"Isn't She Lovely"?

[MikeShannon914]

OK, slow news week...so ponder this for a moment: Stevie Wonder's "Isn't She Lovely" is a mainstay of AC and oldies radio, and has been since around January, 1977. But this song was never released as a single (not even as a B-side,) never entered the Hot 100, but it became a bonafide hit on its own. The album cut (which, technically is the ONLY intended version of the song) is like 6:46, but has been cut down arbitrarily to about 4 mins (and deleting the irritating baby cries and water splashing) by most stations that still play it, or who ever played it in years past.

So how did this happen? Sure, in the 90s, it was commonplace for grunge bands to have album cuts make the singles charts, with no single release. But we're talking over 30 years ago now, and the usual practice then would be to release it as a B-side (at the minimum,) once the label realized it was getting airplay. But, according to Wikipedia, Wonder didn't want that: "Although the song was very popular and has received much radio airplay, it did not chart on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 because Stevie Wonder would not allow it to be released as a 45 RPM single even though requested to do so by Motown."

WHY?? It's just money, Stevie. BTW, I did find a reference to a demo single of it released in the UK in 1977. It was a once-only printing. And Wiki mentions that it hit #23 on the Adult Contemporary charts. What, as an album cut? Or a "radio edit" of a single that doesn't exist? I'll have to look that one up sometime to see how it's listed.

Then again again, what made stations like KVIL pick up on the song in the first place, then chop up the song into something more palatable? Sure, it was too long already, even for FM, but the 'KVIL Edit,' as I call it still, seems to be the standard. And you won't find that edit on any CD collection, or Greatest Hits of Stevie Wonder, etc, but it's what you STILL hear on the radio today.

Isn't there a similar story with "Stairway to Heaven," where it was never released as a single, but is still a bonafide classic still today?

 

[johnsummers]

Mike, oddly, I wasn't even aware there was a 'KVIL' edit...could have saved me some time. ;D

 

[billyg]

One story goes (from a google search) that Stevie refused to edit the song to single length. But it was a smart move by him not to release "Lovely" as a 45 because it forced everyone to buy that expensive 2 LP - one 7" EP set to get it. ;D I bet it's the old story of an big influential station playing it as a preview LP cut, the audience wanting to hear it more and more so it wound up in rotation. And other stations followed suit. And its interesting that Wikipedia lists a 3:18 "radio edit". Maybe Motown sent out promo copies, acetates or reel tapes to stations.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isn't_She_Lovely?

Back then when a station got a new LP they could play any cut off of it.Now I hear about record companies suing stations when they play a cut from a new CD that's not the single. :-\ And I remember Stevie's and the Bee Gee's music being played on Album Rock stations like KMOD in Tulsa... before the "Disco Sucks" movement and consultants made AOR shut out any black R&B artists.

 

[MikeShannon914]

Indeed!!

Ya know, I considered that, that Motown may have done their own thing against Stevie's wishes, but the reference book I found was a huge, phone directory-sized catalog (circa 1987) that detailed every single to ever be released...EVER...no matter what the reason (meaning promotional ones, etc.) One entry existed for "Isn't She Lovely" (and even one for "Stairway to Heaven") and both were UK promos that were printed one time. Your average song that had any history as a single would have up to 20 entries, covering promos, 2-sided oldies reprints, etc...so I take it at its word. That's the big reason the success of "Lovely" has always been a mystery to me. It was directly from album sales and radio programmer intuition.

And good luck on finding that "radio edit"...a search of, um, various internet resources over the last couple of years brings up the same two versions: the original long one; and then one that was in the 3-min range, which was merely an unedited version that faded down when the baby started splashing and crying!

 

[Sgt. Hans G. Schultz]

Isn't there a similar story with "Stairway to Heaven," where it was never released as a single, but is still a bonafide classic still today?

