Pet Sematary – without Dee Dee...

In 1988 the Ramones got an offer to write the theme song for the upcoming movie Pet Sematary based on the book by Stephen King, a big fan of the band.
The members accepted the deal and the legend says that Dee Dee wrote the song while King was sitting in the next room waiting.
Soon after, in december 1988, the band recorded the track at Sigma Sound Studios in New York along with Joeys song Merry Christmas (I don't wanna fight tonight).
Jean Beuvoir and Daniel Ray (who co-wrote Pet Sematary with Dee Dee) produced the recordings and the engineer was Fernando Kral.
"I was pleasantly surprised by the Ramones", Kral told Sound on Sound in 2008. "I liked them, I was a fan of theirs, and on this occasion they were certainly disciplined, in that they came in and did the job that they needed to do. There wasn't any kind of fooling around".
The engineer also reveals that Dee Dee didn't play on the recording!
"He'd been at the rehearsal and the band had sounded tight. But, having written the song with Daniel Rey, he must have thought he'd done his job", Kral says.
Jean Beuvoir played the bass part on the recording.
"Pet Sematary would end up being included on their Brain Drain album," says Kral, "but at that stage there was no album in the works". 
The recording took place between 15th and 17th of december and was a higher-end production for the Ramones.
"I remember after it was all done and everybody was happy with the record, I heard the comment, 'We ended up spending more than twice the cost of the first album on this one song'", Fernando Kraal told SOS.

Pet Sematary was released as a single in 1989 and there are two versions of the song:
1. The original recording produced by Jean Beuvoir and Daniel Ray. Used on most pressings. The U.S. promo 7" has a radio-version on one side and a LP-version on the other – but I can't hear any difference.
2. A version produced by Bill Laswell who got the job for the Brain Drain-album that was released the same year, 1989. The Laswell-version has more and heavier guitars, less synth and a different drum sound. And a intro with the sound of thunder. I don't know if Laswell did a new recording or if it is a remix of the recording made by Jean Beuvoir. This version was used on the first single-release in the UK in september 1989. On the back of the sleeve you can read that it is "The original version of "Pet Sematary" available on the forthcoming Ramones album on Chrysalis". But when Brain Drain finally came out the record company used the Beuvoir-mix. Maybe that's why Chrysalis re-released the single in UK a few months later with that version.
And on the sleeve to the german single Bill Laswell is credited as the producer although it is the Beuvoir-mix that is used on the record!

Here is the complete Pet Sematary single discography:

UK:

Songs: Pet Sematary/All Screwed Up

Format: 7"

Number: Chrysalis CHS 3423

Year: 1989

Country: UK

Notes: The Bill Laswell version of Pet Sematary

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Songs: Pet Sematary//All Screwed Up/Zero Zero UFO

Format: 12"

Number: Chrysalis CHS 3423

Year: 1989

Country: UK

Notes: The Bill Laswell version of Pet Sematary

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Songs: Pet Sematary/Merry Christmas (I don't wanna fight tonight)

Format: 7"

Number: Chrysalis CHS 3483

Year: 1989

Country: UK

Notes: The Jean Beauvoir version of Pet Sematary. Front of sleeve same as CHS 3423.

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Songs: Pet Sematary/Merry Christmas (I don't wanna fight tonight)//All Screwed Up/Zero Zero UFO

Format: 12"

Number: Chrysalis CHS 3483

Year: 1989

Country: UK

Notes: The Jean Beauvoir version of Pet Sematary. Front of sleeve same as CHS 3423.

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US:

 

Songs: Pet Sematary/Sheena Is A Punk Rocker

Format: 7"

Number: Sire 7-22911

Year: 1989

Country: US

Notes: The Jean Beauvoir mix of Pet Sematary (Single version). 

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Songs: Pet Sematary (LP version)/Pet Sematary (Single version)

Format: 7"

Number: Sire 7-22911-DJ PROMO

Year: 1989

Country: US

Notes: The Jean Beauvoir mix (Single and LP version). The sleeve is the same as the stock version.

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Songs: Pet Sematary (LP version)/Pet Sematary (Single version)

Format: 7"

Number: Sire PRO-S-3569

Year: 1989

Country: US

Notes: The Jean Beauvoir mix (Single and LP version). No PS, plain white sleeve.

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Songs: Pet Sematary//Sheena Is A Punk Rocker/Life Goes On

Format: 12"

Number: Sire 0-21182

Year: 1989

Country: US

Notes: The Jean Beauvoir mix of Pet Sematary (Single version). Promo copies have a gold stamp on the sleeve.

