"Every Rose Has Its Thorn" - Poison

All the versions on commercially-available compilation
CDs that I've run across have a breath/yawn at the
beginning, so that the first guitar strum falls at 0:02.

These include Rock The First Vol. 5, Sounds Of The
Eighties Vol. 10 1988, Eighteen Rock Hard Hits Vol. 1,
Monsters Of Rock, and Guitar Rock Vol. 27 Power
Ballads.

The version on The A List omits the breath/yawn,
but is otherwise the same.

Am I correct in thinking that the LP version has the
breath/yawn, the 45 omits the breath/yawn, and otherwise
the 45 and LP are the same?

Also, I found an edit of the song on the UK 2-CD set
Now 14, which cuts out 16 beats of the guitar solo
from 2:47 to 3:01 and fades early (to where the 4:07
point would be in the LP version). It runs about 3:52.

Is this the UK single?

As reported by Pat (9 years ago!), the LP and 45 versions are the same.

You have plenty of choices here, all with comparable sound quality.

The song appears on Poison's Open Up And Say Ahh (1988) and on a 3-inch CD single (Enigma C3-44203-2), both using the same analog transfer. The same analog transfer is also used on:

• Sandstone/Cema's Rock The First Vol. 5 (1992)
• Cema's Greatest Hits Of The 80's Vol. 5 Power Ballads (1994)
• Time-Life's Sounds Of The Eighties Vol. 10 1988 (1995) - digitally exactly 1.6 dB louder than Rock the First Vol. 5 and clips a tiny bit
• Warner Special Products' Eighteen Rock Hard Hits Vol. 1 (1997) - truncates fade; avoid
• Razor & Tie's Monsters Of Rock (1998)
• EMI's 2-CD Mystic Music Presents Red Hot (1998) - digitally identical to Rock The First Vol. 5
• Time-Life's Guitar Rock Vol. 27 Power Ballads (1999) - digitally identical to Rock The First Vol. 5
• EMI's 2-CD Pop Goes The '80s (2002)

There's a new analog transfer on Poison's Greatest Hits 1986-1996 (1996), which is severely compressed/limited. I don't like the sound at all on this disc.

My recommendation: If you want the song on a compilation, you may as well go with Rock The First Vol. 5 (1992).