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eriejwg
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Joined: 10 June 2007
Location: United States
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Posts: 3483
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| Posted: 06 February 2021 at 12:10pm | IP Logged
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I was working at a small AM station in 1978 when Three
Times A Lady came out. The PD at the station had an odd way
of putting new music in. Basically, if it was on the Hot
100 and we had received the record from Record Source
International in Cincinnati, then we played it.
I seem to remember Three Times A Lady getting a lot of
requests and RSI didn't always service us with all the hits
so I may have had to go to the local Murphy's or Fisher's
Big Wheel in that town to buy the 45 for the station. I
know I had to do that for Two Out Of Three Ain't Bad from
Meat Loaf. Ahh, small town radio, lol.
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John Gallagher Wedding & Special Event Entertainment
Snapblast Photo Booth
Erie, PA
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AutumnAarilyn
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Joined: 22 August 2019
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| Posted: 06 February 2021 at 10:55pm | IP Logged
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"Three times a lady" has very soft vocals almost like
whispering Bill Anderson on the country side of things.
Motown probably wasn't really thinking A/C crossover at
this time from their leading funksters. "I like what you
do" and "Visions" were the most original cuts.
Gordy wasn't also thrilled with some of the themes in
Marvin's "What's going on" despite Edwin Starr has a
huge hit with with "War."
It always helps to make sure the PD gets a promo. They
even had issues in NYC getting promos.
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AutumnAarilyn
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| Posted: 06 February 2021 at 11:03pm | IP Logged
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AndrewChouffi wrote:
I do recall, though, many instances of a label having
a release strategy with singles and not wanting radio
to jump on an album track that might already be slated
as the third single when the second single hasn't been
released yet - basically they wanted maximum impact
with the forthcoming video they hadn't started on
yet..
Andy
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When Bobby Brown's Bobby dropped, the label had a huge
release party broadcast over several radio stations
where they played much of the album during that party.
Wrks followed suit by playing singles early and it
wasn't taken so well over at MCA.
I heard every track on NY radio from both Guy albums,
Babyface's "Tender lover", and Johnny Gills 1990
Motown album.
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torcan
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Joined: 23 June 2006
Location: Canada
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| Posted: 07 February 2021 at 9:28pm | IP Logged
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Interesting reading these comments. I would have
thought that when an album was released, it was fair
game for any track to be played on the radio. I guess
the labels didn't want top 40 stations to play songs
that weren't singles, because it could take time away
from playing the songs that they were promoting as
singles?
When an album was released, in most cases were all the
singles planned out in advance (for example, they knew
which would be the second single, which would be the
third, etc.) or was it decided on on the fly?
Sometimes its obvious which songs should be singles
but was the order of release always set in stone, or
did it vary based on whims of the label, or strong
responses on certain songs? In reading Billboard over
the years, it seems that some songs they said would be
later singles never did get released.
I know that when "Thriller" was in the midst of its
run, the plan was originally to make "Human Nature"
the last single, but because sales of the album were
still so strong, they kept releasing them.
Was there a scenario which occurred more frequently?
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EdisonLite
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Joined: 18 October 2004
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| Posted: 07 February 2021 at 9:37pm | IP Logged
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There were so many sealed LPs that had stickers on the outside saying "featuring the singles..." or "featuring the songs..." - I think in both cases anything on the sticker would have been considered a future single. But in many cases, those songs that the label highlighted for the outside sticker ... did not end up being singles at all.
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AutumnAarilyn
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| Posted: 07 February 2021 at 10:57pm | IP Logged
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Like all art, what the next single would be was never
set in stone and alot depended on how the early
singles did. If they didn't do well, the label would
usually cut their losses with a hole punch and trip to
the cut-out bin if the cost of warehousing a title
exceeded any benefit of future expected sales.
Atlantic Starr had a number of album air cuts before
was monitored at Billboard and they did it to sell the
album. A&M didn't release those probably to sell the
album but if you listen to "Secret lovers", their
ballads weren't easy to edit with vocals having to be
cross-faded.
I remember reading that promoters wanted country to
drop a song after it peaked. In 1991, Billboard used
accurate monitoring of sales and airplay and the
logjam on the pop chart began. In the end, Billboard
slowly ushered in new expanded rules for their
recurrent chart to increase the desired upward
movement.
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AndrewChouffi
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Joined: 24 September 2005
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| Posted: 08 February 2021 at 6:33am | IP Logged
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AutumnAarilyn wrote:
Like all art, what the next
single would be was never set in stone and alot
depended on how the early singles did. |
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Extremely accurate statement there AutumnAarilyn.
However, sometimes with a hot act with a hot album,
labels would plan a release strategy with singles,
videos and other "emphasis cuts for select formats" in
advance of the second single or even the release of
the LP.
Labels didn't like deviation; however when the public
or radio demanded a change (e.g. an album track was
getting unusual attention) OR when the project
strategy was failing (i.e. a single was stiffing) the
labels were quick to abandon original plans (to either
make more money, or to cut losses).
Andy
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AutumnAarilyn
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Joined: 22 August 2019
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| Posted: 09 February 2021 at 8:19pm | IP Logged
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By the 80's, albums had songs slated for different
formats. Black radio typically was a wake-up club in
the morning, hot urban AC in the day time, a R&B top
40 in evening, and free form Quiet Storm ballads at
night with all sorts of jazz mixed in. Any rap was
limited to the evening section and this held until
about the mid 90's.
Many ballads weren't released as singles as those
listeners had more money to buy albums and the
listener usually didn't want a truncated ballad.
Atlantic Starr was one of those groups. If you listen
to the Spinners first album on Atlantic, the shortest
songs were the hit singles and many ballads go on for
6 plus minutes and got heavy airplay especially at
night.
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