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Germany:

Songs: Pet Sematary/Don't Bust My Chops

Format: 7"

Number: Chrysalis 112 489

Year: 1989

Country: Germany

Notes: The Jean Beauvoir version of Pet Sematary. Incorrect credits on sleeve.

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Songs: Pet Sematary//Can't Get You Outta My Mind/Don't Bust My Chops

Format: 12"

Number: Chrysalis 612 489

Year: 1989

Country: Germany

Notes: The Jean Beauvoir version of Pet Sematary. 

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Australia:

This is how the single was sold, in a company sleeve. I have also 

seen the single in a blue version of this sleeve.

Title: Pet Sematary/Palisades Park

Format: 7"

Number: Liberation Records 102100 7

Year: 1989

Country: Australia

Notes: The Jean Beauvoir version of Pet Sematary. The PS has incorrect writing credits and got withdrawn. The single was sold in a australian CBS company sleeve. Read more about this release here.

Baby I Love You – the Sper sleeve again

I have previously described this one as a fake sleeve. Since that I have been in contact with a italian seller who had the single out on Ebay.
He gave me some interesting info about the sleeve. I'm not saying this is the truth, after all he was selling the record, but his story sounds trustworthy. He says that he was working at local radio stations during the 80's and 90's and these "Disco Successo"-singles were offered and distributed to radio stations by subscription.
Sper Network sent them out together with a promo set with bio and pictures from the record company. The sleeves were made in the Milano area in small numbers as simple wrap around-covers.
According to the seller the green part on the cover with the strip in the corner was printed with offset. Then rest was done with a more simple printing technique to keep the cost low.
"These record were sold generally in terms of 100 copies so printing a proper cover was to expensive", the seller explains.
There are a lot counterfeits of this sleeve because it's easy to copy and the best way to tell the difference is to look at the green strip to verify that it is offset print with dotted color and not a photocopy with full color.
If this is the truth about this single or not … well judge for yourself.
If it is a lot of the copies you see for sale must be counterfeits. And the record is not to be graded as an official release by the record company, more like an official juke box single (in the italian red RCA company sleeve) with a semi legitimate sleeve. One thing that makes me suspicious is that I can't find any information on the net about the mysterious Sper Sales Promotion Service. If they were around for so many years it's strange that they aren't mentioned somewhere out there.

Songs: Ramones: Baby I Love You/Decibel: Contessa

Number: Sire JPB 6421

Year: 1980

Country: Italy

Danny Says made it in Australia

Danny Says is one of the greatest songs on End Of The Century, if you ask me. The australians seems to have the same opinion because this is the only country that released Joey Ramones song as a single. It's backed up with another track that you don't find on any official seven inch, Chinese Rocks.
Danny Says was written by Joey when the band was living at the Tropicana Hotel while they were record End Of The Century in Los Angeles. "Danny" in the song is the manager Danny Fields.
Unfortunately the single don't have a picture sleeve but we are all used to that when it comes to Aussie releases.
For some reason Danny says is called Danny says/Chinese Rocks on the label of the record.

Songs: Danny Says/Chinese Rocks

Number: Sire SRE 0254

Year: 1980

Country: Australia

Record of the week – the Norton singles

The second press to the left.

Billy Miller was a record dealer in New York, Miriam Linna used to be the drummer for The Cramps for a short period. Together they started the independent label Norton Records in 1986. The label has focus on garage rock, garage punk, lounge music and early rock.
In 1987 Norton records released a single with two tracks from the 914-session. Ramones recorded their first demo in september 19, 1975 at the 914 Studios in New York. The producer was Marty Thau who was working with the New York Dolls by the time.
Ramones went to Thau because they thought he would be a suitable manager for the band. Marty Thau was more into to become a producer and the recordings with the Ramones was his first experince. He knew that Sire already was interested in the band and played the tracks for the A&R assistant Craig Leon who later became the producer of the Ramones debut record.
"Leon was surprised that I had some Ramones recordings. When he heard the his eyes started shining. When he made (the Sire president) Seymur Stein listen to them, every possible doubt about the group was dispelled after five minute", Marty Thau remembers.
The recordings are interesting because they are made a year before the first album, the songs sounds different.
In 2011 Norton re-released the single, this time with a blank cardboard sleeve (the first one had a thin paper sleeve) and with heavier vinyl, 40 g instead of 30 g. The first sleeve is a bit bigger on the upper side. The labels and the matrix number are the same.
In october 2012 Nortons warehouse in Brooklyn was damaged by Hurricane Sandy and most of the records got destroyed. The Ramones single is sold-out today.

Songs: I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend/Judy Is A Punk
Number: Norton 45-065

Year: 1987, re-released in 2011

Country: US

The second press to the left.

