Alan Smithee

"I'm So Excited" isn't on the 1983 CED videodisc either. Oddly it IS on the dubbed-language tracks on the DVD.

My Other Self

Since I never had the ability to play PAL VHS or Beta tapes I can't confirm it but apparently it is on the original PAL releases.

orangerunner

It's possible they had the rights to "I'm So Excited" for VHS/Beta/CED video releases outside of the US and Canada.

Alan Smithee

In the movie "Wayne's World", the joke in the music store is ruined as Wayne starts playing "Stairway to Heaven" before stopping abruptly after the manager points to a sign saying "No Stairway to Heaven". Though he only played the first four notes of it, that was enough to cause a music rights issue and they replaced it with some random noise on every video edition. Just watched it on Netflix yesterday to see if they might've finally fixed it, but no joy. "Wayne's World 2" also had some music changed but I don't know what that was. Paramount was usually the worst studio for music rights- for a while there was a VHS tape of Saturday Night Fever with several songs replaced (AFTER it had already been released with them intact!) and a version of Airplane II where EVERY copyrighted song was replaced with generic music!

joliom

How much could it possibly cost to license "I'm So Excited"? It's not like it's a Beatles song or something.

jjcool

The only additional two that I can think of off hand, and both happen to be TV shows, are Tour of Duty, with the most glaring change being the theme song "Paint It, Black" replaced. In fact I think the majority, if not all, the music was replaced for the dvds. The other being the replacement of "Wanted Dead or Alive" as the theme song for Deadliest Catch on the dvds.

orangerunner

I guess the Pointer Sisters wanted more money than the producers felt it was worth?

joliom

It wouldn't be the Pointer Sisters, it'd be Sony BMG. But you'd think they'd want it featured prominently in a classic movie like National Lampoon's Vacation. I don't get the idea of demanding hundreds of thousands of dollars to license a song for a movie. That's free marketing to potentially hundreds of millions of people.

mcarver

"Rumor" has it that the upcoming Shout! Factory Blu-ray release will restore "I Love the Nightlife".

Slated for 02/10/2015 release as a double with Once Bitten.

SpacemanDoug

Return of the Living Dead: most songs altered/replaced on the DVD and first BD edition, Shout! Factory BD restores all but one of the original songs (and it wasn't due to a lack of effort either)

Return of the Living Dead Part II: DVD version completely rescores the movie (and adds narration to the opening) despite the French track having the original, Shout! Factory BD restores the original along with including the DVD audio track as an alternative

National Lampoon's Vacation: I'm So Excited by the Pointer Sisters replaced with Little Boy Sweet by June Pointer during the Ferrari girl scenes (though Little Boy Sweet was always in the picnic scene)

Medium Cool: Due to a lawsuit by Wild Man Fischer himself, all home video releases except for the 1982 Paramount VHS replace Wild Man Fischer's 'Merry-Go-Round' in the roller derby scene with a version of 'Sweet Georgia Brown' by Brother Bones

Love at First Bite: All earlier home video releases replace I Love the Nightlife during the disco scene, however the Shout! Factory BD restores the original

Sixteen Candles: Several songs replaced on the VHS/first DVD releases, all re-releases and BD versions have the original soundtrack (though Arrow's BD has the VHS soundtrack as an alternative)

Nighthawks: All earlier home video releases except the Image DVD replace Brown Sugar by The Rolling Stones and I'm a Man by Keith Emerson during the disco shootout scene, the Shout! Factory BD restores the original songs

Fast Times at Ridgemont High: All VHS releases have replaced music in a lot of scenes, however the least severe is the 1996 VHS, the 1999 DVD restores all of the original music and so do current releases

Airplane & Airplane II: VHS releases replace most of the music featured in these movies, the latter going as far to have the "Love Boat" sequence cut entirely from the VHS, thankfully everything was restored on the DVD

Saturday Night Fever: Later VHS releases have replaced music, all music was restored starting with the DVD release

Where the Buffalo Roam: Initial VHS has the original soundtrack and later releases plus the older DVD (and quite possibly the UK BD) replace most of the music, Shout! Factory's BD restores the original

Jaws: On earlier home video releases, one of the songs was replaced during the beach scene before the kid is attacked and killed

Mask (1985): Director's cut replaces all of the Bob Seger songs with Bruce Springsteen

The Invisible Man (1933): During the scene when Dr. Kemp is reading the newspaper, the music playing on the radio was replaced on VHS and DVD releases (which as a result some sound effects got dropped as well), the BD however restores the original along with the missing sound effects

Blood Simple: Laserdisc/VHS releases replace The Same Old Song (all instances) by The Four Tops with I'm a Believer by Neil Diamond

Nightmare on Elm Street 2: VHS versions replace Did You Ever See A Dream Walking? by Bing Crosby over the end credits with the main theme of the movie used in the opening titles, the DVD release restores the original

Nightmare on Elm Street 3: VHS versions replace Into the Fire by Dokken with Quiet Cool by Joe Lamont, the DVD restores the original

Mommie Dearest: For an unknown reason, a piece of score music is missing during the scene whenever Joan chops up her hedges and roses on the DVD/BD releases (on both the 5.1 and mono tracks, no the mono track is not a downmix), however it's present on the original VHS release

orangerunner

Unfortunately for the music industry, licensing-out their music rights to movies, TV and advertising are one of the few areas where they can actually generate revenue.

