View Full Version : From the "I've always wondered" file.
Why is "Aerosmith's Greatest Hits" (Columbia; 1980) an all-time best-seller? I'm not saying the material is horrible; I'm saying almost all the songs are hacked to bits and the sound quality is abysmal.
I've also always wondered why they even chopped the songs in the first place. Surely all of the songs would fit in their entirety on one record had they removed "Remember (Walkin' In The Sand)."
As George Carlin would say, "These are things I think about when the power goes out."
Sckott
06-05-2002, 12:35 PM
I'm sure Grant would be proud of me saying....the titles on Aerosmith's Greatest Hits are single versions.
When the band had a Columbia single out, most every song was edited for allmighty AM & FM radio. Those are the versions some people remember.
I grew up to the albums, mainly because my mom knew someone at Columbia for a short time. Getting a promo copy of "Toys In The Attic" and Herbie Handcock "Headhunters". Two freebies, and both albums are now ledgendary. Ah, them 70's.
Love it or hate it, it HAS been an incredible selling album, especially to a single-minded cassette buying public in the past. The LP used to dell for $3.98, when cassettes where "king", $4.98 and now it's available on CD for the low, low price for $14.98.
Aerosmith's Greatest Hits (Columbia) wouldn't just be that if it wasn't the single versions of "Last Child", "Back In The Saddle" and "Sweet Emotion", ect.... If you want the LP versions, go get the S/T, Get Your Wings, Toys In The Attic, Rocks, Draw The Line... blah, blah....
Grant
06-05-2002, 12:36 PM
Many people don't mind the 45 RPM single edits. Many times that what was played on radio. Not everyone grew up with the LPs.
Look at the original "Chicago's Greatest Hits. Although it was incomplete, it was one of the most consistient, most listanable GH LPs around.
Bob Lovely
06-05-2002, 12:37 PM
Sckott,
Well said as I was about to post the same....Top 40 Radio and it's obssession with short songs. It was even worse in the 50's and 60's!
Bob:)
Sckott
06-05-2002, 12:52 PM
Columbia snuck in the LP version of "Beginnings" for the CD. Again, Columbia banked on the fact that people were 1st familiar with the single versions, so why jinx it? Put the single versions on.
Even when the prices were under $3 for a single album, the public was a fickle public at buying records. It's the same now. it's just a different idea.
Yeah, I actually have the "Box Of Fire" set and was listening to "Greatest Hits" for the first time in about nine years. That's what brought the question up.
Grant
06-05-2002, 12:56 PM
There's nothing wrong with edited versions. Hell, some of the edits sound tighter, more cohesive that the long versions.
Sometimes I don't want to hear the long versions.
Grant
06-05-2002, 12:59 PM
Originally posted by Sckott
Columbia snuck in the LP version of "Beginnings" for the CD. Again, Columbia banked on the fact that people were 1st familiar with the single versions, so why jinx it? Put the single versions on.
Not true. The long version of "Beginnings" is on the the original LP. They snuck the long version of "Does Anybody Know What Time It Is?" on the CD. The single mix is on the LP.
Bob Lovely
06-05-2002, 01:01 PM
Originally posted by Grant
Sometimes I don't want to hear the long versions.
Grant,
Except when it comes to those great Isley Bros. tracks?
Bob ;)
There's no way anyone can possibly enjoy the edited version of "Sweet Emotion" more than the Toys In The Attic version. I can see your point for some of the other songs, though, like "Last Child."
Again, though, I can't listen to the 45 version of "Sweet Emotion" or "Kings And Queens." Too much has been shaved off.
Grant
06-05-2002, 01:08 PM
Originally posted by AKA
There's no way anyone can possibly enjoy the edited version of "Sweet Emotion" more than the Toys In The Attic version.
Well, you can't go aroung speaking for everyone! Before I discovered there was a long version, I liked the single edit. I still don't mind it. I also like the long version.
Grant
06-05-2002, 01:11 PM
Originally posted by Bob Lovely
Grant,
Except when it comes to those great Isley Bros. tracks?
Bob ;)
That's my point. It's what one is used to hearing. Radio didn't play the Isley Brothers where I live, except for "Fight The Power" in 1975 when it was a chart-topper. I always heard the LP versions because I had the LPs.
I know where AKA is coming from.
Personally, I just take what I like, long or short, or both.
Sckott
06-05-2002, 01:14 PM
Concider some Columbia "Greatest Hits" Lps of lore "Artifacts of history" by the plain fact that at one point in humanity, the idealism for making a "best of" was that way. I can't listen to the edit of "Sweet Emotion" either, but the radio station up the street has a Scott system for broadcasting (hard drive oriented music library) and because "Same Old Song And Dance (edit)" was pre-loaded, they never replaced it with the LP version.
Drives me crazy too. Another reason why I left radio, and why I rarely listen to music-radio. It's just mind games for the mindless....
Bob Lovely
06-05-2002, 01:17 PM
Originally posted by Sckott
Drives me crazy too. Another reason why I left radio, and why I rarely listen to music-radio. It's just mind games for the mindless....
Sckott,
...and I suppose that station is not automated, either?
Bob
Beagle
06-05-2002, 01:18 PM
Can someone answer me a question that's been buggin' me since '78?
Why is the "Draw The Line" title track in MONO? It's mono on the original LP, it's mono on the 45RPM single and it's mono on the CD's. Great rock and roll tune, fabulous, but it sounds horrible. The rest of the "Draw The Line" album is stereo. What's up with that?
