REO Speedwagon - Can’t Fight This Feeling

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   Was there an official edit for this song?  Years ago I remember hearing a version on the radio where most of the guitar solo in the middle was taken out.  But I haven't heard it in a long time nor have I seen any reference to it.  Might this have been a station edit?

This also reminds me of another song which was edited the exact same way.  The Jets' "Make It Real"  Both of these edit versions took the guitar out to make it a little more "safe" for AC stations in the '80s.  I've heard the Jets edit more recently, but it's been a very long time since I heard the REO edit.

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RichM921 Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Music Fan Joined: 30 October 2007 Status: Offline Points: 0	Post Options Post Reply Quote RichM921 Thanks(0) Quote Reply Topic: REO Speedwagon - Can’t Fight This Feeling Posted: 26 April 2008 at 8:02am
	Was there an official edit for this song? Years ago I remember hearing a version on the radio where most of the guitar solo in the middle was taken out. But I haven't heard it in a long time nor have I seen any reference to it. Might this have been a station edit? This also reminds me of another song which was edited the exact same way. The Jets' "Make It Real" Both of these edit versions took the guitar out to make it a little more "safe" for AC stations in the '80s. I've heard the Jets edit more recently, but it's been a very long time since I heard the REO edit.

EdisonLite Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Music Fan Joined: 18 October 2004 Location: United States Status: Offline Points: 0	Post Options Post Reply Quote EdisonLite Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 26 April 2008 at 9:12am
	I remember hearing the "Can't Fight This Feeling" edit on AC radio about 15-20 years ago on an L.A. radio station. I knew a dj at that station, and she told me it was an edit they made - for the reasons you cite: they took out the guitar solo to make it more suitable for AC radio. We both felt it was a bad edit. This doesn't mean there's no official record label edit. But I don't know of one.

jimct Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Music Fan Joined: 07 April 2006 Location: United States Status: Offline Points: 0	Post Options Post Reply Quote jimct Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 26 April 2008 at 1:09pm
	Guys, a bit of a listed time situation here, which Pat has already done a great job detailing in the database. My commercial 45 has a listed time of (4:39), but an actual time of (4:46). Deadwax is "ZSS-169876-1A". I guess other commercial 45 copies had listed times of (4:54), according to Pat, but not mine. I also own two promo 45s copies. Both sides of both copies have listed times of (4:54), but actual times of (4:46), same actual time as my commercial 45. The promo 45's deadwax info mirrors the commercial 45's on one side, with the flip also the same, but ending in "1B". We also knew of a "radio station custom edit, without the guitar solo" version, supposedly created by an AC station. Gordon, we at the station didn't think the edit was done very well, either, at the time. We passed on it, and stayed with the promo 45 version. In 1985, I never saw an "official" promo 45 come in with this "edit" to our station, and I don't believe that it exists that way in any form, except that "unofficial, radio station edit creation".

Yah Shure Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Music Fan Joined: 11 December 2007 Location: United States Status: Offline Points: 0	Post Options Post Reply Quote Yah Shure Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 26 April 2008 at 5:24pm
	While some ACs balked at the hard quitar parts in some of the pop/rock crossovers, country radio was fighting the same battle within its own format. Perhaps the best example of a casualty of being "too rock" was Ronnie Milsap's "Stranger In My House." Some country stations took a pass, and the song's number five country peak broke Ronnie's string of ten straight number ones. Perhaps RCA didn't want to lose that battle again. When Earl Thomas Conley's "Don't Make It Easy For Me" was released in early 1984, both my PD and I thought that the guitar throughout the song was just a bit too hard. When I voiced our concerns to RCA, they immediately sent an acetate remix. Problem solved? No, the acetate's guitar was mixed even harder and with more compression than on the original promo 45! We added the regular promo, and I don't recall any negative listener comments. (I often wondered whether or not the acetate was actually done to test the top-40 crossover potential for E. T. Conley.) That acetate (from Master Mix in Nashville) was sent only to the reporting stations that had complained about the guitars. While not an "official" release, it was an authorized remix sent by the record company in an effort to avoid losing key adds. I'm surprised that Epic hadn't taken a similar approach with "Can't Fight This Feeling." If nothing else, it would have eliminated the bad station edits. Then again, it may not have been an option for the label.