Worst radio edit of all time

[Theater of My Mind]

Up for discussion, just a fun diversion....

Whether it was editing for the sake of shortening a song's length, removing expletives, removing lyrics that were not even expletives, or any other reason, what are some of the worst radio edits ever?

I'll start.

Bob Seger's 'Night Moves'. 3:20. The entire bridge was cut out removing more than 2 minutes, along with all the feels and the best part of the song, from the official radio single. It also faded out early in the most ridiculous way.

 

[kevtronics]

Not on the radio, but this holiday season, a lot of schools will be forced to change the lyrics to "Deck the Halls".

Anyway, some AM stations didn't like Steely Dan's song "FM", so they edited it to create an AM version:

 

[TheBigA]

Bob Seger's 'Night Moves'. 3:20. The entire bridge was cut out removing more than 2 minutes, along with all the feels and the best part of the song, from the official radio single. It also faded out early in the most ridiculous way.

You probably know this already, but the edit wasn't made by anyone in radio. It was made by Capitol Records. It was only used for CHR radio. It resulted in Seger getting his first Top 10 or Top 5 song after being on Capitol for 8 years, sold over 2 million records, and really was a game changer for his career. At the same time, the album version of the song was played on the various FM rock radio formats of the day, although it was before the arrival of the Billboard rock chart.

To me the most glaring edit in music history was Light My Fire, in which the organ and guitar solos were removed in a rather abrupt sort of way. But that's just me, and as with Seger, the album version was played on FM rock stations at the time.

 

[Ed Nielson]

Anyway, some AM stations didn't like Steely Dan's song "FM", so they edited it to create an AM version:

When I worked at WSAR (around 2001) I used part of Everclear's "AM Radio" in a promo. I simply edited it to say "Listen to the AM Radio". Since they sampled "Mr. Big Stuff," I ran with it and did a couple of promos with other 70's songs. If I can find it, maybe I'll post it over in Production.

 

[cc333]

Not on the radio, but this holiday season, a lot of schools will be forced to change the lyrics to "Deck the Halls".

Ah, yeah. Because of the word "gay."

That word, to the best of my understanding, was actually used primarily as a synonym for "happy" at one time (it's clear in "Deck the Halls" that the word is being used in that former context).

These so-called "culture wars" are just plain stupid. Nothing is safe from becoming a Target* for hyper-politicization!

*Including Target the department store chain, for reasons that leave me completely bemused and perplexed.

c

 

[cc333]

Anyway, there was a radio edit of El Paso, wasn't there? The verse that begins with the "Just for a moment, I stood there in silence..." was edited out, so that it basically leaving this awkward transition from when the narrator killed the stranger and running out back to get on his horse.

Of course, now the unedited version is widely available, and it makes more sense!

c

 

[TheBigA]

Anyway, there was a radio edit of El Paso, wasn't there?

Columbia Records provided two versions for radio: The full version on the A side, and a 3 minute edit on the B side. The only version I've ever used was the full version. I'm not aware of any data on which version received more airplay.

 

[cc333]

Huh, interesting.

For some reason, I only ever heard the edited version until a few years ago when I discovered the full version on Youtube.

c

 

[CTListener]

A few more irritating edits from the geezer years:

-- "American Pie": verses omitted, including the slow wrap-up verse, and the song gets a fade ending. I know why it was done, but still ... yuck. And plenty of Top 40 stations adjusted their clocks to play the full song when it was a hit. I don't remember hearing the short one much until it became an oldie.

-- "Heard It in a Love Song": This Marshall Tucker hit had its middle and final verses chopped up, the result being a shorter song with a cobbled-together verse consisting of parts of two separate verses. It's not awful, but IMO the song wasn't excessively long to begin with.

-- "I've Been Lonely Too Long": An entire verse and chorus of this song by the Young Rascals was dropped, leaving a skimpy single of barely over 2 minutes in length behind. Why? In Boston, WMEX played the full version, while WRKO played the short. As an oldie, WDRC-FM Hartford always played the full version, having played it when the song was current, but SiriusXM's version of pop history would have you believe that the full version never existed. I can only assume that the vast majority of stations that played this song back in '67 opted for the short version, but the long version (which still was well under 3 minutes) was definitely out there, and continued to be played 40 years later.

 

[gr8oldies]

Ah, yeah. Because of the word "gay."

That word, to the best of my understanding, was actually used primarily as a synonym for "happy" at one time (it's clear in "Deck the Halls" that the word is being used in that former context).

These so-called "culture wars" are just plain stupid. Nothing is safe from becoming a Target* for hyper-politicization!

*Including Target the department store chain, for reasons that leave me completely bemused and perplexed.

c

Don we now our straight apparrel.

 

[cc333]

Don we now our straight apparrel.

