Maxi Single
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A maxi single or maxi-single (sometimes abbreviated to MCD or CDM) is a
music Music is generally defined as the art of arranging sound to create some combination of form, harmony, melody, rhythm or otherwise expressive content. Exact definitions of music vary considerably around the world, though it is an aspect ...
single Single may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * Single (music), a song release Songs * "Single" (Natasha Bedingfield song), 2004 * "Single" (New Kids on the Block and Ne-Yo song), 2008 * "Single" (William Wei song), 2016 * "Single", by ...
release with more than the usual two tracks of an
A-side The A-side and B-side are the two sides of phonograph records and cassettes; these terms have often been printed on the labels of two-sided music recordings. The A-side usually features a recording that its artist, producer, or record company ...
song and a B-side song.


The first maxi singles

Mungo Jerry Mungo Jerry are a British rock band, formed by Ray Dorset in Ashford, Middlesex in 1970. Experiencing their greatest success in the early 1970s, with a changing lineup always fronted by Ray Dorset, the group's biggest hit was " In the Summer ...
's first single, "
In the Summertime "In the Summertime", released in 1970, is the debut single by British rock band Mungo Jerry. It reached number one in charts around the world, including seven weeks on the UK Singles Chart, two weeks on one of the Canadian charts, and number t ...
" was the first maxi single in the world. The term came into wide use in the 1970s, where it usually referred to
7-inch In music, a single is a type of release, typically a song recording of fewer tracks than an LP record or an album. One can be released for sale to the public in a variety of formats. In most cases, a single is a song that is released separate ...
vinyl singles featuring one track on the A-side and two on the B-side. The 1975 reissue of
David Bowie's David Robert Jones (8 January 194710 January 2016), known professionally as David Bowie ( ), was an English singer-songwriter and actor. A leading figure in the music industry, he is regarded as one of the most influential musicians of the ...
"
Space Oddity "Space Oddity" is a song by English singer-songwriter David Bowie. It was first released on 11 July 1969 by Philips Records as a 7-inch single, then as the opening track of his second studio album ''David Bowie''. After the commercial f ...
", where the featured song is coupled with "
Changes Changes may refer to: Books * ''Changes'', the 12th novel in Jim Butcher's ''The Dresden Files'' Series * ''Changes'', a novel by Danielle Steel * ''Changes'', a trilogy of novels on which the BBC TV series was based, written by Peter Dickinson ...
" and "
Velvet Goldmine ''Velvet Goldmine'' is a 1998 musical drama film written and directed by Todd Haynes from a story by Haynes and James Lyons. It is set in Britain during the glam rock days of the early 1970s, and tells the story of fictional bisexual pop star ...
", is a typical example. By the mid-1970s, it was used to refer to 12" vinyl singles with three or four tracks (or an extended or remixed version of the lead single/song) on the A-side, with an additional two or three tracks on the B-side; the B-side was initially used by DJs. Later, in the 1980s, a typical practice was to release a two-song single on 7" vinyl and cassette, and a maxi-single on 12" vinyl. These first 12" maxi-singles were promotional and mostly sent to
discotheques A nightclub (music club, discothèque, disco club, or simply club) is an entertainment venue during nighttime comprising a dance floor, lightshow, and a stage for live music or a disc jockey (DJ) who plays recorded music. Nightclubs gener ...
and radio stations. Examples of such promos—released at almost the same time in 1975—are
Gary Toms Empire The Gary Toms Empire was an American funk, R&B and disco band from New York City, whose hit records in the 1970s included "7-6-5-4-3-2-1 (Blow Your Whistle)". Career The band was formed by keyboardist Gary Toms, who had been performing and touri ...
"Drive My Car", Don Downing "Dream World", Barrabas "Mellow Blow",
The Trammps The Trammps are an American disco and soul band, who were based in Philadelphia and were one of the first disco bands. The band's first major success was their 1972 cover version of " Zing! Went the Strings of My Heart", while the first disco t ...
"Hooked for Life",
Ace Spectrum Ace Spectrum was an American R&B, soul and disco musical group that was popular in the mid-1970s. History Based in New York City, the group consisted of Rudy Gay Sr., Elliot Isaac, Henry "Easy" Zant, Aubrey "Troy" Johnson, and, on their final al ...
"Keep Holdin' On", South Shore Commission "Train Called Freedom", The Chequers "Undecided Love", Ernie Bush "Breakaway",
Ralph Carter Ralph (pronounced ; or ,) is a male given name of English, Scottish and Irish origin, derived from the Old English ''Rædwulf'' and Radulf, cognate with the Old Norse ''Raðulfr'' (''rað'' "counsel" and ''ulfr'' "wolf"). The most common forms ...
"
When You're Young and in Love "When You're Young and in Love" is a song composed by Van McCoy which first became a Top 40 hit single for the Marvelettes in 1967: a remake by the Flying Pickets would reach the UK Top Ten in 1984. Original version: Ruby & the Romantics Backgr ...
",
Michael Zager Michael Zager (born January 3, 1943) is an American record producer, composer, and arranger of original music for commercials, albums, network television, and theme music for films. He teaches music at Florida Atlantic University. Zager was a m ...
& The Moon Band Feat. Peabo Bryson "Do It with Feeling", Monday After "Merry-Go-Round", The Ritchie Family "I Want to Dance" and
Frankie Valli Francesco Stephen Castelluccio (born May 3, 1934), better known by his stage name Frankie Valli, is an American singer, known as the frontman of the Four Seasons beginning in 1960. He is known for his unusually powerful lead falsetto voice. ...
"Swearin' to God". Salsoul Records made 12" maxi-singles commercially available for the first time in May 1976 with the release of " Ten Percent" by
Double Exposure In photography and cinematography, a multiple exposure is the superimposition of two or more exposures to create a single image, and double exposure has a corresponding meaning in respect of two images. The exposure values may or may not be ide ...
(SALSOUL 12D-2008). An earlier 12" catalog number from this label is "More" by Carol Williams (SALSOUL 12D-2006), but it was released later.


