RECORD STORE TALES #1166: A Storage Solution for Certain Promo CD Singles
I managed a CD store for 10 years. Storage was always a commodity to me, then and now. As a young guy living in a small bedroom in his parents’ house, I was running out of CD space fast. Every slot counted. An opportunity to save some slots, by replacing a 2 CD “fat” case with a slim one, was always valuable.
There are occasional promo CD singles that were cheap on packaging because, well, it was a free handout CD given to radio stations or stores to play. Front covers were optional. Sometimes, singles such as these were valuable to me, for the inclusion of edit versions or other mixes that may not have been on commercially available singles or albums.
There was one storage solution I came up with to save space in my collection, and logically file these singles in an interesting way. Have a look at the short video below.
“AOR” equals “Album Oriented Rock”, a radio format established in the 1960s that essentially means “classic rock” by today’s standards. Therefore, this Aerosmith single would be a remix aimed specifically at those kinds of radio stations. Frequently and historically, many of these remixes are barely different at all from the album version. Additionally, “F.I.N.E.” from 1989’s Pump album was not really considered a single. It wasn’t available to buy commercially, and it wasn’t made into a music video. It was a radio single only. At 4:08, this track is not edited.
“F.I.N.E.”, which was track 2 on the album, is considered one of Aerosmith finer rock moments from the Geffen years. It was always focused on a biting heavy Aero groove, a melodic Tyler vocal, and that irresistible chorus of “It’s aaaaaaaalright!” This remix is hardly different at all. If anything, the bass might be coming through more clearly.
If you have a look at the waveform file below, you can see there isn’t much difference, though some are visible. The AOR mix is at top, the original 1989 CD file at bottom.
I don’t feel there’s any point in rating a promo CD single like on a scale of 5, because what’s the point? This CD is valuable as a collectible to fans and hoarders alike. It has an exclusive remix, and whether you can hear a difference isn’t the point to a collector. Sometimes obscure AOR mixes get reissued on greatest hits or box sets, but to date, this one has not.
“Joe Perry says I’m aaaaallright!”
Thanks again to Ash from Australia for sending me this CD which I shall file with my Pump collection!
Generation Swine was a weird album, and “Beauty” was a weird single. Just the facts.
Swine was a “reunion” album with Vince Neil, yet there are several songs with other members singing lead. Not the usual thing to do for a reunion album with your original lead singer! “Beauty” was one of the songs with multiple singers: Tommy Lee is credited for “Beauty and Head vocals”. Not only that, but Vince doesn’t sound like Vince, singing the verses in a low register. It was definitely an odd choice as the second single, when fans were expecting a return to the 80s. Not happening here! Produced by Scott Humphrey, Generation Swine dipped its toes into techno, with “Beauty” being one track that sounds nothing like Motley Crue.
Promo singles are usually not worth buying. They are strictly for collectors now who have to have everything. This one, however, might be of wider interest.
Track 1 is just the album version of “Beauty”. Vince sings the verses in that low voice, but the samples and drum loops are more disorienting. They were going for a more urban groove here, with mixed results. The lyrics, referencing prostitution, are apparently about Hugh Grant. “She got me thrown in jail, my black beauty, she’s still up for sale.” Motley Crue had the balls to put Hugh Grant’s mugshot on the CD, which makes it immediately interesting enough to be collectible.
Track 2 is perhaps more interesting. This “Audio Bio” features some pretty crazy quotes. From Rolling Stone: “The perfect union of ZZ Top celebration, and Nine Inch Nails self-immolation!” From Billboard: “There’s no denying the chemistry between Vince Neil and bandmates Tommy Lee, Nikki Sixx and Mick Mars.” What?? What chemistry? Did you even listen to the album? MTV calls the album impressive, and Guitar World simply said “fuck yeah!” It’s really hilarious with hindsight. It also exposes these magazines for the hacks they often are. Not really listening, just writing what they’re told.
Give it a listen for yourself.
No point rating a promo out of five. Score one in the wild if you can, for the Hugh Grant mugshot and the unintentionally hilarious bio.
