sheryl crow "soak up the sun"

My copy from RPM Top Hits U.S.A, labeled as the radio edit, runs 3:17. The vocal starts at the 11 second mark. Not sure what length was played on the radio at the time.

Non-US promo and commercial singles feature the same Radio Edit version issued in the US, only it retains the LP opening of the track (that warbly, sustained note). US pressings chop this off and begin on the beat.

For some reason, every copy of the import Radio Edit I've ever come across --be it commercial CD, promo or acetate-- has utilized a glitched master with multiple digital clicks throughout the entire song. Really frustrating.

Fortunately these are not present on the US promo CD single.

One final note for anyone hunting for the edit online, the music video features a dramatically different edit of the song, not the Radio Edit version. To my knowledge, this edit has never appeared on CD.

A fun one for you guys: There is an additional single mix of this song that runs 3:19. I’ve had a low bit-rate MP3 of it dating back to 2004, but I lost track of where I sourced it from. Every few years I would try to figure out where I got it from, to no avail.

It’s similar to the US single edit, but it has a more prominent hi-hat, more cymbals, plus noticeable drum fills leading into and out of the choruses. It’s my preferred mix of the song. (In fact for awhile my theory was that maybe I added this stuff myself and subsequently forgot; I used to add keyboards and drums to songs; but these sounded like live drum fills, remixed from the multitracks.)

So anyway - I was stuck. But then I found a remix listed on a various artist compilation - This Is Alice Music, Volume 6. Being from the Bay Area, I knew the Alice comps advertised having unique or in-studio versions of songs. So I (re-)bought it, and sure enough it was the same as my 18-year-old MP3. My (self-created) mystery was solved!!

I couldn’t find the audio anywhere on the web, so I uploaded it to Youtube:

Soak Up The Sun (Alternate Mix)