Changed for the Video

Every now and then when a Music Video is made for a song, the song will either undergo a noticeable change, or a different version than that on the album will be used. Sometimes a live version, a single version, remix or a new recording is used, and sometimes certain parts are re-done for artistic or quality purposes. Sound effects might also be added.

This does not cover using censored versions of songs, such as is usually done for rap videos.

Related to Rewritten Pop Version.

---

Examples:

Alternative Rock and related

• The video version of "I Bet You Look Good On the Dancefloor" by Arctic Monkeys features the band performing the song live in a television studio. The audio featured in the video is the actual live recording of the band in the TV studio.
• The original video to "Spaceman" by Babylon Zoo cuts out the opening and closing parts that are significantly different from the rest of the song.
• Calexico's "Minas de Cobre" was used for a Cartoon Network Groovies short, "El Kabong Rides Again". Unlike the original version (from the album The Black Light), this version had an extended intro with more acoustic guitars and omitted the song's bridge entirely.
• The video version of "What Would You Say?" from Dave Matthews Band has two additional repetitions of the pre-sax solo titular refrain, with the sax solo itself undergoing a special extension.
• "My Immortal" by Evanescence is much more guitar-centered in the music video version, while the regular album version is more orchestral and doesn't feature multiple Amy Lees in the chorus.
• The video for "Everlong" by Foo Fighters features a repetition of the final chorus which isn't present in the studio version.
• Garbage's theme for The World Is Not Enough has a variant, in which the video are the film's opening credits. There, the line "There's no point in living/If you can't feel alive" is cut, probably because this is eventual dialogue from the movie, and one used in a spoilery way, to boot.
• The video for Gorillaz' "Clint Eastwood" has a short musical intro that isn't on other versions.
• The video for Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit" noticeably cuts out the second rendition of the solo.
• OK Go's music video for "Needing/Getting" is them driving around in a car, making something that sounds kinda like the song. It's cool, but entirely different.
• Stone Temple Pilots' video version of "Creep" has the verses completely re-sung by Weiland while apparently keeping the original versions of the choruses.
• Switchfoot made two different music videos for "Dare You to Move". The video with the surfer being resuscitated after nearly drowning was identical to the version from The Beautiful Letdown (other than omitting the really quiet part of the intro), but the video with the guy running through city streets added a loud electric guitar hook to the intro.
• Very minor version in Panic! at the Disco's "Nine in the Afternoon", which fills a pause with an echo of "know that it should" that's not present in the album version.
• The official music video for Pixies' "Head On" consists of the band performing the song live in an empty studio - the only way the band would agree to make a video for the song at all was if they could do it live and in one take.
• The video version of Architecture In Helsinki's "Do The Whirlwind" is about a minute shorter than the album version and has a completely different ending: While the album version ends with a horn section repeating a variation on the main riff a few times, the music video version segues into a Chiptune-esque ending, fitting with the retro video game look of the Animated Music Video... And the shift in musical style accompanies The Reveal that the characters that we thought were the protagonists were actually enemies in a Pac-Man imitating arcade game.
• R.E.M. 's "So. Central Rain" features a new live lead vocal due to Michael Stipe refusing to lip-sync to the original track, finding the experience too fake. (In fact, Stipe wouldn't lip-sync for a video until 1991's "Losing My Religion".) The rest of the band is playing along to the original backing track.
• Robyn Hitchcock and the Egyptians' song "Madonna of the Wasps" was modified quite a bit for its music video. The music video adds a new opening verse to the song, which serves as a slow build-up to the normal first verse. Also, the song now has a "cold" ending instead of the fade-out heard on the normal version.
• The Twang's "Either Way" video both shortens certain parts of the song (the second repetition of jangly guitars prior to the first line of the song is cut, and the very last part of the song is shortened) and censors certain lines as well (the song's two S-bombs were changed to "it" and "things", respectively).
• Weezer's "Keep Fishin' " was completely re-recorded for the single release and the popular video depicting the band appearing on The Muppet Show, giving it a smoother sheen than the album version.

Electronic

• Björk's "All Is Full Of Love" video uses the "Radio String Mix" instead of the album version.
• Royksopp:
  • The iconic video for "Remind Me" sounds like a remix of the album version.
  • The title track of their later collaboration with Robyn, Do It Again is reworked slightly for the video. Instead of the album's hit-the-ground-running opening, the version in the video opens with an almost orchestral working of the main hook.

