Scrapped Promotional Single and Unreleased B-side
"Belfast" was set to be released as the fifth and last single from Made in England. As such, the single for "Belfast was to be a promotional single. "Belfast" was edited down to half its length and remixed for radio airplay by Chris Thomas. After completion of the rigorous task of editing and remixing the nearly seven-minute song, the release of "Belfast" (single edit) was scrapped several weeks before release because Island Records, Elton John's U.S. distribution company, objected to, in its words, the traditional Irish "flavor" of the song and interpreted it as having both religious and war-related undertones. The album version contains a segue from "Believe" to "Belfast". The unreleased single edit of "Belfast" contains an instrumental outro not found in the album version. Both the single edit of "Belfast" and its B-side "Basque", which dates back to 1990, remain officially unreleased, but the songs are circulating amongst the Elton John tape trading community.
Read more about this topic: Belfast (song)
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