Popular Music (2010) Volume 29/2. Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2010, pp.

229–250
doi:10.1017/S026114301000005X

‘If you’re gonna have a hit’:

intratextual mixes and edits of
pop recordings
WALTER EVERETT
Department of Music Theory, University of Michigan
E-mail: weverett@umich.edu

Abstract
This essay reviews alternate mixes and edited versions produced for numerous purposes over the past
half-century for stock singles, promotional singles, albums and reissues of all sorts, all evidencing a
form of literary intertextuality of uniquely central importance to the record industry that has not pre-
viously been covered systematically. These multiple texts resulting from different manipulations of a
single tape source exhibit what is termed intratextuality, leading to variations in composition, arran-
ging and engineering. In addition, much of the essay’s discussion will document for scholars as well
as for fans a number of recordings whose continuing availability has been jeopardized by never hav-
ing been reissued in CD format.

I am the Entertainer, I come to do my show.

Heard my latest record spin on the radio?
Aw, it took me years to write it; they were the best years of my life!
It was a beautiful song but it ran too long;
If you’re gonna have a hit, you gotta make it fit,
So they cut it down to 3:05.

Thus proclaims the fifth stanza of Billy Joel’s ‘The Entertainer’, a song from his
second Columbia album, Streetlife Serenade (1974). Verse by verse, the song presents
a litany of the commercial pressures faced by an artist struggling to make his mark in
the record industry, as his work is commodified and otherwise compromised. ‘The
Entertainer’ was a first-person follow-up to the ostensibly autobiographical ‘Piano
Man’, the title track of his previous album that had enjoyed US national airplay.
Therefore, Columbia hoped to use this new tune in the promotion of Streetlife, and
released ‘The Entertainer’ as a single for the widest possible exposure and to build
upon the narrative of Joel’s self-portrayal. There was one problem: its third stanza
included the rock star’s boasts, ‘I played all kinds of palaces, I laid all kinds of
girls’, not appropriate for airplay in the necessary markets. So, as if in fulfilment of
the composition’s prophecy, the offending verse was removed, thereby abridging
the recording’s duration from its album length of 3′39ʺ to . . . if you followed the lyrics
above, you may not believe it: for the single, they cut it down to 3′05ʺ (see timings as
indicated on the record labels shown in Figure 1).1
Many pop-rock recordings have had similar fates, if never so ironically, for
many reasons. Others have enjoyed the benefits that come with alternative mixes,
whether produced concurrently for different markets, or as the result of the
229
230 Walter Everett

Figure 1. Selected vinyl pressings of ‘The Entertainer’. (a) LP label; (b) Mono promo; (c) Stereo stock copy.
The matrix number for stereo single pressings is ZSS 159589; the mono mix appeared only on the promo
(thus the ‘P’ in the matrix prefix).

revisitation of a classic track decades after its initial appearance. Both competing
interests and reflective insights are at work in the sometimes-friendly, sometimes-
forced collaborations among composing and performing artists, record producers,
artists, company management and radio programmers that may bring a pop record-
ing from the recording studio to the marketplace in numerous simultaneous versions.
This article will review alternate mixes and edited versions produced for var-
ious purposes over the past half century for stock singles, promotional singles,
albums and reissues. These all evidence a negotiated form of intertextuality of
uniquely central importance to the record industry, a form that has not previously
been systematically reported upon by music scholars, while they also support a
more informed perspective on the questions of ‘definitive versions’ and ‘authoritative
text’ that have interested researchers of popular music over recent decades.
Intertextuality as a scholarly endeavour is ‘Julia Kristeva’s attempt to combine
Sausseurean and Bakhtinian theories of language and literature[, which] produced
the first articulation of intertextual theory, in the late 1960s’ (Allen 2000, p. 3). For
Kristeva and her followers, every text is a largely unintended composite of references
to prior discourses. Whereas the types of intertextuality to be explored in this essay
 ‘If you’re gonna have a hit’ 231

involve forms of authorial intention not presupposed in the classic sense of intertex-
tual relations, my dependence upon this body of work is supported by – and to a
degree suggested by – an interesting and highly relevant essay by Serge Lacasse.2
Whereas references will be made to the entire history of rock, most examples in
this examination will be taken from vinyl sources. In an age of viral music-making by
which a recording artist can have any number of unknown freelance mash-up collab-
orators (often by design), at a time when a consumer’s search for a simple song
download results in point-of-sale offers of numerous quasi-documented and undif-
ferentiated versions of a targeted recording (easily resulting in the inadvertent pur-
chase of an unintended item), and with opportunities growing as unauthorised
releases are available to scholars as never before, it is a propitious time to review
the practices of past decades (generally, but not exclusively, those given to vinyl
pressings) to see how we arrived at this point. This article takes steps towards
such a review.
The creation of different mixes or edits of a recording for simultaneous
exposure in different markets, exemplified by ‘The Entertainer’, is but one type of
a condition that might be called intratextuality, whereby a network of differing
sonic products is traceable to a single source recording. Table 1 outlines the 10
major types of intratextuality that can lead to this condition; the Joel track falls
under Type 5 which, along with Type 4, forms the basis of the present article. To con-
textualise these intratextual techniques, one might consider them alongside broader
forms of pop-music intertextuality. These latter would include very closely related
types such as complete remakes required by lost master tapes or various contractual
issues (as with Little Richard’s Vee Jay remakes of Specialty originals), hits remade
after an artist joins a new band (The Great Society’s ‘White Rabbit’ redone by
Jefferson Airplane), live-vs.-concert and acoustic-vs.-electric versions of performances
(Bruce Springsteen’s ‘Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out’ and Bob Dylan’s ‘George Jackson’,
respectively), songs enjoying completely new conceptions years after their initial
reception (Ani DeFranco’s Canon), medleys (Spyder Turner’s ‘Stand By Me’), and
overdubs added to tracks originally created by deceased ‘ghost’ superstars (Natalie
Cole’s overdubs onto Nat King Cole’s ‘Unforgettable’). Also related are more dis-
tantly derivative categories such as radical recompositions under new titles, cover
versions, musical quotations and plagiarism, stylistic borrowing and (attributed or
suspected) model composition, sampling from one recording into another, and
homage forms such as the break-in, parody, follow-up, sequel and answer songs.3
(Of course, more ephemeral forms of multi-song reference exist, as in a listener’s link-
ing one song with another that had once appeared adjacent to it in an obsolete album
sequence, or in that listener’s holding even more personal associations extrinsic to
others’ experiences.)

Type 4. Differing mixes of the same edit

Stock, promo, rush, reissue and 12ʺ pressings
Before continuing with particulars about the simultaneous appearances of varied
mixes, I should define each of the different sorts of single 45-rpm pressings on
which they would appear. ‘Stock’ singles are those copies manufactured for both
jukebox play and home consumption. They are warehoused and retailed, either
232 Walter Everett

Table 1. Ten types of intratextuality in recorded popular music, classified as to original sources and the
alterations they undergo.

