The Razor & Tie '80s compilation (Awesome/Forever/Totally '80s) track-by-track thread

Regarding Cherish - Kool & The Gang, I'm pretty sure Forever '80s is the LP version. The 45 runs about 4:00 and has no saxophone at all in the intro - the sax is all over the LP version.

For Voices Carry, I'll refer to a thread from top40musiconcd.com/forum:

The 45 mix is :

For more detail:

 

OK - I have a question about this series. I have all four of the compilations here; however, I distinctly remember after these came out, there was one more 2 disc compilation that came out on TV. It obviously wasn't done by Steve Hoffman, or I'd see it mentioned here and in other threads. This compilation I know included "Fight For Your Right" by Beastie Boys - but not sure what else. Does anyone else recall this one? I'd love to know the name and track listing of it. Thanks.

 

There was a 2-CD set on Razor & Tie called Everything '80s (Razor & Tie/Warner Special Products OPCD-4560, 1995). It says it's mastered by Michele Stone, and it sounds terrific - good enough on most tracks that I would have mistaken it for Steve's work. Smiley faces shows which songs have their best-sounding version on Everything '80s, out of all the CDs I own.

Disc 1
1. You Gotta Fight For Your Right (To Party!) - Beastie Boys :thumbsdn: Omits opening "yeah!", which kills the whole song for me
2. Back On The Chain Gang - Pretenders
3. Burning Down The House - Talking Heads
4. Private Eyes - Daryl Hall And John Oates
5. Footloose - Kenny Loggins
6. Goody Two Shoes - Adam Ant
7. What I Am - Edie Brickell And New Bohemians
8. Hold Me - Fleetwood Mac
9. I'm Still Standing - Elton John
10. It's Raining Men - Weather Girls
11. Bette Davis Eyes - Kim Carnes
12. The Glamorous Life - Sheila E.
13. Stray Cat Strut - Stray Cats
14. Cars - Gary Numan
15. I Melt With You - Modern English
16. Sea Of Love - Honeydrippers
17. When The Going Gets Tough - Billy Ocean
18. Walk The Dinosaur - Was (Not Was)

Disc 2
1. Jump - Van Halen
2. Simply Irresistible - Robert Palmer
3. Physical - Olivia Newton-John
4. Freeway Of Love - Aretha Franklin :thumbsdn: Track slows way down at end, due to tape drag effect - seems to show up in this form everywhere the 45 version appears on CD.
5. Party All The Time - Eddie Murphy
6. I Wanna Have Some Fun - Samantha Fox
7. Here I Go Again - Whitesnake
8. Strut - Sheena Easton
9. Don't Know Much - Linda Ronstadt featuring Aaron Neville
10. Cum On Feel The Noize - Quiet Riot
11. Kokomo - Beach Boys
12. Eat It - Weird Al Yankovic There's nothing better than a Weird Al track on an '80s collection.
13. Don't Mean Nothing - Richard Marx
14. Tell It To My Heart - Taylor Dayne
15. The Flame - Cheap Trick
16. Seasons Change - Exposé
17. On My Own - Patti LaBelle And Michael McDonald
18. I Eat Cannibals - Total Coelo

 

Wow, I guess I need to track down this set. Safe to assume the Quiet Riot track is the 45 edit?

 

No, unfortunately. The printed time is 3:20, but it runs 4:50-ish and is the full LP version. The Whitesnake track is the album version also, not the 45 version with all the keyboards.

 

I'm a big Beastie Boys fan, and they have done this several times when Fight For Your Right shows up for some reason. On many (and maybe all) Licensed to Ill cds, the "Yeah!" is actually tracked to the end of "Girls", and "Fight For Your Right" just cuts in with the guitar.

On their Sounds of Science 2-disc greatest hits, it's cut like the above track. However, I do believe it was restored for their single disc Solid Gold hits package.