Ya, der vas no schingle releesed but I remember playing one on der air in 19 und 77.
It vas der Atlantic promotional 45-RPM vit der blue label dat looked just like dis von.
http://en.citizendium.org/wiki/Image:Sthpromo1972.jpg

 

[Albert19X]

OK, slow news week...so ponder this for a moment: Stevie Wonder's "Isn't She Lovely" is a mainstay of AC and oldies radio, and has been since around January, 1977. But this song was never released as a single (not even as a B-side,) never entered the Hot 100, but it became a bonafide hit on its own.

...

Isn't there a similar story with "Stairway to Heaven," where it was never released as a single, but is still a bonafide classic still today?

This is what I don't get about radio. Why the astonishment that an album cut can become a hit? Back then people bought entire albums and could decide for themselves which cut was their favorite and request for airplay. Singles stopped being bought by my household around 1965 and I never knew or cared which cut of an album was the single. My theory is stations like KVIL latched on to that execrable song (in a dead heat with New Years Day as the worst song Wonder ever produced) for some God forsaken reason and, as was their wont, played it continuously until the listening audience's eyes just sort of glazed over like a Guantanamo prisoner's.

Nor is the idea that KVIL would do an unofficial radio edit surprising. Remember, this is the same station that once hired studio musicians to tack the four note KVIL jingle onto the end of songs.

 

[dfaulkner]

Nor is the idea that KVIL would do an unofficial radio edit surprising. Remember, this is the same station that once hired studio musicians to tack the four note KVIL jingle onto the end of songs.

I had forgotten about songs with the K-V-I-L jingle tacked on to the end. That was fun to hear ! ;D
But they can't afford to do that anymore.

 

[Albert19X]

I had forgotten about songs with the K-V-I-L jingle tacked on to the end. That was fun to hear ! ;D
But they can't afford to do that anymore.

Oh, that drove me nuts! I was stuck in an office with a communal radio tuned to KVIL. So not only did I have to hear Ron Chapman and his repetitive music for bland people all day I had to hear the KVIL jingle every 3 minutes. Eventually I stopped hearing the songs at all. Just the jingle. That...damned...jingle.

 

[BBontheRadio]

Uh, the "KVIL edit" today is the "TM Century" edit. Most of the songs are dubbed in from their CDs.

 

[dfaulkner]

I had forgotten about songs with the K-V-I-L jingle tacked on to the end. That was fun to hear ! ;D
But they can't afford to do that anymore.

Oh, that drove me nuts! I was stuck in an office with a communal radio tuned to KVIL. So not only did I have to hear Ron Chapman and his repetitive music for bland people all day I had to hear the KVIL jingle every 3 minutes. Eventually I stopped hearing the songs at all. Just the jingle. That...damned...jingle.

It's a shame what's happened to radio but they can't afford .... I'll spare you. It drove my sister crazy too !
Actually, I think she liked the jingles, she just didn't like the DJ's talking as much as they did, but that was a big part of what made KVIL..KVIL. As the bland person that I am, ;D I have very fond memories of the heydays (years, decades) of KVIL.

 

[billyg]

And good luck on finding that "radio edit"...a search of, um, various internet resources over the last couple of years brings up the same two versions: the original long one; and then one that was in the 3-min range, which was merely an unedited version that faded down when the baby started splashing and crying!

I guess most stations made their own edit then.

And Stevie was such a mega-popular artist in 1976 in the same way Micheal Jackson, Prince and Bruce Springsteen were in 84-5. I remember KJ-103 in Oklahoma City (I was attending UCO in Edmond then) playing "Pink Cadillac" and a edited version of "Erotic City" and those were b-sides.

I wish radio stations had the programming guts and not this "if you play anything unfamiliar your audience will desert you" paranoia from consultants to play non-single album cuts again.

