music videos with a radically different mix/version of the song than the album version

this always used to drive me nuts, and probably would today if i was listening to an album that had one of these, and wanted to hear the video version, and discovered that that was hard to get ahold of. so annoying!!

like:

TLC - No Scrubs - has a whole rap section from Left Eye, talking about "DVD on digital TV screens" and stuff, which completely rules and also gives the song a badly needed bridge, without which it's always felt montonous to me

Paul McCartney - Ballroom Dancing - kinda like much longer "extended version" with longer instrumental breaks.... but, not from the same take as the album version, different and suckier vocal track, kind of a different mix that maybe sounds more "live" but also dinkier...

Wyclef Jean - Cheated - actually a different song entirely, a meat-n-potatoes midtempo rock ballad with a big hooky chorus, melodic verses with totally different lyrics, basically just starting from the ground up with the word "cheated" and Wyclef Jean as the artist

This is really a single mix=video mix thing, but one of my first CDs was Fever In Fever Out by Luscious Jackson and I was so disappointed in the album mix of "Naked Eye" (which I'm into now BTW).

I've always thought the way they re-edit "Thriller" in the video makes it a much worse song

Bjork “Big Time Sensuality” video uses a Fluke remix instead of the album version

wait fuck Wyclef did this over and over!

"We Trying to Stay Alive" goes off into a whole spare section sampling Trans-Europe Express/Planet Rock while Clef wanders off musing "you can't stop romancing.... "

"Gone Til November" repeats a different additional rap/melodic verse section ("lifestyles of the rich and famous / some die with a name, some die nameless"), and a different tone-setting spoken-word intro.

The original 'video version' of Björk's 'All Is Full of Love' utterly destroys the intriguing but ultimately misguided minimalist Howie B remix that closes Homogenic.

I was literally just thinking of Luscious Jackson but couldn't remember which song it was.

..and Thriller yeah; there's a long mid-section. Maybe that was the 12"? This was definitely A Thing in the 80s. Duran, Frankie et al.

"Big Time Sensuality" was such a bummer for me when I got Debut!!! i eventually came to really like the album version too, but the video one is still "the main one" in my mind, great example.

just watched "Naked Eye" confirming i actually don't know the album version, and also confirming that christ, what a boring video for such a cool song. the plot is: some people successfully walk through an airport.

...with Max Perlich!

The album cut is slightly slower, less beat-driven and more groove-oriented.

I remember both 'March of the Pigs' and the Breeders' 'Saints' videos featuring markedly different versions of the respective songs.

"March of Pigs" was a live on a sound stage thing.

xpost - Kate gets the horn for Max Perlich, it's a sci-fi movie

New Order's Perfect Kiss is also filmed live in a rehearsal room

This is really a single mix=video mix

I think most of these probably are!

eg

TLC - No Scrubs - has a whole rap section from Left Eye, talking about "DVD on digital TV screens" and stuff, which completely rules and also gives the song a badly needed bridge, without which it's always felt montonous to me

https://i.imgur.com/701Jg4N.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/8eLeAmr.jpg

All the Last Splash singles except Cannonball were re-recorded. That version of Saints was originally one of three covers that J Mascis produced for the Head To Toe EP's b-sides, on which Head To Toe was re-recorded without Mascis; and which left Saints as a hidden track.

oh yeah Breeders "Son of Three" is one of these too, wayyy faster performance of the song

re: single mix thing - i guess? but in some of these cases i'm not sure i heard these versions on the radio. and when it's the 2nd or 3rd track on the single is it really the "single mix"?

if they specifically print "Main Mix" I think it's fair to divine intent. US radio programmers were probably either just playing the album without thinking about it, or being scared of the rappity-rap lady.

