Entertainment For Lively Minds
Have you ever been duped buying a track by a band that wasn't the original recording?
I felt my iPod was missing some soft Liverpudlian synthpop of the mid 80's, so felt inclined to download some China Crisis tonight
(PLEASE go with me on this one)...
So I went to iTunes and dowloaded 2 tracks by The Crisis - one early song called Christian, and another truly lovely hit called Wishful Thinking . 2 songs I remember from my youth with affection, and both conveniently on a compilation called The Hits Of China Crisis from 1999 that happened to come up first via an iTunes search
Imagine the sinking feeling in my gut on buying then playing these tracks and realising neither are the originals, but from a crappy 10 year old poorly recorded LIVE album instead. I appreciate a lot of old bands get zero royalties from their original hits and have to put out alternate recordings to get some money coming through, but this felt like a right old stitch-up, and I can never listen to the Crisis quite the same way again. If these aren't the original studio recordings for sale , please have a massive disclaimer saying so.
So have YOU been the unsuspecting victim of an unoriginal recording purchase? If so, please share.
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Oasis...
...once duped me into buying a series of wholly unoriginal recordings.
Squeeze
Check out their "new" album Spot the Difference.
In fairness...
...I knew what I was getting into when I bought "Spot The Difference". I mentioned it in this month's Blogger Takeover. It was a curiosity purchase, to be honest. It won't get many more outings, though.
I believe they were so screwed by various record deals
...that they made very little from their classic singles and the Greatest Hits 45s and Under. Can't really begrudge them a chance to make some cash in this case.
Of course, that might all be Inter-bollocks and it's a venal money grab.
Tilbrook still sounds like he did 30 years ago. So does Difford, but that's perhaps not such a remarkable thing
OK at the moment
They haven't exactly made a secret of what they've done either so at the moment there shouldn't really be much, if any, confusion but as soon as these tracks start to appear on other compilations or as individual track downloads in a few years time it will probably be pretty hard to know what you're buying until you've downloaded it. In fact this really does seem to be a download problem. If you had the CD in your hand you would be able to see the "Some of these tracks may have been re-recorded by some or all the original artists" which has always been a signal to put it back in the rack.
...and of course...
...their old record company took the opportunity to drop the price of their original Greatest Hits to £3 for the period of time "Spot The Difference" was being reviewed and promoted. Stay classy, major labels.
Glen Tilbrook ...
... heard "Tempted" in a Heineken TV commercial over here but no one had ever consulted him or Difford over its use and he was, I think with good reason, mildly pissed off. "If It's Love" was used for an online dating company's TV ad and again, neither T nor D earned a penny. Hence S The D.
John Martyn
Bought a cheap double in Fopp and when I listened to it I wished I hadn't. They sounded like re-recorded studio versions rather than live. Either way, not very good.
Virtually anything by John Martyn
not on the Island label* is likely to have been re-recorded.
(*excluding the bunch of so-so albums he did for Warner Bros/WEA in the early 80s)
Yes, you have to be careful...
...I work in a record shop and those cheap 50s/60s hits compilations are notorious for containing re-recordings.
You often have to read the small print carefully to spot it, but there is usually a warning/disclaimer to the effect that some or all tracks have been re-recorded. In other words, they might as well be saying "don't buy this junk".
As for iTunes, in my haste I once downloaded a god-awful karaoke version of the song I wanted! Probably my fault, but, misleadingly, it did have the name of the band in the title.
As has been mentioned, some artists have re-recorded quite respectable versions of their big songs, John Martyn for example. No matter how well-intentioned, though, they will never match the originals.
re: god-awful karaoke versions of 60's hits
I had the exact same problem trying to find an original recording of The Fortune's classic You've Got Your Troubles (I've Got Mine) on Itunes. Had to sift through endless dodgy 60's comps containing the same godawful 80's re-recording before finding the lovely original tucked away on an obscure best of.
You've got your Troubles..
..what a great pop song. Worth getting for the counterpoint vocal section alone!
