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Radio Edits in the 80's...?

H

Hotspot55

Hello! (I am also going to re-post this in the "Production" forum.)

As a kid who grew up in the 80's listening to the radio, I have a question that I've always wondered about in regards to "Radio Edits."

It was a universally FRUSTRATING experience to get used to a hit single on the radio, only to go and buy the album and have it sound completely different!

How come so many radio edits in the 1980's replaced band's acoustic drums with synth drums? Or changed the arrangement entirely?

The way my mix engineer friends have always explained it to me was that "the mix engineer would cut down a song to between 3 and four minutes and sometimes change the arrangement."
But why? And was there an actual reason/methodology behind why real drums were thrown out? Or why different takes were used then on the albums? Did the record labels have some policy about this?

If any of you guys have any answers/insights about this, I would love to hear them.

Thanks very much!



P.S. If you would like a simple example of what I'm talking about, here you go:


She Drives Me Crazy by Fine Young Cannibals (album version)

http://youtu.be/S_wzi-kTVOI


She Drives Me Crazy by Fine Young Cannibals (radio edit recorded off the radio in the late 80's)

http://kplz.s3.amazonaws.com/She_Drives_Me_Crazy_Radio_Version.mp3
 
Technotronic's "Pump Up The Jam" takes the cake on this one.

Back in the late 80s early 90s

KKBQ Houston would play the album version.

KRBE would edit and splice the Ultimix version of the song, It would start with the synthesizer and they would take the adlibs out of some of the vocals kind of like karaoke.

In San Antonio, KTFM would play the Ultimix.

I bought the Album and it didn't sound like the song at all.

After buying several mixes, it wasn't until the year 2000 when I downloaded the right mix of the song on Napster.

Then I bought the Ultimix Volume 2 which had the mix off ebay $50.00 set for $15 as best offer. 5 Albums (Lps) full of Ultimixes by Various Artists.

The mix is only on their "Get Up: Before the Night is Over" Limited Edition CD maxi single from 1990.

Tony Toni Tone's "Feels Good" is another one" KRBE would splice the Ultimix version to pieces, and then Hot 103 KTFM would play a different sounding mix from the album. (I have it on a tape, haven't posted it yet) The part on KRBE and KTFM where Toni Toni Tone does a rap They worked out and in, Toni Toni Tone has done it again verse was absent.

KSAQ 96.1 (now Defunct) would play the album version, however they would be the ONLY ones to play Suzanne Vega's Tom's Diner 12" Mix.

So from this point on, I look for 12" singles that have Radio Edits, 7" edits, and Ultimix versions.

99.5 KISS oldies ONLY played the 7" versions of songs like Chicago's Beginnings (It just came on the radio in Austin as I was just typing, SPOOKY!, not the edit that KISS played which is on a 45 I own!) and Papa Was a Rolling Stone by the Temptations, KONO would play edits, and some album cuts. But KSMG was the only station that didn't play the oldies edits.
 
Club 104 KRBE out in Houston did this as part of their Hits without the Hype, Rap, Screaming DJ's, Laser Effects were removed.

My guess was to have make the station more unique from the others. Also, a lot of stations that claim they played the most music like Hot 103 KTFM would make it a practice to skip the first 20 seconds of the song, and make sure it was under 5 minutes. I ex girlfriend of mine Mom, used to know Sonny Melendrez when he worked for KTFM, I think.

Back then they felt that if a song was too long, the listener would change the channel.

It seem to work as the rivals changed formats.

Also Radio Edits were mainly off singles, and the masses were buying singles rather on cassette, or those 3" CD's (remember those at Sound Warehouse?) The cassette single brought the end to the LP vs. Cassette war.

The same methodology was applied to the 45's many stations got 45's on the cheap, so it was a matter of cost.

For Album rock (hence the name) is a bit different, they would play Rock Albums, not 45's.

Classic Rock stations when they started out, played the Album Rock from back in the day.

Top 40s would mainly play 45's or 7" versions on CD Singles (when they upgraded to CD's)

Also some where commercially made as DJ Promo Copies.
 
I've got to honestly say, I grew up in the 90s and never heard that second version of Drives me crazy anywhere...and it doesn't sound good at all!

