Kool And The Gang - "Too Hot"

I remember seeing and picking up, at my local mom-and-pop shop, a
De-Lite stock 45 copy of "Too Hot", pressed on usually heavy (for them)
vinyl. Until then, all stock and all promo 45 copies I'd ever seen for it
were styrene, so this one must've come from one of the "auxiliary"
pressing plants, most often used back in the day for a high-demand,
current smash hit 45. (I just found this exact pressing on Discogs
(#r738950), and it is noted to have been pressed by Goldisc Recording
Products, Inc.)

I knew we were quickly cue burning/going through multiple styrene
promo 45 copies at our station in early 1980. And, being the music
geek I was, I knew that the MD would be thrilled to have a vinyl 45 to
play on-air, so I bought two copies-one for me, and one for the station.
The happy MD immediately placed the vinyl 45 copy I gave him in
studio, and gave me the latest, cue-burned promo 45 in exchange.
(Which then went into a basically ignored, low-priority 45 box.) I was
happy to see that my copy held up very well on-air, for the remainder
of its run as a current/re-current.

Fast forward all these years later, and there remain just *two* 1980 Top
40 hits I still didn't have a promo 45 copy of in my master inventory:
Kool & The Gang's "Ladies Night" and Kool & The Gang's "Too Hot".
Knowing first-hand that radio was blowing through multiple styrene
promo 45 copies of both in 1980, it is indeed a small wonder that I
can't find promo 45 copies around anywhere these days. Until recently,
I'd forgotten *all* about that "Too Hot" promo 45 copy that my old MD
had given me, when he swapped in my vinyl copy on-air. Well, the light
finally went on, so I recently went a-diggin', and bingo, I found it mixed
in with a bunch of early 80's stiff 45s, 36 years later!

Upon more careful inspection, the "Too Hot" De-Lite 802 promo 45's
particulars were far more interesting than I'd suspected. We only ever
played the listed & actual (3:48) length version (deadwax "DE 802-A-2-
55748-1") on-air. The type size used by De-Lite on this particular
promo 45 was *very* small, except for the bigger, bolder song title and
artist. A magnifying glass is truly your only option to glean the other
details. The most surprising of which is that it contains a
listed (5:05) "long version", as well as the (3:48) "short version" both
noted in the smallest capital letters I've *ever* seen on a 45's label.
The listed (5:05) side has deadwax of "DE 2-55384-DE 802 -DJ -1-1-1".
And it seems to jive, time-wise, with the listed time of the song's LP
Version. My guess is that the long version didn't get a ton of Spring 1980
Top 40 airplay (and I don't remember hearing it anywhere). But De-Lite
did include it as an airplay option on my promo 45 copy, at least.

Earlier posts note that there had been some minor db CD actual time
variations, between (4:55) and (5:05). The actual time of my listed
(5:05) promo 45 side is (5:02), and I noted that it includes an
"unusually long fade". During all of my 45 listed/actual timing efforts, if
there's *one* thing I've noticed, it's that if there is a wide range of
actual times found on various CD sources, the #1 culprit is likely a song
with an usually long fade. Mastering engineers seem to address this
issue in several different ways. Some "hiss-haters" will opt to dump out
early; others will stay with the fade until the bitter end, with the
majority somewhere in the middle.

So now, just one 1980 promo 45 straggler remains for me: "Ladies
Night". De-Lite *did* issue a promo 12" single for it (MK-108; rare, and
also on my want list.) It contains listed (3:28) and (6:28) versions. So,
until I can snag/examine a De-Lite 801 promo 45, I'd say that it's a
reasonable guess to think that its contents could exactly mimic the
promo 12" single. Or the promo 45 could have the (3:28) version on
both sides. Hopefully, this final 1980 promo 45 mystery can be
answered soon.....

Edited by jimct