Post by dirtyfaz on Dec 28, 2017 11:50:29 GMT
This particular version of Magic Woman Touch has an interesting and intriguing story. Some of it is known and the reason for its original appearance is the intriguing part and can only be left to assumption.
Originally it was thought that its first appearance was on the Malaysian hits compilation called "The Hollies" on the Fanfare label FF12-44. This version appeared in MONO as did the rest of the tracks on this LP.
The interesting thing about those MONO tracks is that they were all fold downs to MONO from the STEREO versions.
It has appeared now many times on CD with the first version being the CD "Epic Anthology From the Original Master Tapes" Epic EGK 46161. Some more recent releases on CD are the 2007 EMI reissue of "Romany" with bonus tracks, "Changin' Times" collection Disc 4 and the Japanese LP replica sleeve version of "Romany" with bonus tracks.
Putting a release date on the Malaysian LP "The Hollies" is difficult but would have been issued in the late 70s or early 80s. I got my copy early in the 80s and started working with Raven Records to put together a rarities collection of Hollies tracks that included MWT (acoustic) as well as many others that hadn't been officially issued. Examples being Amazing Grace (Live in Sydney 1971) and Johnny B Good (from a NZ concert in 1983)and many bsides not on LP. Raven had got tapes from EMI for all the studio material and the other items were going to come from my collection. I went to Raven and heard some of the tapes they had been supplied. One was MWT (acoustic) in STEREO. I was blown away and thought this was going to be a great collection of tracks especially now that the MWT version was going to be on it. I was of the understanding that everything planned for that LP was approved. As fate would have it EMI UK released their own Rarities LP and it effectively killed the project. A real shame as a couple of the tracks still haven't been issued officially (Not really likely either as they were live tapes).
In very recent times it has come to pass that the Fanfare LP was actually not the first LP to contain the acoustic version. Knut Skyberg recently posted the LP sleeve and record labels from the Malaysian version of "Romany" on facebook and Cameron mentioned it in an earlier post. To look at the record labels you would think it is the normal LP with the same track order as the UK LP. The only difference is that the version of MWT is the acoustic version of the track. It is still placed as track 4 on side 1 of the LP. The only thing missing is the matrix number that would normally appear on the label and be the same as the UK one. Knut sent me an audio grab of the track and it most certainly is the acoustic version. I assume is it also the stereo version as well.
What does this all mean and how did Malaysia get the LP with the incorrect MWT? My guess is that we will never know. If the Malaysian version was where "Romany" was first issued in the world then just maybe the acoustic version was the one that was going to be included on the LP and was withdrawn at the last moment. Like I said we will never know.
Chris
Originally it was thought that its first appearance was on the Malaysian hits compilation called "The Hollies" on the Fanfare label FF12-44. This version appeared in MONO as did the rest of the tracks on this LP.
The interesting thing about those MONO tracks is that they were all fold downs to MONO from the STEREO versions.
It has appeared now many times on CD with the first version being the CD "Epic Anthology From the Original Master Tapes" Epic EGK 46161. Some more recent releases on CD are the 2007 EMI reissue of "Romany" with bonus tracks, "Changin' Times" collection Disc 4 and the Japanese LP replica sleeve version of "Romany" with bonus tracks.
Putting a release date on the Malaysian LP "The Hollies" is difficult but would have been issued in the late 70s or early 80s. I got my copy early in the 80s and started working with Raven Records to put together a rarities collection of Hollies tracks that included MWT (acoustic) as well as many others that hadn't been officially issued. Examples being Amazing Grace (Live in Sydney 1971) and Johnny B Good (from a NZ concert in 1983)and many bsides not on LP. Raven had got tapes from EMI for all the studio material and the other items were going to come from my collection. I went to Raven and heard some of the tapes they had been supplied. One was MWT (acoustic) in STEREO. I was blown away and thought this was going to be a great collection of tracks especially now that the MWT version was going to be on it. I was of the understanding that everything planned for that LP was approved. As fate would have it EMI UK released their own Rarities LP and it effectively killed the project. A real shame as a couple of the tracks still haven't been issued officially (Not really likely either as they were live tapes).
In very recent times it has come to pass that the Fanfare LP was actually not the first LP to contain the acoustic version. Knut Skyberg recently posted the LP sleeve and record labels from the Malaysian version of "Romany" on facebook and Cameron mentioned it in an earlier post. To look at the record labels you would think it is the normal LP with the same track order as the UK LP. The only difference is that the version of MWT is the acoustic version of the track. It is still placed as track 4 on side 1 of the LP. The only thing missing is the matrix number that would normally appear on the label and be the same as the UK one. Knut sent me an audio grab of the track and it most certainly is the acoustic version. I assume is it also the stereo version as well.
What does this all mean and how did Malaysia get the LP with the incorrect MWT? My guess is that we will never know. If the Malaysian version was where "Romany" was first issued in the world then just maybe the acoustic version was the one that was going to be included on the LP and was withdrawn at the last moment. Like I said we will never know.
Chris
