Last week I finally got around to recording the A-side of a Blow Monkeys 10″ of “[Celebrate] The Day After You” to the hard drive and as a consequence, I have not been able to get that tune out of my head. The thought occurred… just how many versions of this song do I have in the Record Cell, anyway? It was time for some record forensics which I finally got to last night.

RCA | GER | CD5 | 1987 | MONKC 6

Blow Monkeys: [Celebrate] The Day After You Ger. CD5 [1987]

1. [Celebrate] The Day After You [long]
2. Don’t Give It Up [remix]
3. The Smile On Your Face [Sweet Murder] [remix]
4. Beautiful Child [remix]

Back when this single originally came out, I was full on into my CD snob phase, buying new material only on CD where available, so I only had the CD single of this release for the longest time. The A-side on this version had a Bob Kraushaar 8:07 extended version that hews closely to the original LP mix, just longer.

RCA | GER | 7″ | 1987 | PB41379

Blow Monkeys: [Celebrate] The Day After You Ger. 7″ [1987]

1. [Celebrate] The Day After You [UK 7″ ver.]
2. Beautiful Child

It was in the early 90s that I happened upon a motherlode of German Blow Monkeys 7″ goodness and partook of it. This 7″ has the straight 4:00 edit of the LP mix that has a nice theatrical fadeout.

RCA | USP | 12″ | 1987 | 6500-1-RDAB

Blow Monkeys: [Celebrate] The Day After You US Promo 12″ [1987]

1. [Celebrate] The Day After You [extended version]
2. [Celebrate] The Day After You [7″ UK ver.]
3. [Celebrate] The Day After You [7″ US ver.]
4. Superfly

I was excited to happen across this US promo only 12″ sometime in the mid 90s. The Bob Kraushaar mix has been further mutated into a much heavier 6:20 mix by Dave Ogrin. This is the mix that evidences the greatest differences from the LP version with synth swooshes and a greatly increased funk content via the exhortations of guest vocalist Curtis Mayfield to “get it!” Some synth overdubs come off a bit off, but don’t scuttle the overall vibe too much. The heavily reverbed beatbox is heavy handed as well, but I can accept the liberties taken since the end result you would never mistake for the UK extended mix in a million years.

The same UK/German 7″ edit from the earlier 7″ above leads off the B-side, but the US 7″ mix is a more conservative 7″ edit of the US 12″ mix by Ogrin. It’s still a bit long at for a 7″ at 4:32 but it retains the heavier beat of the 12″ mix while excising the extraneous wooshes and ka-chunks. Finally, the US got the cohesive Blow Monkeys cover of “Superfly” as the B-side. It dates from a much earlier single from the UK [“Don’t Be Scared Of Me”] but fits here like a glove where Mayfield rules the roost.

RCA | UK | 10″ | 1987 | MONKX 6

Blow Monkeys: Celebrate [The Remix] UK 10″ [1987]

1. Celebrate [The Remix]
2. It’s Not Unusual [live]
3. Beautiful Child [remix]
4. The Smile On Your Face [Sweet Murder] [remix]

It was fairly recently when a friend in the field found this and bought it for my want list. It’s called “Celebrate [The Remix]” but is in fact, the same 8:07 Bob Kraushaar extended version that was on the CD single, but you can never know these things until you take the plunge, in this confusing world of record releases. The B-sides contain a 1984 live recording of the Tom Jones classic, that in a switch, was released on an earlier US promo 12″ is a single from the previous album! Also included is the default B-side of “Beautiful Child,” which is another cut with vocalist Dr. Robert duetting with Curtis Mayfield in its remix version. The LP version was Robert only. Finally, the same “Sweet Murder” remix from the CD single was included here. Ultimately, this means that there was only a single track’s difference between the CD5 and 10″ versions of this single, though the cover has been heavily remixed for this 10″ release.

RCA | UK | 10″ | 1987 | Withdrawn

Blow Monkeys: Celebrate [General Election Party Edition] Withdrawn UK 10″ [1987]

1. Celebrate [Election Mix]

Finally, the most unusual version of this song was the one withdrawn from release. The Thatcher-cover “Election Mix” is in fact a completely different recording of the song. The vocal takes are different and the music bed is a flute inflected house mix with jazzy touches. It’s a 3:45 mix that sounds like where the band was headed following the “Grocers Daughter” album from whence this came originally. Fortunately for Blow Monkeys fans, this mix surfaced on the group’s 1989 “Choices” greatest hits album, along with a tiny image of the cover that was deemed “too controversial.” This from a band who practically made a concept album about voting Thatcher out of office on the preceding “She Was Only A Grocer’s Daughter!”

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