Remix.run Logo
wmeredith 2 days ago

I'm not sure about the rules of submitting something like this to Hacker News, but I found it to be a fascinating quirk at the intersection of culture and technology. I didn't even know about it (the radio edit) when I started researching this song for my website. The gist is below.

The Knack's 1979 breakout hit My Sharona is remembered for spending six weeks at the top of the Billboard Hot 100, but that radio edit is woefully incomplete. Lead guitarist Berton Averre’s full-length My Sharona solo is absolutely transcendent. Which makes it all the more ridiculous that it was cut for time on the radio release.

ChrisMarshallNY 2 days ago | parent | next [-]

Tons of songs were cut. It's still typical to have "radio edits" of songs.

When the tech came out, that allowed the tempo to be increased, without changing the pitch, a lot of songs suddenly got faster.

In radio, every second counts, and there will be a lot of fighting for tenths of a second. Sort of like top-shelf track and field athletes.

The prose in that story is a bit ... intense.

MarkusWandel a day ago | parent | prev [-]

Oddly enough... I looked for the full length version, played it through and... yep, that's how I remember it. From what I recorded off the radio as a 12 year old in Germany. I guess they ran the full length version there.