Editing For Time
Radio edits often shorten a long song to make it more commercially viable for radio stations. The normal length for songs played on the radio is 3 to 4 minutes. Occasionally, the song will simply fade out earlier, common on tracks with long instrumental endings. For instance, the radio edit of 'Heroes' by David Bowie fades in shortly before the beginning of the third verse and fades out shortly before the vocal vamping at the end of the song. However, many radio edits will also edit out verses, bridges, and interludes, such as the original single edit of "Piano Man" by Billy Joel which substitutes the end of the third verse for the ending of the second verse.
Some songs will be remixed heavily and feature different arrangements than the original longer versions, occasionally even being completely different recordings. A popular example of this would be "Revolution" by The Beatles which is a completely different recording than the version which appears on The White Album. This also became more prevalent with the rise of the 12" record, as artists like New Order started making songs specifically for the format. Many of the 7" mixes aimed for pop radio airplay of their songs feature very different arrangements, such as "Bizarre Love Triangle", or even a completely different recording, such as "Temptation".
Occasionally, very long songs do not have a radio edit, despite being as long as six or seven minutes in length. Famous examples of these include "Vicarious" (2006) by Tool at 7 minutes and 6 seconds, "Hey Jude" (1968) by The Beatles at 7 minutes and 11 seconds long, "You're the Voice" (1985/86) by John Farnham at 7 minutes and 9 seconds long, "Stairway to Heaven" (1971) by Led Zeppelin at 8 minutes and 3 seconds, "The Message" (1982) by Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five at 7 minutes and 10 seconds, "One" (1989) by Metallica at 7 minutes and 24 seconds, and "American Pie" by Don McLean with a length of 8 minutes and 32 seconds. Ying Yang Twins' "Georgia Dome" has a radio edit removing profanity, but at the same length (6 minutes 6 seconds) as the album version. Occasionally, due to popular demand, the longer version of a song will be played over the shorter version, such as "Like a Rolling Stone" by Bob Dylan, which was released on a 7" single featuring the first two verses on side 1 and the rest of the song on side 2. Due to the popularity of the song, radio stations started playing the full version to meet their listeners' demand.
On rare occasions, a radio edit might be longer than the original album version. This may occur when the song is edited for form, such as "Miserable" by Lit, in which the radio edit adds the chorus between the first and second verse.
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Famous quotes containing the words editing and/or time:
“In this century the writer has carried on a conversation with madness. We might almost say of the twentieth-century writer that he aspires to madness. Some have made it, of course, and they hold special places in our regard. To a writer, madness is a final distillation of self, a final editing down. It’s the drowning out of false voices.”
—Don Delillo (b. 1926)
“We see past time in a telescope and present time in a microscope. Hence the apparent enormities of the present.”
—Victor Hugo (1802–1885)