Thank you so much for posting this tracklisting. Do you have any idea why it wasn't included in the Nina Blackwood-hosted infomercial that had the first three 2-disc collections?

 

How does R&T's: I Want My New Wave,
compare to Steve's Stuff?
Thanks again!

 

It's not going to compare to Steve's stuff. I doubt that any '80s-music compilations are going to come close to the collections that came out between '92 and '96, in terms of sound quality.

I don't have I Want My New Wave, so I looked it up on Amazon. 18 tracks, released in 2005. I would guess that since it came out so recently, it's pretty heavily maximized/compressed/squashed. Just a guess, mind you, but aside from one or two one-offs from Time-Life that came out around 2002, I haven't seen any recent new wave or '80s-era pop compilations that AREN'T maximized.

Virtually all of the tracks on I Want My New Wave appear on Rhino's Just Can't Get Enough series and/or Time-Life's Modern Rock series, and undoubtedly sound better there.

Some generalizations:

Just Can't Get Enough

• 15 single-CD releases, 15 tracks per CD, plus a few others (Halloween, Christmas, etc)
• Readily available - most may still be in print
• Mastered by Bill Inglot
• All original analog dubs from mixdown tapes (no digital clones)
• All original 7" single versions
• No maximization whatsoever - a minor amount of clipping here and there
• EQ a little bright

Modern Rock

• 21 two-CD releases, 12 tracks per CD & 24 tracks per set
• Not released in stores - some may be extremely hard to find
• Mastered by Dennis Drake
• Lots of dubs from existing digital sources [digital clones]
• Lots of LP versions mixed in with the single versions
• A few tracks maximized, based on the original cloned CD sources
• Little or no clipping
• EQ excellent throughout

Bottom line
If you're just looking for a few representative new wave songs on CD, have at it. If you're looking for the best-sounding versions of those tracks, look elsewhere - try the Rhino or Time-Life comp's.

 

As always...

THANKS CRAP

 

Thought I would BUMP this because I got Awesome 80s from a forum member-- loving it. And I now acquired Totally 80s today and waiting eagerly for it in the mail.

But Back to the 80s doesn't seem to be listed on Amazon like the others. Does anyone know why this is the case?

Also does anyone have the track list of the other Razor and Tie comp "Suddenly 70s"? A reviewer on Amazon said the single disc version is not Steve's while the 2 disc version is. Yet he neglects to post a tracklisting of it. Does anyone have the 2 CD track list? I'd be interested in seeing it to see if the tracklist is worth tracking down. Thanks!

 

Hi-

You can see the track list in a scan attached to the first post of this thread...

http://www.stevehoffman.tv/forums/showthread.php?t=98510&highlight=suddenly+70's+track+listing

It's an excellent sounding compilation. Keep looking...I'm sure a copy will turn up for you eventually.

 

Again, thanks to the original poster for providing such a wealth of detail and knowledge on the subject.

While referring to Totally 80s Disc 1, one thing jumped out at me:

It never sounded poor to me (I don't have Living In Oblivion Vol 2 to compare to), so I took the attached screen grab. While a bit low in level, it doesn't look or sound any more compressed than a typical 80s pop song. Thoughts?

 

Another 80s comp that sounds great:
EW 80's Wave
http://www.amazon.com/Entertainment-80s-Wave/dp/B000AQDH40
Great Track Selection also

Steppin' Out A kick up the eighties Vol 9
-This cd, available from the uk, has the correct version of Joe Jackon's Steppin Out....sounds great

 

Is it possible that the 80's Razor & Tie discs being discussed here were messed with by someone other than Steve? The reason I ask is because some of the tracks seem heavy in the midrange and lacking in bass, causing ear fatigue at loud volumes. This is very unusual for a Hoffman mastered disc. At first I thought it was just the quality of the recordings, but when I compare, for example, Rock this Town from Razor & Tie w/ the DCC, the DCC has the classic Hoffman sound while the Razor & Tie almost sounds shrill. Similar differences occur between like tracks found on the DCC Only In the 80s series and the Razor & Ties.