(1) Discarded preliminary mixes (such as those test pressings found on production acetates
now commanding a premium on the collector’s market) as compared to final, officially
released, mixes. Examples would include rejected mixes such as that of ‘Revolution 9’
appearing on the bootleg CD, Revolution, The Beatles (Yellow Dog).
(2) Advance singles rushed into the market sometimes months before an album has been
fully prepared and thus often missing overdubs found on the later releases or containing
parts later mixed out of standard releases. A representative example would be the
differing guitar solos in stereo mixes for single (charting 21 March 1970) and album (30
May 1970) releases of the Beatles’ ‘Let It Be’.
(3) Long album tracks divided into two parts (one for each side of a single). There is a long
history of ‘Part I’/‘Part II’ singles from Ray Charles’s ‘I Got a Woman’ (1955) through
many of James Brown’s hits in the 1960s and 1970s to a number of top-five disco singles in
the 1970s. At 8′47ʺ (it’s marked 8:40), Guns ’n’ Roses’ ‘November Rain’ (1992) is probably
the 7-inch single of longest uninterrupted duration to enter Billboard’s charts.
(4) Contrasting stereo-vs.-mono, demo-vs.-stock copy, and other concurrent releases of
differing mixes of the same edit.
(5) Differing edits (sometimes clever and useful, at other times unfortunate) of the same
recording, including expurgated versions, aimed at contrasting markets.
(6) Ultra-‘transparent’ mixes as in quadraphonic and 5.1 surround-sound formats, and
unauthorised releases of individual tracks from pre-master multi-track tapes. Quad mixes
sometimes end up as bonus tracks on CD reissues, as with ‘Wind Up’ appearing on Jethro
Tull’s Aqualung. Queen’s ‘You’re My Best Friend’ is given in 5.1 sound in the ‘30th
Anniversary Collector’s Edition’ of A Night at the Opera. The four individual multi-tracks
for each of four songs from the Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band appear
separately in the 2007 Phony Chick bootleg, Magical Mystery Year, Vol. 2.
(7) Contemporaneous remakes for release (such as instrumental backing tracks receiving
new sets of lyrics) and multiple-format dance mixes and dubs of various structures.
Examples of the first sub-type include the many regional lyrics given to Tommy
Facenda’s 1959 hit, ‘High School USA’, additions of foreign-language vocals to the same
backing tracks in hits by the Beatles (‘Komm, Gib Mir Deine Hand’) and Mary Hopkin
(‘Le Temps des Fleurs’, ‘Quelli Erano Giorni’), and Cream’s re-use of the instrumental
tracks recorded for ‘Lawdy Mama’ with new lyrics in ‘Strange Brew’. Dance dubs of the
1980s would be marketed in many simultaneous versions as remixed by Phil Kelsey,
Jellybean Benitez, Arthur Baker, Ben Grosse, Shep Pettibone and others.
(8) After-the-fact remakes by original artists. These would include such approaches as Frank
Zappa’s re-cut bass lines for many CD releases of early Mothers albums and Mark
Ronson’s 2007 ‘Re-Version’ of ‘Most Likely You Go Your Way (And I’ll Go Mine)’, which
puts a completely new instrumental accompaniment to Bob Dylan’s original vocal
recording.
(9) Recordings as adapted for promotional video and as appropriated by others for
exploitative quotation in television commercials, political campaigns, etc. These would
not include the ‘soundalike’ recordings made in attempts to circumvent licensing
restrictions, but rather such adaptations as often-spasmodic truncations of original
recordings.
(10) Collaborative mash-ups, authorised or not. Danger Mouse’s ‘Grey’ Album (which adds the
vocals of Jay-Z’s The Black Album to instrumental samples from the Beatles’ ‘White’ Album)
opened the floodgates in 2004, leading to the current practice of some artists releasing
individual tracks for consumers’ recombinations with other sources through
audio-editing software such as Cubase or Logic Pro.

through mass shipments to dedicated record stores, or distributed by rack-jobbers to

general outlets such as department stores.4 In some cases, stock copies would be
rush-released with a provisional label (see an example in Figure 2), but not to my
 ‘If you’re gonna have a hit’ 233

Figure 2. Vinyl single releases of ‘Dark Horse’. (a) Rush copy; (b) Stock copy. (The photo of the stock copy,
printed in very light blue, has been enhanced for both contrast and brightness.)

knowledge carrying any recording other than the one on the eventual hitbound
pressing. The label and dead wax would often carry the matrix number, which ident-
ified the master take documented as such on the studio log and tape box and given to
the lathe operator so the proper recording would be mass-produced.5
Sometimes the stock single would be distributed to radio station programme
directors for airplay but, more often, broadcasters would be given specially marked
promotional discs, known as promos, demos (‘demonstration’ discs) or DJ copies.
Promos are sometimes referred to as ‘white label’ copies, misleading in that their
labels were only sometimes white, and leading also to confusion with the plain
appearance of many rush copies. Some variation of ‘not for sale’ would be printed
or stamped on these DJ copies to make it clear that no gifts of value were exchanged
for programming promises. This was a response to the late-1950s ‘payola’ scandal in
which certain US record companies were found to have made undisclosed payments
to radio programme directors and on-air personalities for plugging their product.
These promotional discs frequently contained mixes and edits varying significantly
from those on stock releases which would often, in turn, differ from album mixes
of the same recording. One major reason for the difference was the fact that singles
almost always contained mono mixes as against the stereo mixes heard on most LPs,
until early 1968 when the Rascals’ ‘A Beautiful Morning’ and the Doors’ ‘Hello, I
Love You’ blazed the trail of stereo 45s. (AM radio, the primary outlet for top-40 pro-
motion, could only broadcast monophonically.) At times, stereo and mono mixes
would differ only in terms of relatively minor qualities such as compression and bal-
ance, whereas in other cases the mix would be substantially different. Also of interest
to collectors and researchers is the fact that poor-selling singles are sometimes very
hard to find in their stock format, even though DJ copies (normally with far fewer
copies having been pressed) are not always hard to come by. This is the situation
with such recordings as the Paul Winter Consort’s ‘Icarus’, an instrumental number
played unannounced by many radio stations as a bumper between programme seg-
ments, but a record that failed to break Billboard’s weekly ‘Hot 100’ chart (see
Figure 3). Another such instance is Ringo Starr’s ‘Drowning in the Sea of Love’, a
non-hit released by Atlantic in 1978. In this case, the company tried valiantly to
234 Walter Everett

Figure 3. Demo disc of ‘Icarus’.

promote the record so DJ copies are fairly abundant, but consumers were uninter-
ested so the few stock copies that made it to the marketplace were returned and
melted down, thereby becoming one of the scarcest pieces of Beatle vinyl offered
for general release. Similarly, one can find DJ copies of the Mothers of Invention’s
1966 single ‘Who Are the Brain Police’ for a price, but the stock copy eludes even
the most persistent collector. Usually, DJ discs would pair the same A- and B-sides
as on the stock copies (occasionally allowing the radio industry to overturn a record
company’s decision as to which side would be intended for broadcast, as was done
with Steam’s inadvertent 1969 hit, ‘Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye’) but, as the
same hits came to be played on both AM and FM stations by the late 1960s, promo
discs would tend to pair mono and stereo mixes, or short and long versions of the
same song.
Aside from stock, rush and DJ copies, one must also be aware of the reissue for-
mat. Once a hit dropped off the charts, it would become a candidate for re-release,
often in a back-to-back-hit arrangement that would pair two reissues (almost always
by the same artist) for the price of one. These reissues were usually re-pressings of the
hit single mixes, but alternatively they could establish the album version as the sub-
sequently uniformly marketed mix. Once a hit faded into memory, the dedicated pro-
motional mix was almost never heard again. Oldies were also heavily sold through
the 1970s as stock cutouts, signified by 0.4-cm diameter holes drilled through the
label identifying those discs as ones marked down as bargains and non-returnable
to the manufacturer. It might also be mentioned here that masters would be
owned by the original record company until sold, but that these recordings would
often be leased by indies and majors alike to outside parties, an arrangement particu-
larly prevalent with the scaling back of vinyl pressing in the 1990s. Third-party
reissues would usually be based on hit single masters until late into the 1980s,
when mono recordings all but disappeared from even the 7ʺ format (except in
cases where the mono master was the only one available). In at least one case, a
new edit was created for a reissue: the Doors’ ‘Light My Fire’ (1967) was a huge
hit on both FM and AM radio, the AM outlets playing the mono version (2:52)
that eliminated the organ and guitar solos heard on the FM-broadcast album
 ‘If you’re gonna have a hit’ 235

(6:50). When the track was reissued as an ‘oldies’ single in Elektra’s ‘Spun Gold’
series in 1971, two new stereo edits (one at 3:02 for the American reissue, the other
at 3:04 for Canadian release) were pressed into service, both deleting most of the
solo break and thus simulating a stereo version of the original hit. Additionally, lar-
gely with the emergence of disco, the mid-1970s brought the arrival of the 12ʺ single,
which would allow for extended mixes and even multiple versions on the same disc.

