Album Anomalies - Music - Forums : Best Ever Albums

Johnnyo

Gender: Male

Age: 67

Location: London Town

Hi all. This might not be a thread that works but we have some very knowledgeable people on this site so i was thinking that, should you have a query about an album which deviates from what is standard, normal, or expected (i.e. the entry on this site) you can ask the question, as i have done below.

Thought that I'd give in a go and see if anyone is interested in engaging

Johnnyo

Gender: Male

Age: 67

Location: London Town

I have a copy of

Touching You, Touching Me (1969) by Neil Diamond

UNLS 110 (MAPS 2036) on MCA Records

Everywhere I look, including on BEA, the track listing goes from Holy Holy to Both Sides Now however, on my copy of the album, the track straight after Holy Holy is Sweet Caroline. The cover is also different with Sweet Caroline listed on the front below Until It's Time For You To Go

Does anyone have any explanations for this? Why is this pressing different?

MadhattanJack

Just to end the list

Gender: Male

Johnnyo wrote:

UNLS 110 (MAPS 2036) on MCA Records

Everywhere I look, including on BEA, the track listing goes from Holy Holy to Both Sides Now however, on my copy of the album, the track straight after Holy Holy is Sweet Caroline. The cover is also different with Sweet Caroline listed on the front below Until It's Time For You To Go

Does anyone have any explanations for this? Why is this pressing different?

The catalogue number tells the story — you've presumably got a UNI Records version, meaning it's probably a US import (UNI was one of the precursor labels for the Universal Music Group). It's probably one of these three pressings. As to why they added it in, that's the standard answer, namely "money." Back in 1969-70 it was still fairly common for people to release songs as as singles only, and "Sweet Caroline" was originally just a single, but because it was a hit the UNI guys figured they could sell more of that album after its initial sales "window" by throwing it on as a bonus track. They even did the exact same with UNI pressings of his previous LP, Brother Love's Traveling Salvation Show — this pressing for example has "Sweet Caroline" tacked on at the very end.

It actually wasn't until the mid-70s that it became common for recording artists to have language in their contracts that gave them right-of-approval/refusal when foreign and secondary licensees wanted to monkey around with their albums' track-listings. I think the Beatles might even have been the first band to demand that right and actually get it, starting with Rubber Soul and Revolver — all their previous LPs had been monkeyed with pretty badly by Capitol Records in the US, and that's supposedly one of the reasons they approved the "butcher babies" cover photo for Yesterday and Today — that was their way of showing their displeasure about this very issue.

Johnnyo

Gender: Male

Age: 67

Location: London Town

MadhattanJack wrote:

Johnnyo wrote:

UNLS 110 (MAPS 2036) on MCA Records

Everywhere I look, including on BEA, the track listing goes from Holy Holy to Both Sides Now however, on my copy of the album, the track straight after Holy Holy is Sweet Caroline. The cover is also different with Sweet Caroline listed on the front below Until It's Time For You To Go

Does anyone have any explanations for this? Why is this pressing different?

The catalogue number tells the story — you've presumably got a UNI Records version, meaning it's probably a US import (UNI was one of the precursor labels for the Universal Music Group). It's probably one of these three pressings. As to why they added it in, that's the standard answer, namely "money." Back in 1969-70 it was still fairly common for people to release songs as as singles only, and "Sweet Caroline" was originally just a single, but because it was a hit the UNI guys figured they could sell more of that album after its initial sales "window" by throwing it on as a bonus track. They even did the exact same with UNI pressings of his previous LP, Brother Love's Traveling Salvation Show — this pressing for example has "Sweet Caroline" tacked on at the very end.

It actually wasn't until the mid-70s that it became common for recording artists to have language in their contracts that gave them right-of-approval/refusal when foreign and secondary licensees wanted to monkey around with their albums' track-listings. I think the Beatles might even have been the first band to demand that right and actually get it, starting with Rubber Soul and Revolver — all their previous LPs had been monkeyed with pretty badly by Capitol Records in the US, and that's supposedly one of the reasons they approved the "butcher babies" cover photo for Yesterday and Today — that was their way of showing their displeasure about this very issue.

Thanks for that MJ. Very interesting.

It's the 1969 UK release that I have and thanks for the link. I Hadn't appreciated that Sweet Caroline was originally only released as a single. It's such a quintessentially Diamond track that I just assumed that it was from an album. I don't own the Brother's Love album. Just wonder how many Diamond albums (excluding Greatest Hits) have Sweet Caroline on it? Thanks again for the feedback