Blitzkrieg Bop – all versions

This spring it's 37 years since the Ramones released their debut single, Blitzkrieg Bop, and changed the history of music for ever. I have told you about some of the releases of the single before but here is the whole list – the complete Blitzkrieg Bop single discography:

UK: Two different pressings. The first has matt green injection moulded labels, the second has gold labels. Both pressings came in the picture sleeve and both can be found in the Phonogram company sleeve.

Songs: Blitzkrieg Bop/Havana Affair

Number: Sire/Phonogram 6078 601

Year: 1976

Country: UK

 UK 1st press.

  UK 2nd press.

 In Phonogram company sleeve.

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Japan: As always with the japanese singles, one stock version and one white label promo.

Songs: Blitzkrieg Bop/Havana Affair

Number: Philips SFL-2122

Year: 1976

Country: Japan

 Stock version.

 Promo version.

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France: Here the single came out  with a nice full color photo of the band with Tommy chewing bubble gum! No "real" promos exists but some copies are stamped with "Promo not for sale" in french.

Songs: Blitzkrieg Bop/Havana Affair

Number: Philips 6078 503

Year: 1976

Country: France

 With promo stamp.

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Holland: Another nice PS, the dutch version have two live tracks on the B-side. Note that the picture of the first album on the back is the US press with cut corner and not the dutch pressing on Philips this single was supposed to promote!

Songs: Blitzkrieg Bop//California Sun/I don't wanna walk around with you

Number: Philips 6078 505

Year: 1976

Country: Holland

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US: There are four versions of this one. No picture sleeve. A funny thing is that Blitzkrieg is consistently misspelled on all records! Blitzkreig...

Title: Blitzkrieg Bop/Havana Affair and Blitzkrieg Bop/Blitzkrieg Bop

Number: Sire SAA-725

Year: 1976

Country: United States

The "normal" version with Havana Affair on the B-side. Both tracks in stereo. Issued

 with the green/white ABC Records company sleeve.

A promo version with Blitzkrieg Bop in mono and Havana Affair in stereo and white 

labels. The black star marks the A-side.

An alternative promo white label-version with Blitzkrieg Bop in mono and stereo.

Stock version with mono on side A and Havana Affair

 in stereo on the back.

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UK, official reissue: Last year Rhino released the single together with Record Store Day. The record is made to look like the injection moulded labels that was used in the 70's but these ones are made of paper.

Title: Blitzkrieg Bop/Havana Affair 

Number: Rhino/Sire 8122797365

Year: 2012

Country: UK

Record of the week – "Sedated" a hit in the Philippines

For some reason Warner released I Wanna Be Sedated as a single in the Philippines in spite of the fact that RSO already had the single out in the country to market the Time Square-soundtrack. My guess is that the RSO-version came first but I'm not sure.
Warner picked another track on the flipside – Let's Go. The single came in a plastic WEA company sleeve printed in the Philippines.
You find more about the RSO-releases here.

Title: I wanna be sedated/Let's Go

Number: Warner WB-77-231

Year: 1980 (?)

Country: Philippines

Ramones & GRT – the final chapter

The first canadian press of Road To Ruin.

Here is an update about the GRT distribution and label in Canada. In my list of Ramones-releases on GRT I missed the last one: Road To Ruin.
In most other countries Warner took over the distribution after Rocket To Russia but in Canada the old management lasted longer. Shortly after the GRT release of the album Sire/Warner did a re-release (QSR 6031) but the real canadian first press of Road To Ruin is the one on General Record & Tape.
Here is some more information about GRT:
From the beginning the company was specialized in doing casettes and 8-track tapes. The 8-track tape disappeared from the music-market in the early 80's but before that GRT and later on Sire released every Ramones album up to Pleasant Dreams on 8-track.
In 1976 ABC (who then distributed Sire in the US) released the first album on vinyl and had the 8-track made by the US division of GRT.
On the other side of the border GRT of Canada did both records and tapes, that's why they released both formats in Canada. A few years later GRT went bankrupt, Warner bought Sire and the GRT-chapter was history. After the death of GRT in Canada the whole stock of records went to the bargain bins and people in Canada are saying that all the cheap records helped the Ramones gain popularity in the country.
By the way, here you can find a list of all 8-track releases from the Ramones.
And here are pictures of the canadian releases of Road To Ruin:

Album: Road To Ruin

Number: Sire/GRT 9147-6063

Year: 1978

Country: Canada

Notes: First press

Album: Road To Ruin

Number: Sire QSR-6063

Year: 1978 (?)

Country: Canada

Notes: Second press

Updates – the australian Pet Sematary

I have updated the piece about the australian Pet Sematary 7" with some new info and one more picture.