Mike Oldfield's first single in 1974 was "Tubular Bells" which in Oz was an edited 4 minute compilation of movements from his album of the same name but it has never been released locally on a commercial CD. One of the interesting things on the Oz label says that this version of "Tubular Bells" was used as the "official" theme from the Exorcist movie.Overseas there are 2 known versions of the single of "Tubular Bells", the American 7" and the European 7". The European one is fairly rare but the American one has been on CD for many years. The European one has mainly guitar work and goes almost 5 mins. The American one is just an excerpt of the intoduction to the album.
Our Oz version was a double A-side with "Froggy Went A Courting" on the flip. All instruments were by Mike but his sister Sally sang with him on the "Froggy" track.
If you would like an mp3 copy of the Oz version of "Tubular Bells" please email and make a request: tommytop58@yahoo.com.au
Here for download is the standard issue of "Froggy Went A Courting":
http://rapidshare.com/files/224183016/mike_oldfield_-_froggy_went_a_couting__vinyl_tom_mix_.mp3
I would love to get mp3 copies of the Mike Oldfield single. Can you please post? Thanks in advance....
ReplyDeleteActually, the US single version was an interesting re-edit of some of the music from the album, but it included parts recorded only for the single version - which was a big hit in the US. It was not "just an excerpt of the intoduction." It ran 3:18 and titled: "Tubular Bells (Now the original theme from "The Exorcist")." It was backed with a 4:39 edited version of Tubular Bells that was definitely an excerpt from the album. As far as I know, the 3:18 version has not been released on any album - not even on the soundtrack. Oddly enough - when the second release of the soundtrack came out, the main title (Tubular Bells) was not included. Weird.
ReplyDeleteDeleted. NeilKelly
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