I agree- and saw Vera Lynn singing this track with The Fortunes!
There was a BBC4 doc on Dame Vera Lynn recently. One fascinating clip recalled her own primetime TV show during the 60's, and how she'd regularly duet with popular beat groups of the day. The bit they used to illustrate this was her singing You've Got Your Troubles with The Fortunes. It shouldn't have worked, but somehow it did
Reader's Digest...
...released a series of compilations called the Golden Age of Rock 'n' Roll, consisting of a triple album for every year from 1956 to 1964. They also did a Sounds of the Sixties and a Sound of the Seventies series, also triple albums for each year.
These albums use the original versions, and I've been hoovering them up quietly on eBay for about a fiver a time. They are an excellent way of filling in gaps in your collection, getting hold of hard-to-find tracks like You've Got Your Troubles and discovering tracks you've never heard of.
Neil Sedaka's Greatest Hits
The price was too good to be true. The actual recording wasn't too good.
Bum, I've just bought Squeeze's "Spot the Difference". I thought it was more along the lines of Suzanne Vega's re-recording of her back catalogue. I didn't realise that the title was to be taken literally... ah well.
Roy Orbisons Greatest Hits
not all originals some live recordings mixed in, very disappointed
When the Everly Brothers...
...moved to Warner Bros in 1960, they re-recorded their 50s Cadence hits and not too many people noticed.
Brian Mathew
Brian played the B-side of 'The Weight' by The Band a few years ago and from the very first note my 'this-is-not-the-60s' antenna was set on 10 as it was too clean and 'produced' (and crap) to be a '68 Band recording.
It was from 1974 and he'd been playing a re-issue of the single.
THIS IS AN OUTRAGE!!!
We need to contact the Daily Mail to start a grass roots campaign to get Matthew out. It's our licence fee, people!
Remember the Easy Rider Soundtrack?
They couldn't license The Band's version of The Weight (as heard in the film) so the cheeky bastards used a re-recording by a hitherto unknown outfit named Smith.
This bogus version of The Weight is still on the soundtrack CD to this day.
That's right though
Surely in this case that's the right thing to do though. If I bought a soundtrack album I would expect it to have the versions that were in the original film even if they were low standard covers.
Wouldn't it be Good?
That's not Nik Kershaw on the Pretty In Pink soundtrack either. It wasn't until today that I found out it was one of the blokes out of Three Dog Night.
As I understand it
The Band are heard in the film, but not on the soundtrack LP/CD where we get the re-recording.
I bought this off eBay recently..
Imagine my disappointment..
http://cgi.ebay.com/TOP-POPS-12-VINYL-LP-/170573561680?pt=UK_Records&has...
Post-Reservoir Dogs re-recording
of Stuck in the Middle With You. If I'd looked more closely at iTunes I probably would've noticed it said Gerry Rafferty rather than Stealers Wheel. He sounds a bit wheezy and can't quite reach the note in the "Ple-e-e-e-ase" bit.
Then again, on the other hand...
...the licensing issues which some artists face when compiling 'Greatest Hits' albums can sometimes result in compelling remakes of the unlicenseable tracks. I'm thinking of Neil Diamond's '12 greatest Hits' and The Who's 'Meaty, Beaty, Big & Bouncy'. I don't believe the packaging in either example of these early-in-career best-ofs made it clear re-records were involved.
I'm a tad hazy on the details of exactly which tracks on these two examples are re-records, but in each case they were re-records made in the early 70s of mid 60s hits (so both artists were still at the top of their game - no linn drums, synths, straining-for-notes...) and in each case these were the versions of the tracks that were, for this listener, 'the one's'. The original single of 'Shilo', for example, isn't a patch of the re-record in my view.
Further down the line of oddness, I recently tracked down a copy of James Griffin's 'Sings The Bread Hits' CD, recorded for a budget label in the 90s. James was an original member of Bread, and co-wrote about half of their material, but it was David Gates's songs which made up almost all of their single A sides. Here, James is basically singing David's repertoire over some very faithfully recreated backing tracks. He was a great artist in his own right - I feel rather sorry that he made this record, which is okay in itself, but I guess he was made an offer he couldn't refuse...
