Here's the one I know:

In the grand scheme of things, this isn't all that important. But my contention is if you're going to do an oldies show - unless the point is to deliberately play a different version of a well known song, which can be pointed out before you play it - you should always default to the original 45 that listeners heard on their radios. Otherwise, to those who grew up with these songs, it stands out like a sore thumb - or at least a sore ear! 

I didn't notice what I originally heard on the radio as being any different than what was played on Roger's show today.  But playing them back to back there are differences. Good ear to notice this RA!  Lesley Gore sounds the same, but the mix is different, background singers more prominent with slightly different lyrics and the hand clapping and jingle bells isn't on the less punchy version that Fitz put up from Roger's show.  

Look of Love is from the 1964 album Girl Talk and I believe was the third single release after Maybe I Know, and Hey Now.  This album didn't sell as well as previous albums and Hey Now never tracked as a hit. 

Look of Love  cut would have been remixed and sweetened for the single release and this version is what was heard on the radio.  The album would have the first version which sounds more stripped down and somewhat different than the single.  Unless you owned the single, I doubt if most people would notice the difference which is fairly noticeable when you play back to back.

 

It's happened again, and I should probably just get used to it. On Ashby's show this week, he did a Top 5 countdown that ended with The New Vaudeville Band's "Winchester Cathedral." Or at least it was supposed to. 

I have no idea what version of the song they played, but it certainly wasn't the one that topped the charts in the 60s. Not only wasn't it close to the original but I'm not even certain it was actually the New Vaudeville Band at all, it was that different. 

While I agree this is not the most important thing on the planet, I wish they would fix whatever's causing this. It simply doesn't sound good when a very famous tune that topped the charts and won a Grammy and became famous around the world isn't the one that reached that pinnacle.  

Pretty sure that's not what they played. It was definitely a male voice but the entire arrangement was different and there wasn't the same instrumentation as the famous version.

When Bell bought CHUM, they must have inherited all of their library. (Not that I'm thinking they're still playing anything off of 45s or LPs.) You'd think there would be someone there to identify the right version by the right group. This is almost a weekly occurrence now.   

This is what happens when you get interns or young'uns who aren't paid enough to know better to slap together a show for you. 

What's even worse, with today's tech, you could quite conceivably put together a voicetrack to the music without ever really listening to the song.  Just line the waveforms up and voila -- you've hit the post.  Never mind it's to the wrong song.
 

Ok, I caught it on the podcast version and it's ... The New New Vaudeville Band. In other words, it's a rerecorded version of it. I think this is what you heard.


 

Lorne wrote:

Ok, I caught it on the podcast version and it's ... The New New Vaudeville Band. In other words, it's a rerecorded version of it. I think this is what you heard.


 

Yes, I think that's it. It's certainly a far cry from the original.

RadioActive wrote:

Lorne wrote:

Ok, I caught it on the podcast version and it's ... The New New Vaudeville Band. In other words, it's a rerecorded version of it. I think this is what you heard.


 

Yes, I think that's it. It's certainly a far cry from the original.

That sounds like it might be a budget-label version. I remember seeing a lot these compilation CDs in places like Walmart and Zellers and other places like that. They'd usual include a whole wack of hits from a particular decade, so the consumer was oftentimes duped into thinking that they were getting good value for their money. If you looked closely at the disclaimer on some of these discs, however, they would say something along the lines of "The artists on this compilation include at least one original member of the group". So, something like Gerry and the Pacemakers would actually be just Gerry and whole new set of Pacemakers (or sometimes, one Pacemaker and a new Gerry).

I suspect a lot of 60s and 70s recording stars signed contracts that, to put it bluntly, were not in their best interests and probably made very little money when they should have made a fairly tidy sum. To recoup some of their losses, I imagine a good number of these musicians would probably be only too willing re-record their hits, so they could see type of profit from their glory days.


PJ

Last edited by Paul Jeffries (November 29, 2020 10:29 am)

Even worse then, because Ashby goes out of his way to point out before the tune plays who the singer is and that he got the Rudy Vallee megaphone effect by crooning through his cupped hands. So it only compounds the error, because it makes Ashby's statements wrong.  

Jody Thornton wrote:

When you listen to what was actually the mono radio version of Steppenwolf's "Magic Carpet Ride", there is an entirely different voice track than the version everyone knows.

True. The first verse on the 45 version sounds like John Kay just smoked a joint. 

Also, the squealing guitar at the beginning gradually fades in on the LP version, whereas on the 45 it starts cold and is slightly shorter, as well as the guitar and keyboard bridge towards the end.

To make matters more confusing, Steppenwolf's 1973 compilation, 16 Greatest Hits, contains a version that's about the same length as the 45, but it's actually the album version edited down to the single length.





PJ
 

Last edited by Paul Jeffries (November 29, 2020 11:04 pm)

Kudos to Roger Ashby today for playing the early Americana tune ( 1935). Can The Circle be Unbroken  by the Carter Family in the roots of rock segment. Probably never heard before on the stations carrying the show. Will  tune in to more of the show tomorrow.





 

Last edited by Fitz (December 5, 2020 8:29 pm)