John Parr - St. Elmo’s Fire

the question is...which version is on the commercial 45.....and the answer is....the truncated one...the 45 is identical to the version from the cd "essential 80's"....hope this helps....

The truncated version is also on:

"The Brat Pack Years" (Mars Entertainment)

"Only Rock 'n Roll 1985-1989" (JCI)

Would there be a way to take the proper version, and just switch channels, say in Audition?

4-1/2 years later, I revisited "St. Elmo's Fire".

I still think the truncated opening note was a mastering mistake, on both the 45 and the soundtrack. And yet, that's the only way it appeared, anywhere, until 1994.

The song appeared on three compilations in the '80s - Mercury W. Germany's Hits On CD Vol. 4 (1986), Atlantic's Hit Singles 1980-1988 (1988) and Warner Special Products' 2-CD Night Beat (1988). All sound OK, not spectacular, and all have the truncated opening note.

The 50-CD promo set The A List Disc 31 (1994) appears to use the same analog transfer as Hit Singles 1980-1988, with no noise reduction.

I have three compilations that all use the same analog transfer as Night Beat - Warner Special Products' 3-CD After Hours (1990; digitally exactly 2.2 dB louder), Razor & Tie's 2-CD Totally '80s (1993) and JCI's Only Rock 'N Roll 1985-1989 (1994). All sound just like Night Beat, which is OK, not spectacular.

EMI UK's 2-CD Now 1985 (1993) and BR Music Holland's One Hit Wonders And Hard To Find Hits (1999) both fade early - avoid.

Then, for Rhino's Billboard Top Hits 1985 (1994), Bill Inglot found a source tape that had the opening note intact! And sounded quite a bit clearer than the previous discs! Oddly, it had its left and right channels reversed, although that's easily fixed.

I have four compilations that all use the same analog transfer as Billboard - Time-Life's Sounds Of The Eighties Vol. 2 1985 (1994), Time-Life's Sounds Of The Eighties Vol. 31 Movie Hits Of The '80s (1996; differently EQ'd digital clone), Rhino's 7-CD Like Omigod (2002, much too loud and clips a lot) and Time-Life's Another Lost Decade At The Movies (2005; digitally identical to Movie Hits).

For sound quality, I'd recommend Billboard Top Hits 1985, but you need to flip the left and right channels to make it match the 45 and LP versions.

Edited by crapfromthepast

I'm not aware of any instance where the database specifies comments for recordings where the left/right channels are reversed, so I doubt this is what is being referenced here by the "remixed" comment. Perhaps Pat can clarify this for us.