It's but one more step down the sorry road of fraudulence and ignominy before you end up with 'Dr Hook Featuring Ray 'Eyepatch' Sawyer', currently touring. Great: a band of Some Other Guys fronted by the man who played the maraccas in the original band! How soon before we see posters advertising 'The Happy Mondays Featuring Bez 'Idiot Dancer' Bez'...?
Meaty, Beaty, Big, Bouncy...and Re-Recorded?
Bloody Hell.
I never knew that.
Either they did a really good job of it or I have ears of cloth.
I must dispute that
Only I'm A Boy is noticeably different on Meaty, Beaty, Big & Bouncy and that's not so much a re-recording as an alternate take, recorded in 1966 around the same time as the single version.
I never
knew that either - can you detail which tracks were re-recorded?
I can't actually, Gaz...
...I just heard it said somewhere and recall thinking 'Oh, well I never...': I never did a compare/contrast against original singles. If I'm wrong on that one I will, as the girls team on The Apprentice seem very willing say (to Mr Sugar's chagrin), "I'll hold my hands up... and take it on board..."
I guess I assumed it might well be true because for decades they had an issue with Shel Talmy, producer of their first few singles and first LP, who had negotiated a crippling royalty rate for their use. Which was why it took ages for the remastered 'My Gen' CD to appear.
but if anyone can shed more light on this, please do so - I'll happily stand corrected. I'm definitely correct on the Neil Diamond one though!
This is why the version
of "Money" on Pink Floyd's "A Collection of great Dance songs" is a re-recording, and apparently, pretty much a Gilmour solo effort.
Blade Runner
In the late 1980s the you could only get Vangelis's seminal soundtrack as a rubbish Orch-pops excursion by some outfit called The New American Orchestra. It started off promising and then went hallooing downhill into the country of the bland.
I bought a copy as a Christmas present for a friend of mine without realising. We all sat around the Christmas record player on Boxing Day to listen. I became unpopular. I hoped things would liven up when we played the other album I'd given him: Escape from Television by Jan Hammer. Guess what?
Jings
Apologies - double post owing to slow connection,
Blade Runner
In the late '80s Vangelis' movie soundtrack was only available in a rubbish Orch-pops version by some outfit called The New American Orchestra. It began promisingly but then went downhill.
I bought a copy as a Christmas present for a friend of mine without realising. We sat around the Christmas record player to listen. I became unpopular. I hoped things would liven up when we played the other album I'd given him: Escape from Television by Jan Hammer. Guess what? It was the same as the TV version but slightly inferior. It's so annoying to encounter a copy of the real thing that is slighlty inferior.
You're sure it's not Chin Crisis you've downloaded?
Gets outerwear
"Christian"
and "Wishful Thinking" are indeed wonderful tunes, go on treat yourself go find the originals and learn to love the alternate versions. *Goes to iTunes to look for "proper" China Crisis best of*
hehe
Anyone not wanting to repeat my mistake regarding getting the originals of both CC tracks should download each from the below album Diary - A Collection instead, complete with unflattering cover pic of the Scouse synthpop duo looking like a pair of moody mulleted hairdressers
James Brown
I bought a hand picked collection of James Brown tracks off Amazon and half of them were live, way too fast cruddy live tracks which JB sounded like he was phoning in. Literally as well as figuratively.
Focus - The Greatest Hits
Acquired this about six years back - it's dreadful.
All the tracks are from a live show, with no mention of this on the sleeve.The recording is muddy beyond belief.
We parted company double quick!
I think anything...
...that comes from the Classic Rock Legends label, or its various subsidiaries/pseudonyms, should be taken with a pinch of salt, a deep intake of breath and a caveat emptor. Which is of course merely a personal opinion and fair comment...