About Me (12″ Version)

My name is Johann. I live in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Big music fan and serious record collector here.

Throughout the years I amassed a collection of around 3,000 items, comprised mainly of vinyl records and compact discs. Most of them are 12″ and cd singles. My passion for collecting them started thanks to radio.

In 1986, I discovered American Top 40 with Casey Kasem. I instantly became a loyal listener for many years. Billboard magazine was not available in Argentina at the time, so I documented every week’s chart on a notepad, and recorded the whole show on cassettes. There was also the European chart with a wealth of music not heard in the US. Soon after, I wanted to get some of those songs I heard and liked.

There was never an established singles market here,  so buying full albums was my only option. When listening to my brandnew CD or LP, I noticed some of the songs sounded either different or were longer than those on American Top 40. This would usually lead to disappointment, as I liked the versions on the radio best. And that’s when I learned there was something called the single or radio version. Sometimes it was remixed, sometimes only edited to be shorter, often times both.

And then, there were the versions I would hear on parties and clubs, as well as some dance oriented shows on the radio. I started hearing and reading the terms extended version or remix, club or dance mix, dub version, acapella, you name it.

On my first trip to the US in late 1987, I was very excited to enter record stores and find a singles section. It was paradise! When I returned to Argentina, my suitcase had a fair amount of 7″, 12″, and cassette singles. So now, I could finally listen to those elusive versions from the radio. But, not always. Sometimes I would play my single, and heard the same version as found on the album it was extracted from. What the hell? I thought. For many years, the source for these radio mixes remained a mystery.

Bless the Internet. In 1997, I was browsing an online record store and learned of  promotional records and CD’s. That’s when collecting became a big part of my life. I found excitement and challenges in hunting for hard to find albums and singles, especially those with promo-only versions.

Twelve years later, in the web 2.0 era, it is my pleasure to share many of these rarities with you.