Elton John - Little Jeannie

I found a copy of Elton John's Love Songs CD from W. Germany. (Rocket 811 312-2, no copyright date but possibly 1982?) It's got an odd track selection (everything is from the 1976-1982 time frame) and I can't really recommend the sound quality. I see it as more of a curiosity than anything else, sort of like the remixes on The Superior Sound Of Elton John.

It has an early fade of "Little Jeannie", with a fade from 3:28 to 3:48, and a posted time of 3:50.

Was there ever a 3:50 version of "Little Jeannie" released anywhere?

Edited by crapfromthepast

crapfromthepast wrote: I found a copy of Elton John's Love Songs CD from W. Germany. (Rocket 811 312-2, no copyright date but possibly 1982?) It's got an odd track selection (everything is from the 1976-1982 time frame) and I can't really recommend the sound quality. I see it as more of a curiosity than anything else, sort of like the remixes on The Superior Sound. It has an early fade of "Little Jeannie", with a fade from 3:28 to 3:48, and a posted time of 3:50. Was there ever a 3:50 version of "Little Jeannie" released anywhere?

I've had "Love Songs" since the late 1980s. I'm almost positive that these are just early fades of the songs done specifically for that CD, as there are several of them on that disc, and none are edits, as far as I can tell -- just early fades. And it probably wasn't necessary. In the early years of the CD format, it was actually in the CD specs that you couldn't go longer than 65 minutes to a disc. They quickly found, of course, that up to 80 minutes is quite feasible, but that's technically not "spec."

But, yeah, "Love Songs" has HEAVY noise reduction. That's why that sound is a bit lackluster. The early Rocket Elton John CDs all suffered from that -- Breaking Hearts and A Single Man do as well. Fortunately they got over that. The original 80s Rocket CD pressings of 21 at 33, The Fox, and Jump Up! all sound very nice to my ears, better than the US versions. Very nice tonality.

Edited by Brian W.

Hykker wrote: Brian W. wrote: In the early years of the CD format, it was in the actually CD specs that you couldn't go longer than 65 minutes to a disc. They quickly found, of course, that up to 80 minutes is quite feasible, but that's technically not "spec." I wonder if that was to allow for mechanical limitations of the transports of the day. Some 80s-vintage players didn't like CDs much longer than that...the UREI's we had at the station I worked at from '88-90 was one such model.

Well, the players would have been built to the spec, probably, rather than the other way around. And I may have my facts mixed up regarding the 65-minute running time. I swear I can recall reading, back in the day, that a CD can hold up to 65 minutes (which got my attention because I had read 74:33).

But here's a fascinating article on the developement of the compact disc by one of the men who worked on the project, a joint venture between Philips and Sony. Did you know that if Philips had had their way, our CDs would be 14 bits instead of 16 bits? Interesting stuff.

http://www.exp-math.uni-essen.de/~immink/pdf/beethoven.htm

EdisonLite wrote: I thought (at least as of 1985) that the max capacity of CD was 74 minutes, and somewhere in the '90s, it was changed to 80 minutes. Is this not the case?

There is no max capacity for CDs. The max capacity is however much will fit on the disc and is playable.

Dave, I also own a commercial 45 for "Little Jeannie". I just pulled it for you.
The deadwax info is *exactly* the same as it was for my promo copy, right
down to the "AM3" at the end. That means the stock 45's timing would be
identical to the promo 45's timing details I provided above.