Hard To Find 45s On CD Vol. 8: Seventies

Many of us (myself included) are big fans of the Eric CDs - great track selection, great liner notes, very good sound, and a good attention to the hit single versions of the tracks.

While Hard To Find 45s On CD Vol. 8: Seventies Pop Classics (Eric, 2002) has all of the above great qualities and is a sturdy pop collection in its own right, I will point out that many of the tracks are readily available elsewhere. In fact, many tracks on this CD are digital clones of versions from existing CDs, with just a level change, or a level change and an EQ adjustment.

(Specifically, a "digital clone" of a track means that you can get the samples from the two tracks to line up in an audio editing program. If you can then get cancellation down to dithering noise with a level change, then one is "digitally exactly" x.x dB louder/quieter than the other. If the samples line up but you can't get complete cancellation, then one is an EQ-ed version of the other. If you can detect transient effects, then there may be additional noise reduction applied to one of the tracks.)

Here are my findings, track by track:

1. Kiss You All Over - Exile
    Different EQ than Rhino's Have A Nice Day Vol. 21 (1993) and Rhino's Billboard Top Hits - 1978 (1991)

2. Stumblin' In - Suzi Quatro and Chris Norman
    Different EQ than Rhino's Have A Nice Day Vol. 22 (1993)

3. Which Way You Goin' Billy? - The Poppy Family
    About 0.4% faster than version on Rhino's Have A Nice Day Vol. 2 (1990) - obviously different mastering

4. Last Song - Edward Bear
    About 0.6% slower than version on Rhino's Have A Nice Day Vol. 10 (1990) - obviously different mastering

5. Oh Babe What Would You Say? - Hurricane Smith
    About 0.1% slower than version on Rhino's Have A Nice Day Vol. 10 (1990) - obviously different mastering

6. Love Really Hurts Without You - Billy Ocean
    Different EQ than Rhino's Have A Nice Day Vol. 23 (1996)

7. Kung Fu Fighting - Carl Douglas
    Digitally exactly 1.5 dB louder than Rhino's Have A Nice Day Vol. 14 (1990), possibly with additional noise reduction

8. Right Back Where We Started From - Maxine Nightingale
    Appears to be based on the mastering of Time-Life's Sounds Of The Seventies - 1976: Take Two (1991), but with added phasing that's imperceptible when you hear the track by itself, but sounds like wow/flutter when you combine the two tracks

9. You Don't Have To Be A Star (To Be In My Show) - Marilyn McCoo and Billy Davis Jr.
    Different EQ than Razor & Tie's Easy '70s (1993), with an additional fade from 3:28 to 3:41; also different EQ than Time-Life's Pop Nuggets: Late '70s (1995) with same additional fade

10. My Angel Baby - Toby Beau
    Different EQ than Rhino's Have A Nice Day Vol. 25 (1996)

11. Fool (If You Think It's Over) - Chris Rea
    Obviously different mastering than other versions I have. Here are instructions for creating this version from the 4:49 version on Mystic Music Present Good Times (1991) - remove the 128 beats from 2:52.6-4:06.5 so that there's an obvious-sounding edit at "ooh", and speed up by about 0.5%. Now that I know where it is, the edit is painful for me to hear - you hear a sax in the background before the edit that disappears after the edit. Oof!

12. Emotion - Samantha Sang
    Digitally exactly same levels as Rhino's Have A Nice Day Vol. 24 (1996), most likely with additional noise reduction

13. Right Time Of The Night - Jennifer Warnes
    Different EQ than Sessions' Secret Love (1987)

14. After The Goldrush - Prelude
    Very uncommon track, and not on any other CDs I own. Truth be told, I've never heard this song before.

15. Rivers Of Babylon - Boney M
    Also an uncommon track. The only other CD I have with this song features a remixed version from the mid-'80s.

16. Beautiful Sunday - Daniel Boone
    Different EQ than Rhino's Have A Nice Day Vol. 9 (1990)

17. Magic - Pilot
    Digitally exactly 1.5 dB quieter than Rhino's Have A Nice Day Vol. 14 (1990)

18. Ebony Eyes - Bob Welch
    Same version but different mastering than both Time-Life's Late '70s (1993) and Cema's Rock On - 1978 (1996)

19. Driver's Seat - Sniff 'N' The Tears
    Digitally identical to Rhino's Have A Nice Day Vol. 22 (1993), with an additional fade from 3:31.5 to 3:41.7

20. Love Is In The Air - John Paul Young
    About 1.3% faster than versions on both Rhino's Have A Nice Day Vol. 22 (1993) and Time-Life's AM Nuggets (1993) - obviously different masterings


This is all just FYI. Worth it for the Boney M and Prelude tracks, but the other 18 are readily found elsewhere or can be easily created from versions found elsewhere.

Edited by crapfromthepast

Perhaps, Tom Daly will chime in on this thread, since Skyline, I believe, mastered these CD's...

