Vanilla Ice - "Play That Funky Music"

I have a promo CD single for this song (SBK DPRO-05364, 1990) with four tracks on it:

1. Play That Funky Music (Remix Edit) printed 3:18 actual 3:22 - begins in high-pitched voice "Yo Vanilla kick it one time boyeeee", has "boomy" drums, ends cold with "boom"
2. Yo Vanilla printed :05 actual :05 - is just the intro to track 1 with volume raised
3. Play That Funky Music (Remix) printed 4:38 actual 4:41 - fades in, has "boomy" drums, ends cold on "boom"
4. Play That Funky Music (LP Version) printed 4:44, actual 4:43 - fades in, has "tinny" drums that sound like those on "Ice Ice Baby", ends on a single synth note - not sure which LP Vanilla is referring to because this is NOT the version on To The Extreme

The true LP version on To The Extreme (printed 4:44, actual 4:20) starts with "Yo Vanilla kick it one time boyeeee", (although it's mixed down about -24 dB), has "boomy" drums, and ends with "boom". It appears that some form of the "remix" found its way onto To The Extreme, and the original mix with the tinny drums is pretty much lost to history and confined to the last track on the hard-to-find CD single.

The so-called "Remix Edit" from track 1 of the CD single can be recreated from the To The Extreme album version with one simple edit:

Keep 0:00.0-1:53.4 of To The Extreme version.
Edit on downbeat after "drop this one for the VIP crew".
Remove the 100 beats from 1:53.4-2:52.2.
Keep 2:52.2-4:22.4 (end) of To The Extreme version.

The word "boyeeeee" in the intro is 0.4 seconds longer on track 1 of the CD single than on To The Extreme, which can be easily fixed by grafting the entire track "Yo Vanilla", listed as track 2 on on To The Extreme and running :05, onto the beginning of "Play That Funky Music".

And I just have to reproduce the credits and lyrics from the liner notes to the 5-second-long track, "Yo Vanilla":
- - - - -
Intro. Yo Vanilla
Vanilla Ice

Yo vanilla! Kick it one time, boy!

Produced by Vanilla Ice
Published by Ice Baby Music/QPM Music (BMI)
- - - -

Good that Vanilla properly published this 5-second-long track with BMI. No mention of any sampling credit to Wild Cherry or to Robert Parissi, who wrote the 1976 hit for Wild Cherry, though...

Just checked my What's Up? compilation, which according to the database has the "LP version," and this is exactly what I remember being on my cassette copy of To The Extreme. It has a different hook, totally different mix, and doesn't end with "boom." CFTP, it seems like you have a unique copy of To The Extreme, which is great new info for the database!

crapfromthepast wrote: Play That Funky Music (LP Version) printed 4:44, actual 4:43 - fades in, has "tinny" drums that sound like those on "Ice Ice Baby", ends on a single synth note - not sure which LP Vanilla is referring to because this is NOT the version on To The Extreme The true LP version on To The Extreme (printed 4:44, actual 4:20) starts with "Yo Vanilla kick it one time boyeeee", (although it's mixed down about -24 dB), has "boomy" drums, and ends with "boom". It appears that some form of the "remix" found its way onto To The Extreme, and the original mix with the tinny drums is pretty much lost to history and confined to the last track on the hard-to-find CD single.

That last track on your promo CD single is indeed the "LP version", cftp - us true Ice fans know which long-lost(?) LP it's referring to, lol... (*ducks & runs*)

Okay, I thought this was fairly common knowledge, but maybe not. 1990's "To the Extreme" was actually Vanilla Ice's second album. His debut was 1989's "Hooked", on Ultra/Ichiban 4019. It was issued here in the U.S. on both cassette & CD (not sure about vinyl - but probably as well), and I have it in both formats. :-) Needless to say, it's pretty rare, and nowadays the CD fetches pretty big bucks on eBay & elsewhere...

After "Play That Funky Music" and "Ice Ice Baby" got quite a bit of attention around FL and the South, SBK jumped in and signed Ice. They subsequently re-recorded/remixed 10 of the 11 original tracks from "Hooked" for "To the Extreme" (his cover of the Stones' "Satisfaction" is the one track that wasn't carried over from "Hooked"), and some new songs were also added on to "...Extreme". So that final (4:43) mix on your promo CD single is the original "Hooked" LP version - so yes, it can be found elsewhere besides that promo...

When I bought the 10th edition of Pat's book a few years ago, I noticed that the "Hooked" album was nowhere to be found under Vanilla Ice's listings for "Ice Ice Baby" and "Play That Funky Music", and I assume it's still not in the database to this day - but it definitely belongs, IMO. Unfortunately, my CD is buried away at the moment, so I can't provide exact timings for the two songs, although the "Discography" page on Ice's official web site lists them as "(4:31)" and "(4:47)", respectively. And for the curious, the album is also listed at discogs.com and on Wikipedia, complete w/ cover photos...

So in other words, "Hooked" is to Ice as that true final "Rob & Fab" album was to those two dudes formerly known as Milli Vanilli, for which I see you have a detailed page on your site, cftp (yeah, I have that one on cassette, too) - time to add a page for Ice as well! ;-)

My dj cd single which is also SBK DPRO-05364 with matrix number Capitol JAX 3C has as track 4 the "To The Extreme" cd version on it running 4:43. I am curious as to the matrix number of the other promo cd single mentioned above with a different version of "Play That Funky Music".

There may indeed be two different pressings of "To the Extreme", and if so, I admit I was previously unaware of it! I've never owned the promo CD single in question; I do, however, have the mega-rare cassette maxi-single for "Ice Ice Baby"/"Play That Funky Music", and that's also still packed away from my last move, but I used to play it often, so I'm just going by memory from the way cftp described it. Sounds like you're onto something, though, aaronk...