Mono-vs.-stereo mixes
Sometimes a single’s mono mix would be balanced differently from the stereo album.
In the Moody Blues’ ‘Another Morning’ (the 1968 B-side of ‘Tuesday Afternoon’), for
instance, the lead vocal is much louder in relation to the band for the 45 than it is for
the LP. As a similarly minor adjustment, promotional records would tend to feature
mixes whose dynamic range was highly compressed and whose signal was boosted
in midrange frequencies for more satisfactory AM broadcast, particularly in consider-
ation of low-quality reproduction and listening environments such as found with
hand-held and car radios. For this reason, the promo mix of Simon and
Garfunkel’s ‘Mrs. Robinson’ (1968) has a louder and punchier bass drum than is
heard in the stereo album mix, and the single pressing of Led Zeppelin’s
‘Immigrant Song’ (1970) is far more compressed and fills a narrower EQ band
than the version heard on the full-range album.
Somewhat more interesting are differences that distinguish mono from stereo
mixes of the same edit. Some producers, notably Phil Spector and Brian Wilson, pre-
ferred a monophonic product because they could exercise no control over the balance
of two stereo channels when reproduced from disc. In addition, portions of a stereo
program can be altered, sometimes to catastrophic effect, when a centered image is
partly or fully cancelled due to waveform phasing that results particularly in large
spaces when a listener is much closer to one loudspeaker than to the other. But stereo
did not become an industry standard until the late 1960s; George Martin often said
that the Beatles would not even be present for stereo mixing sessions through most of
their career. The group’s first album, Please Please Me, was recorded live on two tracks
in order to enable balancing of vocals against most of the instruments for the mono
release, resulting in an unsatisfying ‘stereo mix’ for a limited pressing that totally sep-
arated the two working tracks. The 1987 CD releases of Help! and Rubber Soul were
given new digital mixes to replace sub-standard stereo mixes originally done in 1965.
When their recordings were first prepared for American release, not only were Beatle
albums compiled with different songs from those found on their UK counterparts,
and not only were they given a great deal of added reverb (so as to satisfy a different
taste from that characteristic of British listeners), but Dave Dexter, EMI’s Hollywood
producer, created ‘duophonic’ stereo mixes by artificially separating new channels
from monophonic sources by frequency band, making for a high channel and a low
channel. This abysmal presentation was characteristic of most of the Beatles’ early
‘stereo’ albums on Capitol (see Spizer 2000, 245–54).
Aside from earlier effects such as motorcycles crossing the soundstage, stereo
experimentation began in 1966 with Tom Dowd’s work for Atlantic with the
Young Rascals, notably in the ‘One! Two! Three!’ count-in to ‘Good Lovin’’, which
criss-crossed the two-channel divide in rapid fire motion.6 This sort of stereo effect
emerged just in time to encourage all sorts of trippy psychedelic effects (including
236 Walter Everett

phasing, Leslie speakers, exotic filtering and tremolo) for headphone-inspiring artists
such as Jimi Hendrix, the Moody Blues and Led Zeppelin. Panning quickly became a
hallmark of drum-set mixing; by 1969 (see the Beatles’ ‘The End’ and Blood, Sweat &
Tears’ ‘And When I Die’), multiple microphones were required to best capture a
drummer’s work, and the resulting individual sonorities would be bussed7 to differ-
ent placements in the stereo image. This approach to drums became an industry stan-
dard, so that even tracks like Boney M’s ‘Ma Baker’ (1977) feature highly panned
drums on the ‘Remix I’ CD but not at all on the original stereo 45.
Digital remixes of older product often feature newly panned elements. This takes
advantage of the fact that automated mixing need not be done in real time; all elements
of the mix can be programmed in any order following lots of experimentation, whereas
the final mix made in analogue mastering would have to be performed live, all hands
working the pots, faders and switches as the tape spooled by – often requiring many
rehearsal takes to get a complex mix just right. Digital remastering thus features far
more varied approaches to the stereo image than did earlier mixes, whether the pro-
gramme is as conservative as the Carpenters’ ‘We’ve Only Just Begun’ (1970; note
the newly sparkling high-register piano work, the louder bass, the gradual fading-
down of the piano, and the altered clarinet and piano staging in the 1991 revision)
or as radical as Megadeth’s ‘Remixed and Remastered’ series (2002+, with wonderful
critical notes by Dave Mustaine). All-new transparency is bestowed on old recordings
by 5.1 surround sound, as with the 1999 Yellow Submarine Songtrack mixes made for a
wide array of Beatle songs.

Muting and other remixing effects

Of still potentially greater interest are variants in muting. In the final composition of
a 4-, 8- or 16-track working tape that may have been built up with layer upon layer of
overdubs by any number of performers, many components may be captured here
and there that are later chosen for exclusion from released mixes. This is not done
by erasing the passages in the working tape, but by preventing their transfer to
the final mix by zeroing the fader for that given track at the desired moment during
the reduction of the working tape to the one- or two-channel master. It is this process
that allows two different guitar solos in the two different stereo mixes of the Beatles’
‘Let It Be’: one for the 45 (currently part of Past Masters) and the other for the album
(Let It Be). The 8-track working tape of ‘Let It Be’ contains alternate solos from both
George Harrison (coloured by his Leslie cabinet) and John Lennon; only the former
was mixed into the single, and only the latter appeared on the album.
The edited mono 45 mix (3:13) of the Grateful Dead’s ‘Truckin’’ (1970) has
completely different lead guitar work by Jerry Garcia from that heard in the
same take’s appearance (at 5:09) a year later on American Beauty; this is more likely
the result of the muting of different tracks in a mix than of a later recording repla-
cing an earlier one. In the Beatles’ ‘I’m Only Sleeping’ (1966), the mono and stereo
mixes feature different portions of the working tape track devoted to backwards
guitar, because different passages were muted out for each mix. Also note how
the mono mix of the Rolling Stones’ ‘Time Is On My Side’ (1964) features a bent-
string guitar intro by Brian Jones that is muted out of the stereo intro.
Alternative guitar solos can be heard in Deep Purple’s ‘Smoke on the Water’
(1973), as elements of the 16-track working tape are laid bare in Roger Glover’s
 ‘If you’re gonna have a hit’ 237

1998 remastering of Machine Head.8 One astounding pair of mixes is that for the
Moody Blues’ ‘Question’ (1970), whose single version opens with solo diminished-
seventh chords on an acoustic 12-string, all obscured by Mellotron and other band
parts which spell the chords differently on the album mix. Muting allows for a mas-
sive edit in the case of the 45 ‘Total Mass Retain’, the advance single (charting
August 1972, with a timing of 3:16) for Yes’s Close to the Edge LP (October 1972,
taken from a sidelong suite at 18:50). The single mix jumps from the album’s open-
ing ‘rainforest’ effects to the line ‘I get up’ through a transitional use of the phrase
‘Seasons will pass you by’, which phrase lacks the vocals heard on the album. The
album’s vocal parts are muted out of the transition, allowing the single something
of a fresh start.
Muting can cover a multitude of sins. The original mono mix of the
Buckinghams’ ‘Kind of a Drag’ (1966) was not marred by the rhythmically flabby
and intonationally sharp trumpet solo that engineers neglected to mute out of
the stereo mix. Early expurgated censorings would simply mute out offending
words, such as the ‘Goddamn’ that does not appear in the stock single of the
Grateful Dead’s ‘Uncle John’s Band’ (1970). Radio stations had to take it upon
themselves to bleep out the hook-carrying ‘Christ!’ expletive in the Beatles’ ‘The
Ballad of John and Yoko’ (1969). The Steve Miller Band’s ‘Jet Airliner’ (1977) was
an early and quaintly mild example of a band producing tacit ‘clean’ and ‘explicit’
versions of the same take; where the album version sang of ‘funky shit goin’ down
in the city’, the hit single was a bit more incongruous (and laughable) in celebrating
‘funky kicks goin’ down in the city’. Sometimes muting produces other sorts of
minor variants, as when Janis Joplin’s vocal is heard double-tracked on the 45
but sole-voiced in stereo in Big Brother and the Holding Co.’s ‘Down On Me’
(1968). Those familiar with the stereo stock-single version of the Doors’ ‘Touch
Me’ (1969), or its mono promo as played on the radio, were surprised to hear
Ajax cleanser’s advertising catchphrase ‘Stronger Than Dirt’ intoned at the end of
the stereo mix for The Soft Parade, as these words had been muted from the well-
known hit mixes.
In some cases, wholesale remixes produced muting variations among a host of
other differences. The Grateful Dead’s albums Anthem of the Sun (1968) and
Aoxomoxoa (1969) were highly experimental blends of unconventional studio and
live concert recordings; the simultaneous use of two full drum sets was small pota-
toes among the challenges faced. Only years after the records’ initial release did
band members and engineers have a strong sense of a desired texture, so both
albums were remixed in 1971, reducing the status of the previous stereo mixes to
that of archival artefacts. Nilsson’s 1971 album, Aerial Pandemonium Ballet,
reworked the mixes of selections from his first two albums, Pandemonium Shadow
Show and Aerial Ballet. It became fashionable in the 1980s to mark singles as contain-
ing mixes not heard elsewhere; borrowing from the dance-mix tradition, main-
stream artists such as Billy Joel (‘Keeping the Faith [Special Mix]’, 1985 and ‘All
About Soul [Remix]’, 1993) would frequently release singles with instrumental
parts not heard in the better known album versions. And later mixes could also
satisfy a scholarly curiosity, as when the vocal parts of the Beach Boys’
‘Wouldn’t It Be Nice’ (on a 1996 three-selection EP from Sub Pop) or the Beatles’
‘Because’ (Anthology 3, 1996) would appear without the distractions of the muted
instrumental backing, a technique predictive of such future made-for-remixing a
cappella productions as Jay-Z’s Black Album (2003).
238 Walter Everett

