The longest major label music LP ever (Barry Manilow 20 Greatest Hits; pics inside)

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by kwadguy, Jun 21, 2009.

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  1. kwadguy

    kwadguy Senior Member Thread Starter

    Location:
    Cambridge, MA
    I know we've hashed over the question of what the longest LP is before in these forums. But here are pics. I maintain that this MUST be the longest 33 1/3 MUSIC album ever on a major label.

    This is Barry Mainlow's 20 Greatest Hits LP, issued in 1985 by Arista Records. The story goes that this was Clive Davis' FU to Manilow for leaving the label...

    The ironic thing is that this would be a perfect compilation for CD, and it was issued in the CD era, but it never came out on CD. Instead, we got multiple padded-with-filler-and-short volumes of Greatest Hits.

    Side one is about 35 minutes long. Side two is about 40 minutes long (!!!!)
    So the total time for the album is around 75 minutes...Perfect for a CD, not so hot for an LP. It's also all killer no filler (to the extent you like Manilow, of course).

    I'd like to see Steve work his magic on a 1 LP vinyl reissue of this pupply :laugh:
     

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  2. zebop

    zebop Well Known Stranger

    Clearly they were having fun on Side 2. I had forgotten he did a few clunkers for RCA in 1985.
     
  3. -Alan

    -Alan Senior Member

    Location:
    Connecticut, USA
  4. dale 88

    dale 88 Errand Boy for Rhythm

    Location:
    west of sun valley
    That must be a record (intended). 20 tracks and 75 minutes.

    I did recall another LP I have that has 20 tracks, so I dug it out. It is from EMI in 1980. It is Heartbreakers: 20 Golden Greats From Matt Monro. However the total minutes is around 60 minutes to your 75.
     
  5. Kayaker

    Kayaker Senior Member

    Location:
    New Joisey Now
    I believe the original CD's (or the original specs) were 650mb long - enough to fit only 74 minutes of this 75 minute album. :confused:
     
  6. kwadguy

    kwadguy Senior Member Thread Starter

    Location:
    Cambridge, MA
    Well, there are only two questionable inclusions on this entire set: Memory and Run to Me. Memory did, apparently, reach #39 on the pop charts, though I think you'd could ask a thousand people on the street and not one of them would associate the track with Manilow. Run to Me (with Dionne Warwick) is the true clunker, as it didn't chart at all. But it IS the only Manilow album on which this track ever appeared (to my knowledge)--though I expect it's the same as the version that was on the Dionne Warwick's "Without Your Love" album. And, as it came out the same year as this compilation, you can guess why it's included here.
     
  7. Spyder

    Spyder Official vinyl solicitor and connoisseur.

    Location:
    Davenport, FL
    How does this vinyl copy sound?
     
  8. Oatsdad

    Oatsdad Oat, Biscuits, Abbie & Mitzi: Best Dogs Ever

    Location:
    Alexandria VA
    Elvis Costello's "Get Happy!!" had 20 songs, but it didn't push the limits of vinyl like this. Not sure how long it was total - around 50 minutes, maybe?
     
  9. kwadguy

    kwadguy Senior Member Thread Starter

    Location:
    Cambridge, MA
    Pye in Europe had a whole series of 20 hits collections that were touted as having about an hour's worth of music on them. But none, to my knowledge, came close to 75 minutes of music on them.
     
  10. mr_mjb1960

    mr_mjb1960 I'm a Tarrytowner 'Til I die!

    Def Leppard's "Hysteria" had at least 30 or more minutes each side.
     
  11. Grant

    Grant Life is a rock, but the radio rolled me!

    I've seen this Barry Manilow LP in used record stores. I played one in-store just to see how it sounded, and it sounds like purity $hyt! Low level, and no bass to speak of. Only little old ladies with Emerson all-in-one record players wouldn't notice.
     
  12. NIKE SQ 460

    NIKE SQ 460 Just Do It...Daily!

    Location:
    westCOAST
    that has got to be the ugliest album cover ever, especially for someone of manilow's stature. looks like something you would see hanging down from a hut at a flea market.
     
