harry chapin--cat’s in the cradle

ed kindly sent me a dub of his short 45, and I have the following to report:

The version on Time-Life AM Gold does not match the 45 (can't comment
on the other similar length versions...). The actual edited part is fine,
however the short 45 begins to fade at about 3:26, ending by 3:34 (cutting
off the tail end of the cold ending fadeout). The AM Gold version runs 3:37
and does not fade the same as the short 45, rather it fades like the long 45
(cold ending fade). I know 3 seconds is our usual limit for indicating
different versions, however the fade being present on the short 45 but not
on the AM Gold version to me disqualifies it from being considered the
short 45. Other similarly labelled versions should also be checked.

I wonder if the Rhino digital 45 (discussed above), running 3:32, is an
attempt at getting the short 45 fade (but it is 0:02 short).

Edited by davidclark

So all promos are 3:44, but some commercial copies are ~:10
shorter?
What was edited?

Hykker wrote: Has anyone else run into really bad pressings of singles from that era? I ended up throwing out my copy of CITC (since I had the song on an album anyway) because it sounded so bad. I examined the 45 with a magnifying glass and there were lots of small pits in the grooves, almost like there were bubbles in the plastic and they eventually popped. My copy of "Lady" by Styx from around the same time was similarly affected. I don't recall either of these singles sounding like this when I first got them.

I worked for an FM station that converted to Hot AC from Beautiful. We played vinyl because stereo carts didn't hold phase very well. We had issues with cue burn. The Music Director complained to the Columbia rep. My office was next to the MD's office and overheard the discussion. The MD showed the rep two different pressings of the same song. One was hard vinyl, the other was softer polystyrene which did not cue burn as easily. The rep called his boss who insisted there was no difference between the two.
At that point I entered the discussion and told the rep to give his boss the deadwax info. It turns out the better pressings were made at a North Carolina plant. We were put on the mailing list for that plant so our on-air quality improved at least for Columbia 45's.
While colored vinyl may look cool it is made from recycled materials and has poor quality sound.

The song turns up on a handful of common compilations, and they're definitely a mixed bag.

LP and long 45 version (3:45)

The compilation to feature the LP version is Razor & Tie's 2-CD The '70s Preservation Society Presents Easy '70s (1993). It's definitely not the lowest-generation tape source (sounds a little warbly when summed to mono), and it cuts off the attack of the opening note. On the plus side, there's no noise reduction, it has a reasonable EQ, and has a great dynamic range.

I have two CDs that use the same analog transfer as Easy '70s and have the same issues as Easy '70s:

• JCI's Only Rock 'N Roll #1 Radio Hits 1970-1974 (1996)
• Time-Life's 2-CD Singers And Songwriters Vol. 3 1974-1975 (1999)

One more CD has the opening note intact and isn't based on any of the above: Time-Life's 2-CD Seventies Music Explosion Vol. 1 Sunshine (2005). It sounds a teeny bit better than all of the above, but may possibly have noise reduction. (Not sure here - the're no hiss at the end of the fade, but the treble doesn't disappear during the fade.) NR or not, I'm going to recommend this disc as my preferred source for the song, out of my admittedly small collection of compilations.

Short 45 version (3:34)

The short 45 version edits out eight beats from 2:21 to 2:27 of the LP version, starting two beats after the word "then", and (I think?) fading early? Not sure about the fade or the true 45 ending.

I think the edited version first showed up on Rhino's Have A Nice Decade box (1998).

I have the edited version on Time-Life's AM Gold Vol. 29 #1 Hits Of The '70s '70-'74 (2000), and I'd bet that it's a digital clone of Have A Nice Decade. The version here sounds great, and is definitely from a lower-generation tape source than everything listed above. This version ends with the same last note as the LP version, but shortens the very tail of the fade by a few seconds.

Edited by crapfromthepast

No - I haven't run across any new versions of the song since my post last year.