Hidden Treasures - Rerecorded

[Scott]

 

With covers week behind us I thought a great segway would be to look at some Rerecorded tunes. Like cover albums, classic rocks artists seem to be rerecording hit songs from their back catalog. Sometimes with great success, but all the time so that they can control usage and royalties of these songs.

Case in point... KISS. When they released Sonic Boom, they included a disc of rerecorded material. Which they promptly released to Guitar Hero and Band Hero games. Also, it seemed that to strike the "Wal-Mart" deal it was something that made the deal even sweeter. Journey did it as well. So I went back and took a look at rerecorded songs and found a treasure trove of material hidden in Greatest Hits packages and recent releases.

 

And while this playlist will be more mellow and mid-tempo than what we’ve posted lately, I think you'll love the listening experience. So here's 3 of the coolest!

 

PLAYLIST --> http://snack.to/adp84nnu

	BENNY MARDONES - ST 1989 1 - Into The Night This song is so good it hit the Billboard Top 20, twice! Once in 1980 and once again in 1989. Spending a total of 37 weeks on the charts, which, at the time, broke Laura Branigans record of 36. In 1989, KZZP, a radio station in Arizona, ran a segment titled "Where Are They Now?" The most popular question was "Whatever happened to the guy who sang 'Into the Night'?" Scott Shannon, then program director for Pirate Radio in Los Angeles, added "Into the Night" to its playlist. Radio stations across the country followed suit and "Into the Night" was once again a hit. Mardones was 33 years old when the song became a hit for the first time and he still lives quite well on the royalties. Even though his lone hit charted twice, Mardones is still considered a "one-hit wonder." He continues to have a substantial fan following in Syracuse, New York with his band, the Hurricanes. This song can originally be found on his album titled "Never Run, Never Hide" released in 1980.
	THE DOOBIE BROTHERS -World Gone Crazy 2010   2 - Nobody The first single from their debut album, "Nobody," failed to chart, as did the album itself. The single was re-released in 1974 after the group had become a highly successful touring and recording act, peaking at #58 on the Billboard Hot 100. Willing to go after it a third time, the band rerecorded the song and included it on their 2010 release "World Gone Crazy". Although it may come too late for chart success, the track really work as a rerecorded song. All the hallmark acoustic geetar work is still in place just better heard.
	STYX - Greatest Hits 1995 3 - Lady 95' Previous greatest hits packages had excluded the hit song "Lady" because the song was originally recorded for and released through Wooden Nickel Records (which also had a distribution arrangement with RCA Records). Because A&M/Polygram had been unable to secure distribution rights to the song, most of the classic lineup of Styx (Dennis DeYoung, Tommy Shaw, Chuck Panozzo, and James "J.Y." Young) reunited to re-record the track at Dennis' home studio. They were joined by uncredited session drummer Todd Sucherman, who filled in for John Panozzo due to Panozzo's failing health. It was first released on Styx II and was a local hit in the band's native Chicago, but initially failed to chart nationally until the band moved to A&M Records in 1974.

[Scott]

So...  what did the liner notes say?

[Jon]

"Like the recent Styx re-recordings which are better than the original recordings since the band is now comprised of REAL Styx members, I decided I should re-record some of my early stuff as well, hoping to match Styx with the awesomeness of their re-recordings. I think I did just that!"

[Scott]

Oh...  Makes sense...

[Niels (Mod)]

Dare I say: Check out "Genesis Revisited II". It's awesome. Better than most of the originals, even though it's only Steve Hackett, and not the rest of Genesis.

I remember when KISS re-recorded "Strutter" in '78. It's was bloody pointless, like most re-recordings, in my opinion.

[Scott]

If Strutter 78 was my point of reference for rerecords I'd hate 'em too!  hahahaha

[RJhog (Admin)]

I think Strutter '78 was a remix, not a re-record.  

[Scott]

Wiki knows all...

Many the songs on Double Platinum were remixed and differ from their original versions: in the case of "Strutter," it was re-recorded with a slight disco beat and dubbed as "Strutter '78." Other songs ("Hard Luck Woman," "Detroit Rock City") had sections completely removed, while the beginning of "Black Diamond" was repeated at the end, fading out at the start of the first verse and giving the song a "wrap around" feel. The overall sound of the album is slightly flat and compressed, to give a similar sound to the varying productions of each track which are taken from the albums between the years 1974 up to 1977.

The Japanese single release of "Strutter '78" includes a different version to that on the album: faster and shorter, with an altered guitar solo, plus a more prominent hi-hat (cymbal) sound throughout.

[Niels (Mod)]

Yeah, Wiki and me, obviously 

[RJhog (Admin)]

Yes, I could have sworn it was a remix, but with Wiki as well as Kissfaq.com, I stand corrected...

In February 1978 KISS entered Electric Lady Studios to re-record “Strutter” for the “Double Platinum” album. The recording of this song was considered to be a big mistake by Sean Delaney (and by Ace who didn’t see any particular reason to re-record the track), who seems to have taken a lot of flack for the song being redone in a so-called “disco” style per Neil Bogart’s request. Yet there are really few changes to the song other than it having an additional solo, making the song sound closer to the 1973 demo version. The production values were even smoother than the original KISS album version. According to Paul, “We once re-recorded a song, it was ‘Strutter.’ And I thought it sucked. It was bullshit. There was no reason to do it, it was pointless because we had no new point of view and no reason to re-cut something that came out so good the first time” (Jeff Schaller, Late Night Magazine). However, it wouldn’t be the last time the band re-recorded their songs...

[Jon]

That's enough about Kiss for today!

[Jon]

I have that Benny Mardones album, don't really notice that much difference in the versions? Maybe more polished with the "new" version but they sound basically the same. 

Never knew that Doobies song was a re-record. Nice song, I like it but can't compare it to the original. 

As for Styx....why? Kinda pointless to remake this. Dennis' vocals sound a bit weak compared to the original, plus it sounds very "tinny". I have this, don't really care for it too much. Shame that the NEW IMPROVED Styx hasn't re-reorded this (yet) 'cause I'm sure it would be the biggest hit ever in the world since the dawn of time. 

Nice list though, especially since I learned something new!

     

[Jon]

Here's a few songs from the Bob Welch CD I was talking about.