Saturday Deluxe / 2 May 2015
It’s the weekend! For a change of pace this week on Saturday Deluxe, SDE is bringing back a favourite feature… Second Hand News! For the uninitiated, this is a a feature that takes a look under the skin of some charity shop / thrift store purchases. Basically, an excuse to talk about old records! Hope you enjoy and would love to read some comments!
Second Hand News / May 2015
Wham! / I’m Your Man 12-inch picture disc (£3.99)
After a ludicrously busy 1984, Wham!‘s world tour – including the famous trip to China – kept them busy during much of 1985 and they only released one single (not counting the Last Christmas reissue). I’m Your Man was that single and it became their third number one. This picture disc (showing a scene from the video) had the same Extended Version / Do It Right (Instrumental) /Acappella track listing as the standard 12-inch. The fairly rare three-track cassette single (still have mine) replaced the instrumental with the short single version – the only format other than the seven-inch vinyl single to feature it.
The Police / Don’t Stand So Close To Me ’86 12-inch single (£1.99)
The Laurie Latham co-produced Don’t Stand So Close To Me ’86 re-recording has come in for a lot of stick over the years, but I don’t mind it. This Police 12-inch also included the six minute ‘Dance Mix’ version which you’d think might be exclusive to this vinyl but the longer remix was featured (uncredited) on some (all?) editions of 1993’s Message in a Box set. This four-track single includes a live version of the original as well as the original studio version. Latham and The Police also completed a reworking of De Do Do Do De Da Da Da in the same sessions but this has only surfaced (so far) on the 5.1 layer of the SACD of Every Breath You Take: The Classics.
First Light / First Light (50p)
Three years before the soon-to-be reissued smash 19, Paul Hardcastle started a band called First Light with a guy called Derek Green. This vinyl version of their eponymous debut seems to be a German release and on the front it reads “Contains all 3 Maxi-singles + unreleased track She’s A Mystery”. The artwork may be a bit naff, but the music is satisfying electro funk/pop and Steve Levine produces one track.
Paul Young / No Parlez LP (£1)
Okay, to be fair there is nothing particularly rare about finding a vinyl copy of Paul Young‘s No Parlez in a charity shop (!), but upon closer inspection the ‘removable’ sticker on the outside indicates that this was a limited edition that included a bonus 12-inch of Young’s first single Iron Out The Rough Spots (“special remixed version”). Interestingly, there doesn’t appear to have been a commercial 12-inch issued for Iron Out The Rough Spots, so this bonus vinyl must have been the first time it was issued to the public. The catalogue number is XPR1234 and the B-side was Behind Your Smile.
Wings / Good Night Tonight 12-inch (£1.99)
Paul McCartney signed a lucrative deal with Columbia Records in America in the late seventies, but the first album under the deal was Back To The Egg which didn’t feature this highly successful non-album single. The first ever Macca 12-inch, this includes an extended seven minute version of Goodnight Tonight and was backed with Daytime Nightime Suffering one of Paul’s very best B-sides. It also has a very groovy indeed inner sleeve (see above). Neither Getting Closer or Arrow Through Me, which were pulled from Back To The Egg as singles in the US, did anything like the business of Goodnight Tonight which must have really irked Columbia.
Stevie Wonder / Gotta Have You US 12-inch (£1)
The third single from Stevie Wonder‘s somewhat forgotten soundtrack to Spike Lee’s 1991 film Jungle Fever. This US 12-inch features three versions of the track and the B-side Feeding off the Love of the Land is an updated version of a song that featured on 1990 charity album Nobody’s Child.
Supertramp / It’s Raining Again US promo 12″ (£1.99)
Unusual Supertramp promotional 12-inch featuring two tracks off their 1982 album ...Famous Last Words… Although the label enticingly calls It’s Raining Again the ‘CHR Mix’ and Waiting So Long the ‘Special AOR Mix’, these sound like the standard album versions.
Suzanne Vega / 12″ Promo (£1)
Ah, the mystery of the white label. All I knew, before purchase, was that this was Suzanne Vega, but for the investment of just £1 seemed worth the ‘risk’ of picking this up just to see what this was. It turns out to be the DNA featuring Suzanne Vega version of Tom’s Diner. Vocal version on the A-side and instrumental on the B-side. Not bad.
Simply Red / Holding Back The Years 12-inch (£1)
A reissued Holding Back The Years was Simply Red‘s fifth single in 1986 and a US number one. The song didn’t quite make it to the top spot in the UK where it stalled at number 2. It would be another nine years until the band had their one and only UK number one with Fairground. This twelve inch features the Adrian Sherwood mixed Picture Book In Dub.
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@Paul: Does the two Paul Young 12″ tracks are the ones on the “Remixes & Rarities” 2CD?
