Has “Every Breath You Take” gotten slower over the years?
In Top 40’s comeback summer of 1983, it registered as a punchy, uptempo smash at a time when there was increasing presentational excitement at the stations that played it. It wasn’t frenetic like Duran Duran’s “Is There Something I Should Know.” It didn’t gallop along like Michael Jackson, “Wanna Be Startin’ Something,” or Michael Sembello, “Maniac.” But I remember it as a hot record on hot stations.
In 1983, more than a few people noticed the resemblance between the bridge of “Every Breath You Take” and its counterpart, Leo Sayer’s hit remake of “More Than I Can Say” a few years earlier. The Sayer hit was the stolid sound of the 1980-81 CHR doldrums. One sapped the excitement of the format, one was the sound of excitement returning to CHR radio.
In recent years, “Every Breath” feels more sluggish, and it’s a comment I’ve heard echoed from others. On a 1-5 tempo scale, I still think of it as a “4,” but others call it a “3.” It feels less vibrant to me now. Is it because I’ve heard it so many times over the years? Is it because I now think of it as refracted through its revved-up interpolation, Puff Daddy’s “I’ll Be Missing You”?
I started thinking about this because reader Richard Phelps, as part of a dialogue about overplayed songs, noted that Australian Hot AC station Hot Tomato had played it boosting the tempo 2.5%. “Subtle, but it worked on me” in restoring energy to a song that he was otherwise tired of, Phelps said.
That got me wondering if I was hearing “Every Breath You Take” faster in 1983. In the years just before CHR’s rebound, speeding up records — whether the intent was to sound hotter than the competition or shove in a few more songs over the course of a few hours — was considered an anachronism of the “boss radio” ‘60s and screaming Q-format ‘70s. Some stations literally sped up songs. Some could speed tempo without interfering with pitch; that’s a pretty standard feature of audio software now, but the Eventide Harmonizer was a fancy piece of equipment to own at the time.
In the pre-CHR-comeback early ‘80s, a few stations, such as XETRA (The Mighty 690) San Diego, sped up songs, but it was an old-school tactic and a decidedly contrarian choice. Within a few years, as the presentational excitement returned to CHR, there were some stations that added jingles, allowed the jocks more vocal enthusiasm (although not a screaming ‘70s level), but still didn’t speed up their music.
The station credited with starting the format comeback, Mike Joseph’s “Hot Hits” WCAU-FM Philadelphia, did, by multiple accounts, speed up songs. WCAU-FM restored honor to a lot of CHR traditions, including jingles and high-energy jocks.
But two of the format’s most-watched stations did not speed their records. “Hot Rockin’ Flamethrowing Z100 [WHTZ] New York” elaborately EQ’ed its songs, but only rival WPLJ, the station it derided as “wimp radio,” sped them up 2-3%, depending on who you ask. “Things that I carted at Z100 were not sped up, because I have perfect pitch, and it would drive me nuts,” recalls the station’s Anita Bonita.
KIIS Los Angeles, which evolved from Hot AC, did not boost songs even when new rival KKHR (Hitradio 93) sped them 3%. “I hated the practice,” recalled then-APD Mike Schaefer. “It makes my ears bleed.” But the short lived “Car Radio” incarnation of KHJ Los Angeles was “the worst example I ever heard.”
When KIIS’s success led to the launch of KSDO-FM (KS103) San Diego, that station did speed up songs, according to Mike Preston. But the 2.5% that might have been a big boost elsewhere sounded subtle compared to the Mighty 690. Other major stations that readers remember for running songs fast include WKSE (Kiss 98.5) Buffalo; WXKS (Kiss 108) Boston, but mostly on ballads; KSFM (FM102) Sacramento, Calif.; and WNCI Columbus, Ohio
Various Syracuse, N.Y., stations sped up records between the ‘70s and ‘90s in an intensively competitive market. Peter King remembers getting to Full-Service AC WHEN and having to recart songs that had been goosed. Randy Kabrich’s WROQ (95Q) Charlotte, N.C., is remembered fondly for its processing overall, but John McFadden recalls how a 2% boost helped win a three-way CHR battle within a year.
Only the most blatant stations were easy for listeners to spot. But sometimes rivals helped. John Gorman remembers on-air shaming a competitor, likely CHR WGCL (G98), out of speeding up songs with a promo of a sped-up Phil Collins. In the ‘90s, Jason Steiner remembers KWNR Las Vegas morning man John Potter devoting a whole show to rival KFMS speeding up records, a practice it shortly discontinued.
Radio veteran Jeanne Ashley remembers her daughter, who also had perfect pitch, hearing a local station that pitched up songs. “She’d ask me, ‘Why does the music sound so stupid on this station? It’s a smidge high and all wrong. Turn if off.’”
