OT: Discussion thread on radio edits

With all the work & research done here to find the "right" versions of songs, I thought some of you might find this thread from a radio message board an enjoyable read:

Radio Edits In The 80s..?

Here's a short sample:

It was a universally FRUSTRATING experience to get used to a hit single on the radio, only to go & buy the album & have it sound completely different! How come so many radio edits in the 1980's replaced band's acoustic drums with synth drums? Or changed the arrangement entirely? The way my mix engineer friends have always explained it to me was that "the mix engineer would cut down a song to between 3 & four minutes & sometimes change the arrangement." But why? And was there an actual reason/methodology behind why real drums were thrown out? Or why different takes were used then on the albums? Did the record labels have some policy about this?

What follows points out a few of the differences we've found over the years. I hope you find it as interesting as I did.

But why? There are several reasons radio edits are done. Time is one reason. While there have been exceptions, longer songs on Top40, HotAC, etc. formatted stations are generally not acceptable.
Lyric content is another. Aside from words considered unairable by FCC or ethnic standards, innuendo also comes into play. We sometimes see a "Clean" or "Super Clean" edit.
Mix is yet another. We may see a "Guitars Down" or "Vocals Up" or "No Rap" or "Urban" mix. By supplying these different versions, crossover songs may have a better chance of getting airplay on a larger variety of different formats.
These are some of the more popular reasons edits are done on promo releases. Remixes and longer edits are usually found on commercial or DJ-Only releases for mobile DJ's and club play.

To Jody Thornton:

I do agree with you that some of "the trouble and extent that went into remixing some songs for a 45-rpm disc was questionable".

BUT, in hindsight we forget that these now proven hit songs had to be MADE into hits. Record companies did not want another mid-charter. In Winwood's case "The Finer Things" was the third CHR-promoted track off of the LP ('Back In The High Life'); they were coming off a mid-charting single ("Freedom Overspill") but he was still hot at AOR (and I believe touring the album). Warners probably wanted to take a remixed version to Hit Radio to claim it was fresher & not just another track off the album. Notice I didn't necessarily say "better".

Other prime examples included Bad Company's "Walk Through Fire". I swear it would not have made even Billboard's top-60 if it wasn't remixed as it was, it would have been too stale.

Even Michael Bolton's camp was nervous. Many of his singles were slightly remixed to keep the interest of CHR piqued.

Back then label credit bragged about the remix engineer when it was one of the "Big Guns" such as Tom (or Chris) Lord-Alge, Mick Guzauski, Humberto Gatica, et al.

Andy



Edited by AndrewChouffi