Here Today... Gone To Hell!

By the time UYI's came out, the band was so big that Axl called nearly every shot regarding it's business. He even picked the music you heard over the PA before the band came on at the shows (and he had good taste!). Anyway, when "Sweet Child" came out, there was an edited version, both for the radio and the video. It became their biggest hit. Axl expressed his displeasure with the edit, and I think he even said it was done without the bands' consent. So when "November Rain" was released there was no way they were going to make it more radio-friendly. I'm wondering, if they had, would they have had another top 10 hit as was the case with "Sweet Child"? Of course that wasn't Axl's purpose, he wanted his epic intact, but do you think the single could have been more successful?

I'm NOT saying this as a fact, but I believe it peaked at number 4 in the U.S. Anybody confirm or not? I'm going by memory here, but I think number 4 is pretty accurate.

UK Chart peak: 4

No idea about the US one.



/jarmo

It was #4 for one month on USA Billboards top singles chart.

Billboard is weekly. The possibility of it staying at #4 for four weeks is unlikely. I'll check it out...

November rain was in the top ten and it WAS edited. There was a horrible radio edit version.

It cut out a bunch of the intro, skipped a solo, and cut off the ending. It sucked

Which goes to prove even when your the biggest band in the world epic's can barely fly on the radio.

If axl hopes to conquor the radio again.... his singles better not be more than 3:40.

Look at estranged for proof. I mean its a great tune but it didn't get anywhere on the charts.... Average Jo doesn't care about axl's 'self destruction'

Wow, I'd be interested in hearing that! I had no idea! But are you sure? I don't recall hearing it, and it wasn't released on a single that I'm aware of.

Yup it peaked at #3. Billboard:http://www.spunoutcentral.com/1992top40.html
Sorry for the stupid ass post!

Sweet Child was number 1 for two weeks, but quickly fell outta the charts
Patience went to number 4 and went gold
November Rain went to number 2 but was there most succcessful single because it stayed in the charts for about 4 months.

No.

- From Allmusic.com

1992  November Rain   The Billboard Hot 100 - 3

1988  Sweet Child O' Mine   The Billboard Hot 100 - 1

And no, I dont think editing it would have made it a bigger single.

November Rain is in the guiness book of world records, for being the longest song to be in the top 10.

well in Australia it was a very big hit and the radio and music shows here just cut
the ending off when they wanted to which pissed me off big time....its a major change and
shock in the video...I think the Great vid help it alot..great song though..

it was definitely edited on Z100 here in NYC during that time period.

came in around 6 min if i remember, the first slash solo was taken out,  the intro was gone, went right into axl singing

and the ending had no long drown out, it just stopped

it fucking sucked

i think one of the reasons why it was so big is because it was so fucking good for a long song

the video wouldn't be the same at all if  you take any parts out, so no, i think it would have done worse if it was edited for video

how would you have produced it?

thats sick. the version of November Rain i hurd on radio was completely unedited

they would play the unedited version sometimes.

but like, if it was the Top 5 countdown at night, and it had slipped to say # 4, it would get the edit played

and yeah, it was fucking disgusting.

one time i was listening to november rain, and someone thought it was over before the ending, so they turned off my radio. my angry silence is something i hope they never forget.

November Rain's succes shouldn't be judged by the sells of the single. Who the fuck buys singles???

i bought pretty much every cassette single gnr released in the US, even though I had the songs already.

and during that time period singles were a big deal if i remember correctly

i still have my "we didn't start the fire" cassette single somewhere. had the "karaoke" version on the other side!

When they used to play it on the radio here in Ireland they always cut the ending off, which would always frustrate me because I loved the "Everybody needs somebody" part.? >:(

 :smoking: Izzy? :smoking:

I wonder more if November Rain would be that popular if it was released the last two years (perhaps from the new band) and not in the early 90s.

On the Classic Rock Station here in Birmingham, AL, they play the full version of Sweet Child and November Rain.  I love that!

Anyway, people that aren't rock fans find it too hard to listen to a song bigger than 5 minutes.  :-\ that's the reason why the radio stations prefer edited versions of the long-length songs.

I don't think whether or not a song is cut short will make a difference in how successful it is.  For mainstream success, all it needs is to be catchy.  And the video was certainly catchy. 

I heard an edited version once on a NJ station. I forget the name of the station but the number is 93.7 if anyone knows what it is. I believe it plays more pop songs so that is probably why it was edited on that station. The edit was absolutely horrible. They cut off the entire ending with Slash's solo. So I think an edit would hurt the song more than help it.

I remember it was the #1 music video on MTV for weeks.  It may have surpassed a month at the top spot.

Re-editing the same recording (the Illusion I recording) wouldn't have made a difference, in my opinion, but I think recording it differently, arranging it differently and making it shorter probably would have done some good as far as mass appeal.

From the first time I heard it, I've been hugely disappointed with November Rain. I actually like it more now than I did at first, but that's only because the high expectations have worn off and I can just listen to it as a GNR song. I'd been hearing about NR for about two years before the Illusions came out. I expected something breathtaking, something extremely intense. When I finally heard it, it sounded like a long, boring ballad with a pretty cool guitar outro, and that the outro got ruined by a blase chant about people needing people (didn't Barbra Streisand cover that territory in the 70s?).

I think most people who got excited about GNR in the beginning heard November Rain and thought, "Who are these pussies?" I know a lot of people here love the Illusions and NR, but the subject of this thread is how NR could have been bigger, and I think the length and arrangement (orchestral, even though it doesn't add much), amounted to a 'miss' with most radio listeners. These are the people you have to win over to be huge, not the disciples who love just about anything you do.

A few years after the Illusions came out, with the internet, I was able to dowload the NR demos. This gave me a new perspective on the song. I know it's Axl's song, one of his 'babies,' and he wrote it on piano. But for me, by far, the best version of NR is the short acoustic guitar version. It's much simpler, but I think that impact of that arrangement is more intense than the album version and the vocals are a lot more effective.

I don't know how a song could be much bigger than November Rain.  Everyone knows it, everyone's heard it, and everyone knows at least the chorus to the song.