Question about re-recording a classic album to avoid a bad contract ...

I am in conversation with a band that has some pretty popular records in the last 70's but signed a bad record deal and is in bad relations with them.

I was reading that a few bands have actually gone back and re-recorded their songs to update them and avoid paying any more royalties on them because they say they are legally new works.

Is this correct and will it hold up in court?

Thanks ....

 

"In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida" comes to mind - 'Best of the Sixties' compilations have a truly awful remake by a latter-day Iron Butterfly. Jimmy Ruffin's hit "Hold On To My Love" is another biggie; despite the original being a hit, I have never heard the original Robin Gibb-produced version outside of its source LP.

 

Foreigner re-recorded all their hits on an album recently, and went so far as to pose for a front-cover photo duplicating the artwork from the first album! I ask you.

 

A lot of the Sixties bands did that. Tremeloes, Dave Dee & Co, Troggs....it's mainly those who at some point ended their contracts when the hits dried up. And when they later regrouped or tried to carry on, they did those re-recordings for other labels.
But I don't know about any case, where those re-recordings were really better or replaced the originals in any way. People interested in those bands will always prefer the originals.

 

This happened also in the metal genre sometimes, but I don't like remakes and re-recorded songs or entire albums.
Besides the fact that some labels are the copyright owners and the band HAS to re-record some of their material, other bands try to re-write history and record old albums WITHOUT any reason, caused by a record company. Some albums come to my mind, released by Twisted Sister, Jag Panzer, Destruction, Dimmu Borgir etc...

 

Didn't Jeff Lynne and Def Leppard do this somewhat recently? For just about the same reasons as the OP mentions, IIRC. As a music lover, I hate this practice, but to a certaindegree I can understand the reasoning of the musicians involved.

Re-recording old hits must be common practice for ages. Recently I picked up a Sam & Dave comp that had 70s remakes of their classic hits. The shady label should have been a dead giveaway. They didn't sound bad BTW, but couldn't hold a candle to the originals.

 

Manowar "Battle Hymns" comes to my mind...why the hell...???

 

Squeeze did a greatest hits collection called "Spot the Difference." It is pretty good, due in no small part to the fact that Tilbrook's voice is still in decent shape. They really nailed the arrangements and, to an extent, the production.

 

Def Leppard recently did, Chubby Checker was the classic example... of course, the Parkway songs were not available on cd for the longest time. it should hold up in Court, there are countless examples of re-records in the last 50 years

 

Then there is the Ozzy Osbourne camp having the bass and drums for Blizzard of Oz and Diary of a Madmen redone.

http://www.popmatters.com/review/osbourneozzy-blizzard/

 

It depends on the contract. Usually it's OK for an artist to re-record songs once they have been released once by a former label. However, if they recorded the material under contract and it was unreleased, there are sometimes contractual stipulations with the label or publisher that prevent the artist from recording the same material for another label for some amount of time.

Long after the material was recorded and released, an artist is typically free to re-record to their heart's delight. Historically, the re-records were done to fool the marketplace with product for which the artist either was paid a higher royalty, or else on spec (usually for a fixed paycheck) for certain labels that specialize in selling collections of remakes.

The phenomenon of bands going in and bulk re-recording their hits for video licensing purposes (ELO, Squeeze, etc.) is very recent.

 

Journey has done this. So has Kiss, correct? I assume they do it for licensing for movies, TV and commercials. They get a bigger cut of the pie if they can license the re-make.

 

has Journey done it? I know they have a Steve Perry replacement, but I didn't know they had rerecorded tunes...I don't think KISS has ever done it

 

It's deeper than that. To use a song in a video (movie/TV) you need permission (and to pay $$$) to both the publisher AND the label that controls the recording. Often, an artist will control the publishing outright, but won't have control over the original masters. This means that to use a song, someone has to negotiate with two separate parties, and pay two (usually large) checks. If an artist re-records the song, they the licensor only has to negotiate with the artist (assuming they have say-so over the publishing). This makes things a lot easier, and typically a lot cheaper for the licensor. And because the artist owns the master being licensed, they can afford to reduce the license cost while still making decent money.

 

Journey re-recorded their greatest hits disc, it came out with their new album "Revelation" a few years ago.

I think Kiss did this as well, but when I searched it said it was for a Japan release.

 

Van Morrison tried this with Astral Weeks. Pretty successfully, I'd say.

 

have you heard the Journey re-recorded greatest hits? did the try to sound close to the orginals? how good are the vocals?

 

Styx recorded the song Lady for a greatest hist compilation back in the 90's since it was originally released on a small label that was asking for a huge chunk of change to license it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lady_(Styx_song)

 

Most of the more recent re-records I have heard from Journey and ELO/Jeff Lynne were very close to the originals. Being a musician, I could hear the differences but many average listeners probably would not.

On the other hand, those comps of 60s groups like The Grass Roots, The Buckinghams, The Association etc that started coming out around the 80s in the budget bins were terrible re-records that anybody could tell was not the real deal. I remember getting a Grass Roots comp on cassette at K-Mart years ago and tossed it in the trash, I felt ripped off even though I only paid around $4 for it.

 

No, haven't heard them. I read reviews that said they tried to stay as close to the originals as possible. They said they didn't sound as polished.

I doubt they would fool die hard fans, but for TV and movies, most people wouldn't notice.

 

It was done quite a few times with Apple recording artists when the Apple label would not do anything with the original recordings.
Mary Hopkin had to re-record "Those Were The Days" and "Goodbye" in the mid-70s, and those two nearly identical but not quite versions have maddenly turned up on every greatest hits of the 60s type compilations.
James Taylor had to re-record his "Carolina In My Mind" in 1976 and, in 1979, Tom Evans and Joey Molland had a new version of "Come And Get It" appearing on a K-Tel compilation. Which was quite a strange choice considering that Molland didn't perform on the original recording. In the mid 90s Molland also re-recorded many Badfinger titles which have appeared since on a myriad of "Best of Badfinger" type compilations, complete with vintage photos of the original band. A shame.

 

The UK group Pilot recorded an album called Two's A Crowd for Arista in 1977. It sank without a trace. The reformed group re-recorded the same album as Blue Yonder in 2002

 

I think I would only want a re-recorded version of an album if there were some creative liberties taken with it; contract or no, an original piece, if it's going to be a masterpiece at all,
can only be appreciated in its' original form. No, that doesn't included remixes, remasters or other sonic improvements. I can see why The Association would re-record some of their
Valiant tracks for Warner Brothers, I understand why Neil Diamond had to do the same for Columbia. But, a while album's worth of musical statement? Well, either it exists because
it's worth something as a whole, or it needn't; but, even IF lighting strikes twice...you aren't going to get the same jolt a second time around, in a world that's already been jolted by the
first one. Trying, is lying.




Now playing on Ariel Stream: Karla Bonoff - Someone To Lay Down Beside Me

 

Journey, Foreigner and KISS included bonus discs of rerecorded hits in thier initial releases thru WalMart.
Reo Speedwagon went so far as to rerecord the entire "HI Infidelity" in thiers.

Styx was selling a CD of remakes at thier "Pieces of Eight" tour a couple of years ago.

 

The bands have gotta eat. I have no problem with this, so long as the original recordings are always available.