Type 5. Differing edits of the same recording

Whereas varying mixes of the same recording can lead to strong intratextual con-
trasts, greater variations are provided by differing edits, particularly those pressed
on tightly constrained singles as opposed to more forgiving albums. Passages ran-
ging in length from isolated sonorities to multiple formal sections could be excised.
Many cuts were made to tame an album-length song for the radio-friendly confines
of three minutes or less, or to mark improvisatory instrumental passages as
extraneous; the scalpel might reduce excess effectively or inflict real damage.9 And
the need to adapt programmes to physical limitations was one that vexed early
record producers, beginning with attempts to capture symphonic works on multiple
sides of 78s (the binding together of multiple discs in a unified package leading to the
designation ‘album’). Both of these issues – limitations of both physical and market-
ing formats – came together in at least one 1954 release, the Listener’s Digest of con-
densed classical recordings in a 10-EP set which presented edited versions of
Beethoven, Brahms and Tchaikovsky for the listener who did not need development
sections.10

Edits to the coda

I will classify and discuss recording edits as to what portions of a composition may
be excised or altered, beginning with more ‘exterior’ passages, the coda and the intro,
moving then to more essential parts of songs. Many codas involve a refrain that may
be repeated nine times or more. Usually, if one mix fades earlier than the other, the
shorter version belongs to the single, the longer one to the album. This is true of such
songs as Bob Dylan’s ‘Like a Rolling Stone’ (1965; the single is marked 6:00 but is
actually about 5:55), the Association’s ‘Never My Love’ (1967), the Who’s ‘I Can
See For Miles’ (1967) and the Small Faces’ ‘Itchycoo Park’ (1967). But the
Supremes’ ‘You Can’t Hurry Love’ (1966) and Glen Campbell’s ‘Wichita Lineman’
(1968) reverse this norm, with longer single fades than heard on the albums. At
least one such variation was produced many years after the fact: although the
Beatles’ ‘Hey Jude’ (1968) appeared at 7:11 in both original mono single and stereo
album mixes, this song’s mantra-like coda was shaved down by more than two min-
utes to fit the Beatles’ biggest hit, now 5:05, onto the 1982 compilation, 20 Greatest
Hits. Santana’s ‘Evil Ways’ (1970) was faded out by Columbia’s engineers halfway
through the album’s song-ending guitar solo, paring 3:17 down to the single’s
2:35. Some coda cuts were made for promo versions; the Moog conclusion to
Emerson, Lake & Palmer’s ‘Lucky Man’ (1971) is cut completely from the DJ copy
(marked ‘short version’; see Figure 4), appearing as 4:36 on the mono stock single
and 3:33 on the promo. The single version of ELP’s ‘Nutrocker’ (1972) could have
been reduced in any number of ways from the album edit, which threads together
three blues choruses, a half-minute drum solo and other repeated passages; but it
is intact except for the removal of 40 seconds of crowd roaring from the end.
Oddly, the single mix (3:58) of Steely Dan’s ‘Rikki Don’t Lose That Number’
(1974) fades the outro just a few seconds prior to the LP’s cold ending (at 4:07).
Was this to give the radio announcer a heads-up and the bed for a voice-over?
These very commonly differing versions are produced not with hard edits (butt
splices) but with differently timed manipulations of pan pots or sliding faders on the
mixing board. However, some singles did require edits for different endings: the
 ‘If you’re gonna have a hit’ 239

Figure 4. Single releases of ‘Lucky Man’. (a) Mono side of promo (white); (b) Stereo side of promo (light
blue); (c) Longer stock copy (note relatively early matrix number as compared to promos).

Rolling Stones’ ‘Dandelion’ and the Rascals’ ‘It’s Wonderful’, both from 1967, are
examples. ‘Dandelion’ fades out only to be followed by a brief snippet of the
single’s B-side, ‘We Love You’, which briefly fades in and out. When the record
is flipped, the conclusion of ‘We Love You’ is answered by a fading-in and -out
of a moment of ‘Dandelion’. (These mixes are both responses to the Beatles’ fading
out-and-in-and-out a few months earlier at the end of ‘Strawberry Fields Forever’.)
The Rascals single omits a 40-second free-for-all of sound effects, party horns and
kazoos preserved on the album, Once Upon a Dream.11 Whereas Fleetwood Mac
single versions of ‘Over My Head’ (1975), ‘Rhiannon (Will You Ever Win)’ (1976)
and ‘Say You Love Me’ (1976) all fade more quickly than do their album mixes,
that of ‘Rhiannon’ excises only the beginning of the outro, so as to preserve Stevie
Nicks’s vocal improv at the end. Similarly creative splicing reduces the ending of
Boston’s ‘Peace of Mind’ (1977), taking 4:55 down to 3:38. The single of Kansas’
‘Carry On Wayward Son’ (1976) is however hurt by the removal of the coda’s guitar
solo (as well as parts of the intro, the interlude between the first chorus and second
verse, half of the distorted guitar/organ-solo break and half of the main riff), as the
track is cut from 5:13 to 3:26. No lyrics were harmed during the making of this
single.
240 Walter Everett

The crossfade
More difficult for an engineer to adjust is the pair of tracks joined by an album’s
crossfade, when one of the pair is chosen for a single. Thus, the acoustic-guitar
intro to the Beatles’ ‘A Day In the Life’ was trimmed for a 1978 single release, because
the recording was taken from the stereo master for Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club
Band (on which source the song enters via crossfade from the reprise of the title
track), rather than having been remixed from the 4-track working tape, which pro-
cedure was performed for the 2006 LOVE remix. Similarly, the crossfaded tracks in
the Moody Blues’ Days of Future Passed (1968) led to issues when ‘Nights In White
Satin’, ‘Tuesday Afternoon (Forever Afternoon)’, and ‘Another Morning’ were
selected as singles from the album. Each new mix abruptly avoids orchestral tran-
sitions that were mastered with crossfades for the album. ‘Tuesday’ fares particularly
badly, fading out prematurely on the chorus’s half cadence. Oddly, the single mix of
The Who’s ‘Overture to Tommy’ (1969) fades out about 10 seconds into the album’s
acoustic guitar preparation for ‘Captain Walker’, instead of ending cold, which could
have been easily achieved by remastering from the original working tape. Yes’s
‘Long Distance Runaround’ (1972) is edited for the single with a new cold ending,
whereas the album, Fragile, has this song crossfade into ‘The Fish (Schindleria
Praematurus)’. In each of these cases, all appearing long before the dawn of digital
mixing, it was probably thought that the hard-won stereo album mix could not be
satisfactorily simulated with a new attempt, so there was no desire to return to the
working tapes simply to avoid crossfades that could be trimmed away, even if the
single edit was left with an awkward beginning or ending.

Cuts to the intro and interior passages

The beginning of an album’s mix often had to be trimmed for the single; the opposite
was much more rare. Table 2 indicates the wide variety of approaches taken in such
cases. As for excisions of interior material, this could happen in the case of removals
of words and phrases, or whole sections such as verses, choruses, bridges or instru-
mental solos, as evidenced in Billy Joel’s ‘The Entertainer’. A most bizarre instance of
the removal of two words exists in a 1970s Brazilian reissue of the Beatles’ ‘Penny
Lane’. Only this pressing excises the phrase ‘in summer’ by splicing directly from
‘four of fish and finger pies’ to ‘meanwhile back . . .’. Conceivably the result of a
tape defect, the blip might rather have been caused by local EMI executives having
gotten wind of an offending vulgarism at this point in the song, and their tape oper-
ator then mistakenly removing ‘in summer’ instead of ‘finger pies’12 (see Figure 5).
Other anomalous Beatle edits are of interest, such as ‘She’s Leaving Home’ (1967).
All releases of this song omit a single bar of solo cello originally performed just
before each returning verse, a recurring edit revealed by the bootleg release of the
recording’s working tracks in Magical Mystery Year Vol. 2.13 In ‘I’ll Cry Instead’
(1964), two different mono edits (with durations of 1:43 on the American mono
release of Something New and 2:04 on the British mono version of A Hard Day’s
Night) were released, each cobbled together from the beginnings and endings of
different takes. The two versions’ splices occur at different structural points in the
song, the fourth verse (a repeat of the first) variously present or absent. Later
examples of excised song sections include Chic’s ‘Le Freak’ (1978, a 5:28 version
including choruses not heard in the 3:30 edit), David Bowie’s ‘China Girl’ (1983,
 ‘If you’re gonna have a hit’ 241

Table 2. Various approaches taken to the trimming of a recording’s introduction.

