 3:17,
running 3:16.7. I'll send a dub to Mark Matthews for his
analysis.

The database needs to be corrected. The lone 45 mix fades
out 3 seconds earlier than the 45 vs. 5 seconds.