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  13. Andrew

    Andrew Chairman of the Bored


    Looks like something from the Arista special products/budget series art department.
     
  14. kwadguy

    kwadguy Senior Member Thread Starter

    Location:
    Cambridge, MA
    Aw...it's not so bad. I mean, the script Barry Manilow on the front is raised/embossed. They could have gone cheaper. I think it's supposed to look classy, to be honest...
     
  15. Grant

    Grant Life is a rock, but the radio rolled me!

    I believe it was mainly sold via TV ads. Again, the target audience didn't care one whit about sound quality. The target customer probably would not have paid for a multi-LP set in the 80s, so the directive was to probably keep it to two LPs. The LP was never duplicated to CD, and I have no idea if it came out in cassette or 8-track. Well, cassette, probably.

    Problem is, it really sounds bad, and noisy. It probably didn't track well, either.
     
  16. kwadguy

    kwadguy Senior Member Thread Starter

    Location:
    Cambridge, MA
    Yeah, but did you listen to the RL/RL 1A pressing? :D
     
  17. Grant

    Grant Life is a rock, but the radio rolled me!

    You mean the Bob Ludwig cut?:D
     
  18. Joel Cairo

    Joel Cairo Video Gort / Paiute Warrior Staff

    Location:
    Portland, Oregon
    Well, I don't know if this is in fact the longest LP ever cut, but when you're listening to it, I'm sure it seems that way... ;)

    -Kevin
     
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  19. MMM

    MMM Forum Hall Of Fame

    Location:
    Lodi, New Jersey
    Who mastered it? I see a Sterling stamp in the pictured dead area. They probably cringed squeezing all that on there...
     
  20. Is Todd Rundgren's Initiation the longest single-LP of all time?
     
  21. kwadguy

    kwadguy Senior Member Thread Starter

    Location:
    Cambridge, MA
    Nope. Initiation is 67:35 long. Plenty long and long enough to be a sonic pressing disaster. But not even close to this album (75 minutes).
     
  22. Cheepnik

    Cheepnik Overfed long-haired leaping gnome

    Not quite: 48:08, or a whopping 2:24 average per song.
     
  23. tim_neely

    tim_neely Forum Hall Of Fame

    Location:
    Central VA
    In the early 1990s, when major-label LPs became less and less common in the U.S., they continued to be made overseas. In many instances, the labels squeezed an entire CD - even a long CD - onto one record.

    In my collection is a European pressing of Meat Loaf's Bat Out of Hell II: Back Into Hell. (It was never issued on vinyl in the States.) Its time is 75:38, yet the entire thing was pressed on only one record, with no edited versions and no deletions. I'm sure it's not the only one that received this kind of treatment.

    It's an album I'd love to see on either Universal's or EMI's vinyl reissue series (whoever may own the rights to it these days - it was issued on MCA in North America and Virgin elsewhere), but as a two-record set.
     
  24. colinu

    colinu I'm not lazy, I'm energy saving!

    Do you know if the version of "Ready To Take A Chance Again" is in stereo on this comp. I believe I ready somewhere that this was the only disc with the stereo version (other than the Foul Play soundtrack).
     
  25. Maggie

    Maggie like a walking, talking art show

    Location:
    Toronto, Canada
    I actually think we have to specify 33 1/3 RPM records if we're going to settle this. There are a few unbelievably long 16 rpm music records from the late 50s, although I'm not sure if they're on 'major labels' per se (Prestige has been owned by major labels for decades, but was arguably an 'indie' then). I'm thinking, for example, of a single 16 rpm LP from 1957, produced by Teddy Charles, called Baritones and French Horns - credited to the Modern Jazz Survey (Pepper Adams, Cecil Payne, Julius Watkins, Dave Amram - John Coltrane, Hampton Hawes, and Curtis Fuller get costar credits), which runs almost 80 minutes.

    In 1963, the first side was reissued under John Coltrane's name as Dakar, which is how it's generally known today. I'm not sure what became of side 2.
     
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