Bobby Lewis, ‘Tossin’ and Turnin’’ (1961) [stereo edit has a slow, unmeasured intro, ‘Baby,
baby, you did something to me’, excised from the mono single mix]
Herb Alpert & The Tijuana Brass, ‘The Lonely Bull (El Solo Torro)’ (1962) [album’s opening
bullring effects are trimmed away for the single]
The Rolling Stones, ‘She’s a Rainbow’ (1967) [album mix opens with 1′08ʺ of ‘We Wish You a
Merry Christmas’ played on two oscillators, and then a spoken szena, all cut from the single]
The Amboy Dukes, ‘Journey to the Center of Your Mind’ (1968) [introductory rhythm guitar
figuration is cut from 13 seconds to 4, then the lead guitar’s repeated gesture is cut to a single
iteration, for an economical edit]
Big Brother & The Holding Company, ‘Piece of My Heart’ (1968) [single splices out bars 4–5 of
the intro, rewriting the introductory gesture]
The Guess Who, ‘American Woman’ (1970) [single omits the album’s opening acoustic-guitar
boogie on ‘American Woman, gonna mess your mind’; album version sounds like an artificial
joining of an early acoustic demo to the final master]
Emerson, Lake & Palmer, ‘From the Beginning’ (1972) [single cuts the album’s opening acoustic
guitar’s tastar de corde, even though it retains the later expansive electric-guitar and Moog
solos]
B.T. Express, ‘Express’ (1975) [single cuts an entire early section from the album version,
reducing 5′00ʺ to 3′25ʺ]
Dire Straits, ‘Money for Nothing’ (1985) [single cuts 1′01ʺ from the intro by fading into the last of
the album edit’s four hearings of ‘I want my MTV’]

the 5:32 album version containing a last verse/chorus combination and a second gui-
tar solo cut from the 4:14 hit) and the Rolling Stones’ ‘Saint of Me’ (1998, the 4:08
single edit bypassing a second bridge included in the 5:14 album cut as well as fading
a full minute earlier). When different edits of simultaneously released versions omit
one section or another, the first verse seems to be sacrosanct, later parts expendable.

Excised instrumental passages

When different edits are marketed to different audiences, instrumental-only passages
are the interior sections that drop most often by far to the cutting room floor. Perhaps
out of fear of boredom, perhaps simply as a time-conscious expedient or perhaps in
recognition of the fantasia quality that parenthesises the sometimes lofty achieve-
ments of an improvisatory soloist, this apparently ‘optional’ passage is frequently
the major difference between commercial radio and consumer album edits. Just as
some fans prefer the risky spontaneity of a live performance over the safe and clinical
sheen of a studio production, fans and critics alike will typically deride the excision
of any instrumental improvisation, whether exquisite or vapid, particularly because
for many in the album buying market, the song itself (lyrics, verses, choruses) is often
little more than a vehicle for a transfigurative solo. Table 3 lists a representative
sampling of recordings in which instrumental sections may or may not appear in
intratextual edits.

Recordings featuring multiple edits

A substantial proportion of records were released with versions containing or omit-
ting combinations of the approaches discussed above. Table 4 presents a sampling of
242 Walter Everett

Figure 5. Single releases of ‘Penny Lane’. (a) Brazilian reissue (late 1970s?); (b) Original Peruvian
stock copy; (c) US promo disc (note 3:00 timing); (d) US stock copy (truncated timing reflects lack of
trumpet tag).

these; a few will be discussed here but others are listed without comment, leaving it
to the reader to discover the nature of the edits. Note that Jimi Hendrix’s name does
not appear here. This is no oversight; Hendrix’s singles (including ‘Purple Haze’,
‘Foxey Lady’, ‘Up From the Skies’, ‘All Along the Watchtower’, ‘Crosstown
Traffic’, ‘Freedom’ and ‘Dolly Dagger’) were produced with the hit market in
mind and added unchanged to albums that would also include more expansive
tracks. Led Zeppelin singles (‘Living Loving Maid’, ‘Black Dog’ and ‘Rock and
Roll’ among them) were also typically identical to album edits. David Bowie, on
the other hand (as in ‘Young Americans’, ‘TVC-15’, ‘Let’s Dance’ and ‘Modern
Love’), would often appear on singles lacking multiple sections that were retained
on albums.
Some of the listed edits are straightforward; that of ‘House of the Rising Sun’
cuts one verse and the beginning and ending of the organ solo (exhibiting rather
poor splicing); and, as if desperate to clock in under three minutes, the organ
fades out just seconds before the now more familiar cold ending on the ninth
chord. ‘Just Like a Woman’ excises the verse referring to ‘her fog, her amphetamine
and her pearls’, but ‘Truckin’’ keeps a verse that includes the line, ‘living on reds,
 ‘If you’re gonna have a hit’ 243

Table 3. A selection of recordings released in forms both with and without instrumental passages.

Donovan, ‘Sunshine Superman’ (1966) [an early blues-rock guitar solo by Jimmy Page is
reduced from 29 seconds to 11 in original album and single releases (3:15), but restored for a
1968 reissue (4:31) that also retains a once-lost repeated verse]
The Doors, ‘Light My Fire’ (1967) [discussed above]
The Buckinghams, ‘Susan’ (1967) [DJ copy removes appropriated snippets of Varèse heard on
stock single and album]
Tommy James & the Shondells, ‘Crimson and Clover’ (1968) [single includes bass passage not
heard on LP but omits the pedal steel solo and what one friend would refer to as the ‘goat
gland’ guitar solo, so named for its heavy wah]
Led Zeppelin, ‘Whole Lotta Love’ (1969) [promo issued with ‘Short Version’ (3:12) and ‘Long
Version’ (5:33), the pick-scraping guitar solo being the main difference]
Chicago, ‘Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is’ (1970) [single omits album’s piano solo]
Santana, ‘Oye Como Va’ (1971) [single (2:59) cuts three of the album’s (4:17) contiguous interior
instrumental sections including a wild Hammond solo, but keeps Carlos Santana’s work
intact]
Deodato, ‘Also Sprach Zarathustra’ (1973) [single (5:06) cuts all of Clarke’s bass solo and most of
Deodato’s Wurlitzer and Tropea’s guitar solos heard on the album (9:01)]
The Grateful Dead, ‘Sugar Magnolia’ (1973) [single is an edited version of the May 1972
Olympia Theatre performance, greatly shortening Jerry’s lead solo preserved in Europe ’72]
Pink Floyd, ‘Money’ (1973) [cuts first and third guitar solos as well as the album’s spoken
conversational loops]
The Trammps, ‘That’s Where the Happy People Go’ (1976) [stock single features both short and
long versions at 3:14 and 4:56, omitting the first three electric piano breaks and the first
violin-section break on the A-side]
Steely Dan, ‘Deacon Blues’ (1978) [both stock and promo discs run 6:40, cutting the first 10 bars
of the tenor sax solo and the first 16 bars of the instrumental coda as heard on the LP (7:33)]
Donna Summer, ‘Last Dance’ (1978) [single cuts two different instrumental breaks]
The Knack, ‘My Sharona’ (1979) [Collectables reissue 45 pairs original single edit (3:58) with the
album mix (4:52); short version keeps entire 23-second long minor-pentatonic guitar solo but
cuts 53 seconds from the later 1′34ʺ major-mode guitar solo]
Herbie Hancock, ‘Rockit’ (1983) [‘Instant Classics’ reissue 45 pairs 3:54 single mix with 5:22
album version, the latter containing two successive instrumental choruses of the main tune
not heard on the single]

vitamin C and cocaine’, cutting instead two other verses, two choruses and a bridge. In
‘White Room’, Clapton’s mercuric solo is cut by a half-minute, adding insult to the loss
of the third verse (‘At the party . . .’), the following chorus (‘I’ll sleep in this place . . .’)
and the ensuing 5/4 tattoo of violas, guitars and timpani.14 In ‘You Can’t Always Get
What You Want’, the single omits the opening boys’ choir among other sections. Jim
Gordon’s name as co-songwriter is retained on the original ‘Layla’ single, even though
his contribution, the instrumental coda, does not appear on that disc; it was reinstated
for the 1972 single re-release. It’s interesting that the 1971 single, featuring only
Clapton’s portion of the composition, stalled at #51 on the Billboard charts, whereas
the full, epiphanal Clapton–Gordon edit rose to #10 14 months later. Dramatic vign-
ettes based on wrongful street arrests are cut from both ‘Living for the City’ and
‘The Message’, lending these singles the quality of pale reminiscences of the significant
corresponding album versions.
More problematic are records that feature structural recompositions of long
suite-like songs. On Days of Future Passed, ‘Tuesday Afternoon’ is essentially two
songs (the second of which might be called ‘Evening Time to Get Away’) bridged
244 Walter Everett

Table 4. A selection of recordings with multiple edits.

