Technotronic - "Pump Up The Jam"

I have the US 45 for this track, which isn't supposed to exist. It even comes with a picture sleeve! It's SBK B-07311, with a printed time of 3:36 on the A-side and an instrumental version with a printed time of 3:25 on the B-side.

The 45 is an easy edit of the LP version, and I'll post instructions below for recreating the 7".

First, these are CDs that have the LP version:

• Rock The First Vol. 3 (Sandstone, 1992; mastered by Steve Hoffman and the best-sounding version of the song, be it LP or 45 versions)
• Rock On 1989 (Cema Special Markets, 1996; digitally exactly 0.3 dB quieter than Rock The First Vol. 3; also sounds superb)
• Rock The First Vol. 8 Dance Edition (Sandstone, 1993; mastered a little louder than Vol. 3 and has clipping from about 0:30-2:30)
• Living In The 90s (Razor & Tie, 1995; digitally exactly 0.954 dB quieter than Rock The First Vol. 8)
• Pump Up The Hits (PolyTel Canada 845096-2, 1990; most likely a digital clone of the full Technotronic CD version)
• Mega Dance Party '92 (Columbia Germany 471345 2, 1992)
• Ultra Mix Dance Hits Of The '80s and '90s (Time-Life, 1999; slightly compressed/maximized)

On the whole, most of these LP versions sound quite good, except where noted. My favorite is Rock The First Vol. 3, and I used that as the starting point for my edit.

The 45 version is available on a few CDs, but on the whole, I don't think these sound as good as the LP-version CDs listed above:

• Pump Up The Jam! '90s Dance Hits (3-CD set from Realm Records OPCD-3601, 2002; probably the best-sounding 45 version)
• Sounds Of The '90s 1990 (Time-Life, 2001, slightly compressed/maximized)
• Now 1989 (Virgin EMI PolyGram UK, 1993; has L/R channels reversed)
• Now That's What I Call Music 16 (UK series, 1989; levels a bit low)
• 100 Dance Hits Of The Eighties (Connoisseur Collection, 1990; EQ has way too much high end)
• The Greatest Hits Of Dance (3-CD set from Telstar UK, 1992; terrible thin-sounding EQ)

It's easy to recreate the 45 edit from the LP version. I started with Rock The First Vol. 3, and that's the reference for my times.

Keep 0:00.0-3:12.9 of the LP version.
Edit on the downbeat right at the word "day".
Remove the 208 beats from 3:12.9-4:53.1.
Keep 4:53.1-5:22.3 (end) of the LP version.

The 45 has a fade that starts around 3:28 and ends around 3:36. The LP fade is about 4 seconds longer, also starting around 3:28 but ending at 3:40.

crapfromthepast wrote: I have the US 45 for this track, which isn't supposed to exist. It even comes with a picture sleeve! It's SBK B-07311, with a printed time of 3:36 on the A-side and an instrumental version with a printed time of 3:25 on the B-side. .

I know what you mean! I have it too, and I believe during its entire chart run on Billboard it was never listed as being on vinyl. The charts weren't always 100% accurate back then in terms of available configurations - still, it was nice when I saw this one a few years ago. Nice sleeve too!

eric_a wrote: Brian W. wrote: Yeah, I have looked and looked for that instrumental B-side on CD, and as far as I can tell, it was never issued on CD. Could it be on the commercial maxi-CD? I have it buried somewhere and will check, unless someone else knows that the inst won't be on there.

No, it wasn't, unfortunately. Nor was it on the Japanese CD3 or any other import CD single I could find.

Brian W. wrote: Yeah, I have looked and looked for that instrumental B-side on CD, and as far as I can tell, it was never issued on CD.

Who distributed SBK, wasn't it Capitol? If so, it was unusual for a Capitol release to have an otherwise-unavailable instrumental version as the B side. OTOH, it was quite common on MCA around that time.

Pat:

Please, add the above cassette single run time info, since it isn't reflected on the database yet.
The actual cassette single running time is (3:36), this single doesn't have the listed time.

--abagon