The Version Everybody Knows - A rant about music discovery in the streaming era.

A while back, I was looking for an alternate version of Tommy Tutone’s “867-5309/Jenny” that appeared in Rock Band 3, but sure enough every time I tried to look for this version, it kept giving me the original version from 1981’s Tommy Tutone 2. Eve with putting in the album name and “re-record,” it kept coming back to the original album version and not this unusual re-record that was used. That made me sad, because I genuinely want to listen to this version of the song in a way where I don’t have to hear game sounds from Rock Band 3.

One thing that really irks me about the streaming world of Spotify et al is that if you wanna find a classic rock or pop hit, they’ll just give you the most popular version. Usually that’s the version featured on the original album. Which, hey, if you’re just looking for that song to listen to, that’s great, you’ll be happy, end of story.

But for me, I have a softer spot for alternate mixes and radio edits. This was incredibly common in the 1970s, where there would be an album version of which they’d speed up and edit it down for radio airplay. This continued after the age of album-oriented radio, but usually would be relegated to special remixes and 12” mixes that would be played at clubs. Most of the time they’d play the original song from the album, perhaps cut down so the station can get more songs and commercials in.

The thing is that it leads to a problem I’ve called The Version Everybody Knows. You hear about a song, you wanna listen to it, places like Spotify or Apple Music give you the original version. But sometimes, especially in the days before the internet, that may not have been the version that was the hit. That isn’t to say the album version wasn’t popular, but it clouds the history of the songs a little.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SA_2m4n-wjE

Here’s a few examples. Example one: Gerry Rafferty’s “Baker Street.” You search for that, you get The Version Everybody Knows from his 1978 album City to City. A smooth, catchy 6 minute jam with that famous Raphael Ravenscroft saxophone lick. However, the version that charted in the Billboard Hot 100 was a completely different mix, featured above: It’s a little over 4 minutes, it’s moved up one key, a bridge or two taken out to immediately get to Hugh Burns’ guitar solo. This might sound weird to your ears if you’re used to the album version like I was, but for folks who were around back then when it was new, this is likely the version they remember.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MEauaS6mpUU

Example two: Bee Gees’ “Nights on Broadway.” The Version Everybody Knows is the one from Main Course. Slow jam that starts out the album. But there’s an alternate version on Tales from the Brothers Gibb, a compilation album from 1990 that has a significantly different mix! Joseph Brennan wrote about this on his website “Gibb Songs,” which chronicles everything recorded by the Brothers Gibb:

              ‘Nights on Broadway’ was edited for radio by removing the slow section, just to bring it to a more acceptable length of 2:52. It was also speeded up— or was it? The version on Tales from the Brothers Gibb is also faster than the album, and fades a little later despite a 4:25 running time. That appears to be the correct speed. If so then ‘Nights on Broadway’ was slowed down for the album, presumably to make ‘Jive Talkin’’ sound faster by contrast.

It’s interesting, because as much as I don’t mind the slightly slower album version, I kinda prefer this version more, it feels more… authentic? People clowned on the Bee Gees’ high falsetto vocals but I think it fits better here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uQf2BIvDVTk

Example three: Eddie Money’s “Two Tickets to Paradise.” The Version Everybody Knows is that album cut from his self-titled debut. But there was a single version that had a much richer mix than the original, with more guitar licks during the pre-chorus despite the shorter length. The only way you can get this is from a “Very Best of Eddie Money” compilation that came out in the late 2000s, every other Eddie Money compilation will likely have the album version.

While all my examples so far have come from the 1970s, it isn’t exclusive to it. One more example: Daryl Hall & John Oates’ “Adult Education,” from 1984. The version of the greatest hits compilation Rock n’ Soul Part 1 and the one featured in the music video are different mixes! I learned how to tell the difference is if I heard Hall repeatedly say “Adult” several times while a synth drum beat starts playing before the opening riff. The music video uses a version called the “Special Rock Mix” done by the amazing Bob Clearmountain and Nile Rodgers. This drove me nuts when Hall & Oates compilations bounce between the version featured on Rock n’ Soul Part 1 or this Special Rock Mix.

As someone who listens to a whole bunch of music – which can have dozens upon dozens of mixes and edits – these particular alternate versions of songs become The Version I Remember, which is often different than The Version Everybody Knows. Thus you and I could have completely different experiences about the same song, because we could be listening to different versions of the same song.

I’ve had this happen a few times while using Spotify: I’d favorite the version of “Nights on Broadway” from Tales of the Brothers Gibb, yet after a while it would defaulted me back to the original featured on Main Course. Looking at the comment sections for some of the songs I linked, you can see people going “now this is the version of the song I remember!” so I’m not alone on this. Even someone I know on a Discord server was bemoaning the fact that she couldn’t find a specific version of an Alkaline Trio song, and that’s a more recent example!

This whole thing’s exacerbated by the Apple Musics, the Spotifys and so on just funneling the average listeners to just The Version Everybody Knows. Which may be okay for most, but for others they might feel the Mandela effect, where they start wondering if this alternate mix they remember even existed. It’s a shame how some music isn’t well preserved in the streaming era.

Moral of this story: Seek out alternate versions. Alternate mixes, official or fan made (a friend of mine will praise DJ Disco Cat’s “Disco Purrfection” mixes of 70s classics, and I can concur that these are pretty good!). Single mixes, 12” mix versions. Hell, I’d even consider mashups a part of this same phenomenon. You might suddenly find a version of a song that you love more than The Version Everybody Knows, that it suddenly becomes The Version You Remember instead. Listen beyond The Version Everybody Knows. Cause Spotify definitely won’t help you on that.

(I will note this really only applies to older songs from the pre-iTunes/streaming era. Newer songs might already have rules like this set in place so you can find specific versions or mixes, but this can still be a problem even for newer songs, as the anecdote I shared proves.)