The Animals, ‘House of the Rising Sun’ (1964) [original mono single and reprocessed ‘stereo’ LP
both 2:58; reissue MGM Gold single 4:29, not 4:18 as marked on Best Of LP]
Bob Dylan, ‘Just Like a Woman’ (1966) [2:56 on stock single, 4:39 on first compact-disc release of
Blonde on Blonde, 4:54 on Greatest Hits CD]
Cream, ‘Sunshine of Your Love’ (1968) [3:03 on single, 4:08 on LP]
The Moody Blues, ‘Tuesday Afternoon (Forever Afternoon)’ (1968) [2:16 on single, 8:25 on LP]
The Chambers Brothers, ‘Time Has Come Today’ (1968) [4:45 on single, 11:06 on LP]
Iron Butterfly, ‘In-a-Gadda-Da-Vida’ (1968) [2:52 on single, 17:05 on LP]
Cream, ‘White Room’ (1968) [3:04 on single, 4:56 on LP]
The Rolling Stones, ‘You Can’t Always Get What You Want’ (1969) [5:00 on single, 7:28 on LP]
Crosby, Stills & Nash, ‘Suite: Judy Blue Eyes’ (1969) [4:35 on single, 7:22 on LP]
Chicago, ‘Make Me Smile’ (1970) [2:58 on single, 3:32 on LP]
The Who, ‘See Me Feel Me’ (1970) [3:22 on single, 7:09 on LP]
Derek and The Dominoes, ‘Layla’ (1971) [2:43 on 1971 single, 2:52 on ‘Radio Version’ Crossroads
EP, 7:10 on original LP and 1972 re-released single, At His Best LP marked 7:01 but same mix
as on previous album]
The Who, ‘Won’t Get Fooled Again’ (1971) [3:37 on single, 8:31 on LP]
The Grateful Dead, ‘Truckin’ (1971) [3:13 on single, 5:09 on LP]
Yes, ‘Roundabout’ (1972) [3:27 on single, 8:29 on LP]
The Allman Brothers, ‘One Way Out’ (1972) [3:40 on single, 4:58 on LP]
Deep Purple, ‘Smoke On the Water’ (1973) [‘edited version’ and B-side of single are actually
different recordings of same song]
Aerosmith, ‘Dream On’ (1973) [3:25 on original single, 4:28 on 1976 re-released single]
Stevie Wonder, ‘Living for the City’ (1973) [3:12 on single, 7:20 on LP]
David Bowie, ‘Rebel Rebel’ (1974) [2:58 on single, LP marked 4:21 but actually 4:28]
Gloria Gaynor, ‘Never Can Say Goodbye’ (1974) [2:55 on single, 6:28 on LP, 5:00 on 12”]
David Bowie, ‘Young Americans’ (1975) [3:11 on single, 5:10 on LP]
10 cc, ‘I’m Not In Love’ (1975) [3:46 on single, 6:01 on LP]
Boston, ‘More Than a Feeling’ (1976) [3:25 on single, 4:44 on LP]
Eric Clapton, ‘Wonderful Tonight’ (1978) [3:13 on single, 3:41 on LP]
Bob Dylan, ‘Baby Stop Crying’ (1978) [4:17 and 5:17 edits on promo]
Donna Summer, ‘MacArthur Park’ (1978) [3:59 stock single, 6:25 promo [!]]
Fleetwood Mac, ‘Sara’ (1979) [4:37 on single, 6:26 on LP]
Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five, ‘The Message’ (1982) [4:30 on single, 7:02 and 6:35 edits
on 12”, 4:33 and 3:15 on French pressing, 7:12 on CD]

by an orchestral transition. The single fades out before the first section is completed.
The single edit of ‘Make Me Smile’ bypasses five of the album’s seven continuous
suite parts, one of which, ‘Colour My World’, is extracted for the hit’s B-side. ‘See
Me Feel Me’ (a song title given on the 45 but not on the Tommy LP or CD) is further
described on the 7ʺ label thus: ‘Excerpt from the TOMMY Finale We’re Not Gonna
Take It’. The single skips all of the ‘Welcome to the Camp’ and ‘Hey you gettin’
drunk’ verses, the following chorus, the ‘Now you can’t hear me’ verse and another
chorus, completely transforming the finale’s identity by eliminating much of the
tension between Tommy and his followers. Donna Summer’s cover of
‘MacArthur Park’ has a majestic, slow-build-to-big-finish character in its radio ver-
sion, but loses all but a few chords of its intro, two lines of the first verse (‘between
the parted pages and were pressed’ vanishes!), most of a fantasia and the second
subject to which it had led, and a chorus. In all of these cases, the differing edits
can be considered not only as conforming to different market expectations, but
as radical rewrites.
 ‘If you’re gonna have a hit’ 245

‘Suite: Judy Blue Eyes’, comprising a multi-section form at 7:22 on the album,
retains its basic structure in a 4:35 single that remains wide ranging and is surpris-
ingly acceptable despite its five isolated excisions: second verse (‘Remember what
we’ve said . . .’) and its refrain, all of the third verse (‘Something inside . . .’), the
second B section (‘I’ve got an answer . . .’), the second half of the modal guitar solo
and the ‘Lacy lilting lady’ section, splicing directly from ‘How can you catch the spar-
row?’ into the guitar duet that ushers in the Spanish coda. The 45 is a listenable
recording (because entire sections, rather than parts of phrases, are cut), but one
that loses much of the brilliance of Stills’ emotional exposure. Less successful is the
single version of ‘Sunshine of Your Love’, a violent butchering that saves only just
over a minute in duration. The engineers here are intent on chopping each guitar/
bass lick in half through the intro and following each of the three verses, grounding
the proportions that soar on the album cut. Most of the guitar solo is discarded, as is
the riff introducing the third verse (‘I’m with you, my love . . .’). It also fades a few
seconds early, but few would notice this loss. The single version of Yes’s
‘Roundabout’ skips Howe’s unmeasured 40-second-long harmonic-laden nylon-
string tastar de corde opening and one of the two hearings of the funky intro. It
then cuts from the end of the second subject (‘In and around the lake . . .’) to the
end of the Hammond solo; the remainder is presented uncut. The song’s monumen-
tal interior, including unique presentations of strong passages, is eviscerated, and yet
the edit works surprisingly well as a single, due to the original track’s astounding
variety of tunes, rhythms and colours.
I would like to close by mentioning four projects in which editors have created
a large number of versions from a single source. First is Jethro Tull’s A Passion Play
(1973). Despite its identity as an indivisible, free-form, full-length magnum opus (as
was its predecessor, Thick As a Brick), Tull’s management and record executives
sought to have segments of it become known as parts of the larger whole. After
all, the album, with uninterrupted sides running 23:07 and 22:04, was not radio
friendly; even the side-flip broke continuity. Therefore, the album was promoted
with two singles. The lead single contained two excerpts, ‘A Passion Play (Edit
#8)’ (3:04) backed with ‘A Passion Play (Edit #9)’ (3:29). ‘[Edit #10]’ was released as
a follow-up four months later; neither single sold well (‘#8’ peaked at #80; ‘#10’
only bubbled under the ‘Hot 100’), but Chrysalis Records mounted a strong effort
in another unusual way to have bits of the work recognised as excerpts. As might
be guessed by the singles’ numerative titles, these edits were not the only ones to
appear: Chrysalis manufactured a unique 12ʺ promo LP featuring 10 different
excerpts from the album, ranging in length from 2′15ʺ to 4′58ʺ (see Figure 6). Some
of the edits are all-instrumental, some include vocals. Some are oddly conceived:
‘Edit #3’ opens abruptly and ‘#2’ fades out just before an obvious cadence.
Strangely, the album’s lead single (the ‘Colours like none . . .’ section from the LP’s
second side) appears on M.U. – The Best of Jethro Tull with a timing of 3:29 – thus,
there are two extant edits of ‘Edit #8’, this second version including a synth solo
abridged on the single!15 Radio programmers and singles buyers paid little attention
to this material, but the album sold remarkably well – in the US, Thick as a Brick and
A Passion Play were Tull’s only two albums to top Billboard’s Top LP chart.
A second item of interest is Mike Oldfield’s Tubular Bells. This 1974 title, initially
well known as the source of the instrumental film theme from The Exorcist, appeared
in numerous guises. A heavy layering of overdubs that put multi-track tape through
tougher paces than would even Walter Carlos or Tomita, Bells was sold through a
246 Walter Everett