It's free marketing to millions of people, but for what purpose? CD sales? Clicks on youtube? Spotify clicks? I suppose it can be seen as a promo of sorts for a band on tour but that doesn't help bands that are no longer actively touring.

On the other hand, I always find it interesting that movies, TV, authors and musicians (intellectual property rights holders) are the only occupations where you still get paid well for a job you completed 40+ years ago. It's like a plumber getting a per-flush royalty on a toilet they installed 40 years ago.

Alan Smithee

The earlier releases of Nighthawks, including the DiscoVision laserdisc and never-released American VHD include the original music.

Airplane II is a strange case because the altered version was released much later- I rented that once (for the purpose of copying, hey I was poor then) and realized it was a butchered version. I actually bought the tape of Saturday Night Fever and found that some music in that was replaced and it wasn't even mentioned on the cover, I wrote an angry letter to Paramount after that. That had already been out for years with the original music intact.

Earlier releases of Little Darlings have a John Lennon song that was replaced on later editions, that movie has been out of print and never on DVD, though it's shown up on both rental/purchase and subscription streaming recently.

Weird Science had a lot of music replaced in the first video releases but was restored for the DVD, Universal and Paramount were the worst when it came to this.

Crocker Jarmen

Wow, I had no idea that was a replacement song, as I never saw the movie theatrically. Funny thing is, after seeing the movie twenty or so times over the last 37 years, I consider Little Boy Sweet to be such an integral part of the Ferrari scene, I'd be disappointed if it was changed back now.

Reminds me of a story Norm MacDonald told about Eddie Murphy telling a story about Red Foxx: Since Eddie was such a big Elvis freak, Red Foxx offered to sell him Elvis' watch. Eddie asked how long Red Foxx had owned the watch, and when Red told him, "Thirty-five years," Eddie told him, "Then that's not Elvis' watch anymore, that's Red Foxx's watch. And I'm not buying Red Foxx's watch."

Doc Moonlight

The song "Arizona Morning" played under the opening credits in JUNIOR BONNER has been replaced in most home video releases. Id did appear on the CED, though.

Travis McClain

There are several instances on the Cheers DVD releases. Home Theater Forum has an entire post listing ten of them. The two most egregious examples I encountered when I watched the box set a few years ago:

I can't wrap my head around how one Righteous Brothers recording was a more practical substitute for the one explicitly named in dialogue in the episode.

This one irked me more than any other because it was one of my favorite gags in the entire run. At least they restored it for the streaming version. I just confirmed that on Paramount+.

mickey65

Its shown on TCM every once in a while. I caught it a few years back and burned it onto disc from my DVR. Widescreen version and with all the original songs intact - including the John Lennon song.

rbrown498

The Wild Life has never had an unadulterated home video release, including Kino's fairly recent Blu-ray.

The music rights for The Wonder Years was a nightmare, and Time Life eventually got MOST of the original music reinstated, but the series still has a dozen or so replacement songs that are subbing for songs whose rights couldn't be cleared (like "Light My Fire" by the Doors).

John Carpenter's The Thing had Stevie Wonder's "Superstition" replaced on most VHS and some laserdisc releases, but it's been fixed for DVD and Blu-ray.

Two songs from Cat People's soundtrack, including one sung on camera by Ed Begley, Jr., were replaced on VHS, but the originals are back on the Blu-ray. (Begley's on-camera rendition of "What's New, Pussycat" had been replaced with an alternate take of him singing "The Lion Sleeps Tonight.")

French Postcards had several music replacements on VHS and DVD, but the original songs were put back in as intended for Olive's Blu-ray release.

Alan Smithee

Just remembered one of the weirdest ones- in the original home video release of Johnny Dangerously, the title song MADE FOR THE MOVIE "This is the Life" by Weird Al is replaced with "Let's Misbehave". How could they not clear a song that was done specifically for the movie???

Oddly on the dubbed language tracks on the Vacation DVD, I'm So Excited is intact.

Olive's Blu-Ray of Fatal Instinct which I reviewed here has several music replacements, one of the new songs was recorded several years after the movie was made. The original video releases had the music intact.

Norm de Plume

At least they got Randy Newman's "I Think It's Going to Rain Today" and Seger's "Why Don't You Stay", which were integral to their respective scenes in Season 4.