ARETHA FRANKLIN - Freeway Of Love
Printed From: Top 40 Music on CD
Category: Top 40 Music On Compact Disc
Forum Name: Chat Board
Forum Description: Chat away but please observe the chat board rules
URL: https://top40musiconcd.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=3196
Printed Date: 05 May 2025 at 8:41am
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Topic: ARETHA FRANKLIN - Freeway Of Love
Posted By: abagon
Subject: ARETHA FRANKLIN - Freeway Of Love
Date Posted: 12 March 2008 at 12:10pm
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My stock "Aretha's - Freeway Of Love" commercial 45 runs (4:08).
Dose the (5:49) commercial 45 version exist ,too? Could you confirm? |
Replies:
Posted By: Hykker
Date Posted: 12 March 2008 at 4:26pm
| I know it exists because I had a copy. I don't seem to be able to find it now, however. IIRC, the 4:08 version just faded early. |
Posted By: Roscoe
Date Posted: 12 March 2008 at 4:51pm
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Hmmm, the database indicates that all commercial copies were the longer, LP length, and that the 4:08 version was the dj edit.
Is it possible there were different pressings of the commercial 45 with the shorter and longer versions? I don't have the 45 of this song to reference. |
Posted By: Todd Ireland
Date Posted: 12 March 2008 at 10:41pm
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Judging by abagon's comments, it looks like there could very well be two different commercial 45 pressings of "Freeway of Love".
Abagon, could you please provide us with the matrix number that's etched on the runout grooves of your commercial 45 copy? |
Posted By: abagon
Date Posted: 13 March 2008 at 12:40am
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I didn't ever realize "the matrix number that's etched on the runout grooves".
My 45 is stated "AS-1-9354-SA-DJ-RCA..." I couldn't realize "DJ copy" because this 45 is not stated "promotional copy not for sale" on the label. I apologize that I was confusing,everyone. Dear Todd Ireland: Thank you very much for letting me know. And I'm happy that my knowledge increase. |
Posted By: Todd Ireland
Date Posted: 13 March 2008 at 1:16am
| No problem, abagon, and thanks for passing along this technical information. It is often helpful in determining the existence of multiple 45 pressings for a particular song. |
Posted By: bwolfe
Date Posted: 13 March 2008 at 8:01am
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As always another great thread.
I recall my brother and I each buying that one and I had the edit, he bought the full length. Neither realized there were two different 45's. Great observations. ------------- the way it was heard on the radio |
Posted By: Pat Downey
Date Posted: 13 March 2008 at 11:38am
| For those of you the have the edited commercial version, what running time is stated on the record label? |
Posted By: Paul C
Date Posted: 13 March 2008 at 4:07pm
| .. |
Posted By: abagon
Date Posted: 13 March 2008 at 11:38pm
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Dear Pat Downey:
I could have a great hobby for myself because of the TOP 40 MUSIC ON CD 8th edition. It is worth for me though the shipping to Japan cost about $40 several years ago. Thank you very much. This stated on the record label is "4:09". The running time is 4:08 (or 4:09) |
Posted By: Brian W.
Date Posted: 14 March 2008 at 2:07am
| Welcome to the board, abagon. We're so lucky to have someone from Japan here. You must have a lot of expertise on Japanese-exclusive CD releases. There are probably numerous rare single versions/mixes that were issued only in Japan. Welcome! |
Posted By: Todd Ireland
Date Posted: 14 March 2008 at 5:11am
| Yes, abagon, I join Brian and everyone else in welcoming you to the board. You've already made some very valuable contributions in the short time you've been with us! |
Posted By: edtop40
Date Posted: 14 March 2008 at 12:10pm
my commercial 45 issued as arista 9354 has the stated run time of 5:49 and indeed does run that length.....the run out groove says "as-1-9354-5a-pw2"...i've included a scan for everytone's review....
 ------------- edtop40 |
Posted By: edtop40
Date Posted: 14 March 2008 at 12:11pm
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sorry for the big scans...i gotta figure out how to make the picture sleeves smaller.... ------------- edtop40 |
Posted By: abagon
Date Posted: 14 March 2008 at 12:12pm
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Dear Brian W. and Todd Ireland:
Thank you for welcoming me. I'm happy happy! I am not confident in myself concerning Japanese-exclusive CD releases. However I perhaps might be a bit useful because it is possible to search on the Japanese word site. I will do my best about Japanese CD, the differences between 45 and LP ,and English language. -------------- Native Japanese--ABAGON |
Posted By: crapfromthepast
Date Posted: 15 March 2008 at 11:03am
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Hmmm... I have a commercial 45 of this (because I wasn't in radio yet), with a pictures sleeve that's exactly what edtop40 scanned in (thanks for doing that!), but it's the DJ edit.
I'd scan the label for you but my scanner died many years ago. In the bottom left of the label, instead of "AS 1-9354-SA", it's got "AS 1-9354-SADJ", and it's got a printed time of 4:09. The font is blockier, too. All other info on the label is the same, including the "forthcoming LP" credit. The matrix number is AS-1-9354-SA-DJ-RCA 1, like described above. So I can confirm that my commercial copy, with sleeve, is the DJ edit. I would have bought this while it was riding high on the charts, so it was early enough in the run so that it still had a sleeve, but late enough in the run so that it wasn't the very first batch of 45s. |
Posted By: Yah Shure
Date Posted: 15 March 2008 at 12:18pm
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Ron, your "blockier" font sounds like it's the Specialty pressing (like the promo below.) Ed's 45 looks like it was pressed by RCA.
