Reunion Life Is Rock But Radio Rolled Me

RCA had a big hit in 1974 with the 45 of Reunion's "Life Is A Rock (But The Radio Rolled Me)", but never got any of the 45's producers to put together a full Reunion album.

Maybe we should start a thread for acts who had a big 45 but no full album. I can only think of one (non-benefit) hit single from the 1980s, where the recording act never recorded anything else but that one single. Can you guess who it is?

The song first appeared on CD on RCA's Nipper's Greatest Hits The '70s (1989). Here, it runs 3:29, which is 35 seconds longer than the 45 version. It sounds excellent on this disc. There's a differently-EQ'd digital clone on Time-Life's Sounds Of The Seventies Vol. 41 Pop Nuggets Early '70s (1996).

It sounds even better on Rhino's Have A Nice Day Vol. 13 (1990), where it extends out to 3:30. The same analog transfer is used on:

• Time-Life's Sounds Of The Seventies Vol. 32 AM Pop Classics (1993)
• Time-Life's Dr. Demento Collection Vol. 1 The Mid '70s (1996) - digitally exactly 0.5 dB quieter
• Time-Life's 2-CD Seventies Music Explosion One-Hit Wonders (2005) - digitally exactly 1.4 dB louder than Sounds Of The Seventies Vol. 32 AM Pop Classics

Realistically, all of the above sound superb, so if you have the song on CD at all, the odds are pretty good that it sounds great.

To trim Rhino's Have A Nice Day Vol. 13 (1990) down to the 45 length, add a 16-beat fade, downbeat to downbeat, from 2.45.1 to 2.53.6. Any of the other discs can easily be trimmed using roughly the same times.

My radio station, 93 KHJ-AM actually did a promo oif their own where they actually EDITED OUT the first half of the first chorus ("Life..is a rock.../but the radio rolled me.....turn it up lou-der...../so my DJ told..ME, whoa-oa"), cutting intstead from the first verse to the second half ("Life....is a rock.../but the radio rolled me..../at the end of the rai-ai-nbow".../lies a gol-den..oldie") then on FM I heard the short version, then the fuller version. I linger then for decades under the illusion that, that first version WAS the original, with no "so my dee JD told me") part, or maybe there were two choruses between the trwo verses..btw there is no chorus between the 2nd verse and the midle instumental..fun song all the same.

I used this 45 as a guide to create the fade.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hq3nT_BXNbs

This 45 fades from 2:50-2:55

Steve Carras wrote: My radio station, 93 KHJ-AM actually did a promo oif their own where they actually EDITED OUT the first half of the first chorus ("Life..is a rock.../but the radio rolled me.....turn it up lou- der...../so my DJ told..ME, whoa-oa"), cutting intstead from the first verse to the second half ("Life....is a rock.../but the radio rolled me..../at the end of the rai-ai-nbow".../lies a gol-den..oldie") then on FM I heard the short version, then the fuller version. I linger then for decades under the illusion that, that first version WAS the original, with no "so my dee JD told me") part, or maybe there were two choruses between the trwo verses..btw there is no chorus between the 2nd verse and the midle instumental..fun song all the same.

I'm surprised KHJ didn't have the wherewithal to have Joey Levine
record a custom verse for them ("Life is a rock...but KHJ rolled me...").
In Chicago, both WLS and WCFL got custom versions made.

Other than WRKO, does anyone recall any Boston (or Providence, RI) played custom edits with local letters? I didn't listen to WRKO, and I don't recall if the stations I did listen to DID.