 

[PeterZ]

I hate to disagree with a published book, but I was working at an AC station in Buffalo, NY at the time, and I carted all the music. I carted both the single and album versions of the song...the single version being on a 45. Perhaps it was the UK edit...but it somehow got into our hands. We did no cutting on it. The single played daytime, the album version nights and overnights. Had something to do with an 18 minute spotload and two newscasts per hour, as I recall.

 

[KevinFodor]

OK, slow news week...so ponder this for a moment: Stevie Wonder's "Isn't She Lovely" is a mainstay of AC and oldies radio, and has been since around January, 1977. But this song was never released as a single (not even as a B-side,) never entered the Hot 100, but it became a bonafide hit on its own.

...

Isn't there a similar story with "Stairway to Heaven," where it was never released as a single, but is still a bonafide classic still today?

This is what I don't get about radio. Why the astonishment that an album cut can become a hit? Back then people bought entire albums and could decide for themselves which cut was their favorite and request for airplay. Singles stopped being bought by my household around 1965 and I never knew or cared which cut of an album was the single. My theory is stations like KVIL latched on to that execrable song (in a dead heat with New Years Day as the worst song Wonder ever produced) for some God forsaken reason and, as was their wont, played it continuously until the listening audience's eyes just sort of glazed over like a Guantanamo prisoner's.

Nor is the idea that KVIL would do an unofficial radio edit surprising. Remember, this is the same station that once hired studio musicians to tack the four note KVIL jingle onto the end of songs.

Well, don't be astonished. It's absolutely true that an album cut can be a hit. But singles ruled record sales until around the late 60's/early 70's nationally. And what's funny to me is that today, the i-Tunes chart is proof positive that people still want singles...not necessarily albums. They want the songs they want...not the crap filler cuts some record companies and some artists (not necessarily all) place on an "album".

Record companies chose greed over customer preference in the 70's by trying to make everything album-based. Remember the attempts to sell albums at $18.95 each? Or, around that price? My memory can be faulty here. But, I remember the constant price hikes.

Don't get me wrong here, though. Some albums can transcend the public's desire for songs and spike their curiosity to want to buy the album. And that is the public's preference. But, not in all cases. \

As far as Stevie Wonder goes, there is a single edit...but whether it's British or otherwise, I don't know. It
runs about 3:18 or so...

 

[MikeShannon914]

I hate to disagree with a published book, but I was working at an AC station in Buffalo, NY at the time, and I carted all the music. I carted both the single and album versions of the song...the single version being on a 45. Perhaps it was the UK edit...but it somehow got into our hands. We did no cutting on it. The single played daytime, the album version nights and overnights. Had something to do with an 18 minute spotload and two newscasts per hour, as I recall.

That's the kind of stuff that makes this such a weird mystery. No, I'm not going to lose sleep here or anything, but could this have been some sort of a "bootleg" copy that the record company let slip out (against Wonder's wishes?) Peter, I'm sure you all have a copy of Joel Whitburn's "Billboard Top Adult Contemporary 1961-1993" somewhere...see if there's a catalog number listed with the song (Wiki showed that "Lovely" hit #23~ on that chart in 1977.) If so, that shoots down much of my little theory! And it would also explain why there is such consistency across the radio world for what the 'radio edit' is of that song.

 

[Jay Weaver]

Mike -
I don't see anywhere that it ever charted. It never charted on the Top 40 or the R & B lists. It sure got a lot of air play for a song that technically wasn't a hit.

 

[The_X_Man_Cometh]

Mike, this piqued my curiosity, so I hit the bookshelf and looked it up in Joel Whitburn's "Billboard Book of Top 40 Hits 1955-2000." Between the years of 1975 and 1979 (which appears to be the time frame in question), Stevie Wonder had 5 songs chart on the Billboard Top 40: I Wish (1), Sir Duke (1), Another Star (32), As (36), and Send One Your Love (4). No mention at all of Isn't She Lovely.