Wyclef Jean - Cheated - actually a different song entirely, a meat-n-potatoes midtempo rock ballad with a big hooky chorus, melodic verses with totally different lyrics, basically just starting from the ground up with the word "cheated" and Wyclef Jean as the artist

I wasn't familiar with this, but have listened and to be fair to Wyclef, he appears to have written and recorded a single called Cheated that is indeed formally a different song to the one called "To All The Girls" on his album, bar sharing a quote from Hal David and Albert Strokedad?

https://i.imgur.com/Yd7i5TF.jpg

(and then, Missy-style, included a minute of the B-side at the end of the video too)

XP

In "No Scrubs" case, it might be something where different versions were pitched to different formats. I kinda remember hearing the rap-less version on Top 40 & Adult Contemporary (and sometimes they'd cut that part out on TRL too) and the longer version on Hip Hop radio.

being scared of the rappity-rap lady

There's probably even newer cases of this, but our Clear Channel Adult Contemporary station plays "California Girls" w/o the Snoop verse.

Happy Mondays - Wrote For Luck

Soundgarden's Fell on Black Days is a filmed in-studio performance.
Beastie Boys's Jimmy James had the samples cleared after Check Your Head came out.

Happy Mondays - Wrote For Luck

do you mean that the video is for the single version, not the six-minute album version, or that there was another video the next year for "WFL (Vince Clarke Mix)"?

(Jimmy James was on the single as "Jimmy James (Original Original Version)"

Wrote For Luck and WFL videos b2b.

(iirc both may have been made for the first single, then only the sweaty ecstasy version was re-cut for WFL?)

Sleater-Kinney's "Modern Girl" video is filmed live performance in a house.

it was so weird to me that the version of "no scrubs" w/ left eye's rap was not only not on the album, but also not on any non-12" versions of the single either (at least in the us)

i was gonna say that the video version of donell jones's "u know what's up," also w/ a rap from left eye, wasn't on its album, but it looks like it got tacked on as a bonus track

Janet Jackson's "You Want This", they used the Flyte Tyme remix for the music video, which featured a rap verse from MC Lyte. even weirder is that in the music video version, the drums drop out during the first part of her verse, which is completely dope. but on the single version on the radio, which was also the Flyte Tyme remix, there....were drums for that whole verse

Soundgarden's Fell on Black Days is a filmed in-studio performance.

! I never realized this. after I got Superunknown in high school I never did an A/B comparison again. listening to video version now, it's definitely easy to tell.

U2 "The Streets Have No Name" filmed live on top of a liquor store in downtown LA.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GzZWSrr5wFI

Is that radically different from the album version though? I'm not so sure... No Eno nor Lanois to add synth textures.

Bon Jovi - Born to Be My Baby (deconstructed mix isolating various instruments)
Talk Talk - Dum Dum Girl (live vocal)

It’s been ages since I saw it but I’m pretty sure the movie version of “Jailhouse Rock” is a lot different from the single.

^^Yup, added horns and a vocal chorus.

Before mp3s I used to make mixtapes dubbed from VHS's of 120 Minutes -- I got used to hearing a few video versions which were tough to find later digitally or on streaming. Also MTV did not tag the song titles as remixes which made it more confusing:
Bjork "Alarm Call"
Eels "Your Lucky Day In Hell"
Ben Lee "Nothing Much Happens"
Roni Size "Brown Paper Bag"
There's definitely a lot more from this era.

80s stuff:
Michael Jackson "Bad" crudely replaced the key/organ solo with a different arrangement.
I guess "Opposites Attract" -- the album version has no rap interludes.

our lady peace’s “automatic flowers” video is either a complete re-rerecording of the song (imo yes) or a live performance (less likely)

oh and my favorite example of this is.... “every heartbeat” by amy grant. video mix > album mix

Janet Jackson's "You Want This", they used the Flyte Tyme remix for the music video, which featured a rap verse from MC Lyte

Sinead's I Want Your (Hands On Me) also used the single version with MC Lyte on it (two remixes on the single additionally included Lyte's rap, or parts thereof - she got headline With status on the front sleeve)

(Hands On Me Dance Mix is mostly Lyte vocals over a housey/freestyley mix, Street Mix is kinda 50/50, over a lightly dubbed-out version of the track. Each of these might include an exclusive verse?)

