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"Walk Away Renee" Which Version?

D

disney fanatic

A few days ago, "Cool 92.9" was playing the original version of "Walk Away Renee" by the Left Banke. But the version that I like better was the Four Tops. I don't like the original "Walk Away Renee", but I prefer the Four Tops version which is much much better than the original by the Left Banke.

Thoughts?
 
disney fanatic said:
A few days ago, "Cool 92.9" was playing the original version of "Walk Away Renee" by the Left Banke. But the version that I like better was the Four Tops. I don't like the original "Walk Away Renee", but I prefer the Four Tops version which is much much better than the original by the Left Banke.

Thoughts?
Click to expand...


There's no reason why both versions shouldn't be played, since they both charted in the Top 20. I guess the "testers" and "consulltants" told Cool 92.9 that you didn't want to hear the Tops' version.
 
I like both versions but Left Banke's a little more. Don't hear the Tops' version played as much, but they both are good and should be played.
 
Love the Tops' version ... DRC-FM here plays it occasionally, but mostly goes with the Left Banke's, which has always left me cold. They play "Pretty Ballerina" every so often, too, so I guess someone there just likes the Left Banke.
 
One almost never hears Pretty Ballerina--of course we in Chicago really don't have an oldies station...
 
Anyacat said:
One almost never hears Pretty Ballerina--of course we in Chicago really don't have an oldies station...
Click to expand...

We don't either. It reports to Arbitron as "classic hits," but still keeps certain oldies-format music on the playlist. So you might hear "Take Me Home Tonight," "Let's Hang On," "Won't Get Fooled Again," "I Was Made to Love Her" and "Shake, Rattle & Roll" in the same hour. To me, the classic rock stuff is jarring, but I guess they feel a pure oldies approach would skew too old.
 
hit version is left banke

that is the one oldies should play
 
Wrongamundo there, Friend.

The 4 Tops Walk Away Renee was Billboard #14 in 1968.
 
hit version is left banke

that is the one oldies should play
Click to expand...

I thought what *was* the hit version doesn't matter, since charts don't matter today.

Have you tested the Four Tops version? If not, why not? Is it because of your market? What market is that?

And if you didn't test the Tops' version, how can you say conclusively that it doesn't deserve to be heard?
 
Actually, in the markets I'm familiar with in Northern Indiana, the Tops research better. The "oldies" station I owned that served the Fort Wayne market (106.3) played both, but a bit more Tops.
 
using your logic we should not play monkees i'm a believer anymore but play the smash mouth instead becuz it's not *was*

left banke was the hit version in most places around the country. besides it was a top 5 hit for goodness sakes. 4 tops version is good for sure but tended to be much more regional (mid-west) and 2 yrs later. not reason U shouldn't play the 4 tops but they asked for a choice, i have it
 
using your logic we should not play monkees i'm a believer anymore but play the smash mouth instead becuz it's not *was*
Click to expand...

Now that's just absurd and you know it--and it wasn't my logic either. We were dealing with two songs two years apart, and you come back with two songs 30 years apart?

Come on, get your nose out of the Arbitron book and come back to reality.

Given the choice, stations should test both and see which one comes out better. If it's close...play them both, switch them around. Or, better yet, switch them off--rotate, something that oldies stations appear to have forgotten in their rush to play the best hit 350 songs and leave it at that.

No wonder these playlists have gotten stale--they've kept the same loaf of bread unwrapped in the kitchen.

I refuse to believe that there is any "one " version of a song that is the standard--and I'm sure some of the more accomplished PDs here would chime in and say that the fact that the Left Banke was #5 means nothing more than it should be tested, not that it should be played.

See, this is where the internal inconsistency--or, as Radiofriend says on another board here, hypocricy--of programmers and managers reaches its peak. It's all about testing, until they find some song they think they know better about.

Either it's research or its the PD's own songs he wants to play. We've been told here before that it has to be the former, and not the latter.

Oh yes--and charts don't matter.