Not that the Razor & Ties sound bad, they just don't have all the qualities I associate with Steve's work. It is very rare that one of Steve's discs gives me ear fatigue. Your thoughts?

 

On the original U.S. single (mine's a promo copy), the "Yeah" is there, so I believe that was the original intent. I've also made a CD-R copy of "Ill" with the track break in it's rightful place.

 

Are these the CD covers I should keep an eye out for in the bins?


http://www.amazon.com/Awesome-80s/dp/B000CRLDP2


http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_m...r&field-keywords=suddenly+70s&Go.x=11&Go.y=11

 

Yes on Awesome '80s.

Suddenly '70s has a two-disc version and a one-disc version with the same cover, and the two-disc version is the one to have. There's a thread on this...

 

Seems impossible to find the two disc Suddenly 70s

 

There was just one up in the Classified section a couple of days ago.

 

A few weeks ago I saw the single-disc 70s at FYE and got excited until I did my research. Thanks for the tip on the 80s set. Sometimes I find out a disc is desirable then think I must have flipped past it fifty times over the years, but I don't believe I've ever seen that 80s set anywhere. Yet.

 

Just dug up another nugget, this one regarding Kajagoogoo's "Too Shy" on Totally '80s.

The sound on Totally '80s is extremely close to that on the 3-CD set After Hours (Warner Special Products OPCD-4523, 1990). It's the LP version (no edited intro like on the 45), but running 1.5% too fast. The sound really isn't all that good on this track - it sounds like it's taken from a high-generation tape.

The sound is far better on EMI's Living In Oblivion Vol. 1 (1993), with extremely close sound on Time-Life's Sounds Of The Eighties - 1983 (1994) and Madacy's Rock On - 1983 (1996; 0.3 dB quieter digital clone of T-L disc).

The 45 edit sounds great on Rhino's Just Can't Get Enough Vol. 9 (1994). If you want to create the 45 edit that's on the Rhino disc using the EMI disc as your source, keep the first 16 beats from 0:00.0-0:10.7, edit on a downbeat, remove the 16 beats from 0:10.7-0:19.6, and keep the rest of the song from 0:19.6-3:45.0.

All of the above 4 compilations have a better-sounding "Too Shy" than Totally '80s.

 

One more - for After The Fire's "Der Kommissar", I prefer the sound on Rhino's Just Can't Get Enough Vol. 14.

The sound on Awesome '80s is a little muffled, like it's from a high-generation tape source.

There are differently-EQ'd digital clones of Awesome '80s on Time-Life's Sounds Of The '80s - Early '80s (1996) and Madacy/Sony's Rock On - 1983 Vol. 2 2005; EQ is WAY too bright).

 

Still digging around...

Changed my mind about "Come On Eileen" on Awesome '80s. It uses the LP edit, which gets rid of the fiddle intro. Plus, the sound is a tiny bit muffled with a slightly thumpy low end, which wasn't apparent until I did some A/B comparisons.

I like the fiddle intro, and I found more open-sounding versions that have the fiddle intro.

The best, I think, is Living In Oblivion Vol. 1, followed by Just Can't Get Enough Vol. 8 (which has a more mid-rangy EQ), and then Time-Life's Sounds Of The Eighties - 1983. All three of these are different analog transfers.

Sorry, Awesome '80s.

 

And another - Greg Kihn's "Jeopardy".

I prefer the slightly smiley-face EQ on Rhino's Just Can't Get Enough Vol. 8 and Billboard Top Hits - 1983 (digitally identical) over Back To The '80s. To my ears, that EQ just works really well with the song - maybe it's emphasizing the hi-hat...

 

For Thomas Dolby's "She Blinded Me With Science", Totally '80s sounds extremely close to Living In Oblivion Vol. 1 with a slightly different EQ. Both appear to be taken from the same analog transfer.