Updated and Abbreviated

What was the first hit to be re-recorded with a shortened year added to its title?

Here at Jagged Time Lapse, I generally try to write about subjects that I am thoroughly well-versed in. But I’m also always trying to learn more about music and music history; and on the rare occasions when my attempts to unearth new knowledge hits an unyielding wall, I am forced to try a different approach — such as throwing a question out to my vast array of learned JTL readers.

And today’s burning musical question for you is: What was the first song to be released as a single in a re-recorded version by the same artist who recorded the original (or at least an earlier) hit version, and which also included an abbreviated year in its title to mark it as the newer and ostensibly improved version?

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Okay, as trivia questions go, that’s admittedly a bit of a mouthful. But I began to wonder about it this weekend while my girlfriend and I were grooving to “Ring Ding ’67,” a giddy ska/calypso single by Jamaican mento singer-songwriter Count Lasher that’s featured on the incredible compilation Put On Your Best Dress: Sonia Pottinger Ska & Rock Steady 1966-1967.

Now, “Ring Ding ’67” is not actually an example of what I’m talking about, because — at least to the best of my knowledge — Count Lasher didn’t release an earlier version of the song that was just called “Ring Ding”. (It is, however, a song with the magical power to immediately brighten your day, so I’m posting it here.)

However, the title of Count Lasher’s song immediately reminded me of Gene Chandler’s “Rainbow ’65,” the Chicago soul legend’s 1965 update of his Curtis Mayfield-penned 1962 hit. A live, horns-abetted rendition spread across two halves of a 45 rpm single, “Rainbow ’65” finds the Duke of Earl sticking pretty close to the same pleading-yet-endearing approach he took on his original studio recording for Vee Jay Records.

Given that he’d jumped to Constellation Records by this point, “Rainbow ‘65” seems like it was intended to showcase Chandler’s live chops while also allowing his new label to squeeze some bucks from his back catalog. It worked: While the original “Rainbow” was a #11 R&B hit in 1962, “Rainbow ’65” went all the way to #2.

From there, my mind leapt to Del Shannon’s “Runaway ’67,” which was recorded during the same Home and Away sessions that led to the making of Billy Nicholls’ rare and wonderful 1968 album Would You Believe.

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Would You Believe?

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Produced by Andrew Loog Oldham, and featuring the talents of such British session vets as Jimmy Page, John Paul Jones and Nicky Hopkins, this over-egged orchestral update of Shannon’s chart-topping 1961 smash — reportedly cut and released over Shannon’s protests — not only completely failed in its mission to prove that Shannon was still relevant as an artist, but its poor chart showing in the US (the single stalled at #112) convinced Liberty Records that they should shove the excellent Home and Away (an album which could have actually proved Shannon’s continued relevance) deep into the company’s vaults, where it remained unreleased for a decade. Kind of the opposite effect of “Rainbow ’65,” in other words.

(Also, I’ll just state here that there is simply no way to improve upon the jittery, bug-eyed brilliance of Shannon’s original “Runaway,” and — with the possible exception of The Small Faces, whose 1965 version at least had some balls to it — I’ve long felt that those who try should be jailed for musical malpractice.)

This mini-trend of remaking a hit and adding an abbreviated date to its title wasn’t limited to the 1960s, either — easy-listening bandleader, conductor and composer Percy Faith scored his final chart success in 1975 with “Summer Place ’76,” a groovy, wah-inflected overhaul of his massive 1959 instrumental hit “Theme from A Summer Place”.

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You Gotta Have Faith

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As I wrote in my 2024 appreciation of the man’s work, “Some folks I’ve played it for have expressed sadness and pity that the last single of Faith’s lifetime was a disco reworking of his greatest hit, but I think it’s beautiful that the guy launched this playful party grenade at us on his way out the door.” After spinning “Summer Place ’76” again today, I still absolutely stand by those words.

But the question remains: What was the very first song to be remade by its original (or hit) artist and tagged with an abbreviated signifying year? This appears to be a really difficult thing to get to the bottom of, since most search engines (including the one on Discogs) don’t seem to notice when you preface a number with an apostrophe.

Off the top of my head, though, I can’t come up with an earlier example than The Ventures’ “Walk, Don’t Run ’64”. Inspired by Chet Atkins’ 1957 recording of jazz guitarist Johnny Smith’s 1954 composition “Walk, Don’t Run,” the Tacoma-based instrumental combo scored a million-selling smash in 1960 with their own version of the tune. But while their albums continued to sell well (1963’s The Ventures Play Telstar and The Lonely Bull gave the band their first Top 10 LP), The Ventures’ popularity as a singles act had been declining steadily since 1961’s “Ram-Bunk-Shush,” their last Top 30 hit to date.

While it’s unclear whose idea it was to revive “Walk, Don’t Run” with a moodier arrangement recalling The Chantays’ 1962 surf smash “Pipeline,” the gambit definitely paid off — the “’64” version reached #8 on Billboard’s Hot 100 in August 1964.

Aside from being a killer track in its own right, “Walk, Don’t Run ’64” is also notable for the fact that Bob Bogle and Nokie Edwards, who’d played lead guitar and bass on the original hit version, had swapped instrumental roles in the band by the time this one was recorded. Also, the freaky organ stabs on the updated version hint at the glorious sonic overload to come in The Ventures’ radical rearrangement of Richard Rodgers’ “Slaughter on Tenth Avenue” — my all-time favorite Ventures track, and one which would earn them a #35 US hit in November 1964.

But there definitely could be (and probably are) earlier examples of this sort of thing. Can you name any? And if not, are any examples of an artist releasing a year-tagged, updated version of a previous hit that you actually prefer to the original? Lemme know in the comments!

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