Nadia’s Theme - Barry DeVorzon

After comparing the CD "Hard To Find Orchestral Instrumentals II" version of this song to the A&M 1856 45 version and the Arista 4104 LP version (Barry DeVorzon - "Nadia's Theme"), I respectfully disagree with Pat's description of the "Hard To Find" CD version.

My ear did not hear any difference between the Hard To Find version and A&M 45 version (when I layered one over the other and listened with headphones) other than the fact that the 45 version is slightly faster than the Hard To Find version. The instruments and mix are the same and the stereo separation is identical.

The "Hard To Find" is not an edit of the LP version (at least as found on the DeVorzon Arista LP) because that LP version (1) does not have the guitar that appears in the left channel of the 45 and Hard To Find versions at 1:00, (2) has different piano notes than the 45 and Hard To Find versions at :17, (3) contains a clear wood block sound starting at 1:03 that is not in either the 45 or Hard To Find versions and has a clearly different ending than the 45 and Hard To Find versions.

Yikes! So, for what it's worth, that's my analysis of a song I really didn't pay much attention to at the time it was released. I think it would probably be more accurate to call the Hard To Find version "slightly slower than the 45 version."

Hi!

thought i would chime in here. I thought this was covered in an old thread, but i can't recall.

Edisonlite is correct, except that i did not edit the master, that was done was Tom Daly, who also mastered the CD.
I had to go read Pat's entry for the song. I assume his description is correct but a little confusing, as it doesn't say why.
The LP version he's referring to is not the A&M album "Nadia's Theme", to my knowledge that contained the same edit that was on the A&M 45.
The recording originates from the 1973 A&M soundtrack album "Bless The Beasts And Children" and was titled "Cotton's Dream". Was later also used as the theme for "The Young And The Restless".
After Nadia's success and come time for Nadia's Theme single, they wanted it longer for the single so they made 2 copies of the master for "Cotton's Dream" and simply spliced them together, allowing the middle passage to repeat again. That was it. It just cut back to an earlier point, to make it run longer.
From what i was told, When Tom received the DAT dub of the master for Nadia's Theme as it was, it sounded rather noisy like it was made from a safety copy. It was all they had.
Since it was the song's first appearance on a CD, he requested the master for Cotton's Dream which was a first-generation copy off the original album master which had been untouched in many years. Sounded much cleaner and clearer. His effort was to recreate the exact point where they spliced it, but the original splice was a little rough, he and label owner Bill and some listeners who were consulted (i was one) agreed that it sounded better with the splice smoothed ever so slightly.
That was pretty much it.
In the excitement over finally getting that track licensed, i imagine Tom forgot to check the exact pitch the 45 ran. The focus was that it was from the original master for the first time. I also didn't really notice a big difference, but i wasn't listening for that, i suppose.
Also, there was no Downey forum back then, as careful as Bill at Eric is, the criteria of exactness wasn't quite up to the level of detail that has become the norm here, you understand. A slight variance in speed or a second or two difference in an ending fade were generally considered unnoticable details to most.

But all disclaimers aside! I wanted to cough up the first hand account of where that issue of the track came from.
Oh PS - an interesting side note about this song, and why it was so scarce on CD's at all all those years. Lots of re-issue labels tried to license it before that, but were rejected as "unavailable" and they didn't question it. The actual problem was the rights holders only made available the rights to the entire "Nadia's Theme" album, you had to re-issue the whole album, or nothing. But Bill Buster is very persistent, and made some calls to the right people and stated a very good case for getting it out there, since this restriction was keeping a great hit off the market for like, ever. Edisonlite can tell you as well, sometimes all it takes is some effort and some phone calls. Most labels don't bother past the first "no".
Too bad.

Hope this helps!

-Mark M

Agreed, great information, guys! Thanks for the education.

<Bill Buster is very persistent, and made some calls to the right people and stated a very good case for getting it out there, since this restriction was keeping a great hit off the market for like, ever.>

Mark, do you know what case he presented to them, exactly? I find it interesting that once a track finally shows up on a CD for the first time ever (e.g. Rhino's Super Hits of the '70s), all of a sudden other reissue labels (e.g. Time-Life) start requesting it. This is very good for the master owner (and publishers) of the song - to make lots of money vs. no money. It also gets the previously-unreleased-song-on-CD back into the airplay market, so to speak, where all of a sudden digital outlets (like the '70s channel on my digital cable system, and the '70s channel on XM) play the song, and the song gets back into the popular culture and consciousness again. When a hit song doesn't exist on CD anywhere, most stations these days just don't play it. So that kind of info -- passed on to a "Nadia's Theme" master tape rights owner -- could be very persuasive to helping the owner change his mind. But I'm just wondering if Bill Buster argued other points, too (or even that one).

Edited by EdisonLite

Thanks for all the details!