late 90’s airplay hits/promo cd singles

I'm very interested in the run time for the
promo/commercial CD single for Lauryn Hill's "Can't Take My
Eyes Off Of You." The album version runs around 3:40 and
tracks into the next selection. I've seen a video online
that runs around 4:23 or so. The 4:23 or so version is the
one I'm looking for.

jimct wrote: The #1 reason was that some stations would add a song to their "public playlist", but then only play it rarely, if ever. This was mainly done for "business reasons" between the station, such as "we'll have Group A swing by your station/sing a song or two live/you can invite 3 winners to the studio for autographs"-type thing, if we would add two unknown songs, by Group B and C to our playlist.

Yeah, being one of those small market stations with
limited (read: none) promotional budget, yet had to still
sound big market, we had to do this from time to time.
For a while we actually had a Selector daypart of 11pm-
4am only for these songs. We'd play 'em a couple weeks,
maybe 5 spins a week, then drop them. We'd held up our
end of the deal by adding the song, the promo guy got his
song on a reporting station, no one seemed to care that
we buried them in overnights.

This was not limited to small stations though...Jim I
don't know if KC-101 in New Haven was the station you
worked at, but I remember in the late 90s them hammering
a horrible stiff called "Not The Greatest Rapper" by 1000
Clowns. Turns out they were "headlining" some sort of
benefit concert the station was hosting. Seemed odd to
see in a market that size.

Of course, so-called "paper adds" have been around as
long as stations have been reporting to trades.



Edited by Hykker

Hykker wrote: Of course, so-called "paper adds" have been around as long as stations have been reporting to trades.

I know of one case where there was definitely airplay, but probably no reporting. In 1989, I heard 98PXY/Rochester, NY play a song by Sunny Joe White called "Jackie Lucky". It was a dancy thing, similar in flavor to "Regret" by New Order.

I thought this song was so horrendous, and so far beneath everything else that 98PXY was playing at the time, that I called the DJ. (You could do that in 1989.) I pressed him as to why they were playing this song at all, since it didn't appear on any charts that I knew of. After a few minutes of hemming and hawing, he explained that Sunny Joe White owned the radio station. 'Nuff said!

If you've got the stomach for it, there's an audio clip posted here.

eriejwg wrote: The only Sunny Joe White I knew of was a PD/DJ in Boston. I'm guessing he's not the same gentleman as the station owner you mentioned.

Not sure if it's the same person...

80smuisicfreak, you are 100% correct that "I Go Blind" was the B-side of
"Hold My Hand". I know that you happen to know quite a bit, about both
commercial single releases and discographies. But the reality is that
*radio* doesn't care one iota, about either one of those things. I'd just like
to make the point that, during the promo CD single era, the only way our
radio station would've ever known of "I Go Blind" existing, regardless of
whether it was the stock B-side of a band's hit or not, was 1) If we had
received a copy ourselves (which we never did.) Or 2) The Atlantic record
rep had mentioned "I Go Blind" to us - which he never did. The "Hold My
Hand" P CD S we got only included the one track - not the "I Go Blind" B-
side. Yes, sometimes a label would send us a commercial CD single copy,
if they felt that either a remix/longer version of the "hit" might be of
interest to us, or if an included B-side was getting spins somewhere, be it
in clubs, or a non-Top 40 radio format. But that was not the case with
"Hold My Hand". There was no U.S. commercial CD single made for it. Or,
as Aaron stated, "I Go Blind" did happen to appear on an import CD single.
Over the years, on occasion, a label would send us an import CD single.
But that was not done in this case, either. The first time a copy of the "I
Go Blind" track *ever* entered our station was when we got in our copy of
the "Friends" album, around 10/1995.

My point? Yes, "I Go Blind" was "used" twice, before "Fairweather Johnson"
was released. But, 80smusicfreak, you also added the word "promoted" to
your timeline of events. To me, you using that term is 100% inaccurate.
During the hit run of "Hold My Hand", no one from Atlantic ever either
promoted, or as much as even mentioned "I Go Blind" to us. Not once.
Why would they? Their focus was 100% to promote "Hold My Hand".
Period. How does all that result in the "I Go Blind" track having been
previously promoted to radio?

Yes, until 1972 or so, a good number of promo 45s also included the
same B-side that was found on the commercial single. And, way back
when, radio did end up flipping/making the "non-plug" side the hit, a
decent number of times. Why? Because radio still had access to the B-side
audio. But, by the mid-70's, 98% of promo 45s now had the "plug side"
appear on both sides, usually in mono/stereo form. That meant the stock
B-sides of songs stopped entering the station, in 45 form, entirely (unless
a label happened to send us stock 45 copies as re-service copies, with a
"Demonstration Copy" sticker affixed, which Columbia and others would
do sometimes.)

The best mid-70s example of a former B-side later becoming a #1 hit was
"Black Water" by the Doobie Brothers. It was initially the flip of their 1974
Top 40 hit, "Another Park, Another Sunday." I knew this because I was in
high school, I bought a stock copy, and I played the flip. But when *radio*
got its "Black Water" promo 45 in early 1975, to them, the song was
making its first appearance on 45. How could that be radio's perception?
Because 1974 promo 45s of "Another Park...." had mono/stereo versions
of the A-side on it - so "Black Water" had been completely omitted to
radio then. By the time "Black Water" was finally put out on a promo 45,
the hit "What Were Once Vices..." LP had already been out for many
months, and the song had gotten solid AOR play in '74. Many in Top 40
radio did have some familiarity with the track, by then. But I always found
*very* few music collectors working in radio over the years (like I was). As
a result, I'm sure no one at the station said back in 1975, "Why are they
releasing 'Black Water' as a 45 again?" Because none of them ever knew it
was an earlier single's B-side. Although this scenario was 20+ years
before the "I Go Blind" situation, their circumstances here are somewhat
similar, from a "radio had no idea of a song's previous, stock B-side"
backstory.

I just can't emphasize enough how narrow-focused/on point the record
labels always were with us. They would *only* discuss the label's top
priority songs for us to add that week - ones they'd already provided us
with copies of, obviously - B-sides just never came up. And if a label isn't
"working us" on a song, we're not even thinking about it. Therefore, as the
"Hold My Hand" B-side, "I Go Blind" received NO promotion at that time.
We had no copy of it. Atlantic couldn't care less about it. End of story. And
neither did Reprise, in '95. Aaron also is correct when he mentions that
"Good Intentions" by Toad The Wet Sprocket was both the P CD S issued,
and was the track they worked to Top 40 radio from the "Friends"
soundtrack.

Edited by jimct