Sammy Johns "Chevy Van"
Printed From: Top 40 Music on CD
Category: Top 40 Music On Compact Disc
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URL: https://top40musiconcd.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=965
Printed Date: 02 May 2025 at 8:56pm
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Topic: Sammy Johns "Chevy Van"
Posted By: Tim Lyman
Subject: Sammy Johns "Chevy Van"
Date Posted: 19 May 2006 at 10:06pm
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The label and jacket of my Sammy Johns vinyl LP (GRC GA-5003) list the running time of "Chevy Van" as 3:52. The actual running time is 2:58.
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Replies:
Posted By: AndrewChouffi
Date Posted: 19 May 2006 at 10:53pm
| Is it identical to the 45 version? |
Posted By: Pat Downey
Date Posted: 20 May 2006 at 6:00am
| Wow Tim my dj copy runs (3:51) with a stated time of (3:52)! |
Posted By: Tim Lyman
Date Posted: 20 May 2006 at 7:06am
Yes, it's the same version. Pat, my LP is a "stock" (commercial) copy. |
AndrewChouffi wrote:Posted By: AndrewChouffi
Date Posted: 20 May 2006 at 9:41am
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Pat,
What's the difference in the longer version? I've never heard it. Andy |
Posted By: Grant
Date Posted: 20 May 2006 at 2:11pm
| There shouldn't be any difference in a lousy one second! |
Posted By: TomDiehl1
Date Posted: 20 May 2006 at 3:05pm
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But Grant, the difference here is almost a minute...not one second.... ------------- Live in stereo. |
Posted By: Pat Downey
Date Posted: 20 May 2006 at 6:03pm
| Someone asked about the LP vs 45 version back in January and I never got back to them so here is what I have found. The LP and 45 seem to be identical up to the point where the 45 fades and from that point on, the LP goes into a long instrumental jam. So in keeping with the desires of most members participating in the chat board discussions, I will change the comment to 45 length for all cd's currently in the database since you can fade the LP length to get the 45 length. |
Posted By: Gary Mack
Date Posted: 20 May 2006 at 7:22pm
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I have the GRC stereo/mono promo 45 and both sides list and run 2:54. The label also says, Mixed for air play and Remix engineer Milan Bogdan.
GM |
Posted By: budaniel
Date Posted: 20 May 2006 at 9:23pm
| Are there two different pressings of the commercial LP? Tim says the LP time listing is wrong, that the actual time is 2:58. Pat's saying there's a dj copy (of the LP, I assume?) that runs the length stated on Tim's LP. Does that mean the long version was not released on a commercial LP? |
Posted By: jimct
Date Posted: 21 May 2006 at 1:13am
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Posted By: EdisonLite
Date Posted: 21 May 2006 at 7:18am
| So from all the comments above, is it correct to say that the long version is only available on the dj LPs? |
Posted By: Pat Downey
Date Posted: 21 May 2006 at 4:00pm
| After hearing the comment that the 45 is a remix, I did listen carefully to the 45 and my LP version which runs (3:51) and there does seem to be a mix difference with the guitars brought up much louder on the LP that I have when compared to the 45. Now perhaps later pressings of the LP substituted the 45 mix and the shorter version - that I do not know. Even on the different cd's on which this song appears, there appear to be several different mixes making any comments difficult. In any case I have yet to find any cd with the exact 45 mix which really brings the guitars down low. Can anyone that has the short version (2:58) on the "Sammy Johns" LP fill us in on the mix on that short version being equal to the mix on the 45? Like I said, the mixes are different from the long version (3:51) and the 45 remix. |
Posted By: Tim Lyman
Date Posted: 21 May 2006 at 6:07pm
Pat, I don't have a copy of the actual 45, but I can send you a CD-R of my 2:58 LP version, if it would help. |
Posted By: Pat Downey
Date Posted: 21 May 2006 at 8:46pm
| Let's see if anyone else can come to the rescue before you send me the CD-R Tim. |
Posted By: jimct
Date Posted: 21 May 2006 at 11:06pm
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Posted By: Grant
Date Posted: 22 May 2006 at 12:19am
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Posted By: Grant
Date Posted: 22 May 2006 at 12:22am
| I know where I can find a commercial 45 of it... |
Posted By: Grant
Date Posted: 25 May 2006 at 8:00pm
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OK, I got the commercial and radio promo 45s. They have a stated time of 2:54 on both, mono and stereo, and both sides say that they are mixed for air play.
The mix itself has the guitars lover in most places, and the vocals up loud. The Keyboards are also louder. This is the way I heard it on the radio in 1975. A made a nice needle drop of the stereo single. |
Posted By: EdisonLite
Date Posted: 26 May 2006 at 9:52am
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1) Can anyone say which CD has (or comes closest to having) the single remix?
