The "Second Verse Curse"

[Dave Andrews]

(Thread inspired by (and a derivative of) the Radio Versions That Annoy thread)

When they edit a song to make a short version, it seems it's usually the second verse that gets the ax. Some examples:

Billy Joel "Just The Way You Are"

Wild Cherry "Play That Funky Music"

Bonnie Tyler "Total Eclipse Of The Heart"

Eagles "Lyin' Eyes"

Martina McBride "This One's For The Girls"


I know there must be many more.

 

[CTListener]

"I've Been Lonely Too Long" -- Rascals

 

[oldiesfan6479]

"Second verse, same as the first."

Edit down I'm Henry VIII, I Am and you might get a shorter #1 song than the
existing record holder (Stay).

 

[CTListener]

Another one:

"Two Out of Three Ain't Bad" -- Meat Loaf. And the title is quite appropriate!

Marshall Tucker Band's "Heard It In a Love Song" gets a verse cut out as well, but I think it's the third rather than the second that gets dropped.

 

[willdav713]

Chicagos 25 or 6 2 4. Edited out "getting up to splash my face" verse.

 

[firepoint525]

Boston, "More Than a Feeling"

And because of censorship, "Money For Nothing' by Dire Straits

 

[firepoint525]

Another one:
"Two Out of Three Ain't Bad" -- Meat Loaf. And the title is quite appropriate!
Marshall Tucker Band's "Heard It In a Love Song" gets a verse cut out as well, but I think it's the third rather than the second that gets dropped.

I believe it's the bridge that gets cut out of "Two Out of Three Ain't Bad."

In the case of "Heard It In a Love Song," two half-verses are cut out, along with one chorus, and part of the solo in the middle. "Against the Wind" by Bob Seger was similarly cut.

 

[Dave Andrews]

Two more from 1978:

The Sweet "Love Is Like Oxygen" and "Come Sail Away" by Styx.

 

[willdav713]

Boston, "More Than a Feeling"

And because of censorship, "Money For Nothing' by Dire Straits

The defunct 1069 The Point in Houston sucks and still does with it's new format because they play the censored version.

They leave out the part when he sings "That little ****** with the earing in the middle, That little ******'s got his own jet airplane, that little ****** is a millionare."

JACK and BOB don't play the full version of Money for Nothing, there is no censorship fine for saying ****** on the radio. When Lotus owned KZEP 104.5 in San Antonio they would play the full version of Money for Nothing.

 

[firepoint525]

"Fooled Around and Fell In Love" by Elvin Bishop

 

[CTListener]

Another one:
"Two Out of Three Ain't Bad" -- Meat Loaf. And the title is quite appropriate!
Marshall Tucker Band's "Heard It In a Love Song" gets a verse cut out as well, but I think it's the third rather than the second that gets dropped.

I believe it's the bridge that gets cut out of "Two Out of Three Ain't Bad."

In the case of "Heard It In a Love Song," two half-verses are cut out, along with one chorus, and part of the solo in the middle. "Against the Wind" by Bob Seger was similarly cut.

In the Meat Loaf song, part of the bridge ("You'll never drill for oil on a city street ...") is definitely left out, but the part beginning with "I can't lie ..." is left in. But also, if I'm not mistaken -- and I could be because I haven't heard the radio edit in years -- the radio edit also goes directly from "something that I just haven't got, woh-oh" to "I remember how she left me on a stormy night," bypassing the section that contains "She never loved me back, ooo, I know," and that's part of a verse. It also fades during the second iteration of the chorus instead of coming to a cold end. Do I have that right?

 

[firepoint525]

Another one:
"Two Out of Three Ain't Bad" -- Meat Loaf. And the title is quite appropriate!

I believe it's the bridge that gets cut out of "Two Out of Three Ain't Bad."

In the Meat Loaf song, part of the bridge ("You'll never drill for oil on a city street ...") is definitely left out, but the part beginning with "I can't lie ..." is left in. But also, if I'm not mistaken -- and I could be because I haven't heard the radio edit in years -- the radio edit also goes directly from "something that I just haven't got, woh-oh" to "I remember how she left me on a stormy night," bypassing the section that contains "She never loved me back, ooo, I know," and that's part of a verse. It also fades during the second iteration of the chorus instead of coming to a cold end. Do I have that right?

It's possible that you may have heard a radio station's own custom edit of the song. The most recent edit that I heard did indeed drop the part of the bridge about drilling for oil on the city street, as well as at least one repeat of the chorus at the very end. But instead, they tacked (back) on the cold ending from the album version (the repeat of the very first line), giving it a definite ending, rather than fading out, although they (still) ended it early. Do you know how long your edited version was? I only found album versions on youtube, and most of them were just slightly over five minutes.

 

[CTListener]

Another one:
"Two Out of Three Ain't Bad" -- Meat Loaf. And the title is quite appropriate!

I believe it's the bridge that gets cut out of "Two Out of Three Ain't Bad."

In the Meat Loaf song, part of the bridge ("You'll never drill for oil on a city street ...") is definitely left out, but the part beginning with "I can't lie ..." is left in. But also, if I'm not mistaken -- and I could be because I haven't heard the radio edit in years -- the radio edit also goes directly from "something that I just haven't got, woh-oh" to "I remember how she left me on a stormy night," bypassing the section that contains "She never loved me back, ooo, I know," and that's part of a verse. It also fades during the second iteration of the chorus instead of coming to a cold end. Do I have that right?

