Top 40 Hits - Limited or No Availability

I was wondering if somebody here could help me with something. It is easy to use Pat's database to find Top 40 hits that are not on domestic CD. However, I am trying to composite a list of as many songs as possible that are difficult to obtain or have no availability whatsoever. These may have only been on one release domestically, or on a hard-to-find import, or had no release at all. Here are a few examples of what I mean:

1. the mono 45 version of "Cherish" by The Association
2. the 45 version of "This Could Be the Night" by Loverboy
3. any of the Gene Cotton Top 40 hits
4. any of the Randy Meisner Top 40 hits
5. "Bruce" by Rick Springfield

And the list goes on and on on.

There are a slew of these from the 50s, 60s, 70s, and 80s.

Does anyone have a list such as this?

Any help is greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

Mike C.
Carlisle, PA

Are you referring to missing 45 versions that cannot be recreated by editing or fading the LP version? There are many songs (too many to list) that have not had their 45 edits issued on CD, but the LP version is readily available for making your own 45 version with audio editing software.

The tougher nuts are those 45 versions that cannot be recreated from the LP version, either due to mix differences, different performance, or in rare cases where the 45 version is longer than the LP version. Some of the ones that come to mind are:

"The Way We Were" - Barbra Streisand (different performance)
"One Step Closer To You" - Gavin Christopher (different mix)
"Borderline" - Madonna (different mix; available on extremely rare Japanese CD singles box)
"Midnight Cowboy" - Ferrante & Teicher
"Games People Play" - Joe South
"Ramblin' Gamblin' Man" - Bob Seger
"Hair" - Cowsills
"There's The Girl" - Heart
"Dreamboat Annie" - Heart (opening guitar solo is unique to the 45)
"Fallin' In Love" - Hamilton, Joe Frank & Reynolds (45 is longer)
"Give Me The Night" - George Benson
"Sometimes A Fantasy" - Billy Joel (45 is longer)
"Movin' Out" - Billy Joel
"Keeping The Faith" - Billy Joel
"America" - Neil Diamond
"Gypsy" - Fleetwood Mac (contains a brief section before the coda with vocal ad-libs that aren't on the LP)
"(Oh) Pretty Woman" - Van Halen
"I'll Wait" - Van Halen
"Dreams" - Van Halen
"Can't Shake Loose" - Agnetha Faltskog
"Against The Wind" - Bob Seger (one edit is done with a remixed segue that cannot be recreated from the LP)
"I Am A Rock" - Simon & Garfunkel

The list goes on...

Santi and Roscoe,

Thanks for your suggestions, and I am definitely looking for examples such as these, but I can tell I confused you too. Your songs definitely fit my criteria, but what I was trying to get at was this:

In Pat's database, we can easily see which hits have not been released on CD by entering "N" on the search page when asked if we are looking for songs that haven't been released on CD.

I am trying to get a vast list of songs like you both suggested, but I am also looking for songs that have been released and are hard to find. That is why I mentioned Gene Cotton. If you don't have the one CD that all of his hits are on, you miss them all. The Loverboy example may have been a bad one because the LP version of "This Could Be the Night" is readily available. However, the 45 version is not available. And "Cherish" by The Association is only available in mono on a Dick Bartley CD. If you don't have that one, you probably don't have the mono version. So I am looking for a hodgepodge of your suggestions, but mainly the criteria I describe. Hard-to-find hits on hard-to-find CDs.

To make it simple, I am trying to compile a vast list, that I may have to digitize with needle drops because getting them on CD may be very difficult. Even if they are hits that have only been released on a CD or two in any particular version.

I hope this explains it better.

Any help from anybody is appreciated.

Thanks!

Mike C.
Carlisle, PA

Hykker wrote: Is "Witch Queen of New Orleans" by Redbone available anywhere in stereo? It's on one of the "Have A Nice Day" CDs in mono, and there's a very different mix on a CD called "Rock Artifacts" but that's it afaik. My promo single is mono/stereo, but I think stock ones were mono.

There is a stereo version of "Witch Queen" on a Sony CD where half the disc are Redbone tunes, the other half Wet Willie songs.

And the US Animals "House Of The Rising Sun" 45 version is
no great loss on CD. That disc was severely hacked up and
even die hard Top 40 stations often played the LP cut. One
of the worst single edits of all time.

Edited by KentT