2) Gary Mack comments that the promo 45 states "Mixed for air play and Remix engineer Milan Bogdan". Is the commercial 45 also this remix or just a fade of the LP? 3) For those mixes on CDs that are not really the 45 mix or LP mix, would they be considered (and listed as) "Not the 45 or LP version"? |
Posted By: Grant
Date Posted: 26 May 2006 at 1:53pm
| The commercial 45 is the same as the radio promo. |
Posted By: Brian W.
Date Posted: 22 June 2006 at 3:20pm
| Gordon, I get the impression from all the posts that there's only one 2:58 version, and it's a remix, whether on the LP or the 45. Someone correct me if I'm wrong. |
Posted By: EdisonLite
Date Posted: 22 June 2006 at 10:54pm
| Thanks Brian. |
Posted By: eriejwg
Date Posted: 26 April 2008 at 6:26pm
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I just listened to a vinyl dub of "Chevy Van" from a commercial 45. After hearing my Rhino Super Hits Of The Seventies version for so many years, I figured that was the hit version. Apparently not!
The 45 dub I heard tones down the guitar as mentioned before, and to me, sounds rather bland. I've never heard the vinyl LP version. |
Posted By: Yah Shure
Date Posted: 26 April 2008 at 10:33pm
Pat, I think you're right about the different pressings. The 1973 Sammy Johns LP was already rather long in the tooth by the time "Chevy Van" was pulled as its third single. My stock copy of the LP is an early pressing on the old plain yellow label, and includes the long version of "Chevy Van" listed as 3:52 on both the cover and label. And it was the long version that got significant top-40 airplay here in Minneapolis-St. Paul. By the time "Chevy Van" hit, the GRC label design had changed on the 45s (the album's first single, "America" - later covered by Waylon Jennings - bore a label logo similar to the LP label below.) Does anyone who has the LP with the short 2:58 "Chevy Van" have it with this style label? 
And to add even more confusion to the "Chevy Van" puzzle, the song was reissued by Warners in 1977. DJ copies have no A-side indication for either "Chevy Van" or "Music Of The Band," which, unlike "Van," is not shown as being on Warner LP 3063. This 1977 reissue did not chart. 
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Posted By: bwolfe
Date Posted: 27 April 2008 at 6:29am
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Didn't know of a longer LP version.
I'll check my 45 too to hear the difference. Looking at the label of the LP reminds me that "Early Morning Love" got airplay in Johnstown, PA. The yellow label reminded me of a GRC release that also received airplay in Jtown. "I'm A Yo Yo Man" by Rick Chuna. That's in the backstacks somewhere. Thanks again for the great info. ------------- the way it was heard on the radio |
Posted By: eriejwg
Date Posted: 27 April 2008 at 6:35am
| Interesting that a 45 as late as 1977 would say "compatible stereo." |
Posted By: Yah Shure
Date Posted: 27 April 2008 at 8:36am
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John, I seem to recall seeing "compatible stereo" moreso on the Warner/Curb 45s than the non-Curb Warner labels. My promo copy of "You Light Up My Life" also says "compatible stereo."
I checked my stash of Exile's "Kiss You All Over" 45s from 1978 and discovered that the first promo pressings by Capitol on the palm trees label simply said "stereo" on the 4:54 side and "mono" on the 3:30. A 3:30 stock copy on the palm trees label pressed by MCA had no stereo mention at all. But the Capitol-pressed promo copies on the new tan label had "compatible stereo" on both the 3:30 and 4:54 sides. |
Posted By: PaulEschen
Date Posted: 27 April 2008 at 8:44am
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The Warner Brothers 45 comes from the LP Sammy Johns Sings "The
Van"/Original Motion Picture Soundtrack (WB 3063). The version on the LP is the same as the GRC 45. The movie came out in 1977, and featured Danny DeVito in a supporting role. It's also apparently available on DVD. |
Posted By: eriejwg
Date Posted: 27 April 2008 at 9:08am
| Then, the 'true' 45 version has not appeared on CD, correct? |
Posted By: Yah Shure
Date Posted: 27 April 2008 at 9:39am
| Paul, thanks for the additional info. |
Posted By: AndrewChouffi
Date Posted: 27 April 2008 at 9:26pm
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Actually, 'eriejwg', the true 45 version exists on Rhino's Super Hits Of the 70s vol. 14.
The reason why it doesn't SOUND like the 45 is there is undecoded dolby artifacts in the transfer! Andy |
Posted By: Brian W.
