Alternate Versions

Before the Internets, most music fans had to hunt high and low to find alternate versions of songs by their favorite bands. I was a huge Police fan back in the day, and even though their recent concert performance we saw was very lackluster, I forgive them for their “Take the Money and Run” tour because they created a ton of great music. Last week, I was trolling Wiki entries for bands, and I wanted to know more about the song “Da Do Do Do, De Da Da Da” for some trivial stuff I was going to mention on the air. I came across an interesting factoid: The Police recorded another version of the song back in 1985/86 that was supposed to be part of their greatest hits album, Every Breath You Take. However, Stewart Copeland injured his shoulder or arm and couldn’t complete the project — which was supposed to be a reinterpretation of all of their hits. They released “Don’t Stand So Close To Me ’86” and it was kind of dud. Too ponderous, too slow, and too boring for those who loved the pop reggae flavor of the original.

Here’s the original version of “Don’t Stand So Close To Me” that still gets (over)played on the radio (Download)

And here’s the “’86” version (Download)

Fast forward last week, and I was able to hunt down the “’86” version of “Da Do Do Do…”

Here’s the original (Download)

And here’s the “’86” version that was only available on a DST-CD release (Download)

While I’m at it, remember the Puff Daddy remix of “Roxanne?” (Download)

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