barbra streisand sweet inspiration where

Perhaps there was a promo 45 with a dj edit for this medley
back in the summer of '72. I would think to get some
airplay the six minute commercial 45 might not cut it then.

80smusicfreak wrote: "SPECIAL PROGRAMMING SPIRAL" (perhaps one of our former dj's here could kindly explain just what exactly the latter means???

That means it's been banded (which is the more common promo term.) The reservice was done after Columbia received feedback from some programmers that they'd rather skip the slow intro and start the record cold where Babs starts singing "Wanting you the way I do" on "Where You Lead." The band made it both easier and faster for DJs to cue it up at that spot by providing a visual point of reference on the playing surface.

The original DJ 45 shown on eBay is a Terre Haute styrene pressing; the banded reservice copy is a Santa Maria vinyl pressing. You can easily see the band/spiral on the eBay photo of the latter pressing.

Similarly, specially-banded promo LPs were often a godsend on the air. One was ELO's Face The Music, which edited out all the weird stuff between each song that was included on commercial copies.

Another was "Babbacombe" Lee, Fairport Convention's 1972 concept album on A&M. Commercial copies contained long narratives between the actual songs, with the banding configured as three unnumbered tracks on side one and two on the second side. Trying to cue up individual songs - which weren't even titled on either the label or the jacket - was a lesson in frustration.

The A&M DJ LP had a large "this album has been banded for radio play" sticker on the cover. Intended expressly for airplay, it cut out all of the narration, leaving only the songs themselves, five to a side. Each song on the promo record was individually banded and titled. Due to the lack of any actual song titles on the original concept LP, the act of separating them for airplay led to some initial confusion: the title of the lead-off single, "The World Has Surely Lost Its Head" was taken from the opening line of the song whose title had morphed into "Breakfast In Mayfair" by the time the banded promo LP was released. When the album was finally issued on CD by Island, several more of those tentative A&M titles had also changed.

The most extreme example of a banded record in my collection is a seven-inch promo 45 (Fantasy 2876/2877) by the Congress Of Wonders, a comedy duo. The promo 45 ("Radio Phil" b/w "The Nudes") consists of snippets of faux ads and news bits edited from the similarly-titled tracks on the Revolting LP. Listed times on the respective 45 sides are 5:41 and 3:59. There are fourteen (!) individually-banded tracks on each side. Try cueing up one of those without a magnifying glass, and without having to count up from cut one without having to start over again at least once. :)

Edited by Yah Shure

80smusicfreak wrote: I also noticed this pressing of the original (non-reservice) promo that has a label font that matches the reservice copy that you state is a Santa Maria vinyl pressing.

This third copy is actually a styrene Pitman pressing. The banded vinyl Santa Maria reservice 45 happens to use label copy which was typeset at the Pitman plant. This sometimes occurred at the other two plants when song titles were on the longish side, as Pitman's more tightly-condensed title fonts were a sharper, crisper fit.

How can one tell the difference between Columbia's vinyl and styrene 45s in those photos? The paper label area on the vinyl pressing is more finely-contoured than its comparatively flat counterparts on the two styrene copies. Look at the label's inner ring surrounding the center hole. Notice how it's thinner there than most of the rest of the label? Likewise, the outer edge of the label has a rounded, contoured appearance where it meets up with the black vinyl playing surface. The same outer edges on the styrenes are as flat as Fargo.

Linda Ronstadt's banded promo 45 of "You're No Good" worked in reverse: the band appeared at the point separating the final "you're no good" refrain from the instrumental coda that followed it. The label even included timing info for an optional earlier (and cold) ending:

Intro - :09
Fade - 1:07
Song - 2:28
Total - 3:35

The banding on both the mono and stereo sides is the reason for their "PRO-" and "SPRO" matrix number, neither of which is the same as that found on the non-banded commercial 45.

Edited by Yah Shure

The promo 45 with the "Special Programming Spiral" is exactly the same
length/version as the un-banded stock and promo 45s were. The point in
the song where the band occurs is at the 0:59 second mark, after her
opening slow vocal segment ends with "my......way....", and just before the
start of her more uptempo, "wanting you the way I do" vocal verse. I actually
do think this suggested, alternate starting point sounds much better, and
would've been my programming choice, were I in radio back in 1972.....