Date Posted: 27 April 2008 at 10:19pm
Interesting info, Andy. How do you know this? |
Posted By: AndrewChouffi
Date Posted: 27 April 2008 at 11:09pm
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To Brian W,
The Rhino dub is pretty much the same length (and the same mix of instruments/background harmony vocals) as the Milan Bogdan single mix but there is a strange compression of the upper mid & high frequencies which gives it a different *texture* than the 45. This is exactly the sound one can get when a Dolby A (or even the consumer Dolby B to a lesser extent) encoded dub-of-master gets played back on a different machine, improperly calibrated (decoded LESS aggresively). Andy |
Posted By: EdisonLite
Date Posted: 28 April 2008 at 12:19am
| Andy, when I play a Dolby-B encoded tape back, but without the dolby on, it sounds, for lack of a better word, hissy. I always felt "Chevy Van" on the Rhino CD sounded very hissy. So are you saying that Rhino used a Dolby-encoded master tape but played it back with no dolby selected? or perhaps less dolby? |
Posted By: AndrewChouffi
Date Posted: 28 April 2008 at 6:44am
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Hi EdisonLite,
I'm saying what my ears hear (and my ears usually don't lie!). I'm not specifically blaming Rhino, because it could be a third-generation tape -- but somewhere along the line someone received a dub-of-master (probably encoded with Dolby A) and either 1: didn't decode it 2: didn't decode it properly (calibration was way off; decoding was not aggressive enough, leaving in artifacts such as hiss, higher perceived reverb levels, upper-midrange density). Andy |
Posted By: abagon
Date Posted: 28 April 2008 at 8:40am
The actual running time (2:53),the arrangement,the terminal lyric "van" at 2:53 and the speed of my stock 45 (GRC-2046) is the same as the "Chevy Van" track on the "Rhino Super Hits Of The 70's Volume 14".However there is the tone quality differnce together.
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Posted By: The Hits Man
Date Posted: 28 April 2008 at 5:45pm
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I can buy the Dolby theory. All I have to do is stick with the vinyl dub for the true sound. ------------- |
Posted By: Brian W.
Date Posted: 29 April 2008 at 2:32am
| So do all CDs have this Dolby encoding problem, or just the Rhino CD? |
Posted By: jrjr
Date Posted: 29 April 2008 at 10:10am
| the teenage hijinks movie "The Van" was released in 1977, the story loosely based on "Chevy Van"... could this be the reason for the Warner's re-release, a la "ode to billie joe"??? |
Posted By: KentT
Date Posted: 25 May 2008 at 1:23pm
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The best sounding version of "Chevy Van" on CD is the Time-Life Sounds Of The Seventies version. It is the Milan Bogdan remix single version. ------------- I turn up the good and turn down the bad! |
Posted By: TallPaulInKy
Date Posted: 21 June 2008 at 1:59pm
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eriejwg wrote: "Interesting that a 45 as late as 1977 would say "compatible stereo."
Yah Shure added: "I seem to recall seeing "compatible stereo" moreso on the Warner/Curb 45s than the non-Curb Warner labels. My promo copy of "You Light Up My Life" also says "compatible stereo." It could be because these are all promo copies you are mentioning. Believe it or not AM was not dead in 1977 and they were still mono stations some even still used mono turntables. I don't know if the stock copies were mono or compatible stereo. But compatible was generally a disk cutting process that did not effect the master tape. I have some early 70s Atlantic mono singles pressed in compatible stereo so they would track better on stereo turntables. |
Posted By: Yah Shure
Date Posted: 21 June 2008 at 5:04pm
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Paul, I presume you mean stereo cartridge when you refer to a "stereo turntable."
Are you referring to Atlantic's "CSG Processed Mono Master" 45s when you say "mono singles pressed in compatible stereo?" CSG mono seemed to be even more of a "snake oil" ploy than CSG stereo, and we all know how well that went over. |
Posted By: edtop40
Date Posted: 24 June 2015 at 4:34pm
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so.....did we get to the bottom of this as far as if any of
the cd's in the db have the correct 45 version or not......the db does not have qualifier on the cds that contain the song.... ------------- edtop40 |
Posted By: eriejwg
Date Posted: 24 June 2015 at 5:06pm
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I have a 192 bitrate 45 dub. I also have the versions
from both the Time-Life and The Rhino discs. I think all CD appearances are from the same source and are EQ'd differently than the 45. Kent says the Sounds Of The Seventies is the best sounding of all the CD sources for the remix that matches the 45, but to my ears, the 45 sounds different. I'll have to find a clean 45 source and compare again. |
Posted By: eriejwg
Date Posted: 24 June 2015 at 5:25pm
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Does anyone that owns the 45 and the Time-Life disc care
to chime in? The 45 really is dull compared to the CD versions. |
Posted By: KentT
Date Posted: 18 July 2015 at 6:03am
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A note: I carefully compared the Time-Life Sounds Of The
Seventies and my original GRC 45 singles. They are indeed different. The multicolor label (North American Musical Industries) pressed Capitol looking 45 is the best sounding of the two I own. My other styrene 45 on GRC sounds like the tape has an azimuth error and sounds muddy. The CD sounds like my good 45. The pressings on the GRC 45 are variable sounding depending on pressing plant. The vinyl copy mastered by Masterfonics is my go to. ------------- I turn up the good and turn down the bad! |