Steve Hoffman
06-05-2002, 01:18 PM
I usually dislike GH albums that use 45 edits on them just because of the generation loss.
You have an album mix, dubbed to another tape to cut up for the 45 mix. Then, that is redubbed for the GH tape.
Too many generations down for me. I'd just play my old 45's. At least they were cut with an earlier generation tape...
On the other hand, VALID 45 RPM mixes are in danger of vanishing totally from our digital world.
For example, that great 45 "dry" studio version of Aerosmith's "Train Kept A'Rollin". Great single...And on and on..
Grant,
I originally bought "Greatest Hits" in 1993, at age 13, when "Get A Grip" was topping the charts, so I, like you, heard the radio edits first. I remember riding in my dad's truck with him one afternoon when our local classic rock station played the LP version of "Sweet Emotion." It was sort of a revelation to me. My eyes widened as I heard the talking guitar intro and the Perry-Whitford-Kramer coda.
My comment above was sort of a light ribbing, though. Hope you didn't take it the wrong way. I can understand why you'd prefer the single edits to the LP versions.
What does everyone think of the 1991 remix, which was issued after Aerosmith re-signed with Columbia? My quick-capsule review: "Ugh."
Grant
06-05-2002, 01:29 PM
Originally posted by Steve Hoffman
On the other hand, VALID 45 RPM mixes are in danger of vanishing totally from our digital world.
Especially when those 45s are in mono. Stereo gets released JUST because it's stereo, with people not realizing that the single may have been mixed differently and even a different recording altogether.
I collect 45 RPM versions for this reason.
AKA, I had the same reaction when I first heard the long version of "Sweet Emotion" on a Legacy Stereo Review gold CD sampler. But I still make the case for the single edit.
sonny w.
06-05-2002, 02:47 PM
I loved that when Billy Joel's Greatest Hits Volumes 1 & 2 was remastered, they included the full-length versions of songs like "My Life" and "Just the Way You Are," rather than the singles versions on the original CD. I used to have the original LPs, and that's how I remembered the songs. Kudos to Billy!
Sonny
Grant
06-05-2002, 03:15 PM
Originally posted by sonny w.
I loved that when Billy Joel's Greatest Hits Volumes 1 & 2 was remastered, they included the full-length versions of songs like ... "Just the Way You Are,"...
Sonny
I would have been happy if they left it off! I'm so sick of that song in any length!:mad:
Originally posted by sonny w.
I loved that when Billy Joel's Greatest Hits Volumes 1 & 2 was remastered, they included the full-length versions of songs like "My Life" and "Just the Way You Are," rather than the singles versions on the original CD. I used to have the original LPs, and that's how I remembered the songs. Kudos to Billy!
Sonny
They restored all songs to their full-length versions, with the exception of "Captain Jack," which is still 20 seconds shorter than its "Piano Man" counterpart.
You might remember on the original Greatest Hits 1 & 2, "Pressure" was missing the Time Magazine verse and "My Life" was also the edited version. For some reason, "New York State Of Mind" had an alternate saxophone solo on the original version of GH1&2, but now it's back to the original Turnstiles version, albeit a remix.
Uncle Al
06-05-2002, 03:49 PM
Didn't the Billy Joel set contain the single edits of My Life and Allentown? I thought that collection featured a strange mixture.
By the time I was 16 (1972), there was only 2 Top 40 stations in NYC (one AM and 1 FM), and AT LEAST 3 album rock stations. The Top 40 stations were the the stations for those who didn't yet have FM in the car and the teeny-bopper set (when was the last time you heard THAT phrase?). The ONLY problem I have with single edits is after buying a disc I hear one that I've never heard. I feel like I am being ripped off.
BTW - I was not aware - until NOW - that there was a single edit of Sweet Emotion. I wasn't aware of the Billy Joel single edits till I bought the greatest hits disc. My knowledge of single edits is almost zip after 1969, and I have often been dissapointed to find I have purchased discs with versions I don't remember. While one may contend that the album versions are always available, I contend that there are some artists that only need to be represented by a retrospective in our collections (of course my "complete collection" artist may be your greatest hits artist, and vice-versa). They should label retrospectives to indicate the version (e.g. - "Sweet Emotion" - single edit, "Train Kept a Rollin" - album version).
d. brasco
06-05-2002, 03:50 PM
The recent Doobie Brothers greatest hits on Rhino includes singles versions of the songs Jesus Is Just Alright and Dependin' On You, among others. On the first they cut the first part of that great guitar solo in the middle, and on the second they cut away before some really cool guitar fills at the end. I believe the guitar on both cuts is played by Patrick Simmons. Anyway, I wish they'd included the full versions. There's plenty of time left on the CD. Thanks, Rhino.
Don
Grant
06-05-2002, 03:58 PM
Originally posted by d. brasco
The recent Doobie Brothers greatest hits on Rhino includes singles versions of the songs Jesus Is Just Alright... Thanks, Rhino.
Don
Well you still have the long version on the Best Of The Doobies, especially the one mastered by Steve...
Grant
06-05-2002, 04:00 PM
Originally posted by Uncle Al
Didn't the Billy Joel set contain the single edits of My Life and Allentown? I thought that collection featured a strange mixture.
There is only one length of "Allentown".
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