Figure 6. Selected vinyl releases of A Passion Play. (a) Side One of LP; (b) A-side of stock copy of lead
single; (c) Side II of DJ album.

stock single of 3:18 (the static, minimalist ‘Georgetown’ theme based on a 15-beat pat-
tern in A Aeolian), the edit also appearing on the soundtrack LP, and through
Oldfield’s unified-composition Tubular Bells album (whose first-side finale announces
the entry of each layer: ‘grand piano . . . reed and pipe organ . . . glockenspiel . . . bass
guitar . . . double-speed guitar . . . two slightly distorted guitars . . . mandolin . . .
Spanish guitar and introducing acoustic guitar . . . plus, tubular bells’, a passage
taken for the single’s 4:39 B-side). The original promo comprises two other excerpts:
‘Long Version’ (7:30) and ‘Short Version’ (4:39), both taken from the first-side finale
section. Despite Oldfield’s having produced other memorable music, Tubular Bells
has grown from a multiple-edit franchise recording into a highly derivative cottage
industry: we have highly similar approaches in Oldfield’s The Orchestral Tubular
Bells (1975, recapping the original tunes and adding new material), Tubular Bells 2
(1992), Tubular Bells III (1998) and a live DVD (2006).
Meat Loaf’s ‘Paradise By the Dashboard Light’ (1978) was essentially an oratorio
based on the story of 17-year-olds making out in a parked car, arranged in three sec-
tions – ‘Paradise’, ‘Let Me Sleep On It’ and ‘Praying for the End of Time’ – that formed
a dramatic highlight on the Todd Rundgren-produced album, Bat Out of Hell. The LP
 ‘If you’re gonna have a hit’ 247

version ran to 8′28ʺ, judged to be a bit too long for a single, so a 7′55ʺ version was cre-
ated that fades out early in the boy–girl ‘End of Time’ duet. But radio stations were
also given a 12ʺ promo disc providing, in a fit of overkill, three edits of the song:
the 7:55 hit and two different versions running 6′58ʺ each. The first of this last pair
removes the initial ‘Let Me Sleep On It’ duet, fading out a few lines before the 7:55
edit, and the other cuts Phil Rizzuto’s risqué play-by-play as well as most of the com-
position’s climax. Really, there is no useful purpose to any of these edits – just play the
8:28 version, already!
Finally, we turn to Sugarhill Gang’s ‘Rapper’s Delight’ (1979), an alternation of
unrelated raps ranging from braggadoccio to snide anecdotes from Wonder Mike,
Big Hank and Master ‘G’, each taking several turns. A 15′00ʺ version appearing on
a 12ʺ single might be considered the master, as each artist appears three times in
turn, and from that we have a stock single at 4:55, a French 45 coupling ‘Short
Version’ (3:59) with ‘Long Version’ (6:33) and a second ‘Short Version’ (6:30) backing
the 15′00ʺ ‘master’. The edits present different combinations of sections and parts
of sections, occasionally reordered. This track is very appropriately drawn and
quartered in different ways, as its material comes across as a random sequence of
unrelated events.
Our survey of the various methods behind the mixes and edits of pop and rock
recordings just scratches the surface of a topic that promises to yield productive results
when the work of particular artists, producers, engineers, songwriters, record compa-
nies, studios, distribution media, styles and decades is considered from the perspectives
outlined here. In addition, the wide range of types of intratextuality and intertextuality
suggested in the essay’s opening paragraphs could be pursued along the lines demon-
strated here for a fuller understanding of the ways in which individual instances and
bodies of pop and rock music might be appreciated as multiple interrelated members
and subgroups of a larger community, all tying economic and other cultural expec-
tations and needs to specific musical characteristics. The separate miracles of the enter-
tainer writing his song, the bureaucratic exec dictating just the right limits of a
marketing tool, a record spinning on the radio, and a major hit transfixing the nation
all come together in the star-making machinery of a beautiful and well produced record.

Endnotes
1. The impetus for Joel’s snide observation on
edits for the hit singles market was probably
Columbia’s early-1974 marketing of ‘Piano
Man’, which had been cut from its album length
of 5ʹ37ʺ to 4ʹ30ʺ for the single release, creating a
recording that dominated AM radio and 45-rpm
markets. This single release has, I believe, only
been issued on CD by Columbia on Sony
BMG Europe 5099751901822. I am unaware of
any CD release of the ‘Entertainer’ single edit.
‘The Entertainer’ was Joel’s fourth Columbia
single, first charting on the Billboard ‘Hot 100’
on 30 November 1974, on which it peaked
at #34.
2. Lacasse (2007) touches on edits and remixes
(pp. 160–63) in an exploration of hyper-, para-,
meta-, and architextuality, but not intratextuality.
His typography is comparable to that presented
in my Table 1 here. Edits and mixes are also of
interest in chapters 2 and 3 of Gracyk (1996).
More general treatments of multi-track recording
and post-production work are found in Clarke
(1983), Middleton (1990, pp. 84–93), Julien
(1999), Théberge (2001), Zak (2001), Moorefield
(2005) and Moylan (2007).
3. Of all these sorts of pop intertextuality, cover ver-
sions seem to be of greatest interest to pop-rock
scholars, as evidenced by studies such as
Headlam (1995), Butler (2003), Zak (2004) and
others given in the Popular Music Interest
Group’s online bibliography at http://www.unc.
edu/music/pop-analysis/bib.html, and the entire
volume of Popular Music and Society 28/2 (May
2005).
4. Rarely, singles could be marked as dedicated for
jukebox play. These designations may have been
most common in the 1990s, after a steep decline
in the sales of stock vinyl.
248 Walter Everett

5. The matrix number should not be confused with
the label’s obligatory catalogue number (the
same on both sides of a single), which was typi-
cally uniform for all stock/promo formats and
used to identify a product in retail ordering.
6. The usual count-in, either shouted by a band
member or clicked by the drummer, precedes
most pop recordings, but is almost always
trimmed away in the editing process.
7. Multiple microphones were required to best cap-
ture a drummer’s work, and the resulting individ-
ual sonorities would be bussed (routed through
the mixing board) to different placements in the
stereo image.
8. The 30th Anniversary Edition of the Zombies’
Odessey & Oracle (1968, 1998) contains an ‘alter-
nate mix’ of ‘Time of the Season’ that reveals an
instrumental backing for the refrain that had
been muted out of all originally heard releases
for a stunning stop-time effect, improving to a
staggering degree a texture for the hit that was
already one of complex beauty in the studio.
9. Zak (2008) addresses epic album-length pop
recordings of the 1970s, some of which found
their way to abridged singles.
10. Those desirous of locating edited versions should
be aware that notated timings are often unreli-
able. As an example, Chicago’s ‘Questions 67 &
68’ (1969) claims 3ʹ07ʺ on one Japanese-issued
label (Sony CBSA 82013) and 3ʹ25ʺ on the accom-
panying sleeve, even though the actual duration is
4ʹ36ʺ (the long-sustaining final chord cutting off
22 seconds before it is done on the LP, which –
following Columbia’s then-usual practice – does
not list a timing at all).
11. The ‘It’s Wonderful’ single also opens with a gal-
loping of horses’ hooves not heard in any other
source.
12. I have not been able to examine an original 1967
Brazilian release of ‘Penny Lane’, but the 1967
Peruvian stock copy shown in Figure 5 features
an intact mono mix, most likely the same one
issued worldwide.
13. This lacklustre cello part may be what gave rise
to George Martin’s casting aspersions on Mike
Leander’s string score for ‘She’s Leaving
Home’ (Martin 1979, p. 208). The variations
between mono and stereo edits of ‘I Am the
Walrus’ (1967) are treated in Everett (1999,
p. 104, n. 177).
14. ‘Tattoo’ is the term I have coined for a standalone
instrumental motto that occurs at least twice in a
song; other examples include the opening of the
American Breed’s ‘Bend Me, Shape Me’. See
Everett (2008, p. 151), for fuller explanation and
other examples.
15. Tull’s early ‘Chateau d’Isaster’ compositional
drafts contained on the Nightcap collection
suggest that a number of the promo edits for A
Passion Play may have been conceived from
the start as self-contained presentations. ‘Edit
#1’ (2ʹ15ʺ) corresponds roughly with the ‘Tiger
Toon’ demo (1ʹ35ʺ, fading early). ‘Edit #5’
(4ʹ38ʺ), on the other hand, is related to the first
part (‘Lover of the black and white . . .’) of the
demo, ‘Critique Oblique’ (9ʹ03ʺ), which continues
with material later excised as the second half of
‘Edit #3’ (4ʹ18ʺ). I am indebted to an anonymous
reviewer for bringing these demos to my
attention.

