Taylor Dayne - Tell It To My Heart

This Pure 80's Remixes cd is an import, correct?

Germany

According to Clive Davis's autobiography, Taylor Dayne's initial deal with Arista was only for the "Tell It To My Heart" single. It was not until the song became a hit that the rest of the album was quickly recorded.

The B-side of the 7-inch single is an instrumental version (she had yet to record any other songs!). There are four versions on the 12-inch single, one of which is labeled "single mix". The same version was on the 7-inch single and was the version included on the album when it was eventually released.

So it appears that the term "single mix" was used only to differentiate it from the other versions on the 12-inch single and not from any album version, since at the time there was no album, and had the song not become a hit there never would have been.

Nearly 15 years later (!), I think I have an idea regarding the tape drag.

In the 1989-1990 time frame, many compilations (including the Warner Special Products groups) would use reel-to-reel dubs supplied by the various labels as source material. My guess is one of the reel-to-reel decks at the source label (like Arista) or the compilation-producing label (like Warner Special Products) had a deck that wasn't working too well, slowing down over the course of playing the 4-minute tape. It could be that a reel size wasn't selected properly, or for a deck that didn't have a capstan/pinch roller (like the Ampex deck at my old college station), that the servos weren't working properly.

In the 1992-ish time frame, most of the labels sent/received dubs on DAT, which has near-exact pitch correction, no wow/flutter, and a pretty flat EQ. A *vast* improvement over analog reel-to-reel dubbing. And as a result, from 1992-ish onward, the sounds quality of most compilations improved. (Rhino excluded from this generalization; I doubt that they ever settled for reel-to-reel dubs.)

Once the track (with tape drag) ended up in the digital domain on a CD, subsequent copies on DAT would also have the tape drag until someone did a new analog transfer of the two-track mixdown tape.

Bottom line: You won't hear any tape drag on releases from the actual label, where they have easy access to the source two-track mixdown tape, and wouldn't have bothered with the (faulty) analog reel-to-reel dubbing step.

This has taught me to be wary of (non-Rhino) multi-label compilations from before 1992-ish. (I'm generalizing here. Your results may vary.)

I updated the database to show "T-Empo Radio Edit," as the version on the CD runs 3:47. This version appears on European CD singles from 1995 & 1996. It looks like the US only has a 12" promo vinyl release from 1996, which has a longer 8:48 T-Empo Mix.