Can't Smile Without You: Version One and Two

Mark-T

Well-Known Member
Maybe those of you with better ears can answer this. I can hear new clarinet parts, a new vocal line, and a new intro compared to the original 1976 Hush version.
What else am I hearing?
 
Maybe those of you with better ears can answer this. I can hear new clarinet parts, a new vocal line, and a new intro compared to the original 1976 Hush version.
What else am I hearing?

I think they re recorded the first verse. I just found this out thanks to you mentioning version 2 which i think is the single version and not the 76 album version.
 
In speaking of the re-recorded single version: The first verse is a total re-record, obviously. Then starting with the second verse, things synch up pretty well, but you have to speed up the single version by about 0.225% to get the two to match, and later in the second verse, Richard added a flute section that wasn't there in the first.

At around the 2:35 mark, there was a clarinet part flown in. Later on still, the flutes come back, and toward the end, I think I can hear some extra overdubbed vocals added to the stack. The fade-out is then a little longer on the album version.

It's actually very difficult to synch up one version with the other as Richard's fly-ins don't always happen exactly where the original parts were, and some of the new parts are a little faster or a little slower. It's amazing that it sounds as good as it does, and it was all accomplished in the analog realm!
 
Very interesting, Harry! I knew they sounded so different and could only put together a few reasons why. Thank you.
 
Good ears @Mark-T!

Like @Harry points out, there are two, slightly different tempos between verses one and two, along with some additional overdubbing.

All of this was intentional in an effort to liven up the track for radio. The meter on the original take is a bit draggy to begin with, which is why the redo of the intro and verse one starts slightly faster and more energetic. They were click tracking most everything at this point, so it's not like engineer Ray Gerhardt, (who would have set the tempo) along with Richard, couldn't get the two tempos to match if they wanted to.

This was all done in late July, orchestra brought back in, and the woodwind embellishments added to the arrangement along with a couple of other revisions.
 
Good ears @Mark-T!

Like @Harry points out, there are two, slightly different tempos between verses one and two, along with some additional overdubbing.

All of this was intentional in an effort to liven up the track for radio. The meter on the original take is a bit draggy to begin with, which is why the redo of the intro and verse one starts slightly faster and more energetic. They were click tracking most everything at this point, so it's not like engineer Ray Gerhardt, (who would have set the tempo) along with Richard, couldn't get the two tempos to match if they wanted to.

This was all done in late July, orchestra brought back in, and the woodwind embellishments added to the arrangement along with a couple of other revisions.
July of 1977?
 
Interesting.
Was it being considered as a potential single to follow up Goofus if that was a hit? Or were there other plans?
 
Interesting.
Was it being considered as a potential single to follow up Goofus if that was a hit? Or were there other plans?

It was actually. Richard knew that the song itself was a hit, but was anything but happy with his arrangement of it. He brought Tom Scott in for the big band break to do the Bennie Goodman/Artie Shaw thing. As far as the release date of the single, that was more of a timing issue than anything.
 
It was actually. Richard knew that the song itself was a hit, but was anything but happy with his arrangement of it. He brought Tom Scott in for the big band break to do the Bennie Goodman/Artie Shaw thing. As far as the release date of the single, that was more of a timing issue than anything.
Very interesting. And somewhere in this forum, or the Internet, Karen had heard Barry's arrangement and said that she wished that she had done that. Paraphrasing.
 
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