Make up your minds.
 
so we should keep looking at alternative covers of songs that were out at about the same time (and may have had some airplay) 'cause they burned out the originals?

i know i luv gloria by shadows of knight. the version by them is ok to some but never turned out to be **THE** popular version of the song for most
 
i know i luv gloria by shadows of knight. the version by them is ok to some but never turned out to be **THE** popular version of the song for most
Click to expand...

For most. Which is why it is vitally important for there to be local PDs, attending to their own stations, doing their own market study and local research.

In other words, to actually program a station and not do it the lazy way, which has been the modus operandi for a number of these stations over the past 5-6 years.

The solution is not to look at alternative versions to replace the well-worn ones...but to look at appropriate alternative versions to test to add to the flavor and substitute for the well-worn ones in times of rest. Don't tell me that no song should ever be rested simply because it was once a hit.

And this does not mean that these alternative versions should be immediately put on air. It means only that they should be tested and not closed out simply because some amorphous "source" says "well X was #5 and is a hit. Oldies should play it." That's the kind of thinking that is oft-derised on this board, for good reason.

In fact, unless I'm much mistaken, YOU are one of such people.

See, this is the thing--programming a station is intense. Lots of oldies programmers nowadays have neither the time (because of other duties) nor the inclination (because of weakness and/or youth) to put forth such an effort. They don't want to know their market.

Thus, you're left with the short, well-worn, burned out, ubiquitous "plug-n-play" playlist that is neither imaginative nor market-specific.

And they say there's no homogenization in radio.
 
Johnny Morgan said:
i know i luv gloria by shadows of knight. the version by them is ok to some but never turned out to be **THE** popular version of the song for most
Click to expand...

For most. Which is why it is vitally important for there to be local PDs, attending to their own stations, doing their own market study and local research.

In other words, to actually program a station and not do it the lazy way, which has been the modus operandi for a number of these stations over the past 5-6 years.

The solution is not to look at alternative versions to replace the well-worn ones...but to look at appropriate alternative versions to test to add to the flavor and substitute for the well-worn ones in times of rest. Don't tell me that no song should ever be rested simply because it was once a hit.

And this does not mean that these alternative versions should be immediately put on air. It means only that they should be tested and not closed out simply because some amorphous "source" says "well X was #5 and is a hit. Oldies should play it." That's the kind of thinking that is oft-derised on this board, for good reason.

In fact, unless I'm much mistaken, YOU are one of such people.

See, this is the thing--programming a station is intense. Lots of oldies programmers nowadays have neither the time (because of other duties) nor the inclination (because of weakness and/or youth) to put forth such an effort. They don't want to know their market.

Thus, you're left with the short, well-worn, burned out, ubiquitous "plug-n-play" playlist that is neither imaginative nor market-specific.

And they say there's no homogenization in radio.
Click to expand...

but from a listener standpoint --especially w/classic rock, 80's and oldies i would think -- u have your fave songs and the song that evokes the strongest memory is the one u remember when it was out not some cover version or remake (unless that remake itself became a huge memory hit too------like hooked on a feeling, both bj thomas and blue swede has major smash hits with it)
 
I think the mindset is: Play The Left Banke's version because:

1. It was the original hit
2. Oldies Radio plays lots of hits from the Four Tops

CJ
 
u have your fave songs and the song that evokes the strongest memory is the one u remember when it was out not some cover version or remake (unless that remake itself became a huge memory hit too------like hooked on a feeling, both bj thomas and blue swede has major smash hits with it)
Click to expand...

And that's the point--the remake of "Walk Away Renee" by the Four Tops was a hit in a number of places, in some instances, moreso than the original.

Same with "Gloria''. In Cleveland, WMJI plays the Shadows of Knight version, and has for practically the entire existence of the station. Because they tested it.

Test the songs. Remember, I have not once in this thread condoned adding and playing a remake or cover version just because it is tangentially related to the original without independent justification for it (a test).

It's the internal inconsistency of "it's all about research" contra your conclusive statement that the Left Banke should be played--and that's it--that I have an issue with.

That's all. We disagree on that, and that's fine. I've said all I have to on this.
 
I think Jack's spot on with the mindset. I just happen to think that said mindset is incorrect as a national standard.

But, again, that's just me.
 
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