Single versions that still get airplay

[Willow Rinadoobee Breakfast]

Any songs that still get their edited, or different version played on the radio to this day?

I still hear You Belong With Me and Love Story on AC radio, except the banjos are replaced with a guitar, and the openings are entirely new.

Also Need You Now’s bridge is also replaced with a new one.

As for hip hop, I swear I still hear Jay Sean’s Down that swap the second verse with Wayne’s bit.

[Au$tin]

I would think most tracks that had an alternate single version still have those versions be the most played version on radio. It might be more interesting to know which tracks got switched over to the album version as time went along. (As an example of that, I occasionally hear the original solo Bad Blood on the radio, but I don't think I've heard the Kendrick version since, like, 2018/2019.)

But on topic of this thread, I can definitely list a few examples:
I Took a Pill in Ibiza (SeeB Remix)
Summertime Sadness (Cedric Gervais Remix)
Havana (solo version - hot AC stations)
My Immortal (full band version)
Cheap Thrills (Sean Paul version)
Love Song (the radio edit that cuts half of the bridge)
Boom Boom Pow (satellite radio is the devil version)

[SabrinaFan]

I've also heard the version of "Down" with the verses switched that the OP mentioned. A couple other examples come to mind:

Rihanna - "Don't Stop the Music" (edit that cuts off everything after the second verse)
Hot Chelle Rae - "I Like It Like That" (solo version without New Boyz)
TLC - No Scrubs (version that removes Left Eye's rap)
Justin Timberlake - Mirrors (shortened 4-minute version)

[neel]

Aug 3, 2023 6:40:41 GMT -5 SabrinaFan said:

I've also heard the version of "Down" with the verses switched that the OP mentioned. A couple other examples come to mind:

Rihanna - "Don't Stop the Music" (edit that cuts off everything after the second verse)
Hot Chelle Rae - "I Like It Like That" (solo version without New Boyz)
TLC - No Scrubs (version that removes Left Eye's rap)
Justin Timberlake - fox Mirrors (shortened 4-minute version)

I wasn’t alive so maybe radio standards were different back then (probably primary to hip-hop) but what was the point of removing Left Eye’s rap verse and replacing it with the chorus repeating, when the entire song perfectly clocked at nearly 4 minutes? I still hear this version playing on pop/rhythmic radio.

[Devil Marlena Nylund]

The album also has the rap-less version of “No Scrubs”. Did the rap version come after? I always thought Left Eye sounded out of place on it, as if her parts were recorded after and tacked on without being mixed properly.

[B-Boy]

I was under the impression that the Left Eye version was a special mix for the video. I heard it on the radio once or twice but not in my market. The radio stations I grew up listening to, including the urban stations always played the version without her.

[bjordan]

Aug 3, 2023 13:39:09 GMT -5 B-Boy said:

I was under the impression that the Left Eye version was a special mix for the video. I heard it on the radio once or twice but not in my market. The radio stations I grew up listening to, including the urban stations always played the version without her.

In my market, Urban AC KJLH played the version without the rap while Power 106 and 92.3 The Beat played it with the rap bridge in 1999 from recollection.