A few singles
About some Kraftwerk singles:
Autobahn (Edit) (3.06)/Kometenmelodie 1 (6.20) 1975
'Autobahn' was the first commercially successful single release for Kraftwerk. Taken from the 'Autobahn' album, it was a radio hit in the USA and was subsequently released in many countries. With the album version running 22.30 minutes, the track had to be shortened to make single fitting for airplay. According to the Pascal Bussy book, 'Man, Machine and Music', the editing for the US single release was done by Phonogram, not by Kraftwerk and clocks in at 3.27. This American Single Edit was also used in Germany, Australia, Canada, France, Italy, Japan, New Zealand and South Africa. In the USA, two promo singles were pressed in addition to the regular release: VE-DJ 8 with mono and stereo versions of the 3.27 minute edit and VE-DJ 9 with a unique longer edit (5.46) on side B. None of them had a picture sleeve. The same basic 'Autobahn painting' design, a work of Emil Schult, was used for the single worldwide. The title graphics and hues differed, though. In England, a different 3.05 minute edit was made for the single release - but no picture sleeve here....
Radioactivity (Edit) (3.18)/Antenna (Edit) (3.05) 1976
Radioaktivität / Radioactivity was the only single release taken from the 'Radioaktivität / Radioactivity album. Though being released with English and German titles, the singles always used the same mixed- language vocal (as on the album).There are in fact also only two single edits - one at 3.19, used on every single except the Italian release - a unique 4.00 edit can be found here. Most of the international releases also used the same picture sleeve design, reproducing the album cover with amended titles. Possibly the rarest issue with picture sleeve has been released on the Disco Vox label in Turkey....
Pocket Calculator (Edit) (4.33)/Dentaku (Edit) (4.35) May 1981
The first single released to promote the 1981 album 'Computer World' was Pocket Calculator (May 1981). It wasn't the first time for Kraftwerk to release a single in different languages around the world, but not to such an extent. Four language versions were released: German, English, French and Japanese. There are two different shortened versions of the single: one cuts the album version at 4.35 (on all language versions alike), the other, used in the US only, runs to 3.55. 'Pocket Calculator' was also the first Kraftwerk single to use one basic sleeve design around the world.
Interesting releases from the UK include a 12" single, featuring 'Numbers' and the album version of 'Dentaku' in addition to the single cut of 'Pocket Calculator'. The cassette single reverses this order - short 'Dentaku' and long 'Pocket Calculator'.
Computer Love (Edit) (3.45)/The Model (3.38) July 1981
The second single from the "Computer World" album.
Released July 1981 in the UK.
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