Billy Swan-"I Can Help"

Hykker wrote: I didn't realize that CBS-distributed labels issued "special rush reservice" singles as late as 1974, I don't think I've ever seen one post-1970. I do recall seeing some reserviced CBS 45s in special sleeves with "here's a fresh copy, thanks" printed on them in the mid-ish 70s.

Here's a special rush reservice from 1976, for the record that, in my opinion, was the biggest "shoulda-woulda-coulda" that never happened during the '70s. Sailor's "Glass Of Champagne" was certainly no slouch; it had already hit #2 in the U.K., and garnered Billboard's sole ChartBound top single pick for the week ending February 14, 1976.

Unfortunately, the ChartBound mention in the upper right corner of that week's Hot 100 was as close as it ever got to any Billboard chart. To my ears, it was a smash, and every person I played it for at the time thought so, too. So what happened? Not enough promotion from Epic? I stopped in at the Columbia-Epic promotion office in Minneapolis to ask about it. The Epic promo rep said it was "a smash," and gave me one of the miniature bottles of champagne that they'd just sent out to the region's secondary stations to promote the 45.

There was enough of a push nationally that Epic did do a special rush reservice later on. I never date-stamped my reservice copy, but it was sent well after the initial promo, which had arrived during the first week of February, '76. (The reserviced 45's orange Epic sleeve also looked like a rush job: the die-cut hole was too high on the front, and it was so oversaturated with orange ink that the color bled through to the inside and onto the white stereo side label.)

But somewhere along the line, U.S. radio didn't bite. There was a follow-up 45 from the Trouble LP, but "Girls, Girls, Girls" didn't attract any significant attention. Epic released neither the next U.K. 45, "Stiletto Heels," nor its LP, The Third Step here in the U.S.

The Sailor example is more in line with what my experience was with Columbia's special rush reservices. I didn't find them to be replacements for worn-out copies. Instead, they were sometimes used for new edits, mixes or variations, such as Chicago's Japenese (sic) version of "Questions 67 And 68."

But mostly, they were intended to ensure that key radio stations had copies of a record on hand that had taken an unusually long period of time to break or else had just become more of a priority for the label. Knowing how limited the holding space was for storing new, but yet-to-be-added promo 45s at most radio stations, there was often a policy of tossing out the assumed stiffs after a certain amount of time had elapsed from the dates stamped on the labels. The rush reservices were the best way to make certain that every key station had a copy in its possession, while at the same time, saying, in effect, "Hey! This is a priority!" This is likely the scenario for "I Can Help," which was definitely a left-field hit. Once the ball finally got rolling, it didn't stop.

Jim, you mentioned the common practice of stamping or stickering stock copies, and in my experience, that was far and away the preferred method of keeping radio stations supplied with clean copies. It was definitely far less expensive than ordering additional press runs and printing the labels for a dedicated reservice. At Heilicher Brothers-Minneapolis, whenever any of the stations in our region needed fresh copies after we'd already mailed out all of the promo copies, we'd pull them from stock in the warehouse, mail them to the stations and charge back the labels.

I found the "Here's A Fresh Copy - Thanks"-sleeved 45s to be intended more for replacing worn-out copies (the sleeve has a 1977 copyright date on the front corner not shown in the photo.) One of those sleeves I have contains a promo-stamped stock copy of James Taylor's "Handy Man." Then again, another accompanied a promo copy of the country band Shylo's "Gotta Travel On," which reached a whopping number 91 on the country chart. Clearly not many, if any stations ever needed a fresh copy of that one!

I was tempted to draw a couple of hundred-dollar bills tucked into that handshake on the fresh copy sleeve... ;)

Edited by Yah Shure

Jim, thanks for mentioning the "Big Ear" sleeve! I could picture it mentally while scanning the Fresh Copy sleeve, but wasn't about to just start digging around for one... until you mentioned "Substitute." Both of my copies in said sleeves also carry the Special Rush Reservice designation on the labels, so that phrase was in use at least through November 10, 1978 (the date stamped on the labels.)

