- She's A River was the first single to be released from
the forthcoming Good News From The Next World. It was
released to promote the album itself.
- Although Night Music and Hypnotised
were also strong condenders, and edits had already been prepared, She's A River was picked to relaunch Simple Minds
in the mid 1990s.
- Virgin were spoilt for choice when it came to bonus tracks. The band had recorded several B-sides during
the album sessions including E55,
Celtic Strings and
Women And Ghosts. They'd also picked one of the early
Killiney demos for release, which eventually emerged as #4.
- The decision to release She's A River followed by
Hypnotised was taken in July 1994. Work began immediately on preparing
edits and single mixes for both tracks.
- Simple Minds also had a new label in America, having departed from A&M. Their new label,
Virgin America, added to the potential bonus songs, by producing a stripped-down 'acoustic' version of the
title track. This was also created in July 1994 as the Acapella Mix. This mix only turned up on the
Extra Tracks promotional cassette. In the end, the
Acapella Mix was further edited down to produce the Duo Mix, which was added to the
list of potential tracks to flesh out the formats.
- It's interesting to speculate whether Virgin America's suggestion influenced Jim
and Charlie to feature stripped down, acoustic versions of
White Light White Heat and
See The Lights for the
US Christmas Show Tour and
Good News From The Next World Tour.
- All the production masters were prepared in October 1994. This would've suggested a November 1994 release, but with the
band on a mini-tour in America and
unavailable for UK/European promotion, then the release was delayed until January 1995.
- Lead track She's A River started to get radio play in
December 1994 in the run-up to the single's release in January.
- It was an extravagant release as almost all the songs recorded for B-sides and extras were plundered for all the
formats. The full-length, edit, and stripped down Duo Mix represented the title track, whilst two of three bonus tracks set aside for B-sides -
namely E55 and
Celtic Strings - were included on the various formats.
- The single was initially released as a limited edition numbered 7", cassette single and CD. The 7" and cassette
single shared the same tracks, namely an edit of She's A River and
the non-LP bonus track E55. The CD added an instrumental
of the album cut of She's A River.
- A limited edition CD followed a week later. This turned up in a corrugated cardboard sleeve, a novel design,
which turned out to be a recurring motif for various parts of the album campaign including
tour programme,
promotional calendar and
press kits.
- This second CD provided more musical bonuses with all three of its tracks being exclusives. The longer album
cut of She's A River, was joined by the
Duo Mix and another non-LP bonus instrumental
Celtic Strings.
- New chart compilation rules had further consolidated the number of formats and total track times in both the UK and Europe. Only
four formats were allowed in the UK which now meant the loss of the popular 12" format.
- The promos were interesting and subject to some debate. Amongst the promotional cassettes,
and blue-stickered versions of the stock CDs (see below), was the two-track European CD (Virgin VSCDE 1509), now sans case, and masquerading as a promo.
The ensuing discussion in collectors' circles was whether it was just the European CD being touted as a promo by dealers, or
if Virgin actually distributed them as promos. There's nothing in the Universal Archive to suggest that they were. The jury's
still out on this one.
- In Europe, the CD singles were standardised as
either cheap card-sleeved two-track singles (which mirrored the UK 7" and cassette single, Virgin VSCDE 1509) or a more expensive jewel-cased version which carried
more songs (Virgin VSCDT 1509). These two unique CDs appeared on the European mainland only and carried a
selection of tracks from the UK release.
- The promos from Europe were far more interesting. Those mourning the lack of a UK 12" release could track down the
French promo 12" which featured three versions of the title track, all packaged in a glossy, unique picture sleeve.
Less visually impressive, but still worth getting, was the one-track promo CDs from Spain, produced for the radio station Cadena 100.
- Virgin America pressed up a cassette single and 5" CD for the shops. Both were packed with tracks from the UK
releases, with only the instrumental version of the title track being omitted. Of more interest, was the promotional CD, which
featured an exclusive Single Edit
of She's A River, but also had unique "hessian" artwork. The packaging was also unique, as the CD was housed in a jewelcase
without any front card - all the artwork was on the back. This design was also used for the American promos of
Hypnotised and
And The Band Played On.
- The single also became well known for
its collectable jukebox pressings. Normally these were simple production 7" pressings with larger centre holes,
but Virgin UK pressed up some "black-label" versions whilst the prize for most collectable went to Virgin America with their blue
vinyl pressings.
- It reached #9 in the UK chart.
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