John Miles-"Highfly"
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Category: Top 40 Music On Compact Disc
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Topic: John Miles-"Highfly"
Posted By: jimct
Subject: John Miles-"Highfly"
Date Posted: 15 December 2008 at 9:24pm
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Although this song only peaked at #68 and #69 on Billboard's Hot 100 during two separate 1976 chart runs, it happened to do very well at the time here in my neck of the woods. I thought it was a catchy tune, and I had never been able to find it on any U.S. CD. I have just acquired the correct, stock 45 version of the song, on an import CD titled "John Miles-His Very Best", on Music Club (UK) #MCCD 440. (FYI, the U.S. DJ 45 included a shorter edit of the track on its other side.) This CD also includes both of his two other Hot 100 entries, "Music" (in its almost 6:00 stock 45 length), as well as the 45 version of his lone U.S. Top 40/database hit, "Slowdown". This song does already happen to appear on two "various artists" CDs in the database, in its 45 length, but I believe the other two songs are making their worldwide CD debut on this disc, for anyone else who might be interested.
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Replies:
Posted By: EdisonLite
Date Posted: 16 December 2008 at 12:45am
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"Highfly" is a favorite song of mine and I have it on 3 or 4 John Miles CDs. Was the commercial 45 edited from the album version or are they the same length, Jim? (I didn't even know there was a b-side dj edit.)
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Posted By: jimct
Date Posted: 16 December 2008 at 1:22am
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Gordon, would you be able to pass along label/catalog # details on where the LP version of "Highfly" exists on CD? I did think I owned a longer version on my original London LP, which is now in "auxiliary storage". Regarding your question, I am currently reviewing the two DJ 45 versions; my early listen tells me that the DJ 45 short version came entirely from the stock 45 version, but I will soon confirm, and report back.
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Posted By: eriejwg
Date Posted: 16 December 2008 at 5:41pm
Jim:
Thanks for the tip on the John Miles CD. I was able to purchase some of the tracks online.
In addition, found a seller online, who often has DJ CD's/45's, with a promo 45 for "Music". The label times listed on their site is 5:51 long/3:20 short.
Let the collecting continue!
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Posted By: Yah Shure
Date Posted: 16 December 2008 at 6:24pm
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John, http://i257.photobucket.com/albums/hh240/YahShure/JohnMiles-Music.jpg - here's a scan of the edited side of the "Music" DJ 45. Let me know if you need a dub.
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Posted By: eriejwg
Date Posted: 16 December 2008 at 7:31pm
Thanks, John...will do!
Amazing how all 3 songs differ so differently. "Slowdown" is definitely dance/disco oriented, "Highfly" is more rock oriented, yet "Music" is definitely pop ballad leaning.
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Posted By: Yah Shure
Date Posted: 16 December 2008 at 10:26pm
John, did you just morph "Music" into "Smile"? :)
I came across the "Music" 45 in my collection a month ago, and realized I had neither played nor heard it since the '70s. There were actually two promo 45s for it; the first was identical to the 5:52 stock with its B-side, and the second DJ pressing was the long/short A-side.
I have the "Stranger In The City" / "Slowdown" 12-inch single on the London Disco label. And in looking through the other long-forgotten Miles 45s I had ("Remember Yesterday" and "Manhattan Skyline") it was interesting to see that of the eleven London 45s from numbers 20084 ("Highfly") through 20094 ("Manhattan...") more than half of those were by John Miles.
Agreed, Miles mixed things up, and perhaps that worked against him here in the U.S. London's feeble promotion efforts didn't help, either.
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Posted By: eriejwg
Date Posted: 16 December 2008 at 10:32pm
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"Music" is back. Apologies to the inadvertent morphing. Guess hearing the song after all these years made me smile. :)
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Posted By: EdisonLite
Date Posted: 18 December 2008 at 7:29pm
Hi Jim, here's the info for my 4 John Miles CDs with "Highfly":
His Very Best (Music Club MCCD 440) 3:48
Master Series (Deram/Polygram 844-868 2) 3:45
Anthology (Connoisseur VSOP CD 191) 3:47
Rebel (London 820 080-2) 3:47
You mention in your first post above that you, too, have "His Very Best" - and you say that's the stock 45 version. I believe "Rebel" is the album this came from, and as you can see, I have that CD, and it's also the same length. So I guess there is not a longer album version, and I guess (but correct me if I'm wrong) that the only other version is a shorter edit only available on one side of the promo single.
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Posted By: EdisonLite
Date Posted: 22 December 2008 at 12:04am
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Jim, is there a longer version of "Highfly", as you allude to in your first post above? Since the "Rebel" CD, where the song comes from, also runs the length of "His Very Best", I assume (and always thought in the past) that the commercial 45 and album had exactly the same length/version. But let me know what you find, or why you thought there was a longer version than 3:48.
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Posted By: jimct
Date Posted: 22 December 2008 at 12:18am
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No, Gordon, I just always had this "John Miles always does long records" thing kicking around in my head for the past 30+ years, based on the longish stock 45 versions for his other two charters, "Slowdown" and "Music". And since I knew "Highfly" also had a long/short DJ 45 edit, I figured that one also must've had a version that went on forever! But apparently it doesn't, with the (3:48) version being the longest, as it turns out. And thanks for supplying the additional John Miles CD info, sir!
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Posted By: aaronk
Date Posted: 26 December 2008 at 11:19pm
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The dj 45 short version is just an early fade of the longer 45/LP version. This promo version runs (3:12), with the fade starting at (3:02).
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