According to the db, "Driver's Seat" is the 45 length, Chris Rea is the 45 version, Poppy Family is the LP version.

crapfromthepast wrote: 19. Driver's Seat - Sniff 'N' The Tears Always a favorite of mine, and one that instantly takes me back to when I was 10 and just discovering top 40 radio. There's a 12" version of this that came out in 1980, which is included on their "Best Of" CD - it would be just perfect except that it omits some of the accent synth sounds that begin each verse.

Fantastic song, indeed - probably in my top 20, all-time. I assume you're referring to the U.K. import titled "A Best of..." on Chiswick CDWIK 102, and is therefore not included in Pat's book/database. I have that CD as well, and had never heard that 12" version prior to picking it up a few years ago. (Have all the group's original albums on cassette, though - oh, and Loz Netto's '80s solo albums are also recommended!) That (5:48) 12" version is pure bliss - heck, it IS perfect, lol. In fact, I hardly ever listen to the "45/LP lengths" any more, although for folks here, it's worth noting that the (3:59) "LP length" is also included on the "A Best of..." CD... :-)

crapfromthepast wrote: 14. After The Goldrush - Prelude Don't think I've ever run across this one on CD before. Being acapella, even a clean vinyl copy sounds kind of grody. Does it sound like it's from tape or cleaned-up vinyl? Don't recall it being much of a hit, but it was in the gold rotation of a west coast station I did weekends at in the mid 70s. No flames please, but I like this version a lot better than Neil Young's. Could go either way - I didn't hear any obvious surface noise in the quiet parts or on the tail of the last note. And thankfully, it's in stereo - this is one song that would sound awful in mono. A terrific record, and I'm surprised that it's escaped me until now.

Ron, I only ever recall hearing "Goldrush" on the mono AM top-40s. Perhaps that was just as well, considering how bad some of the older Motorumble broadcast turntables of the day sounded in FM stereo during quiet passages.

Every Prelude completist (lol) simply has to have a copy of "Christmas Message" (Island IXPI 1) in his or her collection. This one-sided promo is the shortest 45 with audio that I own, and is sung a capella to the tune of "After The Goldrush":

This is Prelude sending you a greeting
Especially from us to you
We wish you all a Merry Christmas
And a very happy New Year, too-oooo-ooo-ooooo

Although issued in mono, this was a pretty neat-sounding item. Total time was :20, making for a very odd-looking trailoff pattern.

Hi folks,

I assisted Mr. Daly in mastering this disc so i can answer some of the questions posed above.
I'll do my best:

Re: Which Way You Goin' Billy.
Mr. Buster had final say over that track, and yes he broke his own general rule for a HTF 45's package by electing to use the LP version here. The mono 45 mix, as David noted, is a different mix on which the drums are much lower, and the end runs a bit longer. The tape source for this LP version was provided by Terry Jacks. It was felt this was the best source coming from the owner, but it was very hissy so some noise reduction was used. Mr. Jacks does not have the mono master for the 45 version.

Re: Rivers Of Babylon. The Sire 45 was the only known time that version was ever issued anywhere. The only known place to get it was from where it would be: the Warner vaults. Bill called them and they located the Sire master and baked it for 6 hours to un-glue it as it had not been touched since 1978.

Re: Fool (If You Think It's Over).
Well, Tom's first attempt was to re-create the 45 version (in a non-clumsy way, preferably) from the LP version. He found that after re-creating the edits this was not possible (according to Tom) because the 45 faded at a later spot than the LP so it became too short.
So, again Bill contacted where the 45 master would be now, in the EMI vaults. Even tho they no longer have the rights, they still have the tape. (same deal as Boney M) This version is directly off the original UA 45 master, so for the bad edit, you'll need to speak to whoever edited it in 1978. :-)

For the rest of the tracks, all were provided to Tom the usual way they are these days by the special products divisions or whoever owns the tapes, either a DAT or CDR dub of exactly what they give out to everyone.
Tom and I simply mastered and EQ'd them accordingly to fit uniformly in this package, while keeping in mind the overall sound of the 45's. Original 45's were used for all tracks for comparison purposes, by the way.
Re: Drivers Seat (also one of my all time favs of the universe!) Tom was sent the same LP version as the Rhino cd even tho the 45 master was requested (common with SP divisions, you often dont get what you ask for) but he determined the 45 was just an early fade so he matched it to that.

Now, even at this project's conception, Tom and myself had pointed out to Bill many of these tracks didn't seem "hard to find" because we collectors vigilantly bought the entire Rhino series, and many other previously issued 70's packages. But he stated his track selection for this release wasn't based on whether they they were ever released before, but rather how many cd's were they were available on in 2002.
He pointed out many of the tracks only had 1 or 2 cd's listed in Pat's book at that time, a few were only on the Rhino cd and no where else back then. That was his thinking. But i guess the popularity of the Rhino set had more impact than he thought, since i recall he said this cd didn't sell as well as his 50's and 60's packages. I'd imagine that's why he hasn't done another one. Tom and myself of course submitted a list of remaining 70's rarities to possibly issue on future discs, but then you get back to reality. And even Eric must weigh how many units a cd full of rare 70's hits not-yet-on-cd would sell except to hard-core collectors like you and me. Not enough to justify the 25,000 minimum requirement forced by the majors.

There ya have it, hope some of that helps!

-Mark M