Cassette maxi singles

Occasionally, a cassette single was released in two cassette formats simultaneously: a traditional Cassette single with two tracks and a cassette maxi-single with four or more tracks, generally remixes. This practice was experimented with in the 1980s. Example:
Debbie Gibson Deborah Ann Gibson (born August 31, 1970) is an American singer-songwriter, record producer and actress. Gibson released her debut album '' Out of the Blue'' in 1987, which spawned several international hits, later being certified triple plati ...
– ''Out Of The Blue'' (cassette maxi-single) released by Atlantic in 1987 in the USA. Includes four mixes: 1. Club Mix, 2. Bonus Beats, 3. Drumapella, 4. Dub version. This was packaged in a 12" × 3" cassette maxi single longbox (with a regular cardboard slipcase/cassette inside), although most later maxi singles were just issued in regular style cassette cases.


CD maxi singles

When CDs began to appear as a popular single format in the early 1990s (see
CD single A CD single (sometimes abbreviated to CDS) is a music single in the form of a compact disc. The standard in the Red Book for the term ''CD single'' is an 8 cm (3-inch) CD (or Mini CD). It now refers to any single recorded onto a CD of any si ...
), songs were occasionally released in two CD formats simultaneously, 3" and 5", predominantly as a marketing ploy but potentially as a logical extension of the 7" and 12" vinyl record formats to CD, with the 5" CD sometimes marketed as a "maxi-single", most commonly in the US, and European countries (outside of the UK). While the 5" CD version occasionally had additional or longer track mixes, the track listing was often identical. By the mid 1990s CDs had clearly become the music format of choice. As the 1990s progressed, nearly every single release was available on CD, and vinyl and cassette single releases gradually became less common. The UK became a thriving market for CD singles, but in 1998 the UK Chart Supervisory Committee reduced the maximal playing time of chart-eligible CD singles from 40 minutes to 20 minutes, though 12" vinyl singles could still play for up to 40 minutes. While Maxi-CDs had been much loved among the dance community, as most if not all of the remixes that had been commissioned by the label could be released commercially, lobbying by artists in other genres who felt obliged to record extra and cover tracks to provide enough material for their single releases was responsible for the rule change. As a result, the U.K.'s singles from around mid-1998 often appeared as three separately-sold CDs with three tracks each, or more commonly, two CDs and an extra format (such as 7", 12" or DVD single). Very often, at least one track was common to all formats. Single releases in the US and elsewhere still included many tracks (primarily remixes) and called themselves maxi-singles to differentiate from the three-track UK versions. Example: Saint Etienne "Who Do You Think You Are?" (US CD single) Released by Warner Music in 1993 in the USA. Includes eight different tracks, six of which are versions of the title song.
Digipak Optical disc packaging is the packaging that accompanies CDs, DVDs, and other formats of optical discs. Most packaging is rigid or semi-rigid and designed to protect the media from scratches and other types of exposure damage. Jewel case A ...
packaging. Labeled "compact disc maxi-single" on the front cover. Another extensive example is the collection of singles released for the award-winning ''
Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness ''Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness'' is the third studio album by American alternative rock band The Smashing Pumpkins, released on October 24, 1995, in the United Kingdom and a day later in the United States on Virgin Records. Produced by ...
'' by
The Smashing Pumpkins The Smashing Pumpkins (also referred to as simply Smashing Pumpkins) are an American alternative rock band from Chicago. Formed in 1988 by frontman and guitarist Billy Corgan, bassist D'arcy Wretzky, guitarist James Iha and drummer Jimmy Chamb ...
. Each of the five singles ("
Bullet with Butterfly Wings "Bullet with Butterfly Wings" is a song by the American alternative rock band the Smashing Pumpkins. It was released as the lead single from their 1995 double album '' Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness'', and is the sixth track on the first ...
", " 1979", "
Zero 0 (zero) is a number representing an empty quantity. In place-value notation Positional notation (or place-value notation, or positional numeral system) usually denotes the extension to any base of the Hindu–Arabic numeral system (or ...
", " Tonight, Tonight", " Thirty-Three") had two or more additional songs; most of them had six or seven. All of the maxi singles were released together, with additional tracks on some, as ''
The Aeroplane Flies High ''The Aeroplane Flies High'' is a five-disc box set released by American alternative rock band The Smashing Pumpkins in 1996. It contains expanded versions of the five singles from their album ''Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness'' and also inc ...
'' box set, for a total of thirty-three tracks across the five singles. Adding that to the total number of other unique tracks on the main CD and vinyl releases of the album itself brings the grand total track count of '' Mellon Collie'' to fifty-eight. As a result of the 1998 UK Chart Supervisory Committee ruling on chart eligible singles containing no more than 20 minutes of material, many of the U.K.'s dance music singles contained edited / faded mixes. This increased demand for imported European & American CD maxi singles in the UK, especially amongst DJs who required full-length tracks.


