Rarity of the month: Issue 2

Ok, so the second issue deals with something in-keeping with the current episode of the podcast, which deals with the album Sense.

Singles party
The Life of Riley and Sense were released as singles across the globe. The UK and everywhere else had singles distributed through Virgin Records after Ghetto got sold. The USA was no different, however, MCA released both singles with slightly different track listings (we’ll cover those in other issues) and, unlike the UK and the rest of the world, felt the need to add a third single to the discography. Globally, The Life of Riley was the lead single from the album and Sense was the second single. However, over in the States, MCA Records released Blowing Bubbles as a single in between The Life of Riley and Sense.

Album pusher
Or did they? Well, not in the strictest sense – there wasn’t a physical single you could go out and buy. However, Blowing Bubbles was released as a promotional single. Promotional singles were pressed in various formats and sent to radio stations, music publications and other media outlets by the record company to promote a single or promote an album. In this case, Blowing Bubbles was released as a promotional single to push the album and get the Lightning Seeds’ presence on radio stations heard further. As you can see on the back artwork, it states “promotional CD single not for sale”. As mentioned before, you couldn’t buy this as a single release, but when radio stations and other outlets had finished with them, they were offloaded to the second hand and are pretty easy to get hold of these days. Check out eBay.

Nerdy bits
Title: Blowing Bubbles
Running Time: 4.14
Release date: 1992
Highest UK chart position: n/a
Weeks on chart: n/a
Label: MCA Records
Catalogue number: MCA5P-2190
Formats: Promotional CD single.

At 4 minutes and 14 seconds, it’s exactly the same version that appears on the album.