 

[MikeShannon914]

Ahhhh...."As" is one of my all-time favorites, hands down. Beautiful tune. Didn't get much AC airplay back in the day, let alone on K-104 or KNOK. (Keen-eyed classic TV fanatics [like me!] might remember the Sisters Sledge performing it on "The Jeffersons" in 1984.) "Another Star," another minor hit that didn't get much local airplay, either, was performed at length at the 1999 Super Bowl halftime show. "Send One Your Love" was a different album...seems like later on in 1979. Guess Stevie took 1978 off. :-\

 

[billyg]

Ahhhh...."As" is one of my all-time favorites, hands down. Beautiful tune. Didn't get much AC airplay back in the day, let alone on K-104 or KNOK. (Keen-eyed classic TV fanatics [like me!] might remember the Sisters Sledge performing it on "The Jeffersons" in 1984.) "Another Star," another minor hit that didn't get much local airplay, either, was performed at length at the 1999 Super Bowl halftime show. "Send One Your Love" was a different album...seems like later on in 1979. Guess Stevie took 1978 off. :-\

I think Stevie was working on the "Secret Life Of Plants" album back in 1978. I've heard that it wasn't a bad album, but compared to the mega-grammy success of "Songs" it was a big disappointment to a lot of critics and fans that he never really recovered from.

 

[jodydean]

We cut up alot of songs, but I don't believe that edit was ours.

Where's Chuck Rhodes and Steve Eberhart when you need them?

 

[MikeShannon914]

We cut up alot of songs, but I don't believe that edit was ours.

Where's Chuck Rhodes and Steve Eberhart when you need them?

Steve posts on here often. Haven't seen hide-nor-hair of Chuck Rhodes anywhere in years. (He was at the KVIL reunion 2 years ago, right? I hear his voice recently changed. ;D )

After reading this wealth of posts, I'm leaning towards the idea of some bootleg or "accidentally-released" version from Motown/Tamla that made its way into the hands of Top 40 stations across the nation. How else could the "edited" version be so consistent from station to station? I *NEVER* remember KVIL or KNUS ever playing the long version, even when the song was brand new.

BTW, I visited the Richardson Library over the weekend to read their copy of "Billboard Adult Contemporary Hits 1961-93," and, alas, they've purged it from their inventory. If anyone's got a copy of it (or knows Joel Whitburn,) please look this up and see if there's a label number listed next to the song (or how it's stated....'album cut' or what.) Later versions of the book are called "Billboard Top Adult Songs 1961-2006." Sure, it'd be nice to end this mystery, but not for $32.97!!

OMG, did KVIL cut up songs!!! Ron's defense was always that the station cut out the "objectionable" parts of songs...horn solos, jazzy interludes, 'loud' parts, etc...but we all know it was to free up time for more spots. Remember when the station would play spoken-word spots over the intros of songs? Or just chop off the intros? Or gut the middle out of "Lyin' Eyes"? No wonder the station had the THIRD HIGHEST BILLING IN THE NATION, circa mid-80s...beaten only by one NYC station and one LA station. (You probably had to cull through 100+ more stations before coming up to the next DFW one on the list.)

Sure, 'treat her like the lady she is' by protecting her delicate ears from that noisy rock-n-roll!

I think Stevie was working on the "Secret Life Of Plants" album back in 1978. I've heard that it wasn't a bad album, but compared to the mega-grammy success of "Songs" it was a big disappointment to a lot of critics and fans that he never really recovered from.

Yeah, I'd about forgotten that one. "Plants" got more rave reviews from its album cover design than from the music. It was almost an entire album of instrumentals!! Talk about ruining your momentum. And I read where Stevie kept out "Overjoyed" and didn't place it on an album until 1985. "Hotter Than July" (?) was the next album, but when do you EVER hear "Master Blaster" or "I Ain't Gonna Stand for It"? Decent airplay on K-104 and KNOK, but neither were very hot on KNUS or KVIL or Z-97...and no staying power or 'timeless classic' status like most of Wonder's other hits.