Worst single edit songs

[wgliradio]

10CC's "I'm Not In Love". Bad edit to skip over the last verse. Not a big fan of the drawn out ending on the LP, but I think the 45 could have kept the last verse and faded.

 

[Ben Shaton]

How about Pink Floyd's "Money". "Money it's a hit, don't give me that god good good bull (cut)". There's also on Steve Miller's "Jet Airliner" and the line "funky tricks going down in the city". Different stations also found other original ways to butcher numerous songs which had lyrics that the community or owners but not necessarily most listeners might find objectionable. An edit of the same song played on one station would be screwed up in a differnet way than the competition in the very same markets.

 

[OldiesCat1]

any of the early Chicago 45s. Truly ugly chop jobs. And, the worst part is that most oldies stations play those horrible edits. duh.

 

[Johnny Morgan]

Here's one, a rarity nowadays, but in rotation at WMJI about 10 years ago:

The Animals' "Sky Pilot". The single version is plastered with echo and phasing and ends at about 3.45 with a guitar riff fading out.

The album (?) or alternative edit has a string interlude before the "Those soldiers who've gone..." line picks up again (with HEAVY basslines). It clocks out closer to 5.10.

I'm partial to the longer version--less clutter, less crap. Surprisingly, though, the radio default now is the single version (the opposite of the Rolling Stones' "Time Is on My Side"). Looking around the Internet, people seem to be bemoaning the fact that the single isn't available on a CD.

 

[MaiTKwinn]

Johnny,
Regarding The Animals "Sky Pilot", the full stereo version is available
on the "Retrospective" CD on the ABKCO label issued not that long ago.
The full version or LP version as it's called is Parts 1 & 2 of the version
issued on the original 45. The Part 1 45 version(in mono only) is available
on Shout Factory's box set "The 60's Rock Experience". If it's still in print,
Rhino also had it on Volume 9 of the British Invasion series of discs. The
only stereo version of Part 1 of the 45 I've ever seen on CD is on Varese
Saraband's "On The Radio Volume 1", but I don't think it's still in print.
Hope this helps out.....

 

[Johnny Morgan]

Chris,

Thanks for the update. I think the last time I heard the full long version was when you were still at Majic--and I think it was on Denny's weeknight show.

Hope you're well and keeping out of trouble (or keeping in trouble!).

 

[radiorob2.0]

Two more:

"Best of My Love" Eagles-The single edit was a car wreck.

"Through The Years" Kenny Rogers-What's up with that edit?

 

[Oldbones]

Here's one, a rarity nowadays, but in rotation at WMJI about 10 years ago:

The Animals' "Sky Pilot". The single version is plastered with echo and phasing and ends at about 3.45 with a guitar riff fading out.

The album (?) or alternative edit has a string interlude before the "Those soldiers who've gone..." line picks up again (with HEAVY basslines). It clocks out closer to 5.10.

I'm partial to the longer version--less clutter, less crap. Surprisingly, though, the radio default now is the single version (

Actually the album version is a bit over 7 minutes. Yeah, it flows better and tells the whole story, but not many stations are gonna play a song that long unless it's "American Pie" (and even then I seem to hear the short version a lot). I'm surprised that an oldies station played it at all...a tertiary rotation at best...rarely even heard on classic rock stations.

Another song where the edit has become the norm is "Spill The Wine" by Eric Burdon. While I personally prefer the short version, it was never even commercially available until released on War's greatest hits....the commercial 45 was the same as the album.

 

[billyg]

Re: single edit songs

> >
Hall & Oates had a few promo edit version in the 80's:

Mike B

How about the single edit of "She's Gone" which chopped out the whole second verse.

And I remember that the 45 versions of "I Can't Go For That" and "Your Imagination" (a great track that deserved to do better) were single edits of 12' dance remixes.

 

[disney fanatic]

"Ain't No Mountain High Enough" - Diana Ross

Great song, bad editing. The longer version is much better.

"Dancing Machine" - The Jackson 5

Good song, missing the intro and the different ending.

"Get Ready" - Rare Earth

This was a cover of a Temptations hit, but the song was about 20 minutes long in the LP version, but it edited down to about 3 minutes. It was performed live on stage. Bad edit.

 

[Tom Wells]

One of the most annoying edits to me is in "If I fell" ( in love with you) by the Beatles, where John Lennon is singing
" was in vain.", and he chokes on the word "vain", cutting it short. It is not evident unless you have headphones on and listen closely, but it was "fixed" years and years ago.
It was edited anyway, using the same line from the next verse refrain.
All the old yellow/orange Capitol 45s were pre-edit, but damn near everything released in later years was the remix.
In fact, when "A Hard Day's Night was re-released (the movie) in 2003, they even "fixed" the song in there, too.
It bothers me when a piece of art is "improved" too noticeably.

Quite a few songs have been re-mixed over the years, and many times the result completely changes the
balance of vocals to instruments.

Oh, and Jimmy Dean's "Big Bad John" was a lot better with "one hell of a man" than " a big, big man".
But in 1961, "hell" was a cuss word.

 

[muskrat14]

"Miracles" by Jefferson Starship. The fade out edit was horrible.

 

[Maine-i-ac]

When I was a lad, I remember "The Ballad of John and Yoko" being edited. Up here in the woods of Maine, all the stations played it with "Christ you know it ain't easy", but I remember at night while tuning in 1510 WKBW-Buffalo and 1540 WPLR-Albany "Christ" was edited out and it sure sounded different.

For some reason, I thought I heard at the time that it was a state of New York mandate that it occurred, but hey, I still hadn't discovered the wonder of women yet, so what did I know?

I also remember Boston's big stations (WBZ, WRKO, WMEX) playing it with "Christ" left in.

 

[Oldies man]

while tuning in 1510 WKBW-Buffalo and 1540 WPLR-Albany "Christ" was edited out and it sure sounded different.

Possibly because it was being transmitted on 1520 WKBW and 1540 WPTR.

 

[Maine-i-ac]

D'oh! Forgive me oldiesman, I really did know it was 1520 not 1510, (that's WMEX) and to be honest I had forgotten it was WPTR and not WPLR. Sorry I'm not perfect like you must be. Thanks for making me feel so welcome on my first post on the 50's/60's Oldies section

 

[ixnay]

In fact, when "A Hard Day's Night was re-released (the movie) in 2003, they even "fixed" the song in there, too.
It bothers me when a piece of art is "improved" too noticeably.

They remixed AHDN the song in AHDN the movie for the latter's re-release as well.

ixnay

 

[ixnay]

The apparently by-now standard edit (at least on the satellite service serving my office) of Wings' "With a Little Luck" omits the instrumental break which imo enhances the song. Funny thing was, during WALL's chart run in 1978, the long cut aired almost as often as the short cut.

ixnay

 

[DougD]

The apparently by-now standard edit (at least on the satellite service serving my office) of Wings' "With a Little Luck" omits the instrumental break which imo enhances the song. Funny thing was, during WALL's chart run in 1978, the long cut aired almost as often as the short cut.

ixnay

That song was also used as a great "bathroom" song. Or a backup when something went wrong on the AM board where I worked. If the airing of MEET THE PRESS or somethign went awry, that record was always cued and ready to roll because its length would allow plenty of time for the board op to figure out what went wrong and correct it.

 

[Kurt Toy]

There's a version of J. Geils Band's "Give It To Me" that does not have the long instrumental riff that the longer version does. Instead, the lyrics "You've Got To Give It Up [Give It Up] are repeated as the tune fades out.

 

[muskrat14]

There are also several bad edits of Nights In White Satin being played around the country.