Best/worst addition/deletion of tracks on a U.S. release

[Brian_Wallace]

Reading about the (supposed) deletion of "Addicted" on the U.S. release of the Amy Winehouse CD made me think of this.  It's so stupid to do this.  The record company thinks they are "helping out" the consumer by putting on or pulling off tracks that they think the listener will or won't like.  Shouldn't the listener make that choice?  This is one of the reasons file-sharing came about.  But I digress...
 
 I'll have to think about this for a while.  I know the stupidest occurrence was when they took "New York City Cops" off of The Strokes' "Is This It?" after September 11th.
 
 Brian
 
 P.S.  This doesn't really qualify but the worst "bonus track" offense was when Blink-182 released three versions of "Take Off Your Pants and Jacket."  Each with two different bonus tracks (one regular song and one, surprise, surprise, "joke" song.)  The only people who would be gullible enough to buy all three versions would be die-hard Blink-182 fans.  The casual fan couldn't care less about buying all three.  Hence, Blink-182 took their most devoted fans and...made them pay for the same album three times when they just could have put all six tracks on one version of the CD.  THAT is a beautiful excuse for file-sharing and I'm glad that band imploded.  That's unforgivable.

[bellenseb]

It was nice when they added "Krazy Koz" to the US version of Mojave 3's Excuses for Travelers. Love that tune.

[Vas Deferens]

Not only did they delete "NYC Cops", they also changed the artwork!! I have the UK release with the nice artwork  

[Brian_Wallace]

They took one of Blur's best early songs, "Sing" off of "Leisure."  However, it was on the "Trainspotting" soundtrack.
 
 They took one of the best songs ("She's Pulling Out the Pin") off of Elvis Costello's "The Delivery Man."  But they added it back on a deluxe version about six months later.
 
 On the U.K. version of Pulp's "This Is Hardcore" there is a LONG fade out to the final song, "The Day After The Revolution."  About five minutes into it, Jarvis says "Bye-bye."  On the US release, they ditch the fade out and add a song ("Like A Friend") that was on the "Great Expectations" soundtrack.
 
 Brian

[Charlie Nakatestes, Japanese Golfer]

They also took two of the songs off of the new Fratellis album out today, and added one replacement song.
 
 I think it's crap. I'll seek out the Amy Winehouse album in its intended form.

[beetsnotbeats]

Shania Twain's last album was released in three different versions, identified by color (I don't remember what they were though). CDs included two versions on two discs; the third version was available as a download. The US release contained the country and pop versions while the rest of the world got the pop and "international" versions.
 
 Whatever the worth of the music, that album (I'm too lazy to look up the name right now) is a great study in music marketing.

[BookerT]

the US release of "the clash" is obviously waaaay better than the UK version, subbing in "Clash City Rockers," "Complete Control," "White Man In Hammersmith Palais," "I Fought the Law" and "Jail Guitar Doors" for some not nearly as good stuff.

[Sir HC]

Slowdive Souvlaki added 4 bonus tracks to the US version (so getting the import with 4 songs less is a lot more money).  Pretty good songs too.
 
 Mercury Rev added "Carwash Hair" to Y'erself Is Steam, but in the process took the last track (Very Sleepy River) and made it a huge number of tracks so that you can not easily move it to MP3 or other things, and don't dare put it on random.  So this one is a wash.

[Brian_Wallace]

Two good additions (in my opinion):
 
 1.  "How Soon is Now?" was added to the US version of The Smiths' "Meat is Murder."  Today, it's on the U.K. Warner reissues so if you buy a U.K. version you'll get "How Soon Is Now?" too.  But it wasn't always that way.
 
 2.  The Libertine's first single "What A Waster" was added to the U.S. version of "Up the Bracket."
 
 Brian

[Brian_Wallace]

Originally posted by BookerT:
  the US release of "the clash" is obviously waaaay better than the UK version, subbing in "Clash City Rockers," "Complete Control," "White Man In Hammersmith Palais," "I Fought the Law" and "Jail Guitar Doors" for some not nearly as good stuff.

I agree that the US version is better and you can even go into a record store right now and buy either the US version or the UK version of "The Clash."
 
 However, I think MOST music fans prefer an album as the artist intended.  The "original" version of the album, if you will.  And the U.S. version of "The Clash" was officially released a year after their second album ("Give 'Em Enough Rope") was released in the U.S.  Columbia added singles and B-sides that were released well after the initial release of "The Clash."
 
 They did something somewhat similar to Robbie Williams.  They took his first two albums, picked the best songs and some singles and made a whole new album ("The Ego Has Landed") for his US debut.  
 
 I still maintain that one of the greatest shows I EVER saw at the 9:30 club was Robbie Williams.  A guy who would go on to play three sold-out nights at Knebworth and absolutely had the audience of Live 8 eating out of his hand playing for 1,200 in D.C.?  Priceless.
 
 Brian
 
 P.S.  The tracks they took off of the U.K. version of "The Clash" were "Cheat", "Deny", "48 Hours" and an ode to condoms, "Protex Blue."

[renton007]

The deletion of The Wrong Way and The Right Way that bookend The Brian Jonestown Massacre's ...And This Is Our Music is the one that I don't like.  Hearing Anton get berated and sucked up too made that album awesome.  I believe it was deleted for legal issues or something.  Luckily, I still have an old cd-r with those tracks.

[palahniukkubrick]

The remastered version of Dinosaur Jr's You're Living All Over Me ditches their boring cover of "Show Me the Way," and replaces it with the awesome cover of "Just Like Heaven."

[bearman🐻]

Manic Street Preachers' "Generation Terrorists"...US version was 4 tracks shorter, but they swapped out one track...the US version had "Democracy Coma" I think, and different mixes of many other tracks. So 5 tracks difference total. The songs sound more cleaned up, and louder volume. In the end, the pacing of the US version is better too, the UK one is more for folks that would have bought it on vinyl. I seem to have a lot more records like that, but I'm too braindead to think of the others. I know that "Lullabies to Paralyze" has a lot more songs on vinyl, like 4 or 5 I think, including a killer version of "Precious and Grace" by ZZ Top.