I wrote a long letter on this subject yesterday but it somehow got lost
in the great confines of the universe, so I'll try again. It is very
common for me to run out of space when titling discs because I use
titles like these:
WAITING FOR TONIGHT (Pablo Flores Miami Mix (English)) / JENNIFER LOPEZ
December 1999 Billboard Hot 100 Airplay No. 4 November 1999 Billboard
No. 8 track from "On The 6" BPM:130
The Jennifer Lopez song is interesing, because there are many dance
mixes of the song, yet you can only buy the song if you buy the album or
a 12 inch VINYL single, there is no U.S. commercial single available.
(at least not yet.) So the Billboard Hot 100 peak chart position is
lower than the Billboard Hot 100 peak positiion. Another example of this
is Lou Bega's "Mambo No. 5 (A Little Bit Of...)" which was No. 1 on the
Billboard Hot 100 Airplay chart for 6 weeks, yet because there was only
a 12 inch VINYL single commercially available, the best it could do on
the Billboard Hot 100 was No. 3. I always put the chart numbers of songs
in my titles and update the TOC each week as a song climbs the charts.
Sometimes, this means going way back as in the case of "The Rockafeller
Skank" by Fatboy Slim, which originally peaked at No. 78 in October
1998, but which now has a second chart life and has peaked again at No.
77 in November 1999. I note both chart positions because the song
essentially has two chart lives, having charted, then falling off the
chart for an extended period of time, only to reenter the chart a second
time. In recent chart history, the most succsessful song I can recall
doing this was "Macarena (Bayside Boys Mix)" by Los Del Rio, which
peaked at No. 45 the first time around, and over a year later, reentered
the chart and went to No. 1, where it stayed for 14 weeks.
Starting with the Billboard Hot 100 the first issue of December 1998,
Billboard changed it's chart policy and allowed songs with no commercial
retail single to chart on the Hot 100, whereas before, they were only
eligible to chart on the Billboard Hot 100 Airplay chart. This was done
because of the ever growing trend of labels not to release single
versions of a lot of hit songs, so the consumer would have to buy the
album instead. Thus, songs that were huge at radio like "Walkin' On The
Sun" by Smash Mouth never appeared on the Hot 100, although the song was
No. 2 on the Hot 100 Airplay chart. This year, because of the change in
chart methodology, Smash Mouth's "All Star" reached No. 4 on the Hot
100, despite the fact a commercial U.S. single was never released. This
is the highest position a song has attained on the Hot 100 without a
commercial single being available, although this week "I Knew I Loved
You" by Savage Garden ties the No. 4 mark. Brian McKnight's "Back At
One" is No. 2, but technically, is a single because a 12 inch VINYL
version is available, but sales of this type of single are minimal and
generally don't affect a songs Hot 100 position.
Where titling can really take up space is a song like "My Heart Will Go
On (Love Theme From "Titanic") by Celine Dion. The song was No. 1 for 10
weeks on the Billboard Hot 100 Airplay chart, then, finally, when a
limited edition single (650.000 copies only) was released the song went
to No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 for 2 weeks. All this information is
titled into my minidisc copies. In addition to that, I also note the
albums. In this case, the song appears on two different albums (not
counting the new Greatest Hits album, which I would not insert into the
title because it was not released at the time of the song's peak
popularity), the "Titanic" soundtrack, of course, and Celine Dion's
album "Let's Talk About Love". In addition to that, there are many
different versions of the song, all with their own mix names. There are
several dance versions which were never commercially released in the
U.S., and a number of ambitious Top 40 radio station music directors
created their own versions with dialogue from the film interspersed with
the song itself. These included the Titanic Z104 Version, Nick's KIIS
Mix, KISS Dallas Mix and a few others.
The all time champ for pain in the a** titling has to be the new Fiona
Apple album title. The official title is NINETY WORDS LONG! Even
Billboard officially lists it as "When The Pawn...", forgoing the
remaining 87 words, which I do as well, when titling a song from that
album, so far the only one I have is the leadoff single (although again
not available as a retail single) "Fast As You Can" which would be a
good contest in a bar for anybody who could actually recite the entire
album title, no doubt much harder to memorize than the 66 books of the
Old and New Testaments of the traditional Christian Bible.
I run out of space for words so often I am ocassionally forced to title
tracks with numbers, as in "309A5". 309 refers to the HitDisc series
(HitDisc is a weekly programming service provided to radio stations,
producion companies, disc jockeys and so on that sends 4 CD's a week to
subscribers encompassing new releases from the following formats: Adult
Contemporary, Adult Top 40, CHR (Contemporary Hit Radio a/k/a Top 40),
Rhythm Top 40, Rap, Hip-Hop, Urban Contemporary (a/k/a R & B-Rhythm &
Blues), Mainstream Album Rock, Alternative Rock, New Rock, Modern Rock,
New Wave, Grunge, AAA (Adult Album Alternative), Country, Urban Adult
Contemporary (a/k/a Quiet Storm R & B), New Age Conemporary, Jazz,
Dance, Disco, Techno, Club and House-all artists, all labels, even if
it's only a moderate hit or in many cases not a hit at all. I have been
a subscriber of the TM Century HitDisc service since it's inception in
1989. (If this is of interest to you, you can find out more abot the
HitDisc service at http://www.tmcentury.com In the above example, 309A5
refers to the HitDisc weekly series (309) the disc of that series (A)
and the track number (5) In this case, it is the highly forgettable and
downright sucky "Do I Love You" by Paul Anka & Anthea Anka Featuring
Kenny G & Barry Gibb. I always put songs like this toward the back of
the disc and the more popular songs upfront, even if means moving them
several times. In this way, should a song become more popular later I
can always move it toward the front of the disc, relegating the songs
that suck toward the rear. Why record songs that suck at all? Because
you never know when you might need them, however unlikely.
All this TOC updating and recording plays hell with my MD units. The
Sony Service Center people know me well. My MDS-JA20ES blew up for the
second time last week, which means I will be getting a third MDSJA20ES
as a replacement sometime in the next few days. Thankfully, for me, the
ES machines have a five year warranty. Believe me, I need it. My MZR55
will also be replaced, this will be the fifth or sixth one of these
units I will have gone through. I've pretty much had bad luck with most
of my MD units (about 20 or so) because of the extensive recording and
edting I do, yet the ES decks in particular, are designed to take heavy
use. I would never buy a cheaper MD deck, it just wouldn't work very
well for me. The unit I have had the least problems with is the JVC-XMD1
(currently up for auction on E-Bay) I have never had a problem with it,
although I suspect the reason for that is I mainly use it as a clock and
use my ES decks for all my recording and TOC updates. The JVC-XMD1 gets
very little use compared to the others, including the MZR55. I am hoping
the MZR90 will turn out to be a much more robust portable.
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