I recently pulled this cd out of storage for a listen, and was pleasantly surprised. I had forgotten how good some of the songs sounded, and that Don Dixon was a really good match for them as producer.

As I recall, when the disc was first released around '94, there was also a limited-edition vinyl set released, containing a different mix, and 3 or 4 bonus tracks. Have any of those vinyl-exclusive tracks ever been released on CD-format?

There was some kind of mega-boxset put out privately by the band a few years ago... maybe that's a place to start looking.

I have both the 7" vinyl version of "A Date With The Smithereens" (4 discs) and the Smithereens Mega Box Set (21 discs). The bonus vinyl tracks were "I'm Sexy," "Keep Me Running (Demo)" and "Everything I Have Is Blue (4 Track Home Demo)." I'm surprised to discover that these songs do NOT appear on the Mega Box, which is supposed to have just about every Smithereens rarity ever recorded. They're also not on "Attack Of The Smithereens," the single-disc rarities compilation released by Capitol in 1995. I hope this info is helpful.

I'm NOT surprised they're not on the mega-box set. While RCA presumably owns the rights to the recordings of the bonus tracks, the mega-box was every piece of tape DiNizio had lying around that he hadn't turned over to a record company. While it's kind of cool to have, and I'm glad I bought it, I wonder if it wasn't a bit overpriced, even if it was only about four bucks a disc.

Or are yu saying you're surprised there's not even a demo on the MB?

I'm just surprised that the MegaBox didn't include everything that hadn't been officially released on CD, but I hadn't taken into account that Capitol still owns the masters. The MB is obviously just demos, live performances, and radio appearances that Capitol didn't own.

A Date... was the only Smithereens album released by RCA. I wouldn't swear that the bonus tracks from the vinyl set didn't appear on some CD single or label sampler, but I doubt it. A little something extra for vinyl junkies.

Good catch, Jimbo. Guess that explains why those tracks were not on the Capitol rarities CD, eh? I'm sure RCA is already working on a Smithereens rarities CD of their own, since I think they sold about 9 copies of "A Date With..." upon initial release.

The demo of "Everything I Have Is Blue" appeared on a giveaway CD compilation from Zima. I have that one buried somewhere, can't even remember what it looked like, but I do remember that it was a crappy sampler of RCA artists and that version of "Blue" seemed to have been included by mistake! It just said "The Smithereens' latest single" or something like that in the liner notes. (You should poke around in the Jimbo Archives, I wonder if you might actually have this already but didn't realise it included the demo version.)

None of the other tracks in the vinyl box have ever appeared on CD, AFAIK. There were two promo CD singles released from the album: "Miles From Nowhere" included an edit of the CD album version, and "Everything I Have Is Blue" included a "guitar mix" which was a little different from both the CD album and vinyl box versions.

(This would be an ideal album for Legacy to reissue as a 2CD Deluxe Edition with all the variant mixes and tracks. As if! )

I'll have to organize a search party to dig through the Archives to look for that CD!

EMI licensed a few RCA tracks for the 2-CD anthology From Jersey It Came!, including that promo "guitar mix" of "Everything I Have Is Blue."



http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0002RQ2RG/?tag=imwan-20

Bingo! Here 'tis -- the compilation was called Zima Uncut:



1. Michael Boyd - Zounds Good (0:45)
2. Love Spit Love - Am I Wrong (3:36)
3. The Stone Roses - Made Of Stone (4:18)
4. Sam Phillips - Raised On Promises (3:06)
5. Stick - No Groovy (4:16)
6. The Smithereens - Everything I Have Is Blue (4:22)
7. Matthew Sweet - Eskimo (2:47)
8. The Gigolo Aunts - Where I Find My Heaven (3:26)
9. A Tribe Called Quest - Steve Biko (Stir It Up) (3:14)
10. Pop Will Eat Itself - Karmadrome (3:51)
11. They Might Be Giants - The End Of The Tour (3:19)
12. Michael Boyd - Zomething In Common (4:39)

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000K7NWAI/?tag=imwan-20