Can't believe no one's mentioned Madonna's "Express Yourself" this deep into the thread.

aren't looooads of Madonna's videos for single versions? is Express Yrself an especially unusual one?

Madonna’s “What It Feels Like For A Girl” video uses the Above & Beyond remix.

“California Love” is a big one

Also, ATCQ’s “Can I Kick It?”

Biz Markie’s “Vapors”

Shania Twain's European videos from the "Come On Over" era

wasn't the whole lp different in Europe? I was always confused as to why she was supposed to be a country artist until I eventually heard the US versions.

Not just a video issue: Whitney’s “I’m Your Baby Tonight” was released in two very different versions: a new jack swing one on for North America and an uptempo house one for Europe and (apparently) the rest of the world. Not just the single release was different in both territories, the parent album as well. I didn’t hear what the Americans heard until years later and I was shocked. Never been able to get into that rockabye baby version after having lived with the breathlessly (over)excited original-to-me-and-millions-of-others.

The videos for both versions can still be found side by side on YouTube:
(US video, 9.6M views:) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i0oRnyXxIrY
(EU/international video, 11.9M views:) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0H-jLOoz-YY

Also, ATCQ’s “Can I Kick It?”

Track A1 on the US single

be thankful it's not the UK hit version

Beastie Boys Body Movin' - the video has the Fatboy Slim remix

Also Brimful Of Asha, of course.

xp

World had basically the same video for both the radio edit, and the edit of the Perfecto mix by O&O. Spooky used the Fluke Minimix for the video. In both cases those mixes were the first track on the CD1.

Pretty in Pink - so many versions!

is it not just the 1981 recording having a 1981 video, and the 1986 recording having a 1986 video?

Apparently Bruce Springsteen's 'Streets of Philadelphia' has a different vocal, he actually wanted to sing it live as he walked around said streets rather than lip sync.

The only version of the original pretty in pink video I could find was this one, that sounds sped up?, but I don’t think I’ve even heard it before. Don’t think it was an album version here (Canada) https://m.facebook.com/decadeclub77/videos/862547530905574/

Beastie Boys Body Movin' - the video has the Fatboy Slim remix
― Siegbran, Friday, March 12, 2021 6:06 AM (two hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

lol this came out when I was in 7th grade. I thought it was the most amazing thing. I couldn't dream up more kick-ass music if I tried. I wanted so badly to record it but the only time I saw it was an edited clip on the Sifl & Olly show. So every day before I left for school I would set a cassette to randomly record 45 minutes of radio. after a couple weeks I eventually got it, but the tape cut off before the end of the tune. so the first 2 minutes of this are permanently seared into my brain. Listening to it now....lmao ok young frogbs

Or fun, and good value! Does this read as confusing particularly from a US 1990s perspective, when physical singles were being strangled by major labels, so you just weren't used to buying different versions of songs from the album version?

i think this is a huge part of it. i actually dug the "rock" version, thought the verses and "na na na" part were very hooky, and it was a while before i actually found a copy of the single, which still felt like a ripoff to buy for this one thing i wanted. but this was also around the time my dad got a CD burner and i could start to construct mix CDs of all these random tracks from CD singles and dollar-bin soundtracks similarly grabbed for one song.

great work breastcrawl and lol at the revelation of my earlier gripings about these same topics. i really don't have any new ideas or posts to make, y'all.

FWIW frogbs i remember a dorm-era college friend also being SUPER into the "Body Movin'" video and video version. a year or so later she got an internship or something at Elektra, so, y'know, she cared about music...

Wrote For Luck and WFL videos b2b.

(iirc both may have been made for the first single, then only the sweaty ecstasy version was re-cut for WFL?)

Ah, I had no idea about that earlier video! The "official" one on YT now is labeled "Wrote For Luck" but yes it's definitely the WFL version.

there was a Har Mar Superstar video ("Ez Pass") which I think was finished before a certain remix was completed, and then Har Mar liked the remix so much he decided to use that for the video instead, but the BPM is like 20% faster so he had to speed up the video

oh another good example is Denki Groove's "Shonen Young", which has got to be one of the most addictive song/video combos ever created, but the album version is way, way different, not even a pop song at all really

video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LUqFE3ShyZw

album:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QvX03kPrgV8

Apparently Bruce Springsteen's 'Streets of Philadelphia' has a different vocal, he actually wanted to sing it live as he walked around said streets rather than lip sync.

