iTunes Finds?

I was doing a search for Tom Johnston on iTunes this evening, looking for Savannah Nights. I found it with no problem. However, what really caught my eye was several items listed under the "Listeners Also Bought" links. There were several artists there that have tracks that, according to the DB, aren't available. I did a quick search and found several more. Here's a list:

Jim Photoglo - Fool In Love With You
Tane Cain - Holding On
Stevie Woods - Steal The Night
Stevie Woods - Just Can't Win 'Em All
Robbie Patton - Don't Give It Up
Greg Guidry - Goin' Down
Eddie Schwartz - All Our Tomorrows
Pink Lady - Kiss In The Dark (not in database, but Top 40 in Billboard)
Wayne Newton - Years
Cliff Richard - Give A Little Bit More
Mac McAnally - Minimum Love
Pia Zadora - Clapping Song

My question. Are these imports, online exclusives, or actual releases? I figure they are probably needle drops, but can't be sure. Has anyone checked them out?

I'm no expert, but most appear to come off their original albums, so I'd guess (and that's all it is...a guess) that they would be the LP versions.

Answers to some of your questions:

Robbie Patton - Don't Give It Up
- this only came out on a "Distant Shores" French CD about 10 years ago, from cleaned vinyl, with all high end removed - a CD I've called "the worst sounding CD of all time". The version on iTunes is clearly a good sounding source, from tape, and there are no other CD releases of this album shown on Amazon, so I'd say this comes from an online exclusive album.

Jim Photoglo - Fool In Love With You
- this has been available on a Japanese CD for about 10 years; there are no domestic CDs of this album.

Stevie Woods - Steal The Night
Stevie Woods - Just Can't Win 'Em All
- the album these songs come from appears to be an online exclusive. No CDs show up on amazon.

Greg Guidry - Goin' Down
-this album (Sould Out) came out on an import CD in 2003. No domestic CDs.

Eddie Schwartz - All Our Tomorrows
-I think this is an online exclusive

Wayne Newton - Years
-this comes from an actual CD - Wayne Newton "Dynasty Collection Vol. 1", which has been out since 2007

That's too bad, Aaron. And as for other top 40 hits - For the first time ever, I saw the original Stonebolt album available digitally (on iTunes) today. (The only other CD that has the top 40 hit "Will Still Love You" is a Varese Sarabande CD where they took it from vinyl.) But I think this one may be from vinyl, too. Aaron, can you give a listen and tell me if you think it's from vinyl?

I also found on Amazon today, 30-song collections by both Mary MacGregor and Shaun Cassidy, filling in a lot of missing gaps on CD, but unfortunately, both were taken from vinyl! Certainly the Cassidy collection was, and I think the MacGregor one was too but I'm not sure. It makes me wonder if the actual owners are really putting these up (too lazy to transfer tapes or find them) or if it's just fans and/or bootleg labels.

EdisonLite wrote: ...can you give a listen and tell me if you think it's from vinyl?

Ewww...bad sounding vinyl. You'll be better off doing the Stonebolt cleanup on your own.

EdisonLite wrote: It makes me wonder if the actual owners are really putting these up (too lazy to transfer tapes or find them) or if it's just fans and/or bootleg labels.

I know for certain that fans and/or bootleg labels are not allowed to put things on iTunes. They require the person/company who owns the masters and rights to submit the songs. Now, it's possible that the original record labels would have given up the rights to the owners for some of those songs. I can't imagine it would be too profitable to spend any money or time on digging up the masters for songs like "I Will Still Love You" or "Holding On" by Tane Cain. In that case, the owners might not have had access to the master tapes. Perhaps they are lost or damaged. Maybe the owners even have the master tapes, but the tapes aren't playable any longer because of improper storage or lack of equipment.

By the way, the Tane Cain sounds like vinyl to me, and so does Pink Lady's "Kiss In The Dark." Eddie Schwartz sounds like a tape source.

The biggest shame is that iTunes still doesn't offer lossless.