It's possible that you may have heard a radio station's own custom edit of the song. The most recent edit that I heard did indeed drop the part of the bridge about drilling for oil on the city street, as well as at least one repeat of the chorus at the very end. But instead, they tacked (back) on the cold ending from the album version (the repeat of the very first line), giving it a definite ending, rather than fading out, although they (still) ended it early. Do you know how long your edited version was? I only found album versions on youtube, and most of them were just slightly over five minutes.

No idea. As I said, it's been years since I heard it. WDRC-FM switched to the album version in the early 2000s. I know that station has custom versions of other songs ("One Fine Morning" was brought up elsewhere as unique to DRC.) so it's possible that the "Two Out of Three" the station used to play was customized as well.

 

[firepoint525]

The top 40 station in the town where I grew up created their own custom edit of, of all things, "Summer Nights" from Grease! First of all, it was only three-and-a-half minutes long to begin with, making it likely one of the (already) shortest songs ever to go under the blade. Furthermore, it had several key changes in it, which must have made it tough to edit. But they left in the choruses containing the key changes, and eliminated most of the ones that did not. The GM of that station later admitted that he hated that song! Have to admit, I don't recall ever hearing them play it again, once it had dropped off the charts!

 

[CTListener]

The top 40 station in the town where I grew up created their own custom edit of, of all things, "Summer Nights" from Grease! First of all, it was only three-and-a-half minutes long to begin with, making it likely one of the (already) shortest songs ever to go under the blade. Furthermore, it had several key changes in it, which must have made it tough to edit. But they left in the choruses containing the key changes, and eliminated most of the ones that did not. The GM of that station later admitted that he hated that song! Have to admit, I don't recall ever hearing them play it again, once it had dropped off the charts!

Hating the song myself, I totally approve of THAT edit!

 

[willdav713]

The top 40 station in the town where I grew up created their own custom edit of, of all things, "Summer Nights" from Grease! First of all, it was only three-and-a-half minutes long to begin with, making it likely one of the (already) shortest songs ever to go under the blade. Furthermore, it had several key changes in it, which must have made it tough to edit. But they left in the choruses containing the key changes, and eliminated most of the ones that did not. The GM of that station later admitted that he hated that song! Have to admit, I don't recall ever hearing them play it again, once it had dropped off the charts!

Reminds me of Top 40 Club 104 KRBE Houston during 1991 the months before the debut of 92.9 Easy Country. Made custom edits of Technotronics "Pump Up the Jam (Ultimix)", C&C Music Factory's "Here We Go", Toni Toni Tone's "Feels Good", and B-52's "Love Shack (Reprise Version)" and yes the slashed ad-libs as well. I hated it then, but don't now. I wish I had a full aircheck of those times.

 

[hornet61]

The top 40 station in the town where I grew up created their own custom edit of, of all things, "Summer Nights" from Grease! First of all, it was only three-and-a-half minutes long to begin with, making it likely one of the (already) shortest songs ever to go under the blade. Furthermore, it had several key changes in it, which must have made it tough to edit. But they left in the choruses containing the key changes, and eliminated most of the ones that did not. The GM of that station later admitted that he hated that song! Have to admit, I don't recall ever hearing them play it again, once it had dropped off the charts!

To your knowledge is there an edited version of "Greased lightning"

We'll get some purple French tail lights and thirty-inch fins, oh yeah
A palomino dashboard and duel muffler twins, oh yeah
With new pistons, plugs, and shocks, I can get off my rocks
You know that I ain't braggin', she's a real ***** wagon - greased lightnin'

 

[firepoint525]

On the subject of custom edits, I recall that AT40 played a custom edit of "Jungle Love" by the Steve Miller Band that did, indeed, lop off the second verse of that one, going straight from the first verse/chorus to the guitar solo. Of course, you typically only heard that one once a week, unless your station carried the countdown more than once, or you happened to also hear it on another station. But AT40 programming was always compelling enough to keep you listening, even through all the severely edited songs in the countdown.

But "Jungle Love" was but only one example. I am certain that there were probably hundreds, if not thousands more songs on the countdown that were similarly edited over the years. Anyone got any more examples?

 

[firepoint525]

The top 40 station in the town where I grew up created their own custom edit of, of all things, "Summer Nights" from Grease! First of all, it was only three-and-a-half minutes long to begin with, making it likely one of the (already) shortest songs ever to go under the blade. Furthermore, it had several key changes in it, which must have made it tough to edit. But they left in the choruses containing the key changes, and eliminated most of the ones that did not. The GM of that station later admitted that he hated that song! Have to admit, I don't recall ever hearing them play it again, once it had dropped off the charts!

To your knowledge is there an edited version of "Greased lightning"
We'll get some purple French tail lights and thirty-inch fins, oh yeah
A palomino dashboard and duel muffler twins, oh yeah
With new pistons, plugs, and shocks, I can get off my rocks
You know that I ain't braggin', she's a real ------ wagon - greased lightnin'

"Greased Lightning" was used as part of the "Grease megamix." I will have to dig that one out and listen to it again. Of course, since it was part of a medley, I'm sure that they could get away with simply not using the most offensive lines in that one.

 

[Silkie]

"Second verse, same as the first."

Edit down I'm Henry VIII, I Am and you might get a shorter #1 song than the
existing record holder (Stay).

LOL - I was going to go there when I saw the thread. HAA HAA