Men Without Hats "The Safety Dance"

I'm not sure if this has been discussed but is the 45 version just an edit
of the LP version? To me the album version sounds slower and slightly
different.

Thank you for the clarification. Any specifics? Also this is another one of those songs where I heard the long album version on the radio back in '83 most of the time. I think the first time I heard the short version is when I bought the actual 45 and man was I disappointed as a kid. This is a similar situation like Kenny Loggins "Footloose" and a few others that I can't think of at the moment. Maybe someone else wants to chime in. Any idea why this was?

chendagam wrote: Also this is another one of those songs where I heard the long album version on the radio back in '83 most of the time. I think the first time I heard the short version is when I bought the actual 45 and man was I disappointed as a kid. This is a similar situation like Kenny Loggins "Footloose" and a few others that I can't think of at the moment. Maybe someone else wants to chime in. Any idea why this was?

"Footloose" had the same 3:46-listed length across the board: the DJ 45, the commercial 45, the 12-inch promo single and the soundtrack LP.

The "Safety Dance" DJ 45 had both the short and long versions, so stations could choose whichever side they wanted to play.

If you're asking why the "Safety Dance" commercial 45 contained the short version instead of the long one, that call was likely up tho the label, Backstreet. Keep in mind that the jukebox industry was the biggest customer for commercial 45s by that time. Longer records on the jukeboxes meant less revenue for both the jukebox operators and the site providers.

I believe what chendagam is essentially asking is, "Why did radio stations sometimes play the LP version of hit songs circa 1983-84, thus faking out consumers when they ran out and bought the vinyl 45?" - "The Safety Dance" and "Footloose" being two examples. Yeah, the *length* of the LP & 45 versions of "Footloose" was pretty close, but as AndrewChouffi noted, the intros were quite different - and I think that was chendagam's point. He actually delved into this subject regarding both songs one other time, in a "Footloose" thread that he started back in 2006. (The reason I already knew that??? While recently going through all of the top 40 hits from 1983 - inc. "The Safety Dance" - it required revisiting a lot of the old threads on this chat board in order to obtain the answers I was looking for, lol...)

Speaking for myself, that was also the same time that I started buying music, but I decided to skip singles altogether, since I wasn't a fan of vinyl. Cassette singles and maxi-singles were few & far between back then - "Vacation", "The Reflex", and "Hyperactive" all immediately come to mind - so I went w/ album-length cassettes. And in many cases, the cassette editions contained bonus tracks and/or additional versions of hit songs not found on the vinyl LP, and Men Without Hats' Rhythm of Youth was a perfect example. The U.S. cassette included BOTH the LP & 45 versions of "The Safety Dance", as well as the bonus track, "Living in China" (non-LP B-side of "The Safety Dance"). Photos on Discogs: MEN WITHOUT HATS - "Rhythm of Youth" (U.S. cassette) So in many cases, I felt I was getting the best of both - and believe it or not, to this day, Rhythm of Youth has NEVER been issued on CD here in the U.S.!

Yes, the LP was released before the song really took off
on U.S. radio. Once the 12" version became the hit, they
re-issued the LP with that instead.

I even recall a school dance in Jan. of '83 - months
before the song broke here. At that time this was in
heavy rotation on the new wave station. One of the DJ's
at the dance had the import 45, and that had the same
cover and version as the 12" single.
The only times I ever heard the short version were in the
video, and on Casey's weekly countdown.
MM