Also "Brilliant Disguise" and "Tunnel of Love," iirc - after the awkward lip-syncing of "Dancing in the Dark," they switched to having him sing live for music videos.

The only version of the original pretty in pink video I could find was this one, that sounds sped up?, but I don’t think I’ve even heard it before.https://m.facebook.com/decadeclub77/videos/862547530905574/

That does sound a bit sped up or compressed - here's the video on their youtube.

Don’t think it was an album version here (Canada)

1981 original pressing, 'blue' and 'purple' cover variants from later that year, probably a 1986 reissue with 'featuring Pretty In Pink' added to the cover, 1987 CD edition, and guessing from the cat# and that '87 CD, a 1987 repress of the LP. :)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S-Bi6UBcRqU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=unMl7h715sY

the first time i remember this phenomenon happening (and subsequently blowing my mind) was the first time i saw the video for da brat's "give it 2 you" on bet. solid groove. and way better than the album version.

i think these stand out to me cause the music industry in the 80s/90s seemed like this very slick, smooth, professionalized product pipeline, and then to have the video promoting a version of the song that was not the one they are actually hoping you'll buy seems so odd and clunky, total mismatch and fuckup by some intern somewhere derailing this gigantic and ostensibly seamless marketing campaign

sic, thanks for that! unortunately I can’t watch that video bc it’s region locked - does it match the album version? I used to prefer the 86 version because that’s the one I heard first, but the saxless one certainly sounds better now. :)

d'oh! / I think so but am no expert

to have the video promoting a version of the song that was not the one they are actually hoping you'll buy seems so odd and clunky, total mismatch and fuckup by some intern somewhere derailing this gigantic and ostensibly seamless marketing campaign

but 97% of these are in fact the single version!

I was thinking about Pet Shop Boys in this context but, yeah, I think seemingly peculiar mixes in their videos overwhelmingly corresponded to what was on a contemporaneous single.

@ sic: they were not hoping i would buy the single version! the singles were barely available if at all!

like their whole mentality was hoping dumb teens would spend $19 on an album at sam goody (or les elsewhere obviously) rather than $6 on a CD single

yeah US single sales were minuscule compared to other countries

I brought that up first, but the rest of the world still existed and bought English-language pop music

I think Peter Gabriel may have a few of these

Video for I Have the Touch https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yPTyNDqOzpM
Album version https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ydiW-QnTUpY

Sorry I guess that’s not a proper video. Agh, I was sure he did this sometime though

@ sic - fair! i guess i just think, myopically, of mtv and mtv culture as being us-centric.

like you'd think they would have just had US vs "international" versions of the videos, or slapped the single mix on at the end of the US edition of the album as a bonus track, or ... something

Gloria Estefan - “Live for Loving You” (seeing that video totally blew my ten-year-old mind. and it was on vh1 all the damn time.)

clearly i need to spatially expand my horizons
or end up in a class with scrubs - never risin'

Probably this was the PG one I was thinking of
I Don’t Remember https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9k_ZRyws8Uc

Yeah, i've never heard that version of the song (never seen that video either). Almost sounds like a demo.
.

The original single/video version of ‘First Day’ by the Futureheads is much better than the one on their debut album, which has a much busier performance/mix.