Too much "inside baseball?" No way! Such were some of the behind-the-scenes parts of the whys and whatnots of what did (or didn't) make certain records top-40 hits. You are dead on with your "once a label stopped 'working' a record, it was dead" statement. Truer words have never been spoken.

That "mystery meat" part pretty much sums it up, too. :)

Just some mastering notes.

The 45 and LP have different mixes. For example, the LP mix has background vocals at 1:37 on the line "do you good," while the 45 mix lacks these background vocals. They also play at different speeds, with the LP being faster than the 45. (I don't have the song on vinyl to check. The YouTube videos of the 45 being played are all over the map and unreliable; I found two of them that differ in speed by about 4%!)

45 version (3:00)

The first CD to include the 45 version was Rhino's Billboard Top Rock 'N' Roll Hits 1974 (1989), where it ran 2:55 and (according to the database) ran at the LP speed. The same analog transfer is used on:

• Time-Life's Sounds Of The Seventies Vol. 7 1974 (1990) - digitally identical
• Time-Life's 2-CD Classic Country Vol. 4 1970-1974 (1998) - digitally exactly 1 dB louder
• Time-Life's 2-CD Seventies Music Explosion One-Hit Wonders (2005) - digitally exactly 2.4 dB louder

It sounds just fine on all of the above.

There was a new analog transfer on Rhino's Have A Nice Day Vol. 13 (1990), which has a slightly different EQ that tames the brashness of the guitar solo. I prefer this EQ over the BB disc, but it's not a huge difference. The speed is pretty much the same as the BB disc, as is the length of the tail on the fade. The same analog transfer is used on:

• Rhino's Rock This Town Rockabilly Hits Vol. 2 (1991) - digitally identical
• JCI's Only Country 1970-1974 (1995) - left and right channels are swapped
• Time-Life's AM Gold Vol. 21 1974 (1996) - digitally exactly 0.5 dB louder
• Razor & Tie's 7-CD 70 Number One Hits Of The 70s Vol. 4 (1998) - digitally identical
• Realm's 3-CD Greatest Hits Of The '70s Vol. 1 (2001)

LP version (about 4:00)

I have the LP version on 4 CDs that are all based on a single mastering. I'd bet that they're all based on the mastering from Sony Music Special Products' Billy Swan Best (1990), but I can't confirm. All run about 0.7% slower than the 45 masterings listed above.

The 4 CDs are:

• K-Tel's Seems Like Yesterday Vol. 2 Mid 70's (1989) - tail of fade just barely reaches the last note and applause
• Sony's Rock N' 70's (1993) - differently EQ'd digital clone of Seems Like Yesterday, but (somehow) extends out to applause and cheer after the last note
• Time-Life's 2-CD Singers And Songwriters Vol. 3 1974-1975 (1999) - tail of fade doesn't reach the last note before the applause
• Sony's 5-CD Epic 50th Anniversary Collection (2003) - digitally exactly 1.5 dB louder than Singers And Songwriters Vol. 3 1974-1975 but faded from 2:50 to 3:01; this is the LP mix faded roughly to match the 45 length; didn't exist in 1974

There's a different analog transfer on EMI Australia's 5-CD Seventies Complete Vol. 2 (1999), which fades before it reaches the last note.

My recommendations

The sound quality on all of the above discs is pretty good. Decent source tapes, excellent dynamic range (no clipping or extra compression/limiting), and no evidence of noise reduction on any of them.

For the 45 version, go with Rhino's Have A Nice Day Vol. 13 (1990). It may need some speed correction to truly match the 45.

For the LP version, go with Sony's Rock N' 70's (1993), which has the longest tail on the fade of the discs that I have.

Hykker wrote: Apparently, my promo is a "first pressing" since there's no "reservice" notation on it. Matrix #s are the same as Jim's. I didn't realize that CBS-distributed labels issued "special rush reservice" singles as late as 1974, I don't think I've ever seen one post-1970. I do recall seeing some reserviced CBS 45s in special sleeves with "here's a fresh copy, thanks" printed on them in the mid-ish 70s.

I own at least one later "Special Rush Reservice" 45,
Chicago's "Another Rainy Day In New York City". I own
the original promo, and the reservice promo.