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Discography (selective)
(US releases unless noted otherwise)
The Beatles, ‘I’ll Cry Instead’. A Hard Day’s Night (mono). Parlophone, PMC 1230. UK 1964
The Beatles, ‘I’ll Cry Instead’. A Hard Day’s Night (stereo). Parlophone, PCS 3058. UK 1964
The Beatles, ‘I’ll Cry Instead’. Something New (mono). Capitol, T-2108. 1964
The Beatles, ‘Let It Be’. Apple, R 5833. UK 1970
The Beatles, ‘Let It Be’. Apple, PXS 1. UK 1970
The Beatles, ‘Penny Lane’ (matrix 7XCE 18416). Parlophone, R 5570. UK 1967
The Beatles, ‘Penny Lane’, Promotion record (matrix 45-X45871). Capitol, P 5810. 1967
The Beatles, ‘Penny Lane’, Stock 45 (matrix 7XLE 18416). Odeon, 9827. Peru 1967
The Beatles, ‘Penny Lane’, Reissue 45 (matrix 7XCE 18416). EMI, 04475. Brazil 1970
The Beatles, ‘She’s Leaving Home’. Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (mono). Parlophone, PMC 7027. UK
1967
The Beatles, ‘She’s Leaving Home’. Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (mono). Capitol, SMAS 2653. 1967
The Beatles, ‘She’s Leaving Home’. Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (stereo). Parlophone, PCS 7027. UK
1967
The Beatles, ‘She’s Leaving Home’. Magical Mystery Year Vol. 2 (exploded four-track). Phony Chick, PC 131-2.
2007
Cream, ‘Sunshine of Your Love’. Atco, 45-6544. 1968
Cream, Disraeli Gears. Atco, 33-232. 1967
Crosby, Stills & Nash, ‘Suite: Judy Blue Eyes’. Atlantic, 45-2676. 1969
Crosby, Stills & Nash, ‘Suite: Judy Blue Eyes’. Crosby, Stills & Nash. Atlantic, SD 8229. 1969
Derek and the Dominoes, ‘Layla’. Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs. Atco, SD 2-704. 1970
Derek and the Dominoes, ‘Layla’. Promotional 45 (matrix ST-71-C-21302 SP). Atco, 45-6809. 1971
Derek and the Dominoes, ‘Layla’. Stock 45 (matrix 2001-11214). Polydor, 2001 172. Canada 1971
Derek and the Dominoes, ‘Layla’. Stock 45 (matrix 72C-20289-PL). Atco, 45-6809. 1972
Derek and the Dominoes, ‘Layla’. Crossroads EP: Radio version. Polydor, 887 754-7. Holland 1978
The Doors, ‘Light My Fire’. Elektra, EK-45615. 1967
The Doors, ‘Light My Fire’, The Doors. Elektra, EKS-74007. 1967
The Doors, ‘Light My Fire’, Spun Gold reissue (matrix ESR 71377T?). Elektra, E-45051. 1971
The Doors, ‘Light My Fire’, Spun Gold reissue (matrix ESR). Elektra, EKS-45051. 1970s
The Doors, ‘Light My Fire’, Reissue (matrix 1A-4-X). Elektra, E 45051-1. Canada 1970s
The Grateful Dead, Anthem for the Sun (matrix S39369/39370). Warner Bros.-Seven Arts, WS 1749. 1968
The Grateful Dead, Anthem for the Sun. Remix (matrix WS-1-1749-Re1-SR1/WS-2-1749-SR1). Warner
Bros-Seven Arts, WS 1749. 1971
Jethro Tull, A Passion Play. Chrysalis, CHR 1040. 1973
Jethro Tull, A Passion Play. Edited Version for DJ Use Only. Chrysalis, CHR 1040. 1973
Jethro Tull, ‘A Passion Play (Edit #8)’/‘A Passion Play (Edit #9)’. Chrysalis, 2012. 1973
Jethro Tull, ‘A Passion Play (Edit #10)’. Chrysalis, 2017. 1973
Jethro Tull, M.U. – The Best of Jethro Tull. Chrysalis, 1078. 1976
Jethro Tull, Nightcap: The Unreleased Masters 1973–1991. Capitol, CD B000007177. 2000
Joel, Billy, ‘The Entertainer’. Columbia, 3-10064. 1974
Joel, Billy, ‘The Entertainer’, Streetlife Serenader. Columbia, PC 33146. 1974
Meat Loaf, ‘Paradise By the Dashboard Light’. Cleveland International/Epic, 8-50588. 1978
Meat Loaf, ‘Paradise By the Dashboard Light’. 12ʹ Demonstration disc. Cleveland International/Epic, AS 477.
1978
Meat Loaf, ‘Paradise By the Dashboard Light’, Bat Out of Hell. Cleveland International/Epic, PE 34974. 1977
The Moody Blues, ‘Tuesday Afternoon (Forever Afternoon)’. Deram, 45-DEM-85028. 1968
The Moody Blues, ‘Tuesday Afternoon (Forever Afternoon)’, Days of Future Passed. Deram, DES 18012. 1968
Oldfield, Mike, ‘Tubular Bells’. Demo (Long Version [7:30] matrix ST-PR-199A SP/Short Version [4:39] matrix
ST-PR-199B-SP). Virgin, E.P.-PR-199. 1974
Oldfield, Mike, ‘Tubular Bells’. Stock 45 (‘Exorcist’ Theme [3:18] matrix ST-VR-28231-PL/[4:39] matrix
ST-VR-28232-PL). Virgin, VR-55100. 1974
Oldfield, Mike, ‘Tubular Bells’, Tubular Bells. Virgin, VR 13-105. 1973
Oldfield, Mike, ‘Tubular Bells’. Music Excerpts from The Exorcist (soundtrack LP). Warner Bros, WS 2774. 1974
Oldfield, Mike, The Orchestral Tubular Bells. Virgin, CD 0777 7 86049 2 1. 1975
Oldfield, Mike, Tubular Bells 2. Reprise, CD 9 45041-2. 1992
Oldfield, Mike, Tubular Bells III. Warner Music, CD 398423492. UK 1998
The Rascals, ‘It’s Wonderful’. [Music 2:30/Effects 0:50]. Atlantic, 45-2463. 1967
250 Walter Everett

The Rascals, ‘It’s Wonderful’, Once Upon a Dream [Sound effect 0:10/Music 2:40]. Atlantic, SD 8169. 1968
The Rascals, ‘It’s Wonderful’, Time Peace: The Rascals’ Greatest Hits [2:40]. Atlantic, SD 8190. 1968
The Rascals, ‘It’s Wonderful’, Time Peace: The Rascals’ Greatest Hits [2:18]. Atlantic, CD A2 8190 [1968]
The Rolling Stones, ‘Dandelion’. London, 45-905. 1967
The Rolling Stones, ‘Dandelion’, Through the Past, Darkly (Big Hits Vol. 2). London, NPS-3. 1969
Sugarhill Gang, ‘Rapper’s Delight’ (matrix VID 7-526 BW) [4:55]. Sugar Hill, SH-755. 1980
Sugarhill Gang, ‘Rapper’s Delight’, 12ʹ (Long Version [15:00] matrix VID-152RE/Short Version [6:30] matrix
VID-153RE). Sugar Hill, SH-542. 1979
Sugarhill Gang, ‘Rapper’s Delight’. European mix (Short Version [3:59]/Long Version [6:33]). Vogue, 101260.
France 1979
The Who, ‘See Me, Feel Me (Excerpt from the TOMMY Finale)’. Decca, 32729. 1970
The Who, Tommy. Decca, 7205. 1969
Yes, ‘Roundabout’. Atlantic, 45-2854. 1972
Yes, ‘Roundabout’, Fragile. Atlantic, SD 7211. 1972
Yes, ‘Total Mass Retain (From “Close to the Edge”)’. Atlantic, 45-2899. 1972
Yes, Close to the Edge. Atlantic, SD 7244. 1972