[x] New Rule: Swingin' Singles

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Kevin

I was thrilled to see most of the Sisters Of Mercy singles changed to not be s/t anymore. However, I noticed that one of them wasn't, which brings up an interesting question not addressed by the rule.

The entry for what everyone else calls "Body And Soul" is still listed as s/t:

[bandtoband.com] http://bandtoband.com/index.php?Page=Search&AlbumId=17374

While it is true that the 12" version of this single (MR029T) has two songs on the A-side, the 7" version (MR029) does not:

[www.discogs.com] http://www.discogs.com/release/557918

Clearly, the entry in b2b represents the 12", but I have to ask, would we really list the 7" by one name and the 12" by another? In my mind, they're both versions of the "Body And Soul" single.

Also, why does the "Temple Of Love" release have "(Extended Version)" as part of the title? It's not really part of the name of the song. Plus, there's a 7" version of this that isn't the extended version:

[www.discogs.com] http://www.discogs.com/release/264412

I don't particularly care for the idea of having to put in different versions of multi-format single releases with different names. Did you mean for that to happen? I've always viewed a multi-format single to be one release, not a whole bunch with slightly different covers and names.

Finally, the dominant "physical medium" of the day is the CD, which is single-sided. Does that mean that they're not eligible for this treatment if all the titles are listed on the back?

... it would be *so* nice to have genuine old-fashioned singles (and 78s) listed as A-side (dot) B-side as it's sometimes difficult to establish which particular release of a particular entity is being referred to. This particularly seems to affect jazz releases of the 40's.

We spent hours banging out that rule and somehow never considered the situation in which the 7" and 12" differ the way you've described, AJ. We thought we were so clever. Oops. Without giving it much thought, I'd be inclined to go with the most "single"-like variant of a multi-format release, which in this case would result in the 7" title being chosen. It would require just a few new words in the rule:

2. An album with no distinguishable title and containing a single song on the first side of the physical medium [of any format of the release] is given that song title as the album name.

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Your understanding of the treatment of CDs is correct. The only time a CD-only "single" with no distinguishing information ends up with the first song as its title is when that CD has just one song. But I think it's safe to say that we agree with you that all variants of a single are just different versions of the same thing and should all have the same title.

For "Temple Of Love" we went with the full title as provided on both the back cover and the center label of the 12". Obviously we didn't know about the 7" at the time. That makes things ... tricky.

MW, I'm scared of that suggestion, although I see how it could be helpful.

Re: The Sisters Of Mercy's "Temple Of Love":

While it is the case that many 12" will list the mix name on the center label, "Temple Of Love" is not one of them:

[www.discogs.com] http://www.discogs.com/viewimages?what=R&obid=239604

I like your rule revision. I think you should go further and state that mix/version names are not parts of titles unless they are identical across various issues of the same multi-format release. That would allow for, say, "Temple Of Love (1992)" for the 1992 remix of the single, which was consistently used across the 7", 12" and CD-single, but would make the original 1983 issue just "Temple Of Love" based on the 7".