Version Ponderings

[ceagle]

I have to wonder sometimes why there are so many different versions of a song or an album, or both. For instance, the Enya song "Book of Days"... different versions AND album art! The original song was only in gaelic, and subsequent ones with english added...

http://discography.enya.com/albums/03.html
http://discography.enya.com/singles/11.html

This is another album which seemed to have a different version every time I walked in the store! And not just the images, but the packaging changed a lot as well, inner sleeve stuff, embossing on the cover, etc. It's a great album too! At least the music different change on this one...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voices_(Hall_&_Oates_album)
http://www.cduniverse.com/images.asp?pid=6748821&style=music&image=front&title=Hall+%26+Oates+%2D+Voices+CD
http://www.amazon.com/Voices-Hall-Oates/dp/B000002W4S

Here another album for which I personally remember being several unexplained different covers...

http://www.discogs.com/Foreigner-Double-Vision/release/401481
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double_Vision_(Album)

Other songs that I can think of just off the top of my head which have different versions in circulation, are Smoke on the Water by Deep Purple (the oddity with this is that an alternate take is the one we usually hear these days, not the original hit version). The alternate take is okay, but I'd like to have the original more easy to find as well.
One that is an example of insanity in song changes is Beast of Burden by The Rolling Stones (the record company edited two measly bars out of the song intro, which TOTALLY ruins it for me. I say measly because I can't see ANY GOOD REASON for taking those out.

There are plenty of other examples, some good too... like some alternate versions of Beatles' songs made available on those three big compilations a few years back, but I don't wanna go all tl:dr on ya, so I'll end it here.. I hope it was an enjoyable read ^v^ .

Comments

[jedd-marten.livejournal.com]

Been wondering that ever since they substituted "She Hangs Out" for "The Girl I Knew Somewhere". ;)
Oh well, sounds like the typical thing some manager would get his annual bonus for just because he wrote that up as a goal and then acheived it -- not because it was better than the way things were.

[gilmorelion.livejournal.com]

From what I've read, that was more of a "Let's keep Davy out in front" kind of thing. "She Hangs Out" is a much weaker song. Oh well, that's what those box sets are for!

[c-eagle.livejournal.com]

WOW... the music content of the album changed also?? yeeeex!!
I just saw the differmint versions coming out over and over, I never did buy another copy, so I didn't know.... wow!

I do remember reading that Hall and Oates were both very tweaked about the earlier versions of this album, so I think as their clout increased with sales, they had more choice with input down the line...

o' course that might not apply to some of the content ;P We've all seen that "manager malaise" affect things too... yipes!

[wildbilltx.livejournal.com]

The reason why they substituted "She Hangs Out" for "The Girl I Knew Somewhere" was greedy Don Kirshner did not own the publishing for "Somewhere" which (I believe) was written by a freind of Mike Nesmith.

I remember there are several USA versions of "Rio" by Duran Duran, first on Harvest Records with the original UK mix, then re-released on Capitol Records with extended dance remixes of several songs.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rio_%28album%29#UK.2FUS_Original_LP:_EMI_3411

[c-eagle.livejournal.com]

ooo.... thanks for the elaborating factoid! 8>