As a few months ago, Lada Gaga released the single “You and I”, and it started getting a lot of radio play. For those unfamiliar with the Corpus Gaga, the song contains a surprisingly large number of mentions of “Nebraska”, because the guy she should have never left and is now going back to is from Nebraska or some such.
The New Mexico stations, however, seem to play exclusively an edited version with every instance of the word “Nebraska” replaced with “New Mexico”, presumably to add some local colour. (Although “New Mexico” has one more syllable than “Nebraska”, so the substitution sounds dorky).
Who decides to do stuff like that? Did Lady Gaga sit down at some point and think, “You know, I think the song works well with any other rural state in there, and the New Mexicans will get a kick out of it” and then record another version? Did the production company do it? The radio station? It seems like the producers, as the copyright holders, would have to at least give assent to a modified version being broadcast.
I’ve heard other songs with the stations call sign sung into the intro in the style of the song, and that sounds like a simple copyright trap. Is this done for a similar reason?
Wow. I didn’t actually think that this was actually done from the top. I was assuming that a most a distributor for the radio station was doing the dubs.
Such localized songs were very common on radio stations in my hometown in the 1970s and 1980s.
One example: My Town by The Michael Stanley Band, got a lot of airplay on rock stations in the Great Lakes region. The band is from Cleveland, the song is about Cleveland, and the linked video was filmed in Cleveland. However, when played on stations in my hometown, the lyrics were slightly altered …
Oh, and this town is my town BUFFALO!
Allright
Love or hate it, it don’t matter
'Cause I’m gonna stand and fight
This town is my town BUFFALO!
She’s got her ups and downs
But love or hate it, it don’t matter
'Cause this is my town
One local station always inserted their call letters into Elton John’s Crocodile Rock.
While the other kids were rocking round the clock
we were hopping and bopping to the crocodile rock
wahhhh
wahhhh wah wah wah wahhhh
wahhhh wah wah wah wah GRrrrr Fifty Fiiiive!
wahhhh wah wah wah wahhhh
Even the worst rock song ever, Starship’s We Built This City, was localized. The DJ announcing “It’s your favorite radio station in your favorite radio city, the city by the bay, the city that rocks, the city that never stops” was replaced by “It’s your favorite radio station in Buffalo, New York, the city by the lake, the city that rocks, the city that never stops”, voiced by Joey Reynolds, an iconic local DJ who was immensely popular in the 1950s and 1960s.
I could have sworn that when I was in Los Angeles in the early ‘80s, I heard The Standells’ “Dirty Water” on the radio and one line had been changed to “Awww, L.A. you’re my home.” Can’t find evidence of this on the intrawebs, though. My search-fu is pathetically weak tonight.
Two examples of this phenomenon I remember: Nena’s 99 Luftballoons was changed to “95” (and possibly other variations) for radio stations whose call number was 95, such as 95.5 WPLJ in New York City. The other is in Miley Cyrus’s song “Party in the USA” there’s a line that mentions turning on the radio, and that line apparently has customizable versions for various stations airing the song.
I remember this too, only for me it was in SoCal and went “…you turn on the radio KHJ”
Anyway, I’m glad to read this thread because I knew GaGa was saying "Florida, Florida . . . " and whatever the rest of the words are. I had read the story about it being about the Nebraska dude so that didn’t seem to make sense. I looked up the lyrics and of course it doesn’t say “Florida” but when you listen to the local version it doesn’t sound like anything else. Good to know I’m not imagining.
This is a common thing. Just the other day, I heard a New York dubbed version of the Ke$ha song “Tik Tok” on my satellite radio. As far as Gaga’s You and I, I’ve heard California, New York, Los Angeles, and even Las Vegas.
Montgomery Gentry’s country song, Lucky Man, has a line in which he complains about the Bengals losing. It was customized with different teams for different markets. Wikipedia says there were 81 different versions, for pro and college teams.
I forget the exact year, but it was probably the late '80s when a band named Autograph released their first single “Turn Up The Radio”. I don’t know if they did it for other markets, but the Los Angeles radio station KLOS had a customized version of the song. The chorus originally started with “Turn up the radio/I need the music, give me some more,” but the KLOS version went “Turn up the radio/KLOS!!!, give me some more.”
