Linda Clifford's Big 12"s

[NickNack]

Originally Posted by "jazz_pilgrim

...but there was, to my delight, a meaty 9:42 disco remix of Linda Clifford's Runanway Love which I have never heard before. A brilliant track.

Jazz had mentioned in the 'Favorite Compilations' thread that he recently found a CD with the long version of Linda Clifford's "Runaway Love", something he had not heard before. I just found this so weird, the song being so huge in the clubs. So, for Jazz and others who may have missed Linda's looong versions, here's what I got on 12". You should check 'em out. :D

CURTOM LABEL:
1. If My Friends Could See Me Now 10:12 b/w Gypsy Lady 9:58 (Jimmy Simpson Remix)
2. Runaway Love b/w (same) 9:44 (Jim Burgess Remix)

RSO / CURTOM RECORDS:
1. Bridge Over Troubled Water b/w (same) 10:20 (Jimmy Simpson Remix)
2. *Special 4-song 12"* Lonely Night 7:12, Repossessed 5:36 b/w King For A Night 7:14, I Just Wanna Wanna 5:06
3. Don't Give It Up 10:16 (Remix by Manny Slali and Roger Anfinsen) b/w Sweet Melodies 7:53 <'DGIU' was the follow up to "Runaway Love", structured almost the same and yes, very hot. Although longer than the 'double lp' version by a little less than a minute, it has less of her rap in the intro. Both are good.>

RED LABEL RECORDS:
1. The Heat In Me (4 versions: 3:56 - 6:30)
2. You're Mine (4 versions: 1:27 - 9:12)

UNIDISC (I don't have the original 12" on Curtom)
1. From Now On 7:01 b/w If My Friends...

Reading the credits is an eye-opener. Gil Askey produced and arranged everything except those songs on Red Label. It looks like The Jones Girls were doing background. Bunny Sigler wrote From Now On. Leroy Gomez wrote "Lonely Night" while Norman Harris, Ronny Tyson and Juergen Koppers produced that special 4-song 12". Great stuff.

[Boogie Child]

I love Linda Clifford - she is excellent performing live, and one of the more consistent divas of the Seventies and early Eighties. I don't have the twelve inches in front of me, but all of these songs have longer versions than the LP's and benefit from the extension:

1. "Shoot Your Best Shot"
2. "Don't Come Crying to Me"
3. "Red Light"
4. "A Night With the Boys"

[Forrrce]

NickNack,
I may be wrong on this, but until a few years back, the long version of 'Runaway Love' was only on a US promo. CRC Records in the UK released a 12" with 3 versions (including an instrumental, if memory serves) in 1983, which I bought, expecting it to be this rumoured 9 minute mix - and it wasn't. I found the US promo in around '86 and as you can imagine, was pleased as punch.
I hadn't seen the 9 minute version on any other format until it appeared on Unidisc(?) in full-length form in the early '90s.
I might be missing something here, but that long version was always notoriously hard to track down for a long time. If that's really the case, it's no surprise many, including Jazz Pilgrim, missed it.

[hotdiscomix]

Disconet published a 6:38 version of "Runaway Love" on the Dance Classics Two, Disc Two.
I am however not sure whether it is a Remix or a official 12" or album version. :-?

[Art Figueroa]

The "long" version is also available on Volume Three of the Give Your Body UP compilations released by Rhino Records

Art

[ehuerta]

The Best of Linda Clifford CD (DEEP BEATS DEEPM 008) has the following extended songs:

From Now On 5:10
Don't Give It Up 9:26
You Are, You Are 5:16
Shoot Your Best Shot 7:48
Runaway Love 9:44

Among others

[in-the-groove]

There were 2 different versions released of "Don't Come Crying To Me". The commercial 12" on U.S. Capitol has a 6:38 version backed with "I'll Keep On Loving You". Capitol subsequently pressed a promo-only 12" with a 6:52 remix by Rusty Garner, backed with a track called "Let It Ride". I don't know if the Rusty Garner remix has been commercially released on cd or reissue 12"...

Kevin

[Discovery]

How is the 7:14 minute version of "King for a Night" from the special 4-track 12"?

From the track time lengths it looks like "Lonely Night", "Repossessed", and "I just Wanna Wanna" are the same as the album versions, but "King for the Night" is only about 3 1/2 minutes long on the "Here's My Love" album.

What is the 7:14 minute version like?

Thanks.

[NickNack]

Originally Posted by Forrrce

NickNack,
I may be wrong on this, but until a few years back, the long version of 'Runaway Love' was only on a US promo.