The 12″ of Iron Out The Rough Spots is on Remixes and Rarities, yes. The B-side to the 12″ is the studio version of Behind Your Smile. That isn’t on R&R although a live version is. P.
thanks for the info on Paul Young- I picked up the LP and 12″ for 33p and assumed iron out had been stored with the LP and the former owner had simply lost the sleeve!
Iron out the rough spots/Behind your smile from Paul Young appears also on the 2008 reissue of No Parlez. The 12″mix of Iron out the rough spots has a running time of 7:29.
My Message in a Box also features the Extended version of DSSCTM but then again mine is the original UK release so I guess that makes sense.
I quite like this version and I really wish they had managed to achieve their original intention to release rerecorded versions of all their hits – however as the well-known story goes, trying to record this track became the final nail in the Police’s coffin when they couldn’t agree on whether to use a Fairlight (Copeland’s choice) or a Synclavier (Sting’s choice).
For what it’s worth, Sting was probably right as Fairlight recordings tend to sound much more dated these days… :-)
Argh, too bad I have the “Ear Book” re-release version.
I have the US version of Message in a Box which according to Discogs features the standard version of Don’t Stand So Close…’86. It does show the original EU box as having the extended version but not the 2006 EU reissue. Bummer. Have been trying to track down the promo-only CD Video which features the short and long version of ’86 as well as the live version from the 12″.
I never understood why holding back the years was edited/faded on the album release. In mine opinion the 12″ version is the actual version and the album version is just an early fade. .,But that’s just mine 2 cents.
The Holding Back the Years 12″ has an uncredited extended version on the a-side.
Am I allowed to mention that I am running a Second Hand Record Fair in NZ on the 30th May. Worth visiting for if not just to see the Hobbits and Sheep haha.
Nice to see the return of Second Hand News. As a resident of the US, I’ve always enjoyed seeing the different singles and 12″ that are sold in the UK. I live in a rather small town and before learning the joys of amazonUK, I rarely even knew these items existed. Second Hand News is one of my favorite updates!
My “Police – Message In A Box” (Numbered, cat# 540 150-2 Europe) also contains the 6:24 mix. I bought this immediately when it came out. This is the first time i’ve heard about it. Thanks for the info!
Ha ha, good old ‘No Parlez’! The Music & Video Exchange shop in Notting Hill used to have so many secondhand copies of it that the album had its own named section in the racks and a wall display covered with copies of it. Only ‘Kick’ by INXS ever received the same dubious treatment.
I remember reading back in the day that that same shop got overrun with copies of McCartney’s CCCP album so much so that they posted a sticker in the window pleading with sellers not to bring in any more!
Nice Saturday posting – love those ‘Second Hand News’ updates and was already starting to miss them.
Both DSSCTM and No Parlez were among my little purge of vinyl when I moved to Canada, Surprisingly, finding a copy of No Parlez over here isn’t as easy as in the UK. Did manage to find one last year in the local Value Village for $2, and a lovely copy too, with insert (not inner sleeve in the US). Cool find getting the bonus 12″. Never heard of that release before.
I feel the same about Don’t Stand So Close ’86, it’s better than its reputation would suggest. Still a daft decision not to put the original on Every Breath You Take: The Singles, but hey-ho. I’ll have to dig out my Message In A Box for that longer remix!
Just saw this – and sadly tthe US editions of the box set did NOT include the 12″ mix of “Don’t Stand So Close To Me’86”, only the “new” single version. That made promo cd and 12″ copies of this item quite important. The live track was previously unreleased, at least until the double LIVE album came out years later (if it was the same 1983 source material)…. The extended mix has vocal takes from the original track as well as other police hits buried in echo, making for quite the looking-back-glass effect…… I did note years later that the 12″ book sized version of the box set did include the 12″ version…..(still not in the USA).
That Suzanne Vega 12″ is a great find, especially for £1. I’d just been discussing the DNA version of Tom’s Diner with some friends earlier this week – in comparison to the (execrable, IMHO) version just put out by Giorgio Morodor “featuring” Britney Spears.
My thrift store finds are never this interesting. I need to find some better shops.
That Morodor/Spears thing is just a sterile abomination. Usually people who know the name Morodor know that there is a level of quality associated with the release but it’s just dull soulless dance music.
I love the passion and enthusiasm of showing these purchases. We all feel excited when we find some bargains we enjoy.
I just wish that First Light album was available on CD. “Explain The Reasons” was such a great single and (to my knowledge) has never been on CD. Maybe one day…….
That First Light album that Paul picked up is on the German Metroname label. The price has started to rise – cheapest copy on Discogs is now €33. A cheaper alternative is the 1984 LP named Daybreak credited to Paul Hardcastle & 1st Light. It has all the tracks bar A Horse With No Name and also adds Wish You Were Here and Stop The Clock. The latter is one of my favourite electro LPs of all time.