Hard To Find 45s On CD, Vol . 18

Thanks Mark!

Yes, "Venus" was her name, Wahhh! Wasn't that band of Dutch origins? I'm trying hard to remember. (I'm also thinking Candy Dulfer and Average White Band.)
I feel better now knowing that when I do find that disc, I will hear the familiar clicks. (Even though I wish they weren't there.)

As for the Chuck Mangione song, I think I will have to dig out the LP or see if I have it on a GoldDisc for that long album version.


<Dave>

MMathews wrote: Dave, Yes the Shocking Blue are Dutch. The song was written by band member Robbie Van Leeuwen. Mariska Veres was the lead singer and she didn't speak a word of English ... you can hear her singing the English phonetically so some words are a little "off" .... Sadly we lost Mariska in 2006. When I was a kid and played this 45 to death, I thought it was a guy singing because her voice was so low and rough sounding. When I was 16 I acquired the Colossus album and when I saw her picture I almost fainted...she was gorgeous! But of course I was disappointed that the title cut was in mono. I've wanted that song in stereo all my life. To finally achieve a mix I liked, it took 4 engineers working together to create the stereo mix on our CD. It was a dream come true. And bless you Mariska, wherever you are now :-)

I really love their song "Never Marry A Railroad Man".
Its a shame that they didn't achieve another big hit
here in the US.

The version of "Words" on Hard To Find 45s vol. 18 is the original international hit version as released in 1982 on the Words album and as a single.

Well, almost. It is running 0.15% faster than previous digital releases, and if the copy I found (just to check this for you) is legit, then for some reason, the last 7 seconds have been replaced with a lossy-source copy with dither added!

The two versions on Référence 80 are not quite what was released in 1982. Those are previously unreleased versions which debuted on that compilation in 2011 and are also on the 2020 Words & Melodies 5-CD set.

Comparing the Words & Melodies masterings with the circa 1990 German CD of the Words album...

The 1982 released version on the c. 1990 CD is 123.7 BPM and runs 3:26, with the fade beginning at 3:15. On the Words & Melodies remaster, the fade goes for another ¼-second, and it's phase-inverted and louder, to the point of introducing a few moments of minor clipping.

The "Original Full Mix" runs 3:37.8, and doesn't fade out as early, so you hear about 11 more seconds of music at the very end. Despite running at tempo 0.35% faster than the hit version (124.0 BPM), the pitch of everything in it is 2.85% (half a semitone) lower! This is total speculation, but I am guessing they were using an Eventide Harmonizer to mess with the pitch, and they were maybe also playing with the tempo of the synth & drum sequencer.

Similar shenanigans are at play in the "Original Speed Mix", which runs 3:42.9, and is the structurally the same as the Original Full Mix, including the fade. Its tempo (121.1 BPM) is about 2.48% slower than that mix, though, and yet, it's at the exact same pitch!

So you can't really make the hit version from those two "original" mixes.

Edited by mjb50

Wow. Thank you both for the wealth of information! That
explains why I am hearing such differences.