I might be missing something here, but that long version was always notoriously hard to track down for a long time. If that's really the case, it's no surprise many, including Jazz Pilgrim, missed it.

Forrrce,

I might be missing something, too. All this time I've been operating under the assumption that bonafide Euro dj's were furnished with promotional product from companies and record pools just as we were over here. Am I mistaken? This is why I expressed surprised over the song not being heard. Even if it was just a promo, hanging out in the clubs would have let one know there's a serious version out there. A version that maybe only dj's have, but out there none the less.

[NickNack]

Originally Posted by Discovery

How is the 7:14 minute version of "King for a Night" from the special 4-track 12"?

Discovery,

I think you would really like this. I don't know the lp version but this one jams. A 32-beat intro before the background girls introduce the song. A 16-beat passage and then Linda starts to sing. After the second verse there is an extended instrumental section and then Linda returns. Later, the ladies do a vocal breakdown over percussion. Then the musicians get to show off which is just great. The background comes back and Linda ad-libs to the end, all the while the music remains hot. Funky and sweet and the "Sweethearts of Sigma" and the players remind you that this is a 'Philly Sound' production. :)

If you see it, pick it up. This and "Lonely Nights" were the club cuts for sure.

[Discovery]

Thanks NickNack. I hope to hear the long version sometime. Too bad it was shortened for the album.

Another good Linda Clifford track is "One Of Those Songs", the 11+ minute, entire side long track from side 4 of her "Let Me Be Your Woman" album. I like the way she gets so excited (in the storyline) about a song she doesn't know the name of, especially the way she really wails toward the end. :P

[Forrrce]

[quote="NickNack"]

Originally Posted by Forrrce

Forrrce,

I might be missing something, too. All this time I've been operating under the assumption that bonafide Euro dj's were furnished with promotional product from companies and record pools just as we were over here. Am I mistaken? This is why I expressed surprised over the song not being heard. Even if it was just a promo, hanging out in the clubs would have let one know there's a serious version out there. A version that maybe only dj's have, but out there none the less.

Surprisingly enough, NickNack, US promos had always been a big deal here, simply because they weren't around in any quantity at all. Second hand shops may be littered with them now, but before many dealers and collectors started bringing back large quantities of records from America in the '80s, they really weren't that common. I have spoken to some older guys about this and it seems that the majors over here would have small quantities of some (US) promo titles, which certain bigger DJs would get.
Something like the Linda would probably have come from a guy called Fred Dove, who handled disco for WEA in the UK. He sold some records to a mate of mine a few years ago and the weirdest pre-releases, both UK and US, were in there, things we didn't know existed.
I imagine it was a pretty exclusive club for the lucky few. Maybe some of the guys on the forum who were deejaying then have a take on things?

[NickNack]

Originally Posted by Forrrce

Surprisingly enough, NickNack, US promos had always been a big deal here, simply because they weren't around in any quantity at all. Second hand shops may be littered with them now, but before many dealers and collectors started bringing back large quantities of records from America in the '80s, they really weren't that common. I have spoken to some older guys about this and it seems that the majors over here would have small quantities of some (US) promo titles, which certain bigger DJs would get.
Something like the Linda would probably have come from a guy called Fred Dove, who handled disco for WEA in the UK. He sold some records to a mate of mine a few years ago and the weirdest pre-releases, both UK and US, were in there, things we didn't know existed.
I imagine it was a pretty exclusive club for the lucky few. Maybe some of the guys on the forum who were deejaying then have a take on things?

Interesting... this explains a lot. So it is quite possible that a lot of disco music in the 'US promo category' went unheard for you guys for quite some time. That could also explain why records that were common place to dj's and crowds here don't click as well with some of you. We could be talking the same titles but 'hearing' different versions.

[jazz_pilgrim]

Cheers, NickNack for that!

This is a very strange story - how so many people never seem to have heard of this remix of Runaway Love.

I mentioned it to our good friend, Sammy Perez, who also expressed surprise at hearing about this version.

It is strange, because Runaway Love was such a massive hit with the Soul Mafia Djs in the UK and was heavily featured during the rare groove revival in the mid 80's. But I never heard the Jim Burgess remix! I only picked it up by chance when I bought a compilation CD by one of the London erstwhile "rare groove" DJs Dr Bob Jones for an Eddie Russ track and I was amazed when I heard this new version of Linda Clifford.

It is very unusual and strange that the DJs seem to have missed out on the one!

Greg - what about you guys up in the North West. Did you ever pick up on it??