The short DJ side states 3:58 on the promo label. 
|
Posted By: crapfromthepast
Date Posted: 15 March 2008 at 1:50pm
| That's the font indeed! I didn't know it had a pink vinyl promo - neat-o! I seem to remember that the 45 for "Jumpin' Jack Flash" was on clear vinyl, but I'm not 100% sure... |
Posted By: Roscoe
Date Posted: 15 March 2008 at 1:54pm
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Another tidbit is that the short version is not just an edit; some remixing has taken place. On the long version, during the instrumental vamp where she says "so drop the top...", there are some keyboards that are not on the short version (this part occurs earlier in the short version due to edits).
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Posted By: Yah Shure
Date Posted: 15 March 2008 at 7:22pm
100% it is! 
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crapfromthepast wrote:Posted By: abagon
Date Posted: 16 March 2008 at 7:47am
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This scan image is my stock 45 of "AS-1-9354-SA-DJ-RCA..."
I don't have the picture sleeve for it. The another side is "Until You Say You Love Me". 
Dear edtop40: Thank you very much for the scan image of "5:49 version" |
Posted By: crapfromthepast
Date Posted: 16 March 2008 at 3:46pm
| Thanks, guys, for the scans - they look terrific! |
Posted By: Indy500
Date Posted: 23 April 2012 at 5:14pm
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The new expanded edition of Who's Zoomin' Who? contains:
lp mix single mix Rock mix (the remix that runs 4:40) Extended remix (6:28) |
Posted By: crapfromthepast
Date Posted: 16 May 2012 at 8:28pm
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Much to report on for this song.
First, my 45. Arista AS1-9354, matrix number AS-1-9354-SA-DJ-RCA-1, printed 4:09, actual 4:09, 126.1 BPM throughout with no drifts. The 45 is a dedicated mix, and can't be edited down from the LP version. The most obvious example is at the line starting "so drop the top baby..." (at 3:00 on the 45, at 3:30 on the LP). The LP version has some extra background keyboard stuff that's not on the 45. The first place the short 45 version appeared on CD was a 3-CD set from Silver Eagle/Warner Special Products called After Hours (1990). Unfortunately, the last half of the song suffers from tape drag, and the tempo drops from 126.5 BPM at the start of the song to 125.5 BPM at the end. That's no good. Oddly enough, After Hours has a handful of other tracks (most from Arista) that all suffer from the same kind of tape drag, including "Don't Shed A Tear", "Tell It To My Heart", "Whip It", "Seasons Change", "Hold Me Now" and "Everybody Have Fun Tonight". Two other CDs use the same analog transfer as After Hours, and both sound the same as After Hours, tape drag and all:
(The 45 edit appears on Rhino's Black Entertainment Television 15th Anniversary disc, which I don't have.) Fortunately, there's a commercially available collection from Arista called The First 20 Years (1997). This indeed has the true 45 version, printed 4:10, actual 4:09, 126.0 BPM throughout with no tape drag. The shape of the fade matches the true 45 and everything. Sound is pretty good, too. So for the true 45 version, I recommend Arista The First 20 Years (1997). The LP version also appeared on some of the commercial 45s, and (I think) as the B-side of the promo 45. I don't suspect that there's anything unusual about the LP version on those 45s, since Ed reported that they run 5:49. The LP version first appeared on Who's Zoomin' Who, and it sounds just fine. It runs 5:50, starting at 126.1 BPM and ending at 126.2 BPM, so effectively no tape drag or drifts. A boatload of other CDs all use the same analog transfer as Zoomin':
Finally, there's the remix known as the "Rock Mix" from the 12" single. This is really a spectacular remix, with some great guitar overdubs. It even got played at least once on American Top 40; I stumbled across it when I was doing some Clarence Clemons research. On Rhino's Billboard Top Dance Hits 1985 (1998), it runs 4:50, beginning at 126.1 and ending at 126.2 BPM. The mastering is quite loud/compressed/limited on this disc, but there aren't many choices for this version. (Edit: I got a WAV file of the Zoomin' version after my original post, so I updated this post with the corrected info. Tidied up the formatting, too |
Posted By: Indy500
Date Posted: 18 May 2012 at 5:34pm
Do you have the Deluxe Who's Zoomin' Who because that has every version of Freeway assuming they used the correct single mix. |
Posted By: Ron S
Date Posted: 02 November 2018 at 7:43pm
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What about.... the best of Aretha Franklin 1980-1998? Does it have the correct
45 version and does it drag? |
Posted By: garye
Date Posted: 06 November 2018 at 5:36pm
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The deluxe CD set of Who's Zoomin'Who contains the 4
mixes of Freeway;The LP Mix, Single Mix, Rock Mix and extended mix. Listening to all 4, they seem to match what is being discussed here. So the deluxe CD has the actual 45 mix at 4:07 as the 45 label shows. |
Posted By: Ron S
Date Posted: 06 November 2018 at 6:09pm
Yet, no Single Mix of Who's Zoomin Who....blah..... |
Posted By: Santi Paradoa
Date Posted: 06 November 2018 at 6:49pm
------------- Santi Paradoa Miami, Florida |