Radio Edits in the 80's...?

[Fastphilly]

"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! ???

There is a promo 12" serviced to radio in 1982 that started out just as the retail 45, but ended like the LP version. It was called "The Special Radio Version".http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8WwcPwXrxN0

 

[Fastphilly]

Since we are in discussion of radio edits:

Dire Straits - Money For Nothing (edits the "******" lyric segment)
John Cougar - Jack And Diane (edits portion of the intro and is slightly pitched up)
Peter Gabriel - Sledgehammer (edits portions of the intro)
Laura Branigan - Self Control (edits the guitar intro)

I have a large collection of promotional singles (12" and 45) and there are many promo only radio edits.

 

[willdav713]

Since we are in discussion of radio edits:

Dire Straits - Money For Nothing (edits the "******" lyric segment)
John Cougar - Jack And Diane (edits portion of the intro and is slightly pitched up)
Peter Gabriel - Sledgehammer (edits portions of the intro)
Laura Branigan - Self Control (edits the guitar intro)

I have a large collection of promotional singles (12" and 45) and there are many promo only radio edits.

I last heard the Dire Straights "Money For Nothing" unedited version on KZEP 104.5 in San Antonio back in the late 90s. Nowadays it is just the edited version that is played on the radio.

 

[firepoint525]

Since we are in discussion of radio edits:
Dire Straits - Money For Nothing (edits the "******" lyric segment)
John Cougar - Jack And Diane (edits portion of the intro and is slightly pitched up)
Peter Gabriel - Sledgehammer (edits portions of the intro)
Laura Branigan - Self Control (edits the guitar intro)
I have a large collection of promotional singles (12" and 45) and there are many promo only radio edits.

Since we are in discussion of radio edits:
Dire Straits - Money For Nothing (edits the "******" lyric segment)
John Cougar - Jack And Diane (edits portion of the intro and is slightly pitched up)
Peter Gabriel - Sledgehammer (edits portions of the intro)
Laura Branigan - Self Control (edits the guitar intro)
I have a large collection of promotional singles (12" and 45) and there are many promo only radio edits.

I last heard the Dire Straights "Money For Nothing" unedited version on KZEP 104.5 in San Antonio back in the late 90s. Nowadays it is just the edited version that is played on the radio.

The only edit of "Money for Nothing" that I ever heard "back in the day" left the second verse (the "******" verse) intact. It was (instead) all the repeated "I want my MTV"s by Sting that were cut from the intro and the fadeout of that one. I still hear it with the second verse intact, but that is usually on the more politically incorrect classic rock station here, although our classic hits station (when we had one) played it intact as well. Depends on the station.

I remember that WRVR in Memphis played the version of "Self-Control" described here, but Mix 92.9 here in Nashville even cuts Eddie Van Halen's guitar solo from Michael Jackson's "Beat It."

 

[willdav713]

Since we are in discussion of radio edits:
Dire Straits - Money For Nothing (edits the "******" lyric segment)
John Cougar - Jack And Diane (edits portion of the intro and is slightly pitched up)
Peter Gabriel - Sledgehammer (edits portions of the intro)
Laura Branigan - Self Control (edits the guitar intro)
I have a large collection of promotional singles (12" and 45) and there are many promo only radio edits.

Since we are in discussion of radio edits:
Dire Straits - Money For Nothing (edits the "******" lyric segment)
John Cougar - Jack And Diane (edits portion of the intro and is slightly pitched up)
Peter Gabriel - Sledgehammer (edits portions of the intro)
Laura Branigan - Self Control (edits the guitar intro)
I have a large collection of promotional singles (12" and 45) and there are many promo only radio edits.

I last heard the Dire Straights "Money For Nothing" unedited version on KZEP 104.5 in San Antonio back in the late 90s. Nowadays it is just the edited version that is played on the radio.

The only edit of "Money for Nothing" that I ever heard "back in the day" left the second verse (the "******" verse) intact. It was (instead) all the repeated "I want my MTV"s by Sting that were cut from the intro and the fadeout of that one. I still hear it with the second verse intact, but that is usually on the more politically incorrect classic rock station here, although our classic hits station (when we had one) played it intact as well. Depends on the station.

I remember that WRVR in Memphis played the version of "Self-Control" described here, but Mix 92.9 here in Nashville even cuts Eddie Van Halen's guitar solo from Michael Jackson's "Beat It."

