LITTLE RIVER BAND - "The Night Owls"

The 45 version is hard (impossible?) to find on CD. Not to worry, it's easy to edit down from the LP version.

The LP version sounds great on the 12-track Greatest Hits (copyright 1982), and on the 10 Best Series Greatest Hits (1990). There are two discs that are digital clones of 10 Best Series:

• Madacy's Rock On 1981 (1996, 1.8 dB louder)
• Time-Life's 2-CD Singers And Songwriters Vol. 13 1979-1989 (2001, different EQ)

Initial pressings of the 18-track version of Greatest Hits (2000) included a previously-unreleased mix, but I think subsequent pressings used the proper LP mix - avoid, though, because the mastering is pretty aggressive.

My timings below are from 10 Best Series, which sounds great and should be quite inexpensive nowadays.

Segment 1:
Extends from 0:00 to 0:07.2 of both the LP version and the 45 edit.
This segment ends at the first snare/crash cymbal, in between beats.

Remove the 16 beats from 0:07.2 to 0:14.9 of the LP version. The removed portion extends from snare/crash cymbal to snare/crash cymbal.

Segment 2:
Extends from 0:14.9 to 2:27.4 of the LP version.
Extends from 0:07.2 to 2:19.7 of the 45 edit.
This segment begins at the snare/crash cymbal, and ends on a downbeat near the end of the guitar solo.

Remove the 32 beats from 2:27.4 to 2:42.5 of the LP version.

Segment 3:
Extends from 2:42.5 to 4:13.3 of the LP version.
Extends from 2:19.7 to 3:50.5 of the 45 edit.
This segment begins on a downbeat near the end of the guitar solo and ends on a downbeat.

Add a 36-beat fade to the end of segment 3.
The fade extends from 3:56.4 to 4:13.3 of the LPversion.
The fade extends from 3:33.6 to 3:50.5 of the 45 edit.

Your mixdown will run 3:50.5, with edits at 0:07.2 and 2:19.7, and a 36-beat fade from 3:33.6 to 3:50.5.

(Edit: I see that a homemade 45 edit turns up on The A List Disc 8, which you probably don't have.)

Edited by crapfromthepast

So you mean to tell me that the promo had the intro cut in half? Really? See, even though I had heard it faded off starting around the 4:02 mark, I had always thought the song was just an early fade.

Was there also a version that had the otherwise full LP version right up to the fade?

Here they are on one of those "Solid Gold" style variety shows where they *ahem* "perform" the radio edit.

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

Wow those are abrupt edits. Never heard that played on area radio stations in late 1981 (American or Canadian).

So did it fade like that in the chorus? I'm used to the fade being in the closing guitar solo, starting at about 4:03. Wow, radio edit and playlist patterns were a lot more regionalized back then.

For the record, I have the 45 version on an Australian compilation disc. It is "Time-Life Singers And Songwriters 1980-1983" (TL SSW/05)