RECORD STORE TALES #970: Soundtrack From the Video Historia
Love is like a bomb (b-bomb b-bomb bomb)…
December 1988: The Zellers flyer.
Zellers was a popular Canadian retailer with a decent music department. They folded several years ago after a slow decline, but once upon a time, they were a central “anything” store for families all over Canada. Anything but groceries anyway; Zehrs had that covered. We’ve talked about Zellers numerous times here, as they were the best store at our local mall. Whether you were buying toys, a new bike, or school supplies, they had kids covered. Meanwhile the adults spent time in housewares, clothing, kitchen goods, and automotive. In the 80s, the era of “Club Z”, Zellers did not suck. They even had a restaurant in the store.
Zellers’ music department sold both albums and equipment in the same area. Needed a head demagnetizer or a record cleaning kit? Batteries, blank tapes, new decks? All there for us kids to gaze at with wishes in our eyes. The selection of cassettes had us constantly flip-flip-flipping. Meanwhile the clerks would be playing music unique to that department, while the rest of the store got Muzak. I first became exposed to the concept of a single B-Side thanks to somebody there spinning “Ride Into the Sun” by Def Leppard. I bought a lot of my Judas Priest and Kiss tapes there. I saw Poison on the shelves at Zellers for the first time. (I thought Rikki was hot before I learned the terrible truth!)
In fact, because of Zellers and that very single (which had “Hysteria” on the A-side), I began frantically collecting everything Def Leppard that I could find. Zellers bears 100% responsibility for this story we are about to unfold.
My growing Leppard collection had many gaps, but there was one that I wanted to patch up immediately. It gnawed at me. It was “Pour Some Sugar On Me”, the remix with the extended intro used in the music video. It wasn’t on the album; it wasn’t on the single. It wasn’t available on any known audio formats. Radio stations didn’t play it. The only place you could hear it was on your TV. I kind of preferred that mix, with the long intro. It had more vibe. I remember hanging by the radio hoping to tape it, but was always disappointed when they played the album version. The best copy I had access to was the 1988 Def Leppard home video, Historia. It was a comprehensive home video, and had both mixes of “Sugar”. But I couldn’t make a good taped copy to listen to; all I could do was dub to a cassette in mono.
One day I came home from school, and the Zellers flyer was sitting on the kitchen table. I flipped to the music section, and there it was: Soundtrack From the Video Historia. A brand new Def Leppard release; a “greatest hits” if you will! They had it for sale on cassette. I reasoned that it had to have that remix. If it was the soundtrack to the home video, then it had to have that remix! I would have wanted it anyway, being a “new” Def Leppard release. The possibility of the remix changed it from “want” to “must”.
It was kind of odd that none of the rock magazines mentioned this new release. Nobody talked about it on MuchMusic. That seemed very unusual for a band of Leppard’s stature. They were the biggest rock band in the world in 1988. Why wasn’t this new compilation album mentioned anywhere else? That was worrying, but on the flipside, once I had it, I’d own a Leppard album that none of my friends had.
Later that week, I trekked to Zellers with my best friend Bob. I looked in the Def Leppard section, but they didn’t have the soundtrack there. New releases? Nothing. I went up to the counter, and there it was! Sitting out for store play!
“I’ll take one of those please, Def Leppard Soundtrack From the Video Historia,” I said to the clerk.
“It’s not for sale,” he quashed. He took it off the counter and put it behind him. He wouldn’t even let me look at it.
Not for sale? The hell? It was right there in the flyer, $8.99 or $9.99 was the going rate back then. He refused to sell it to me. It was sitting in front of me under my nose; I could have reached out and grabbed it. Whatever had happened, it managed to get into the Zellers flyer, but it was promotional only — not for sale. It was meant only for them to play in store, but not to sell. I was shit out of luck, and I went home brokenhearted and empty handed.
Now here’s where things get freaky.
That same week, all the way in New Brunswick Canada, Tim Durling (future author of the book Unspooled) saw the same ad in the Zellers flyer. He got just as excited as I did, but there was one catch. Living in rural New Brunswick, his closest Zellers store was an hour away. It was Friday night.
