It is kind of ironic, isn’t it?
For anyone too young to know, AM radio was highly susceptible to static–this was one of the big selling points of FM. As it happens, 1978 was the year that the listenership numbers of FM first surpassed AM in North America. So you could imagine AM stations being a little touchy about it at the time!
One of Chicago’s two top 40 radio stations (103.5 Kiss FM) used to speed up some or all of its songs so that each note sounded about half a step higher than it was supposed to. I read that some stations did this to make the songs sound “brighter” or happier. I wasn’t certain that this station was doing this until I confirmed it when a Kesha song came on about 15 years ago. I played the mp3 of the song on my computer at the same time the song was on the radio, and sure enough, the song playing on the radio was faster than the mp3, and the beat soon got out of sequence. I don’t think the station still does this anymore.
Over the years, there have been several songs that were altered to reflect a city or region. There’s a Billy Idol song where this was done extensively, and its title escapes me right now.
I wonder why most of the posts on this thread are discussing songs with re-recorded lyrics, when that is clearly not what the OP is describing.
The country station I listened to at the time had a version with her singing their call letters. I suspect they weren’t the only station that got that.
The “80s and more” station in my area plays edited/ shortened version of certain songs, some more irritating than others. “Sweet Child of Mine” cuts much of Slash’s guitar solo. “Red Red Wine” leaves off the rap entirely, which just makes it boring. I’ve heard DJs mention it for other songs I’m less familiar with.
I know the OP excluded censorship, but I’ve heard some pearl clutching stations “censor” “Brown Eyed Girl” by replacing “making love in the green grass” in the second verse with “laughin’ and a jumpin’ hey hey” from the first verse. A quick Google shows that edit has been around way longer than I thought.
The Op wasnt clear to me, and I asked in the very first answer.
The Op never came back to clarify, until he agreed with you
So, since I asked and didnt get an answer, and you provided what he was looking for in post 3, I think the thread has moved on a bit, either that or the thread would end with your post 3.
So far, we have had some interesting answers.
There are two different versions of the 1987 version of Whitesnake’s “Here I Go Again” that get radio play. There’s what I assume is the album cut, that starts out with the keyboard solo and the slow first verse before the rest of the instruments jump in, and there’s an edit where the whole band is playing right from the start and the first verse is the same tempo as the rest of the song.
And that’s to say nothing of the existence of the 1982 version, which is very different from either of those versions and in which Dave Coverdale was born to walk alone like a hobo instead of like a drifter.
Around 1990, Billy Joel put out a “best of” album comprising two CDs. To fit all the songs on the CDs, a few of the songs were edited down, removing verses, choruses, or “middle eights” (bridges).
I hate how they butchered “My Life.”
Anyway, radio stations (in my experience) invariably played the original version until this album was released, and they have all invariably played the butchered version since that day (alas).
The 1982 is the original version on the British release of Saints & Sinners. The American version for Whitesnake (1987) “hobo” was changed to “drifter” to avoid any mishearings. There is also the “radio” version with no keyboard intro. Which of the 1987 versions one prefers generally maps to how one was used to hearing it. The 1987 album version was used for the music video, while the “radio” version was played by radio stations and is technically the version that officially charted.
Yea…I just let it go once you provided the most likely factual answer I was looking for. The thread is its own monster now.
…I have to take issue with this part though. I don’t know how much clearer I could have made it?
I described a specific thing that was happening and asked if this was a thing that others had noticed.
Talk about good timing: Radio stations doing the name switch in the song Fire is something that’s still going on. Just this morning I was listening to Sirius XM The 70’s channel, and I smiled when I heard them insert “The 70’s” at the appropriate point. (This was before I opened this thread.)
And you got your answer in post 3.