The one that always got me was Madonna's Vogue

The version played on the radio was far better than any other versions out there, where the music started up first

Radio Version - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=155JBIDrq_c

Non Radio Version - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qU1mYWvwJMU
 
Madonna Holiday. Very hard to find single edit.

Also Genius of love - Tom Tom Club

How bout a edit of Prince - Erotic City.
 
musiconradio.com said:
Madonna Holiday. Very hard to find single edit.

Also Genius of love - Tom Tom Club
Click to expand...

Jammin 103.1 out of Austin plays that edit.

Also a rare edit of Dee-Lites "Groove's In the Heart" that I last heard on November 1990 on now defunct Q96fm in San Antonio.

In January 1991 they would play the Meetings of the Mind mix (about 6 minutes)
KTFM Hot 103 would edit the Meetings of the Mind Mix they would take out the 1st instrumental piece and the rap at the end.

A couple of weeks before the flip to 96rock, they would play the album version (the same version that MTV would play) but they would cut it themselves from the Meetings of the Mind Mix off the single (probably used LP's and Cassettes) As rival KSRR Star 93 recently purchased CD players for the station after the flip from Power.

B-52's Love Shack is another one Club 104 KRBE out in Houston (June 1991) would take the background vocals out of the Reprise version and cut it under 5 minutes to make it sound a little like the Album version.

KTFM Hot 103 also had a mix show back in late 1991 which would play only ultimixes of songs, on that station I heard a rare version of Salt and Peppa's "Let's Talk about Sex" they also had a remake "Let's Talk about Aids" back when Magic Johnson Aids Diagnosis hit the newsstands. (September 1991)

Since this post is about Radio edits in the 80s, I include songs from 1981-1991 when the 80s music officially started.

Lionel Ritchies "Running With The Night" every single station played the edit, and I hated it. The edit is about 4:21 long and is on his Greatest Hits album.

Penny Lover is another one from Lionel Ritchie a different version is always played this day on Soft AC stations like KKMJ Austin, KODA Houston, and KQXT San Antonio

Also Micheal Jackson's "The Way You Make Me Feel" yes they edited that one back in 1987 on KTFM 103.

Sade's Smooth Operator is also edited with the exception of the Smooth Jazz stations that crazed the nation 10 years later after the song came out but FM 104 KRBE final days as an AC station before Hot Hits 104 would play the extended version, I remember it because I was done with painful allergy shots in Mo. City off Hwy 6 when I was 5 in 1985!

Simply Red's "Holding Back The Years" another edit the bugged the crap out of me. Austin's KEYI Key-103.5 back in 1992 played a different edit than KQXT.

And C+C Music Factory's "Here We Go Let's Rock N Roll" got the dreaded "Second Verse Curse" treatment back in August 1991 on Hot 103 KTFM, when Greg Martin (now English Operations Manager for BMP San Antonio's English Radio Division DJ'd an All request Saturday Night.)

There was a version of Everybody Everybody Everybody Dance Now that KTFM would play during the Ultimix show.

When Gonna Make You Sweat came out in 1990, KSAQ would play the 12" Version of the song, and KTFM wouldn't touch it until months later, I don't think they edited that one.

KTFM wouldn't touch Candyman's Knocking Boots until 1994, nor would they play You Can't Touch This from MC Hammer until 1999 during the Hot Herrietta's Noontime Workout. The same for Vanilla Ice's Ice Ice Baby, as KSAQ was the only station playing those songs, two CHR stations that wouldn't play all the currents back then.

MC Hammer's Pray wasn't heard on KSAQ, but on KTFM. Even though, KSAQ was Urban Leaning CHR. 2 Live Crew was heard only on KSAQ. Didn't get the reasoning behind such.
 
Also a rare edit of Dee-Lites "Groove's In the Heart" that I last heard on November 1990 on now defunct Q96fm in San Antonio.
Click to expand...

Probably the "Peanut butter mix" was on the CD single. (No rap version)

B-52's Love Shack is another one Club 104 KRBE out in Houston (June 1991) would take the background vocals out of the Reprise version and cut it under 5 minutes to make it sound a little like the Album version.
Click to expand...

There was a single promo version, also a single version of Smooth Operator.


Naked Eyes, "Promises Promises," two different mixes of this one; both can be heard here:
Click to expand...