“I pestered my father, ‘we gotta go to Fredericton tonight’,” says Tim.
Tim tells the story. This happened live on the LeBrain Train Nov 23, 2021!
His disappointment might even have exceeded mine, as he returned home without his precious treasure.
“The poor girl working behind the counter,” he said. “I was such a little shit. I said ‘I want this tape right here!'”
Isn’t it incredible that two guys who didn’t know each other had the exact same experience at the same time? And that we later put two and two together, and realized we had this bizarre experience in common? It really happened, not a figment of my imagination. The ad was real, and screwed somebody else’s hopes and dreams too! But how did it come to be?
We have two theories. I think it was a simple cock-up, a tape got put in the flyer before they realized it wasn’t for sale. Tim thinks some jerk did it on purpose! We will never know.
When Historia was reissued and updated on DVD accompanied by In The Round In Your Face on a single disc, it was revised to include three bonus videos from later in the band’s career. We will get to that when we arrive at the Euphoria era.
TRIUMPH – “Spellbound” (1984 MCA 12″ radio promo disc)
1984’s Thunder Seven was a big one in Canada, with “Spellbound” and “Follow Your Heart” both hitting the top 100 singles chart. Triumph singles rarely offered up much in the way of non-album material, but the odd curiosity could be found. This Triumph single for “Spellbound” was acquired by a friend, from Jerry’s Records in Pittsburgh back in 2013.
On the A-side, the standard 5:12 single version of “Spellbound” without edits. You can really hear why this was a hit in 1984. Triumph had learned to marry keyboard and guitar riffs for a bigger radio-ready sound. With Gil Moore on lead vocals, “Spellbound” had huge chorus. The track was also made into a cool video.
The B-side was specially designed for radio airplay. Each track on Thunder Seven is given a brief special intro by the three band members. You could look at this as an interview disc. It’s nine minutes in length and not without value. By listening we learn that “Spellbound”, for example, changed much from conception to release. It was once titled “White Lies” before it was rewritten. “Time Canon” was made up of 18 parts over 66 tracks. Amazing stuff. Their Canadian accents are adorable.
An excellent purchase for Triumph fans who have it all and need a little more.
Promo CDs are a funny thing. Any promotional CD that you have ever seen or owned was free at some point in its life. Since promos were intended to be play copies, or giveaways, selling them was highly frowned upon. When I say “frowned upon” I mean illegal though not heavily enforced. So it is funny that this 23 year old Motley Crue promo has “STOLEN FROM CKWR” (the very station that hosts Rob Daniels’ Visions In Sound), written on the disc in black marker. I did my duty and reported it to CKWR just now, but weirdly enough they could care less!
The real crime here is the “clean” version of a Motley Crue song from Generation Swine, and it is an absolute hatchet job. Unlistenable.
Why would you even bother with a “clean version” of “Find Myself”? The very second line in the song is “I gotta find myself some BEEP”! (The word was “drugs”!) The first line of the chorus is “I’m a sick mother BEEP er!” Utterly ridiculous. You’d think someone would have played it once and said “this is unreleasable”. I counted seven beeps in under three minutes.
If you prefer, the “dirty” version of “Find Myself” is on the CD too. Why was the record company Elektra pushing that song so hard? It’s a weird punky track with Nikki Sixx on vocals for the verses, with the returning Vince Neil handling the choruses. Not the kind of thing you’d really think to push at fans all excited about Vince coming back, right? But here it is, twice. Though the chorus is good, I’m not going out on a limb by calling this song “shitty”. Or BEEP-y!
Much, much, much better are the album tracks “Let Us Prey” and “Shout at the Devil ’97”. First, “Let Us Prey”. This is the only track that sounds like a progression from the ’94 self-titled album with John Corabi. Crabby even has a writing credit on it, and who knows, maybe that’s him screaming “Let us hunt!” Tommy Lee did that, according to Tommy Lee, but I think it sounds like John. It was certainly written for John to sing. “Shout ’97” is a cool remake of a song that didn’t need remaking, but it was 1997 so what’re ya gonna do? Added samples and a dance-y beat made it pretty irresistible. Mick Mars threw down some cool new licks here, although the droning guitars are very dated. Still, passing grade for “Shout ’97”.