Then Hot 103 KTFM back in the 80s in San Antonio also did that to "Beat It" By Michael Jackson.

 

[NoWayNoCC]

I do remember a version of "Sledgehammer" that deleted the unintelligible lyrics near the beginning.

Anyone remember an edit of George Michael's "I Want Your Sex" that changed it to "I Want Your Love"? I think I heard it precisely once.

 

[firepoint525]

I do remember a version of "Sledgehammer" that deleted the unintelligible lyrics near the beginning.

There was also some editing (out) of the flute at the very beginning. And it ended with a brief drum solo (at least in the video version) that was hardly ever played on the radio. Usually, radio cut it before it could ever get to the drum solo.

Another one in which the video version was different from what was (usually) played on the radio: "Need You Tonight" by INXS. The video version also tracked into "Mediate," the next track on the album, but radio hardly ever played "Mediate."

 

[Fastphilly]

I do remember a version of "Sledgehammer" that deleted the unintelligible lyrics near the beginning.

Anyone remember an edit of George Michael's "I Want Your Sex" that changed it to "I Want Your Love"? I think I heard it precisely once.

The radio edit edited the flute intro and the unintelligible lyrics. I have the US promotion 12" single and that radio edit clocks in at 3:58. A full minute shorter than the commercial 45.

 

[Fastphilly]

I will go through my singles and post up some other radio only edits. Some are quite obvious while other edits are subdued (early fade out for example)

 

[Fastphilly]

Here is one I uploaded on my Youtube channel. The promo 45 edit of Starship "We Built This City". Scaled down 32 seconds shorter than the retail 45. The last 32 seconds were chopped off in an abrupt fade.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o1jBHtzvYpI

 

[Fastphilly]

Since we are in discussion of radio edits:
Dire Straits - Money For Nothing (edits the "******" lyric segment)
John Cougar - Jack And Diane (edits portion of the intro and is slightly pitched up)
Peter Gabriel - Sledgehammer (edits portions of the intro)
Laura Branigan - Self Control (edits the guitar intro)
I have a large collection of promotional singles (12" and 45) and there are many promo only radio edits.

Since we are in discussion of radio edits:
Dire Straits - Money For Nothing (edits the "******" lyric segment)
John Cougar - Jack And Diane (edits portion of the intro and is slightly pitched up)
Peter Gabriel - Sledgehammer (edits portions of the intro)
Laura Branigan - Self Control (edits the guitar intro)
I have a large collection of promotional singles (12" and 45) and there are many promo only radio edits.

I last heard the Dire Straights "Money For Nothing" unedited version on KZEP 104.5 in San Antonio back in the late 90s. Nowadays it is just the edited version that is played on the radio.

The only edit of "Money for Nothing" that I ever heard "back in the day" left the second verse (the "******" verse) intact. It was (instead) all the repeated "I want my MTV"s by Sting that were cut from the intro and the fadeout of that one. I still hear it with the second verse intact, but that is usually on the more politically incorrect classic rock station here, although our classic hits station (when we had one) played it intact as well. Depends on the station.

I remember that WRVR in Memphis played the version of "Self-Control" described here, but Mix 92.9 here in Nashville even cuts Eddie Van Halen's guitar solo from Michael Jackson's "Beat It."

@firepoint- I uploaded my promo 12" of Dire Straits "Money For Nothing" The version you speak of is the "Long Edit" that runs 4:38. The "radio Edit" ran 4:05. I posted the link to the promo edit for reference and it's obvious an entire segment of lyrics has been cut out. 105 KITS in San Francisco played this radio edit.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GJJru8o3c3o

 

[dtuba]

"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! ???

There is a promo 12" serviced to radio in 1982 that started out just as the retail 45, but ended like the LP version. It was called "The Special Radio Version".http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8WwcPwXrxN0

Thanks for posting. FYI, The album version (at least the cassette I purchased way, way, way back 1982) has the same "cymbal crash" intro as the 7" and this version.

 

[firepoint525]

@firepoint- I uploaded my promo 12" of Dire Straits "Money For Nothing" The version you speak of is the "Long Edit" that runs 4:38. The "radio Edit" ran 4:05. I posted the link to the promo edit for reference and it's obvious an entire segment of lyrics has been cut out. 105 KITS in San Francisco played this radio edit.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GJJru8o3c3o

I heard Tom Kent play that version a couple of weeks ago, but I can't recall ever having heard it anywhere else.

