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Cool sleeves!

I don't know how rare these really are, but I only recently discovered them.

Rapper's Delight

Most of us are familiar with the blue Sugar Hill logo, but the first commercial pressings on Sugar Hill Records had a red label, as did promo pressings. Note that only the later pressings gave proper songwriting credits to Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards, writers of Chic's "Good Times".

Tempted

A few configurations of the fine Squeeze hit, including a rare 7" picture sleeve:

Tainted Love

Every few years, I get asked about the Soft Cell hit, specifically, "What about 'Where Did Our Love Go'"? Here's the story, once and for all. The commercially available single was "Tainted Love" all by itself, and that's what was listed on the charts and what was played on most of the syndicated countdown shows. The medley was sent out only to radio stations on a promotional 45, and was not commercially available while the song was a hit. As I remember things, the New York City radio stations almost always played the medley, and I was one of the annoyed customers who was stuck with just "Tainted Love". Apparently, the folks at Sire Records heard the cries of people like me, and when they re-released the song on the Back-To-Back Hits 45 series, it was the medley, commercially available for the first (and only) time. Subsequent inclusions of the song on compilation CDs are always just "Tainted Love", whether it's the original 45 mix (Rhino's Just Can't Get Enough Vol. 4, Time-Life's 1982, Now That's What I Call Music's 1981, Pop and Wave Vol. 1) or a slightly different mix (Priority's Rock Of The '80s Vol. 2). The lone exception to this is a promo-only compilation from 1989, called The Best Of CMJ 1979-1989 Vol. 2 (from a series of 5), which gives the medley at a time of 4:10. Good luck trying to find the discs, as I've only seen one copy of Vols. 4 and 5, ever.

Strawberry Letter 23

A superb remake of the Shuggie Otis song from 1971, and a big hit for the Brothers Johnson. The commercial 7" releases were all on black vinyl, but the 7" promo and 12" singles were on red. Nice! I may attempt a "colored vinyl" section in future upgrades to this page, but until then, this will have to do.

Oof Da! They released it again!

In the late 1980s, there was a rash of rereleases from the early 1980s. Of course, singles had been rereleased at other times in the history of pop music, but never on the scale of the late 1980s. So for you hard-core completists, enjoy the following pictures of songs you know by heart. (And forgive the omission of Felony's "The Fanatic", which I never had, and Benny Mardones's bombastic "Into The Night", which I've been fortunate enough to repress. Plus, I've completely ignored The Pointer Sisters' "I'm So Excited", Whitesnake's "Here I Go Again", the Beatles' "Twist And Shout", Ben E. King's "Stand By Me", The Contours' "Do You Love Me", Alphaville's "Forever Young", and Billy Idol's "Hot In The City" and "Mony Mony"; discuss among yourselves.)

WHAT ABOUT ME - Moving Pictures

The Australian group Moving Pictures later released an album under the name 1927.

SEND ME AN ANGEL - Real Life

Real Life rerecorded the song and released it as "Send Me An Angel '89".

WHEN I'M WITH YOU - Sheriff

The Canadian group Sheriff broke up, reformed as Frozen Ghost, broke up again, and some members formed Alias. The final note of the song is held for something like 26 seconds, and holds the record for the longest note ever to the hit the top 40.

RED RED WINE - UB40

The rerelease had a toast/rap break that was absent from the original. The song was originally done by Neil Diamond, who wrote it, covered by reggae artist Tony Tribe, covered by Vic Dana, then finally covered by UB40 on their all-covers album Labour Of Love.

VALERIE - Steve Winwood

Pulled from his greatest hits album Chronicles, it was remixed to sound like his late '80s output. Big drums, etc.

AT THIS MOMENT - Billy [Vera] and the Beaters

I'm sure you know it was a hit because it was used on the TV show "Family Ties". More interesting to me is that it was heavily promoted by Alfa Records before they went bankrupt, but not a hit. The single was rereleased by Rhino Records, who were known primarily for compilation and rerelease albums. This has been their only hit single, to this date. Note also that one of the critics on the Alfa jacket called Billy Vera the "new vocal contender of the year", even though he'd been recording since the 1960s.

I'VE NEVER BEEN TO ME - Charlene

It predates the rerelease craze, but it still fits the description. Brought back to life by Scott Shannon at Tampa's Q105.

WHERE ARE YOU NOW - [Jimmy Harnen with] Synch

This record is just plain bad, and I don't know why it came back. The only band I know of from Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania.

IN YOUR EYES - Peter Gabriel

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