They're putting the English language and large swaths of American culture in a straight-jacket!

c

 

[Mikey Radio]

An older one for sure, but back in the day I remember hearing a few AC stations play the full version of "Sometimes When We Touch" by Dan Hill, while others would play the edit. The edited version basically cut right from one of the more quiet and intimate sections of the tune directly to the big ending with Hill belting out the refrain with orchestral parts, completely cutting out the buildup/transition to that part of the song. Clunky musically to say the least.

 

[Ed Nielson]

"Big Bad John" by Jimmy Dean was edited...near the end of the song the radio version says "... at the bottom of this mine lies a big, big man..." while the original states "... lies one hell of a man."

 

[TheBigA]

-- "I've Been Lonely Too Long": An entire verse and chorus of this song by the Young Rascals was dropped, leaving a skimpy single of barely over 2 minutes in length behind.

Even with the shorter version, the song stiffed in the Billboard chart, ending up in the mid-teens.

 

[CTListener]

Even with the shorter version, the song stiffed in the Billboard chart, ending up in the mid-teens.

And yet it popped up regularly on a Hartford oldies station and still gets played outside of specialty/countdown shows on SiriusXM's '60s channel, which is generally limited to actual hits outside of those shows. A head-scratcher, for sure.

 

[TexasTom]

An older one for sure, but back in the day I remember hearing a few AC stations play the full version of "Sometimes When We Touch" by Dan Hill, while others would play the edit. The edited version basically cut right from one of the more quiet and intimate sections of the tune directly to the big ending with Hill belting out the refrain with orchestral parts, completely cutting out the buildup/transition to that part of the song. Clunky musically to say the least.

Yes, that's a very jarring edit.

Another really bad edit is what was done to the Little River Band's first top 40 hit in the U.S., "It's a Long Way There". The original song is over eight minutes long and the single just seems to jump from section to section with multiple jarring edits. I wonder how much better this song might have done if the single edit hadn't been so terrible?

On a different note, I was surprised to discover that a single edit of "The End" by the Doors exists -- it was released after the song was used in "Apocalypse Now", but doesn't seem to have charted in the United States. It's also apparently different from the version that was used in the film. And it is dramatically edited down from over 11 minutes to 3 minutes. Needless to say, it is also way cleaned up.

 

[Ed Nielson]

I am recalling this from memory... back in 1973, WBZ Boston (they were still playing music in those days) did an edit of Paul Simon's "Kodachrome." They edited out part of the first verse (to eliminate the word "crap") and put in part of the second verse. The original verse was.. "When I think back on all the crap I learned in high school..." Putting in part of the second verse gave "When I think back on all the girls I knew when I was single..." Problem is, that's not how the verses line up, and you get two extra syllables.

 

[kevtronics]

-- "American Pie": verses omitted, including the slow wrap-up verse, and the song gets a fade ending. I know why it was done, but still ... yuck. And plenty of Top 40 stations adjusted their clocks to play the full song when it was a hit. I don't remember hearing the short one much until it became an oldie.

That's not an edit, that's just the first half of the 45 ("Part 1"). The second half ("Part 2") is on the flip side. The official promo 45 that was sent to radio stations is actually a complete re-recording of the song in a more upbeat style:

That version was only released in mono, and has never been re-issued on CD, so stations wanting a shorter stereo version of the song just play "Part 1" instead.

 

[valvashon]

In 1978 or 1979 KQWB-FM 98.7 in Fargo (Moorhead) edited together the studio and Live at Budokan versions of "Surrender". I never have heard this anywhere else so I can only assume it was done at the KQWB studios. They took the first half of the studio version and at the appropriate spot picked up the live version at approximately 2:24 in, just as the guitar solo started before the last verse and then chorus. It was very well done and you could barely tell that there was an edit (unless you were a huge Cheap Trick fan like me) until you noticed the screaming fans in the background that weren't there before.

I could never figure out why they did this because there are none of the 7 words in the live version so there is no real reason to pull an edit like this unless it was a "just because I can" thing. Several years later while still in High School I became friendly with the KQWB engineer but never thought to ask him if he knew anything about why this edit was created and he may have come on board after it was out of rotation and forgotten about.

Please tell me somebody else on here heard this edit and that I'm not imagining an edit of this song that didn't actually exist. I'm pretty sure it did actually exist.

 

[johnbasalla]

Ah, yeah. Because of the word "gay."

That word, to the best of my understanding, was actually used primarily as a synonym for "happy" at one time (it's clear in "Deck the Halls" that the word is being used in that former context).

These so-called "culture wars" are just plain stupid. Nothing is safe from becoming a Target* for hyper-politicization!

*Including Target the department store chain, for reasons that leave me completely bemused and perplexed.

c

People are so quick to accept new definitions and the changing of the language by activists.