Even though this CD has two good tunes out of four tracks, the “clean” one is such an atrocity that this gets:
VAN HALEN – Selections from LIVE: Right here, right now.(1993 Warner promo EP) “Van Halen turns 15!”
Stuff like this is in my collection not because it’s valuable to me, but because at one point in time I got it for free. We ran across promos like these all the time, and couldn’t sell them, so they were free to take. Because it was Van Halen, I hung onto it even though all five tracks are taken from the live album Right here, right now. It disappears in your CD collection due to the jewel case without a back cover or spine. For the sake of simplicity (and a shorter title), we’ll just refer to this EP as “Van Halen turns 15”.
It actually plays really well. Without any filler or solos, it’s a tight CD packed with some of the best songs. “Dreams” serves as a connection to the earlier pop rock sounds of 5150. Live, it rocks with higher octane than the studio version. “Judgement Day” was one of the better representations of the then-new For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge material. Its modern groove was predictive of the kind of music people would want to hear in the 90s: heavier with more edge. “Ain’t Talkin’ ‘Bout Love” is the one token DLR track, and then seemingly to balance things out, it’s Sammy’s “One Way to Rock”. Whatever — the listening experience is perfect.
Because “Right Now” was the biggest thing since Crystal Pepsi, it’s inevitable that the live version was included on this CD. If you find “Right Now” to be vomit-inducing, you can just hit stop.
Since this is a promo and should only be sought as a freebie, appointing it a score out of 5 stars is meaningless. Radio stations are always ditching boxes of old CDs so it’s bound to turn up somewhere.
It’s impossible to acquire a “complete” Bon Jovi collection; trust me on this. Even Jon Bon Jovi doesn’t have a complete Bon Jovi collection. Up to a certain point in time, it’s fun to collect as many B-sides and bonus tracks you can get your hands on.
The second single from “best of” album Cross Road (1994) was “Someday I’ll Be Saturday Night”, and it was a pretty clear indication of where the band would go on their next album These Days. But — surprise bonus — this single doesn’t have the studio version (that you already own) from Cross Road. It has an uncredited live version instead! Added bonus — Alec John Such on bass. He had yet to be replaced (on stage, anyway) by Hugh McDonald. This is probably the only live version of the hit with Such on bass.
Make no mistake, “Someday I’ll Be Saturday Night” is a great song. There’s a Bon Jovi niche for acoustic rock songs with down-on-your-luck/inspirational lyrics. “My life’s a bargain basement, all the good shit’s gone.” This is Jon’s bread and butter. He wouldn’t know a bargain basement if he was shopping for old Bon Jovi singles in one, but he does this kind of rock really well. This is one of the last of his must-haves of the genre.
Another rare one, “Good Guys Don’t Always Wear White”, is a studio track with the well-worn cowboy motif. It’s from the movie The Cowboy Way featuring Jon’s old Young Guns buddy Keifer Sutherland. Unexpectedly, this one is an intricate hard-driving rocker, with a Sambora riff that he could take pride in. Tico Torres is absolutely on fire on the kit. That guy can lay down a groove while throwing in challenging patterns just for fun. Why can’t Bon Jovi rock like this anymore? This track feels more honest than the hard luck songs.
Two more live songs finish the CD. These two are from Montreal in ’94: “With A Little Help From My Friends” (Joe Cocker style) and “Always”. The reason Bon Jovi can get away with “A Little Help From My Friends” is Richie Sambora, who always brings the soul and the integrity. That’s not to say that Jon sucks. Check out the note he holds at 3:57. The man had lungs back in 1994! The demographics of the audience are obvious: “Always” is almost drowned out by a sea of high-pitched screams! It’s one of their last ballads that really deserves that kind of cheering though.