I have the "long edit" on a 45, which as I said earlier, leaves the "******" verse intact, but I can't recall ever hearing the second verse clipped from any version of it until it became politically incorrect to play that verse.

Of course, calling it a "long edit" implies that there was also a "short edit" of it out there somewhere, but as far as I know, it was never commercially available anywhere. The only "shorter edit" of it that I can ever recall hearing (until Tom Kent played one, of course) was on my local top 40 station back when it was a hit. They edited off all the intro from the long edit, up to the point where the electric guitar came in, and played that version of the long edit, otherwise intact, during its run as a hit.

 

[willdav713]

Of course, calling it a "long edit" implies that there was also a "short edit" of it out there somewhere, but as far as I know, it was never commercially available anywhere. The only "shorter edit" of it that I can ever recall hearing (until Tom Kent played one, of course) was on my local top 40 station back when it was a hit. They edited off all the intro from the long edit, up to the point where the electric guitar came in, and played that version of the long edit, otherwise intact, during its run as a hit.
[/quote]

Sounds like a version heard on KRBE back in the day. They were notorious for doing stuff like that. Even did that to Love Shack (Ultimix) by the B-52s.

 

[gamefreak]

A while back I heard the "******" version of Money For Nothing on WXGL 107.3 in Tampa. However Cox played the edited version on sister station WPOI.

Wasn't the "******" version of the song banned up in Canada.

 

[Robert Bass]

Wasn't the "******" version of the song banned up in Canada.

That's what I've heard.

Regarding edits, there was a 45 RPM version of Bobby Brown's "Every Little Step" that doesn't have the rap section midway through it. I always liked that version better than the rap version. I had to digitize my copy of the 45 RPM version for my Internet station.

Here's my uninformed theory about why editing was done. In the 80s, many stations carted their library. Longer songs required longer cart lengths, and I wonder if some stations were afraid to use any cart longer than about 4 1/2 minutes for fear of tape drag induced wow / flutter.

R

 

[RobynWattsV2.0]

One song that I consider a cornerstone if you are doing a 80s-90s format would have to be "Tainted Love/Where Did Our Love Go?" by Soft Cell. Even though it never hit #1, it spent 45 weeks, or most of 1982 on the Hot 100 chart where it peaked at #8. The 45 single that was sold was just "Tainted Love" without the "Where Did Our Love Go?" part.

Here is what was played on radio.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qDHnGz6Scik

And here is the single version for "Tainted Love".

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oEh5pWjcWCg

I did find out later that a 12 inch version of "Tainted Love/Where Did Our Love Go?" was available, but nothing as far as a radio edit for consumers.

Robyn

 

[firepoint525]

Here's my uninformed theory about why editing was done. In the 80s, many stations carted their library. Longer songs required longer cart lengths, and I wonder if some stations were afraid to use any cart longer than about 4 1/2 minutes for fear of tape drag induced wow / flutter.

Unlikely by then, since by the '80s, most top 40s were on FM and were bragging about being "all-CDs" by then.

 

[RobynWattsV2.0]

Here's my uninformed theory about why editing was done. In the 80s, many stations carted their library. Longer songs required longer cart lengths, and I wonder if some stations were afraid to use any cart longer than about 4 1/2 minutes for fear of tape drag induced wow / flutter.

Unlikely by then, since by the '80s, most top 40s were on FM and were bragging about being "all-CDs" by then.

That would only be the case from the mid 80s (from about 1985 onward) that stations started to use CDs for music. Even then it was limited as the CD players on the market were not designed for the rigors of broadcast use and there was the risk of the disks being scratched. It remained that way until Denon came out with a line of CD cart machines like the DN 950FA that allowed CDs to be loaded like a cart.

Even into the early 90s, you could still find a few major market CHRs that still used carts for music as most PD didn't want to run the risk of their air talent of cueing up the wrong track or have the CD skip live while on air.

Robyn

 

[oldies76]

I did find out later that a 12 inch version of "Tainted Love/Where Did Our Love Go?" was available, but nothing as far as a radio edit for consumers.

Does anyone know where the radio version of "Tainted Love / Where Did Our Love Go" can be purchased or downloaded?? The 12" version is way too long (over 7-8 minutes) and the 45 has only "Tainted Love"

The same applies to "We Will Rock You / We Are the Champions"