Song lengths undergoing change—Radio impact?

[yeoldeschool]

When it was re-released in 1972, the label still said 3:06 but this time it actually plays for is 4:26, the same as the commercial 45. Later the label was corrected to reflect its actual playing time.

I wasn't aware Nights in White Satin debuted in 1968. Was its orchestral poetry reading ending created for the 1972 re-release, or was it also performed in 1968 but excluded from the '68 promo just for radio stations? I have always noticed there's a dramatic improvement in the ending's technical audio fidelity...

Back on the thread's subject, who remembers this turkey? Radio SASS: Short Attention Span System:

Why climb the "Stairway to Heaven" when you can take the elevator? That's the logic behind Radio SASS (Short Attention Span System), an experimental radio protocol currently in development that takes classic tunes and whittles them down to about two minutes. "People's patience for music - even the stuff they like - is thin," says founder George Gimarc, a veteran programmer and former DJ from Dallas. "Twelve songs per hour won't cut it." Gimarc and his team of editor-musicians use what he calls "intuitive editing" to trim pop songs to their catchiest crux, pruning seconds from a guitar solo here, lopping off a chorus there.

Their official MP3 demo reel (or maybe I should call it their demolition reel) remains available through the Internet Archive: The first two cuts are only 1:52 and 1:41 in length. I didn't time out the others.

The official sales pitch from the company is archived here.

Suffice it to say, the reaction of music enthusiasts at the time wasn't unpredictable.

 

[K.M. Richards]

I wasn't aware Nights in White Satin debuted in 1968. Was its orchestral poetry reading ending created for the 1972 re-release, or was it also performed in 1968 but excluded from the '68 promo just for radio stations? I have always noticed there's a dramatic improvement in the ending's technical audio fidelity...

The album "Days Of Future Passed" was actually released in 1967, and then reissued in 1972 after the Moody Blues had gotten a few chart hits under their collective belts.

It's all in the first two paragraphs of the Wikipedia page on the song.

 

[TexasTom]

When it was re-released in 1972, the label still said 3:06 but this time it actually plays for is 4:26, the same as the commercial 45. Later the label was corrected to reflect its actual playing time.

A friend of mine actually has a copy of that version of the 45 -- complete with the false running time.

 

[Fighting Irish]

Stumbled across this thread just now, and wondered if the fact that most 7" 45RPM singles were released in mono prior to the early 70s made a difference in regard to sound quality and length.

In other words, did the fact that it was in mono allow a song such as Hey Jude to fit on a single than if it were in stereo?

 

[kevtronics]

In other words, did the fact that it was in mono allow a song such as Hey Jude to fit on a single than if it were in stereo?

No. In fact, "Hey Jude" was later reissued as a stereo 45:

 

[K.M. Richards]

Stumbled across this thread just now, and wondered if the fact that most 7" 45RPM singles were released in mono prior to the early 70s made a difference in regard to sound quality and length.

In other words, did the fact that it was in mono allow a song such as Hey Jude to fit on a single than if it were in stereo?

Maybe, but that technical limitation must have been overcome a few years later, when Atlantic released the promo 45 of "Stairway To Heaven":

 

[kevtronics]

One of the longest 7" 45s is the B-side of Bruce Springsteen's "Fire":

Factola Fire