See me see trouble, I have been looking for the George Michael/Mary J Blige version of 'As' since I got to work today, 3 hours into my intensive search I still have no song playing on my iPod! I could have sworn I had the song somewhere, but after spending the whole of two days looking through every cd I had I realised I would need to buy it so off to iTunes I go. Apparently the song was initially released as a single in the UK and then subsequently was released on the 'Ladies & Gentlemen...The Best of George Michael' as well as the 'Twenty Five' albums. Now for some strange reason the song was only released on the import versions of the albums so when I go to iTunes the song doesn't exist, same thing for amazon.com but when I go to amazon.co.uk - bam!- Robert is your relative! There it is listed as the second song on disc 2 ('on the Ladies & Gentlemen...The Best of George Michael' album). I am curious as to the logic behind this whole 'import' album versions and why some really good songs never seem to make it to the US versions of said cds. I am even more suprised with respect to this particular song. Its a cover of a classic from the american wonder Stevie, produced by the ageless Babyface and features a very prominent US musical presence i.e. Mary J Blige. Did some people think that all that hanky panky good ol' George has been up to in apparently all the public restrooms in LA would hurt Mary, Babyface and Stevie and as such decided to distance them from him? What do I know shey? Anyhow I finally find a US store with an album that lists the song; Walmart has the 'Twenty Five' album on pre-order and 'As' is listed as one of the songs the 3 cd set contains. Who is going to wait till the 27th of March to listen to a song? plus as much as I love music I really don't see the sense in spending $30 just to effectively buy one song! To think studio execs are wondering why illegal music downloads are so popular! If no be say I don reform my ways, for sure I would not be here wasting valuable billable hours whinging!
Eureka! A solution just came to me, all you UK pple, is there a UK version of the iTunes Store? If so how can I get my iTunes application to search that instead of searching the US store. Alternatively is there a site for a reputable store (like walmart.com) that will allow you to buy individual songs in digital form?
Note: To iTunes credit they did state that their listing of the contents of the 'Ladies & Gentlemen...The Best of George Michael' album was a partial one.
4 comments:
"As" was recorded right before George's bust at the LA restroom. When it was ready to be released in the US on L&G, Mary's record company, MCA (now Universal), refused to allow it to be included on the US recording. MCA feared that it would hurt Mary's image (i.e. sales) to have a record out with him on it. In the UK, it was just a great song with an even cooler video. So... blame MCA/Universal :-)
@ texasbrian - Do you know that I typed in the whole distancing thing as a reason for the song not being released in the US hoping it was an outrageous explanation for the omission? Imagine that. Yeah the video was awesome with the numerous mary j's and george's strutting their stuff.
LOL! I had this exact problem a few weeks ago. I was searching for "Fallin'", a song by Boyz II Men that was part of the UK release of the album II, but was not one the US version. I love that song and have it on tape.
I remember when I installed iTunes, I had the option of which store to pick and of course I picked the US store. I'm not sure if I can switch just to buy one song. I don't want to try it for fear that I will be stuck with US prices.
@ Ore - So I think I am slick, after reading your comment I rush off to the iTunes UK site search for the song, it comes up I click on it, it prompts me to change my store which I did then I click on buy and alas! my login is only valid for the US store! I try to set up an account for the UK store but I can only use a UK address!!! I tire.
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