Europe - The Final Countdown

The TV show Arrested Development ruined the song for me, but in a good way.

Dug out my promo 45 for this song. White label Epic 34-06416, identical stereo on both sides, printed 3:59, actual 4:01, 117.6 BPM throughout. I think the commercial 45 is the same.

There are a bunch of oddly-timed versions out there, so I thought I'd sort things out, from shortest to longest.

3:32 (including outro silence) - Realm's Gold And Platinum Vol. 4 (1988) - it's an early fade; it's also digitally identical to Heart Of Rock until 3:17, but with an added fade from 3:17 to 3:30

3:55 (including outro silence) - EMI UK's 2-CD Now 1986 (1993) - it's the 45 version but with a shortened fade

3:59 (including outro silence) - Warner Special Products' Eighteen Rock Hard Hits Vol. 1 (1997) - it's the 45 version but with a truncated fade

4:01 (including outro silence) - Columbia's Heart Of Rock - the 45 version, with an untruncated fade that seems to end about 2 seconds before the true 45 (I think it's as close as you'll get to the true 45 on CD)

4:08 (including outro silence) - The A List (1994) - homemade fade from TM Century; has NR; sounds extremely close to Golddisc 149 and 8503 but absolute polarity inverted, runs longer than 45, also has noise reduction (avoid!)

4:13 (including outro silence) - Skifan Iceland's Pottþétt 80's - incorrect edit that doesn't quite match 45

5:07-5:10 - there are a few; all LP version

Edited by crapfromthepast