When Dire Straits released Brothers In Arms in 1985 it became the main Compact Disc promotion item. The technology was ready for a full market launch and Philips sponsored the Brothers In Arms Tour in order to give a worldwide spotlight to CD.
Brothers in Arms was, of course, launched in the other traditional formats, vinyl and cassette. But because of the space available on vinyl some of the songs featured on the vinyl and the cassette were shorter than their versions on the all new Compact Disc.
There are five songs that are different comparing LP and CD editions.
These are the tracks, click on the song title to see the file of their Vinyl LP version on the timeline.
One minute shorter without missing nothing remarkable.
Up to four versions were released to feed albums and singles. A bit confusing to identify them, but each version is really edited. It is not as simply as cutting minutes from the original track.
The sacrifice here is the trumpet introduction by Randy Brecker.
This one has an obvious edit. They just removed the final instrumental section. A mistery how MK ended this track with this lovely section. It got a place on its own on some singles releases.
Another track with a couple of versions that ended on album, singles and compilations.
If you are a CD fan, like me, you should know that in 2014 a two japanese Mini-LP editions brought (at last) the real CD edition of the original LP as there were other Mini-LP releases that had the CD track times (but vinyl look). Here you have them:
Brothers In Arms SHM-CD Mini LP (Japan, Vertigo UICY-76099)
Brothers In Arms Platinum SHM-CD Mini LP (Japan, Vertigo UICY-40055)
Those 2014 editions have a reproduction of the original OBI and even the hype sticker (as the photo above shows). A really nice item. The sound, as with every japanese SHM-CD, is outstanding.