Night Ranger (You Can Still) Rock In Amer

Night Ranger - (You Can Still) Rock In America

I wondered if anybody knew what the "Short Version" (the flip of the promo, and possibly the commercial 45) edited out.

My memory suggests that part of the guitar solo was taken out, but darned if I remember where the edit was after all these years.

The label says 3:57, but who knows if that's anywhere near accurate?

P.S. - I was always amazed this wasn't a bigger hit at the time, and even more amazed every year on the 4th of July when fireworks shows don't use this song in their display...

Gene, my apologies, as I must've overlooked your 7/16 post.

Yes, both my MCA/Camel 42305 commercial and promo 45 "short
version" copies are identical, right down to the deadwax particulars. Listed
time (3:57); actual time (3:58). The "long version" side of my promo 45
has a listed time of (4:14), but an actual time of (4:10).

The fact that this song didn't make the national Top 40 wasn't due to a
lack of promotional effort by MCA, as I recall. This was their first single
for the label, after having some 1983 success on the Boardwalk label, and
MCA worked it fairly hard to us. But the band hadn't yet had a real CHR
hit, as "Don't Tell Me You Love Me" just squeaked in at a #40 BB peak.

Personally, then and now, I found "Rock In America" to be an unusually
lead guitar-intensive track for CHR. I always felt that more of a melodic,
"guitar hook" presence helped rock songs getting good AOR play to also
become CHR hits. Whereas this song struck me as just "too busy", far less
hook-y, and much more of a guitar riff-dominant track. My general rock
genre rule: guitar riffs = AOR format as home turf, while guitar hooks =
CHR format as home turf.

Gene, the song sounds like a personal fave of yours. Well apparently, you
weren't alone. To demonstrate MCA's huge, continuing belief in this
track's quality, once the LP's 2nd single (Sister Christian) became Night
Ranger's first Top 10 CHR hit, my station was re-serviced with another
"Rock In America" promo 45 copy. Exactly the same stock # and versions
as on the earlier promo, but this copy was placed in a special radio pic
sleeve. It had a can't miss, mega-bold-print, red stripe, white print "FOR
RECURRENT PLAY ONLY" message, across it.       

The custom pic sleeve's other side had a photocopied "Dear Programmer"
letter, touting the LP's million-copy sales to date, Sister Christian's
current CHR success, recalling the recent Top 5 airplay for "...America" at
AOR, claiming it *had* been successful for the CHR stations that did spin
it earlier, and that 50,000 watt powerhouse WLS-AM in Chicago had just
added it as a recurrent. Clearly MCA now wanted other CHRs to follow,
without messing with the launch of "When You Close Your Eyes", which
MCA was about to issue as the "official" Sister Christian follow-up 45.

Edited by jimct

I am curious about the short side of this song. I have a
raw dub and the intro has some sort of electronic
scratching sound over the guitar. I don't hear it in the
lp version. I am wondering if there was a mix difference
in addition to the complicated edit? or the dub I have just
has static and noise. It's a rather clean dub, so not sure.    
I was going to drop the complicated edit in a cd version
but want the 45 re-creation to be authentic. Right now I
just have the cleaned up dub. Does anyone have this promo
45 that can verify if there is a mix difference from the
LP?

Edited by promojunkie