 | 23skidoo
Member since Jul 2014 4217 Points | Nothing new, of course, as this has been a challenge since at least the 1950s if not earlier, but still good advice. If you're a fan of a specific artist, you get to know certain clues, whether label names or copyrights to even runtimes. (My speciality is Bill Haley: if Rock Around the Clock shows with a run-time of 2:14 it's the 1968 Sonet records re-recording. If there's no runtime but it's accompanied by the track "Framed" then it's the live version from 1969 released by Buddah Records. Or if you see "Justine" or "La Marcha De Los Santos" listed nearby, it's Orfeon of Mexico, 1966. "My Special Angel" appears nearby, it's Warner Bros. 1960.
But not everyone has that level of interest or knowledge. Fortunately Elvis only re-recorded a handful of his songs in studio. But then you have people like Haley, Chuck Berry, Little Richard, etc. (and I'm just talking the early rock and rollers) who recorded new versions of their hits pretty much every time they changed labels.
It still happens today. Taylor Swift recently rerecorded some of her hits because of a publishing dispute or something. And UK singer Katie Melua released an album called "Album No. 8" in 2020, followed in 2021 by "Acoustic Album No. 8" with the same songs re-recorded in new arrangements. No one's likely to get the two of them confused in 2022 ... but in 2042? 2062?
And the fact many original recordings are falling into public domain in parts of the world it's going to become even more challenging to seek out originals from remakes.
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