Withdrawn CDs

I keep hearing here that the West German Bowie RCA's were only in print for a short time and were withdrawn shortly after. And also the 17 track West German Carpenters Christmas Portrait CD should never have been released and was only on the shelves for a few days.
Firstly the Bowie RCA's were still on the shelves in HMV and Virgin here in Ireland up to 2000. I know, because I bought a few of them around the turn of the Millennium. The EMI's started to replace them around then.
Also the "rare" West German Carpenters Christmas Portrait was on sale in HMV here in Ireland new up to about 4 or 5 years ago.
Its funny how myths and legends seem to form around certain CDs.

 

There is a rare Carpenters CD, but it's definitely not the West German Christmas Portrait. The 1984 UK 2-CD set Yesterday Once More was apparently put on shelves, then withdrawn after only a few weeks. Copies of that set are very scarce, but they are out there.

I have a Nanci Griffith remix CD called Revisited that was withdrawn before its release in 1999. Apparently, it was "authorized" insofar as some DJs were given access to multitrack tapes to create new remixes of several songs, but the final product was never approved by Nanci's management. Copies were pressed, but Nanci's management shut down the release before it happened, and so the only copies in circulation were sold under the table. They were plentiful on eBay back at the time, probably coming directly from the company that produced the CD in order to recoup their costs in the project.

There's the Grace of My Heart soundtrack CD that was mistakenly released with Joni Mitchell's version of "Man from Mars" instead of the version from the film. It was recalled after only a week or two, and the new version of the soundtrack used the film version of "Man from Mars."

 

Yep I have both versions of that one. Joni wanted her version yanked from the CD since it wasn't her version used in the movie.

Scott

 

My favorite Better Than Ezra album, "Closer" was caught up in the record company's bankruptcy and pulled fora long time. It's back now, and better than ever!

 

And the BIG draw to that YESTERDAY ONCE MORE (UK) set is that nothing - zero - nada - is remixed! It's all originals, including the only place on CD where one can find the LP mix of "Those Good Old Dreams".

The theory is that Richard & A&M knew that they were working on an updated version with some remixes, so they squelched the UK comp. It's fairly common on LP. The CD took me many years to finally find.

Harry

 

The first UK Polydor CD pressing of 'The Beatles' First' (the Tony Sheridan stuff) was withdrawn because the front cover photo showed J,P,G & Ringo, who - of course - wasn't on any of the tracks.

 

I was waiting for your post. Lucky you that you finally found a CD copy.

Scott B

 

Yep, it was one of those right place, right time occurrences. Years ago, I first saw a copy on eBay where the seller had set a ridiculous reserve price, and bidding got up to the $900 range and still hadn't met the reserve. It went unsold as I recall.

Then over the years I just kept watching for one to show up from some unsuspecting Brit who might have purchased it or inherited it. They must have known it was worth *something* as I think I bought it for somewhere between $50 and $100. In the excitement of the find, I've forgotten just what I DID pay for it.

Harry

 

I don't know that the RCA Bowie CDs were withdrawn in the sense of the word. IIRC, the rights to Bowie's catalog went to EMI in the UK and Ryko in the US - who then went about in re-releasing remasters of the music on their respective labels.

 

SACDs got withdrawn much more often. Think Aerosmith - Rocks, only one made it to market. Or how about all those Steely Dan multichannel SACDs? Only Gaucho made it out.

 

Here's one: 10cc - The Original Soundtrack DCC gold CD. Actually made it to the manufacturing stage, but not the cover art.

 

This is not true. I worked in HMV from 1990 to 1995. I ordered all the stock, I knew what I could order and from where. The only Bowie product you could order was the Rykodisc/EMI versions, the ones that came out in 1990, with the bonus tracks. I never saw an RCA Bowie CD.
If you bought one in 2000 then it must have been on the shelf a very long time. They were definetly not available to order from 1990 on.

 

Not calling you a fibber, but if that is the case then, how do you explain RCA's being on the shelves in HMV Dublin and Limerick in 2000?

 

I have a copy of the DCC Gold Disc, but, with apologies to our host, I still find the Japanese CD pressing of this album (Mercury #33PD-351), the best sounding "digital" version of "The Original Soundtrack", plus it has all but one song, from "Deceptive Bends"!

 

I have no idea. I am 100% correct in this believe me.

One 'possible' explanation - some old stock was found in the warehouse and somebody sneaked it on to sell. It does happen.

 

The Japanese CD of Peter Gabriel's US was withdrawn after release because he didn't authorize the bonus track. Toshiba-EMI even asked people to return the copies that they had bought, but it's hard to imagine that very many people did that.

 

I have the original CD pressing of Sam Cooke's Greatest Hits that was issued in the early 2000s with the song "Another Saturday Night" before it was withdrawn, and that track was removed because of legal reasons. It was quickly reissued without the track.

I have a Spinners compilation CD "The Very Best Of Spinners" from Rhino that contains the wrong tape of "The Rubberband Man".

 

Was the first Blind Faith CD (with the Rick Grech solo bonus tracks) withdrawn?

 

They were already very rare and going for excellent money by this time, so as you say I'd be surprised to see them in retail in 2000. I bought the first three Ryko CDs in 1990 and even THEN the RCA's were impossible to find.

 

They are not impossible to find even now. They turn up every so often in the used CD shops here. Some are more common than others. Like Ziggy and Scary Monsters.

 

The European issue of Christmas Portrait (17 tracks) is not quite as rare as originally thought. I am not sure how long it stayed in print, but it is not limited to West German pressings. I have seen later French pressings on eBay.

The U.K. EMI issue of Yesterday Once More (limited to a West German Polygram pressing) is very rare. I was very surprised by its existence when I learned about it some years ago simply because it is was released by EMI. It took me awhile to track down a copy. It sounds great.

 

I actually think they've become a little more common. I don't know if you were around at the time but there was a period in the late 80s, before the Rykodisc re-issues came along that any Bowie on CD from the RCA period was expensive and very rare. I got by on aged cassette tapes from second hand shops and the odd bit of vinyl. There was literally nothing in new stores in the UK at least from around 86-90.

 

The four Elvis "fake stereo" titles released in 1984 by RCA were quickly replaced by mono versions. Of the four titles, only Elvis' Golden Records was released in fake stereo in Japan. This Japanese issue is very rare.

Speaking of Elvis, the U.S. issue of Merry Christmas is very rare. There is only a Japanese pressing. It obviously was in print for a very short time, but I am not sure why. Maybe it was felt that Elvis' Christmas Album was better and more popular.

The European issue of Merry Christmas is rare, but not as rare as the U.S. issue.

 

Odd, like Bashi was anything special, I could understand if it were an old single tacked on

 

"Summer In Paradise" Beach Boys