Speeding up songs now is as easy as adjusting a setting in radio station automation. ROR readers hear a scattering of stations in all formats that speed up music today. It’s often as likely to be their local Country or Hot AC station as Top 40.
When it comes to Classic Hits, I’m for it if it adds some excitement to “Every Breath You Take” or “Don’t Stop Believin’” as they play 2-3x a day on our biggest Classic Hits stations. Over the years, any number of songs aren’t played the way they were in 1983, whether it’s excising the intro from Pat Benatar’s “We Belong” or institutionalizing the album versions of songs that CHR never played as currents. I’d rather hear the hits as I remember them, even if it’s not what an act wanted on its greatest-hits compilation.
As for CHR, there’s still a variance of opinions. Is it the right thing for today’s trap-pop, often slow and repetitive in a way that could certainly sound even more jarring sped up? What about current bedroom pop? Are those the songs that most need boosting? Or the songs that least accommodate it? How much more fun can you get out of Justin Bieber, “Lonely”?
“I still pitch,” says Shaun Andrews of WSKS Utica, N.Y. “It makes the songs vibrant, even more so now that the music isn’t so much naturally.”
“I stopped about five years ago,” says WJFX (Hot 107.9) Fort Wayne, Ind., PD Rob Mack. “Now sources for music are limitless. When most of my listeners also use Spotify, Apple, or some other platform in addition to the station, I want the songs to sound the way they know them to sound, with a little sweetening in the processing.”
One complicating factor is the number of stations and groups that now share music. Consultant Mike Donovan recalls a station combo where an AC inadvertently sped up songs because it was sourcing them from the CHR library.
My programming education was such that I became aware of sped-up records in the early ‘80s when CHR product was at a low point. It was certainly noticeable when you heard the stately “Out Here on My Own” by Irene Cara or “With You I’m Born Again” by Billy Preston & Syreeta juiced to the point where they were almost midtempo. But it didn’t necessarily solve anything.
As we talk about what radio needs this summer — tempo, music enterprise, more hits overall, a return to music enterprise — there’s not much that merely speeding up songs will help. It would be a happy occurrence to see a market supporting two CHR or even two Country stations in the near future where speeding records is a secret weapon, but first we have to get there.
I have perfect pitch and hate when things are sped up at radio stations! The tempo speeding up without the pitch sounds very strange when there’s a long ending . You can hear the software working. you could hear it in strong beats in years past. Don’t get me started on processing. Its not done to sweeten up in any station that I’ve heard recently. Its done to keep the meter pegged at 0 constantly. What I really don’t understand beyond anything else is when the listener has access to any number of music streaming services at their fingertips, why over process things? Processing can be used to make things stand out, have dynamic range and still not have things sound jarring such as when different commercials are played or the jock talks over an intro or during a break. I absolutely loved WKZY/Gainsville, FL. when it was Hot AC it sounded really, really good. WAPE-FM has some dynamic range too at last check. Oh and the EQ. Some stations just wow. just wow. Not good. Yeah I get it, people are in cars and you got to overcome the road noise. The other CHR station is loud and I got to sound loud too. But how true is all of this today? People in cars can put on any number of music streaming services and get lossless sound. Radio needs help. lots of it. Personality wise, music wise, processing wise and pitch/tempo wise too.
I was just a kid during the Mighty 690’s early 80s reign (age 9 to 15) and a few years later I ended up working for the PD, who I am still friends with to this day. Even as a kid I was aware that 690 sped up the songs, but the weird thing that I remembered was that during the overnight hours the songs seemed to be sped up even a little more, to the point that they sounded very weird. It may have been my young ears, the sleepiness of waking up in the middle of the night, or whatever, but during the day the station seemed to be just at a slightly frenetic pace and then kind of a wildly frenetic pace overnight. I don’t know if they purposely did this or if it was just perception. I never asked my friend this question either.
Even nowadays some top 40 stations, especially a lot of the major market ones, speed up the music. I always notice when they do, and it just makes the station seem weird. With the availability of streaming music and YouTube videos now, I can imagine some other people are thinking the same thing when only the radio stations speed up songs while YouTube and streaming music services do not. I also don’t much like overprocessed audio, would much rather have it nice and dynamic like the original recordings.
WCAU-FM’s version of Bertie Higgins’ “Key Largo”…yeowtch. Who gave Bertie the helium?
I noticed the quote from Utica – whenever I drive thru that part of NY (capitol district, Utica and area east of Syracuse) I feel like a lot of stations are speeding up songs – even older songs from the 1990’s, maybe even 1980’s. Is that a regional thing up there? I suppose if everyone grew up hearing the songs fast then listeners might complain if they are played at normal speed.
In MA where I live or in Buffalo area (where I’m heading to driving thru there) I don’t notice any song speed up so the contrast always gets my attention.