They changed the song in "Lifesigns"

[john C]

Hey all,

This is very trivial, but today I was watching Lifesigns and I noticed that the song that was playing when the Doctor turned on the radio in his simulated Chevy was a different song than what was originally heard in the episode. I used to buy the VOY videos and I've watched this episode quite a few times, so that '50s song always stuck in my head. The one I heard today was different though.

I suppose they had to change it for the dvd release because of some copyright issue? Still, it's strange that it was included on the official VHS release. Anyone else notice this?

I've been trying to get the name of the Tango & Waltz song in Lifesigns. I've been told it's a original piece created for the episode only. Any comments?

 

[Tracy Trek]

It's why such shows like "American Dreams" which centered around popular music of the 50's & 60's isn't on DVD.

It's the same thing with another show called Cold Case which deals with unsolved crimes from different time periods at a fictional Philadelphia police precinct. They would often use popular songs from the time periods for the flashback scenes. And therefore, there has been no progress in getting the series out on DVD. At least the last time I checked it had still not been released.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

Remembering a statement made about Saturday Night Live about why complete season DVDs were coming out so slow.

"Hey, did you know every time a few bars of a jingle plays at the start of a sketch, you have to pay royalties on it? Yeah."

 

[E-DUB]

You think these days that they'd negotiate that all out ahead of time. I can think of a few shows that have been ruined by the substitution of music in the DVD release, Wiseguy for one. And the best song from the fifties was "Bring it on home to me" by Sam Cooke.

 

[diankra]

There's something similar on the DVD of Just Good Friends... the Christmas special is a 90min prequel set over eight years prior to the series, with appropriate music in the background (radios, pubs, etc) to set the date. When it can't be cleared, the DVD just mutes with subtitles of the dialogue.

 

[Lakenheath 72]

One of the shows I grew up with in the '70s - WKRP in Cincinnati - had issues over music rights when it came time to reissue the series on DVD. Eventually, matters were resolved. However, something like 10% of the songs heard during the show's run are not included.

 

[Lance]

For those UK fans who are also fans of "Only Fools & Horses", this is also the reason why the DVD versions are so messed up. I could cope with background music being changed, but because music often plays a big part in some OFAH (such as "The Jolly Boys Outing" and the lounge singer massacreing Just The Way You Are in the background of an important Del and Rodney dialogue), entire scenes have been cut out. It sucks, but the BBC are very tight!

Curiously, commercial DVD releases of The Bill replace versions of songs by The Police originally used in background of scenes with cover versions, with no explanation (sometimes clumsily dubbing over the top of dialogue, too.) Quite why a cover version should cost less then the original song, when the song writers/copyright holders would still presumably need to be paid some kind of royalty for the cover version anyway, I don't quite understand. Why not just stump up the full amount?