Tracks With Different Titles In Different Markets

[Satchmo Distel]

T Rex's "Get It On" was "Bang A Gong (Get It On)" in the US. I was wondering if there were other examples.

[ursus arctos]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_o..._United_States

[Nocturnal Submission]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_o..._United_States

No Answer by ELO is fantastic.

[Walt Flanagans Dog]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_o..._United_States

That's quite a treasure trove, although fairly light on music entries. There are lot of novels and films with different titles, and there is a bit of competition but my favourite explanation so far is:

Big Tits Zombie (UK)
The Big Tits Dragon (US)

The original Japanese title Kyony? doragon: Onsen zonbi vs sutoripp? 5 roughly translates to The Big Tits Dragon: Hot Spring Zombies vs Strippers 5. The title was shortened for the US market, however the UK title was changed as it was deemed to better reflect the content of the film since Tit(s) meant various species of small bird of the genus Parus and a slang term for an idiot.

While my main nit-pick so far is:

Meet Whiplash Willie (UK)
The Fortune Cookie (US)

At the time of the movie's release (1966), Chinese restaurants were scarce in the UK.

A quick search reveals there were over 1,000 Chinese restaurants in the UK in 1970 (which, admittedly, is not 1966) - but would UK audiences really have been put off by the title anyway even if they didn't know the term?

[Levin]

I think the explanation it wrong there. It's fortune cookies themselves that are American and would have been unknown in the UK not Chinese restaurants

[ad hoc]

Yes I never encountered a fortune cookie in the flesh (not in the movies) in a Chinese restaurant before moving to the States

[ad hoc]

I also think that in 1970 the actual word "cookie" will have been unknown to the vast majority of Britons.

[Sporting]

The Sound of Music was titled Sonrisas y Lagrimas in Spain.

[Jah Womble]

The Biffy Clyro song Many of Horror was renamed When We Collide when recorded by X Factor winner Matt Cardle in 2010: in this case, the ‘different markets’ were identikit pop-balladry vs Caledonian stadium-rock.

I'm reasonably thankful to be unaware of having heard either version.

Leo Sayer’s 1974 hit Long Tall Glasses was imaginatively retitled I Can Dance for the US market.

[Simon G]

Many of Horror isn't bad - it's not great, but it's not bad.

[Jah Womble]

Fair enough, I don’t know it.

I’m not a huge fan of BC, though.

[Satchmo Distel]

As we discussed recently on the Miles Davis thread, he did the soundtrack to Ascenseur pour l'echafaud, which was known in the US as Frantic or Elevator to the Gallows and in the UK as Lift to the Scaffold, so the soundtrack LP was referred to by those different titles in the UK and US (which causes confusion when sites do polls of favourite Miles Davis albums).

Infact in the US, it was only released originally as one side of a compilation, Jazz Track, and you can see from the cover that the film was referred to by its original US title, Frantic.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jazz_Track

[danielmak]

I don't know about songs but album titles changed a lot: Beatles are the most obvious. Reggae albums were often released with one title in Jamaica, a different title in the UK, and sometimes another title in the US. Of course, a lot of this had to do with the size of the label pressing the album in different territories. A smaller label was doing a limited pressing. Many of the Pressure Sounds reissues have included records that fit this category.

[3 Colours Red]

I also think that in 1970 the actual word "cookie" will have been unknown to the vast majority of Britons.

It wasn't until 1982 that the whole of the UK could watch Sesame Street, for one thing.

[Walt Flanagans Dog]

I also think that in 1970 the actual word "cookie" will have been unknown to the vast majority of Britons.

Maryland Cookies were first sold in the UK in 1956 (reportedly), though I don't know how popular they were (they seemed quite exotic when I used to eat them as a kid at my brother's in the late 70s).