A great single is one that you can list to independently of the album, and doesn’t sound like a bunch of miscellaneous bonus tracks. This single is like that. There’s no wasted space, no filler, and no tracks you can get on the albums. The live stuff is high grade and the studio track is extremely valuable for its hard rocking nature. This is more like an EP than a single, but it’s all semantics. Let’s just call it:
4.5/5 stars
You say you don’t like my kind, A bitter picture in your mind. No, it don’t matter what I say, I hear you bitchin’ when I walk away. I’ll never be what you want me to be, You tell me I’m wrong but I disagree, I ain’t go no apology. Just because I don’t look like you, talk like you, think like you, Judge and jury, a hangman’s noose, I see them in your eyes.
Forget Valentine’s Day…except when it’s good for traffic! Back in my single days I used to call it “Bon Jovi Day” and listen to nothing but Jon & Richie. Here’s some Bon Jovi for you!
BON JOVI – “Real Life” (1999 Reprise & promo CD singles)
There was an unprecedented five year interregnum between These Days and Crush. This pause allowed Jon Bon Jovi and Richie Sambora to get some solo albums out of their systems before the band re-convened. In the buildup to the new album, Bon Jovi contributed a new single called “Real Life” to the movie EdTV. Remember EdTV? There were two movies out at the same time about a guy who had his whole life broadcast on television 24/7. One, The Truman Show starring Jim Carrey, was a huge hit. The other, Ron Howard’s EdTV starring Matthew McConaughey, was the also-ran. EdTV might have been more interesting, but bombed. This rendered the Bon Jovi single relatively obscure. It’s not the first time a Bon Jovi movie track misfired. Remember “Good Guys Don’t Always Wear White”?
“Real Life” was a decent tune, but it was a ballad at a time when Bon Jovi already had plenty. There’s little to draw your attention, aside from Richie Sambora’s always alluring guitar and vocals. The watery guitar tone is not far removed from These Days, but that album boasted the kind of ballads you’d never forget. Songs like “Something to Believe In”, “These Days”, and “(It’s Hard) Letting You Go” are the kind of songs you carry your whole life. “Real Life” is not. In the wake of These Days, it was just another ballad.
Who is “Desmond Childs“?
This commercial single has two versions of “Real Life”, but there are actually four versions out there! For the “album version”, if you don’t want the EdTV soundtrack, look for a promo single instead. The differences between the album version and the radio mix are slight, but the album version has more guitar where the single mix has more piano. The third version is an instrumental mix, which is nice if you want to listen to Richie’s guitar a little more. The fourth and final version is an alternate mix that can be found on the box set 100,000,000 Bon Jovi Fans Can’t Be Wrong.
Finally, a live recording of “Keep the Faith” rounds out the single. It seems to be a standby live B-side for this band. They used another version on the 2013 single for “Because We Can“. It’s certainly one of their most accomplished songs. The bass groove and Tico’s busy drum patterns keep your feet moving. It’s noncommercial and it strives to be something bigger. It might be, in a technical sense, Bon Jovi’s most unapologetic and best hit.
Interestingly enough, “Real Life” is the only Bon Jovi video without David Bryan who was away on an injury. I don’t think he missed out on much.
CORROSION OF CONFORMITY – “Seven Days” (1995 Sony promo CD single)
COC’s landmark album Deliverance spawned three singles, the least known of which was “Seven Days”. The promo CD single contains a rarity that makes it worth tracking down. It’s not expensive, and thanks to online stores not hard to find.
Deliverance is a heavy album even with a few slower songs on board. “Seven Days” is one such track. A slow, heavy dirge can often make for a good single. This CD has two versions, the full-length album cut and a shorter single edit with a truncated fade-out.
The special track here is a “jam box tape” of “Fuel”, a track that was as yet unreleased. COC recorded it properly for their next album, Wiseblood. This early version is an identical arrangement, but way way more ragged. Pepper sounds like James Hetfield on this one, but it has far more balls than the Metallica song of the same name. Total smokeshow. This is the proverbial “song you buy the single for.”
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