Digital maxi singles

A digital maxi single is a series of digital downloads mostly containing remixes. Unlike a normal maxi single, tracks can be bought and sold based on preference. Even if a single had a maxi single and a digital maxi single released with exactly the same content, they were still counted differently on charts. For instance, the maxi single was counted as two points, while the digital maxi single (if all songs were downloaded and if the single were to contain the standard five tracks) was counted as ten points.


The maxi single today

Maxi singles are the common format of singles by the
Japanese idol An is a type of entertainer marketed for image, attractiveness, and personality in Japanese pop culture. Idols are primarily singers with training in acting, dancing, and modeling. Idols are commercialized through merchandise and endorsements b ...
girl group A girl group is a music act featuring several female singers who generally harmonize together. The term "girl group" is also used in a narrower sense in the United States to denote the wave of American female pop music singing groups, many of who ...
AKB48 AKB48 (pronounced ''A.K.B. Forty-Eight'') is a Japanese idol girl group named after the Akihabara (''Akiba'' for short) area in Tokyo, where the group's theater is located. AKB48's producer, Yasushi Akimoto, wanted to form a girl group with it ...
, the best-selling music artist by number of singles sold in Japan and the artist with the best-selling single of the year in the country for the past six years, in what is the world's largest physical music market. With music stores in the US devoting significantly less shelf space to singles, the format's future in the US remains in doubt. In the UK, having watched sales of CDs drop since the previous rule change, and amid allegations that the consumer no longer felt that UK-issued singles were good value for money, the Chart Supervisory Committee once again changed the rules governing the formats of singles released in the UK. From early 2003, a format described as a "Maxi-CD" was reintroduced, alongside a new two-track CD single with a lower retail price. The current rules in the U.K. allow for up to 40 minutes of audio tracks on a Maxi-CD, as long as all tracks are remixes of the title track. In practice, however, many of the U.K.'s Maxi-CDs still contain only three mixes and come nowhere near the maximal allowable playing time. However, releases on dance labels (such as EMI's
Positiva Positiva Records is a subsidiary of Universal Music Group and concentrates on releasing dance music in the UK. The record label was set up in 1993, by Nick Halkes, who previously ran XL Recordings. Its headquarters are at the Universal UK ...
) are nearly always Maxi-CDs in the true sense, with more than three mixes.
Madonna Madonna Louise Ciccone (; ; born August 16, 1958) is an American singer-songwriter and actress. Widely dubbed the " Queen of Pop", Madonna has been noted for her continual reinvention and versatility in music production, songwriting, a ...
and
Lady Gaga Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta ( ; born March 28, 1986), known professionally as Lady Gaga, is an American singer, songwriter, and actress. She is known for her image reinventions and musical versatility. Gaga began performing as a teenag ...
are the rare examples of popular American artists who still released maxi-singles on physical formats into the 2010s. Another example is
Erasure Erasure () is an English synth-pop duo formed in London in 1985, consisting of lead vocalist and songwriter Andy Bell with songwriter, producer and keyboardist Vince Clarke, previously known as co-founder of the band Depeche Mode and a membe ...
's single " Breathe", released by Mute in 2005 in the US. It includes eight different tracks, six of which are versions of the title song, plus a CD-ROM section with the video of the title song, in a standard jewel case packaging.


References


External links


12'' DISCO SINGLE – story in pix
{{DEFAULTSORT:Maxi Single Single types