Record label's decisions

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eleventhirtyfour
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Record label's decisions

Post by eleventhirtyfour »

I've heard that Al wasn't on board with doing a Cyndi Lauper parody and that the label insisted that he do it and I've heard other things like they wanted him to do a cover song on Dare To Be Stupid and also we all know the food and tv albums were the record label's idea as well.

Are there other examples of this happening? I would assume most of it happened in the 80s but maybe you have some stories about songs or other decisions that Al wasn't too on board with but had to do it anyways.
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Re: Record label's decisions

Post by bermuda »

I didn't know that Lunch was ever an issue, it certainly doesn't sound like a song Al recorded begrudgingly!

Scotti Bros. was all about marketing, and they pretty much did what they wanted when it came to compilations. By 1994, there were 8 original albums, and 8 best-of discs (4 hits compilations and the 4-disc box set.) But I'm not aware that they ever tried to influence Al as to material on the original albums.

Volcano/Zomba/Jive/RCA/Sony seems to have been equally hands-off.

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Re: Record label's decisions

Post by eleventhirtyfour »

This actually reminds of something else I had heard, not sure where, but I had heard that Al originally wanted Midnight Star to be the lead single from In 3-D? I'm assuming this can't be true but you never know... I just remember hearing that it was because he wanted to feature his original material MORE than his parody material early on but then decided against it after the success of "Eat It"...???
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Re: Record label's decisions

Post by anthontherun »

eleventhirtyfour wrote:This actually reminds of something else I had heard, not sure where, but I had heard that Al originally wanted Midnight Star to be the lead single from In 3-D? I'm assuming this can't be true but you never know...
He mentions this in the Permanent Record booklet but that he "regained [his] senses" and "Eat It" was chosen instead.
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Re: Record label's decisions

Post by bermuda »

I didn't know about Midnight Star, but time tells us that the parodies were always the wise choices, at least in terms of marketing each album. But with the impending change in the concept of an album as a product, each new song - parody or original - would stand alone as a new single. A few months later, there'd be another, and so on, just sort of a constant stream of material as Al writes and records it - no need to wait for 12 songs in order to have a releasable 'album'.

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Re: Record label's decisions

Post by mrmeadows »

bermuda wrote: with the impending change in the concept of an album as a product, each new song - parody or original - would stand alone as a new single. A few months later, there'd be another, and so on, just sort of a constant stream of material as Al writes and records it - no need to wait for 12 songs in order to have a releasable 'album'.
As old school as I tend to be about preferring a nicely-packaged album, I think I will be able to get used to this new direction. :D
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