Another version of this is when sound effects and dialogue are added to the video. 95% of the time this is annoying but 5% of the time the actual song sounds like it's missing something vital when you finally hear it by itself. First example I can think of - This Is America

My favorite example of that is from Jump by Van Halen

yeah that brings up the obvious opposite example, "Black or White" by Michael Jackson which for some reason includes the entire dialogue from the first minute of the video, totally breaking up the flow of the album

"eat this!"

tbf I always kinda loved the instrumental that plays under that part, kinda want to hear it in full

I think it’s funny how “Oops... I Did It Again” (the track) includes that corny Titanic-themed dialogue from the video.

that INFURIATED me at the time and does not seem any less dumb now

"Steal My Sunshine" seems like a reversal of the norm; it has dialogue in the album track but not in the music video.

oh good call --- if you'd asked me i would have guessed the reverse! ugh. "KAREN.... I LOVE YOU!!!!"

Here's Neon Neon doing the Hype/Missy trick

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EMenxKvBGe4

I've been on a pre-Chronic rap kick lately. The video version of Big Daddy Kane's "Taste of Chocolate" has a great extra rap ("Big Daddy Kane's the one and only. You wanna say it three times, like Tony Toni Tone") that's missing from the album version. Big Daddy then split the album version up into two parts and put one at the beginning of the album and one at the end, just to piss off his fans even more.

Really, the music industry should've been sued for pulling this shit.

aren't looooads of Madonna's videos for single versions? is Express Yrself an especially unusual one?

"Express Yourself" was actually released in two different versions (same picture, different music). One's probably better known than the other, but here's what was posted elsewhere:

First I'll start with the US promo CD. It has four tracks on it:

1. (7" Remix) 4:30
2. (Remix/Edit) 4:50
3. (Non-Stop Express Mix) 7:54
4. (Local Mix) 6:20

(7" Remix) is the version that was released on 7" vinyl and cassette single in the US. It sounds similar to the Like A Prayer album version, but was remixed by Shep Pettibone and includes more overdubs of synths, horns and string sections.

(Remix/Edit) is Shep Pettibone's dance remix of the song which is a totally reworked house version (some of the same synth & string parts that were added to his (7" Remix) are also included in this mix.

(Non-Stop Express Mix) is Shep Pettibone's extended dance version of his (Remix/Edit).

and (Local Mix) is Shep's extended remix version of his (7" Remix).

A dub version of his dance remix version was also released on the "Express Yourself" 12" single, (Stop & Go Dubs) 10:50, but it wasn't included on the promo CD.

For the video, there were two mixes released. Version 1 [probably the more famous one] uses (Remix/Edit) as the soundtrack, but the intro is replaced with the intro from the (Local Mix) but with additional echo added to the line "do you believe love." Version 2 uses (7" Remix) as the soundtrack, and the intro is also replaced with the intro from the (Local Mix), but this time they left the audio as it appears on the (Local Mix), without additional echo on the line "do you believe in love," and since the (7" Remix) is shorter and fades out, the second video ends earlier with the soundtrack cutting to the ending from the (Local Mix) of the song.

Version 1 was officially released on the Celebration DVD and Version 2 was officially released on The Immaculate Collection VHS and DVD.

Another version was released on the Celebration compilation CD but this 4:00 version is basically an attempt to recreate the 1990 Immaculate Collection length edit using the (Local Mix) intro and the (Remix/Edit). It's missing the additional echo on "do you believe in love" so it does not include the same audio as the Version 1 video. (which means you can only get that intro on the Celebration DVD).

And I called it an "attempt" to recreate The Immaculate Collection edit because after the 3rd chorus they end up cutting further than they should to the wrong part of the song (they cut to the second time she sings "and when you're gone he might regret it," instead of the first time she sings it) and then they give up editing the rest of the song cuz it ends up being 4:00 after their strange edit. (She doesn't stop singing in this version of the song! The 1990 version has an instrumental break in the middle and a two more edits after that.)

Peter Gabriel's 'Kiss That Frog'. In the UK at least, the single version was an edit of the album version, but the video is the 'Midnblender' mix, the thing to promote his 3D simulator ride thing
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v2Y7SeZSq70
^ this version appears to remove the frog noises

Not radically different, but quite a few videos have been made with a live vocal, particularly from singers who don't like miming to a track. I think Springsteen's done this at least twice - "Brilliant Disguise" and "Streets of Philadelphia."

high-quality content, birdis!

thanks sic!