I think the pitch was also a little different on each version.
 
Single version- Different bass line then album (different chord progression in the main chorus) different vocal arrangement, extra verse at the end!
Click to expand...

The album version, if I remember, clocked in at 5:00+ min, and would of lost potential adds on stations at the time.
 
Hotspot55 said:
Thanks for sharing these you guys. I can't believe how different these are from each other!

And I forgot about "Pump Up The Jam." Here's a huge list of the different versions:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pump_Up_the_Jam

And I remember Vogue by Madonna being a drastic difference...thanks for the reminder.
Click to expand...

It fails to list the 125 BPM Ultimix. It also fails to mention the Techno mix (which I have both of them on vinyl)

and The Terry Dome Mix.
 
musiconradio.com said:
Also a rare edit of Dee-Lites "Groove's In the Heart" that I last heard on November 1990 on now defunct Q96fm in San Antonio.
Click to expand...

Probably the "Peanut butter mix" was on the CD single. (No rap version)
Click to expand...

No, it had to be some kind of ultimix version, not the one that dubs Madonna's Vogue.
Probably a promo 12". I clocked it in close to 6 minutes.

It is not Meetings of the Mind mix, as that one was around a month later.
KTFM would play the Meetings of the Mind mix but edit the first instrumental break and go to the second verse (like with the LP version) and play the rest of the song, absent Q-Tip's rap, which they skipped to the final chorus "Groove is in the Heart, Na na nana na na, Groove is in the Heart nan nan a na x2 followed by the final strings to the end of the song"

But Club 104 KRBE only played the Peanut Butter Mix, which is on their Greatest Hits album.
KAMX Mix 94.7 would also play an entirely different arrangement of the song that was similar in a way to the LP version. Last time I heard that one on Mix 94.7 was in 2009.

When KXXM Mix 96.1 first launched in 1998 they only played the Peanut Butter Mix version. 101x KROX then Giddings-Austin which did Retro Sunday at Paradox (I still have the aircheck off an Maxell MX-S cassette) was the last time I heard Meetings of the Mind mix on the radio. I was dx-ing it from Northeast San Antonio back in February 1999 in my garage bedroom.
 
"I Ran" by A Flock of Seagulls has a strange kind of revisionist history. The original album version ends with a guitar solo whereas the 7" version cut out the solo and faded/looped the chorus. Nowadays, though, the only version avaiable on iTunes has a long, slow intro (complete with "bird noises") that was never heard in either version back in 1982! ???
 
What about New Order's "Blue Monday", the original version was released in 1983. However most radio stations then and now prefer the 1988 Quincy Jones remix that shaves off a good 3 minutes of the song. I guess I can see this one considering the original song is 7 minutes and 30 seconds and didn't chart as well.

Same with "Bizarre Love Triangle", a lot of AC stations that played the song starting in the mid-90's or so prefer the 1994 version off of "The Best of New Order". Since that time the only station that chooses to play the original "Brotherhood" version would happen to be the former WPOI/"Point" in Tampa. At least that I have heard of.

Robert Palmer's "I didn't mean to turn you on" also comes to mind
 
gamefreak said:
What about New Order's "Blue Monday", the original version was released in 1983. However most radio stations then and now prefer the 1988 Quincy Jones remix that shaves off a good 3 minutes of the song. I guess I can see this one considering the original song is 7 minutes and 30 seconds and didn't chart as well.

Same with "Bizarre Love Triangle", a lot of AC stations that played the song starting in the mid-90's or so prefer the 1994 version off of "The Best of New Order". Since that time the only station that chooses to play the original "Brotherhood" version would happen to be the former WPOI/"Point" in Tampa. At least that I have heard of.

Robert Palmer's "I didn't mean to turn you on" also comes to mind
Click to expand...

I heard the 7 minutes and 30 seconds of Blue Monday on now defunct Q96 back in August 1990 which was Power 93's final days. It was the same theme to KABB TV-29 when Commander KO was on.
 
JON BRUCE said:
Just heard the bird noices on "I Ran" last week on youtube. Never heard that version on the radio.
Click to expand...

I have heard the bird noises of "I Ran" several years back on KSMG Magic 105.3 Seguin San Antonio, Texas.
 
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