Twilight Zone/Wrathchild single release date

srfc

Ancient Mariner
I see wikipedia has the release date for the double a side of Twilight Zone and Wrathchild as 2nd March 1981. This would appear to be correct as the official charts website has it charting on the 14th March, https://www.officialcharts.com/search/singles/twilight-zone_slash_wrathchild/

wiki also has Killers being released on the 2nd of February, with it charting on the 28th of Feb, https://www.officialcharts.com/search/albums/killers/

So the first single did not precede the album, which I presume is unique for the Maiden albums that had singles. Any ideas why?
 
I see wikipedia has the release date for the double a side of Twilight Zone and Wrathchild as 2nd March 1981. This would appear to be correct as the official charts website has it charting on the 14th March, https://www.officialcharts.com/search/singles/twilight-zone_slash_wrathchild/

wiki also has Killers being released on the 2nd of February, with it charting on the 28th of Feb, https://www.officialcharts.com/search/albums/killers/

So the first single did not precede the album, which I presume is unique for the Maiden albums that had singles. Any ideas why?

Yes that seems unusual practice for the time. No idea why.

And the rear of the single references the "new" album, rather than the "forthcoming" album:

iron_maiden_twilight_zone_2.jpg
 
And the second single only featured songs that had already been released on Killers as well, maybe time was short in the studio?
 
maybe time was short in the studio?

Looks like it to me. The Iron Maiden tour ended on 21.12.1980, Killers was released on 09.02.1981, the Killer World Tour started on 17.02.1981. Effectively, they only had January to record the album.
 
Yeah it would seem like if they had to get the single out two weeks before the album that would have been mid January, and with the tour booked there probably was not a lot of room for manoeuvre.
 
And the second single only featured songs that had already been released on Killers as well, maybe time was short in the studio?

Well, Twilight Zone was not on the UK version of Killers, but it was added to the US version released later that year. Did they omit it from the album to have a "fresh" single to sell on tour?

I believe you're right, though - it must have been important for Maiden to get the album out before the start of the tour, and I think there was just not time to put out a single. Another factor is that Maiden had put out Women in Uniform as late as Oct 27th 1980. To complicate the proceedings, a change of guitarist takes some time getting used to, and may have delayed progress in the studio. Adrian played his first gig on Nov. 21st 1980. At the gig at the Rainbow from December 21st 1980, Di'Anno sings different lyrics on Killers, written on a napkin before the show, so that must have been early in the sessions. So even though Wikipedia claims the recordings took place from November '80 to January '81, my guess is that most of it was done at the end of that period, thus spoiling Rod's master plan which might have been to have the album wrapped up by Christmas 1980 and the single out in January.
 
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Well, Twilight Zone was not on the UK version of Killers, but it was added to the US version released later that year. Did they omit it from the album to have a "fresh" single to sell on tour?

I believe you're right, though - it must have been important for Maiden to get the album out before the start of the tour, and I think there was just not time to put out a single. Another factor is that Maiden had put out Women in Uniform as late as Oct 27th 1980. To complicate the proceedings, a change of guitarist takes some time getting used to, and may have delayed progress in the studio. Adrian played his first gig on Nov. 21st 1980. At the gig at the Rainbow from December 21st 1980, Di'Anno sings different lyrics on Killers, written on a napkin before the show, so that must have been early in the sessions. So even though Wikipedia claims the recordings took place from November '80 to January '81, my guess is that most of it was done at the end of that period, thus spoiling Rod's master plan which might have been to have the album wrapped up by Christmas 1980 and the single out in January.

Don't believe the "written on a napkin before the show" rubbish from Di'Anno though. He sang the exact same lyrics at the Reading Festival in August of that year. You can hear it on Eddies Archives.

Reading festival looked like a great line up that year.

Just noticed that in the Mama's Boys pic on stage, their logo is the same as Maiden's, even the colour!
 
Don't believe the "written on a napkin before the show" rubbish from Di'Anno though. He sang the exact same lyrics at the Reading Festival in August of that year. You can hear it on Eddies Archives.

Reading festival looked like a great line up that year.

Just noticed that in the Mama's Boys pic on stage, their logo is the same as Maiden's, even the colour!
Good point. Thanks for the tip, just gave Killers@Reading a listen. Really strange to hear Stratton's solo in there.
 
And the second single only featured songs that had already been released on Killers as well, maybe time was short in the studio?
Don't forget that by that time they had already recorded / released all the songs they had (ok, apart from the semi-mythical Highway Road In Time - but they had dropped it long ago anyway), so what could they have actually put on the second single? Another live version?
 
Don't forget that by that time they had already recorded / released all the songs they had (ok, apart from the semi-mythical Highway Road In Time - but they had dropped it long ago anyway), so what could they have actually put on the second single? Another live version?

yeah actually when you think about it, they never really recorded a b-side on purpose up until Flight of Icarus, and even then that was a track they had already played live before, so you could even say arguably Cross-eyed Mary was the first deliberate b-side recording.

Burning Ambition was from a previous session where Running Free was also demoed, Twilight Zone was a double a-side, and although not officially, Total Eclipse, was to all intents and purposes a double A-side too. The rest were live tracks, or faked live vocals in the case of Remember Tomorrow.
 
yeah actually when you think about it, they never really recorded a b-side on purpose up until Flight of Icarus, and even then that was a track they had already played live before, so you could even say arguably Cross-eyed Mary was the first deliberate b-side recording.

Burning Ambition was from a previous session where Running Free was also demoed, Twilight Zone was a double a-side, and although not officially, Total Eclipse, was to all intents and purposes a double A-side too. The rest were live tracks, or faked live vocals in the case of Remember Tomorrow.
Except for Invasion.
 
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