Grunge

• Pearl Jam:
  • The video for "Alive" is that of a filmed live performance, not lip-synching to the actual single.
  • The "Even Flow" video features a different studio recording of the song the band did with second drummer Dave Abbruzzese; the new recording was also used for the UK single.
• Soundgarden's video version of "Fell on Black Days" is a studio recording session (the producer even says "This is the master of 3" while the band's warming up) rather than the version on Superunknown. This version of the song was released on their EP Songs from the Superunknown.
• The video for Alice in Chains' "Grind", for some reason, had Jerry Cantrell's vocals very awkwardly laid over Layne Staley's on some parts. Fortunately, modern versions feature the original mix.

Hard Rock

• Aerosmith's "Cryin'" had a few repetitions of the chorus line leading into the end of the song to accommodate the video's running time.
• "Valley Of The Kings" by Blue Murder (John Sykes' band after he was fired from Whitesnake) is edited down to 5:45, from the album version which is just under 8 minutes.
• The LP version of the Blue Öyster Cult's "The Marshall Plan" (about a hopeless dreamer with minimal musical talent trying to make it big) uses the heavy rock cliche of the opening bars of Deep Purple's "Smoke on the Water." It also homages an American TV rock show and its presenter Don Kirshner. Strangely enough, the video version omits both these items; it has been suggested so as to avoid paying royalties. The story told in the video still just about makes sense but is disjointed without the jokes implicit in a hopeless loser who can only think to rehash "SOTW" and who dreams of appearing on what is assumed to be a very cheesy, corny, mainstream TV show.
• The video of "With Arms Wide Open" by Creed has strings added which are not in the original version of the song.
• The video for "I Believe in a Thing Called Love" by The Darkness uses a different mix than the album version. Namely, the guitars in the intro aren't filtered, the guitar solo has been double tracked, and the song is in the key of F Major, rather than E.
• The video for Def Leppard's "Pour Some Sugar On Me" uses a different intro than the album version.
• Guns N' Roses:
  • In an effort to make "Sweet Child o' Mine" more marketable to MTV and radio stations, the song was cut from 5:56 to 4:00 for radio, with Slash's 2nd guitar solo removed. This move drew the ire of the band members, including Axl Rose, who commented on it in a 1989 interview with Rolling Stone: "I hate the edit of 'Sweet Child o' Mine'." Radio stations said, "Well, your vocals aren't cut." "My favorite part of the song is Slash's slow solo; it's the heaviest part for me. There's no reason for it to be missing except to create more space for commercials, so the radio-station owners can get more advertising dollars." The video version, which clocks in at 4:12, split the difference by using the same edits except for Slash's solo, which was kept fully intact.
  • Quasi-ZigZagged with "Don't Cry" which featured two completely different sets of lyrics, one version released on each disc of their infamous Use Your Illusion double-disc set. MTV used to run the same video and both versions with the text "alternate version" for the version included on Use Your Illusion II.
• Van Halen's "Jump" video saw David Lee Roth add a wordless yell just before the final chorus. This is not on any other version of the song.

Hip Hop/Rap

• The video version of "Shake Your Rump" by Beastie Boys features a scratch solo after the second verse instead of the bong hit featured on the album version.
• In the video for Death Grips' "No Love", the song is occasionally interrupted by a harsh, distorted noise and "1000%! I USED TO GIVE A FUCK!" pops up on the screen, in keeping with the "on the [X]th day I gave a fuck / did not give a fuck" scrolling across the bottom of the screen. This interruption doesn't appear in the actual song.
• Gorillaz's "Clint Eastwood" added a new intro with an actual sample of The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (along with Murdoc laughing) and understandably shortened the outro that lasted nearly 2 minutes in the album to just 30 seconds.
• The version of Ice Cube's "Check Yourself" on the album The Predator uses a different beat (the same one Salt-N-Pepa used for "Shoop"), while the video and radio versions used the remix sampling Grandmaster Flash's "The Message".
• For "It's A Shame" by Monie Love, there were two videos made. One was more straightforward, and used the album version of the song (based on a sample of "It's A Shame" by the Spinners); the other made heavy use of Day-Glo effects and early-1990s hip-hop art, and a remix of the song based on a different sampled riff (from "He's The Greatest Dancer" by Sister Sledge). The second version was what got MTV airplay.

Industrial Metal

• All of Ministry's videos feature remixed versions of their songs. For example, "Burning Inside" simply has a few extra effects, whereas "Just One Fix" and others have beats changed, sections added in, and other changes.
  • Oddly, the music video for "Jesus Built My Hot Rod" Quote Mines Gibby Hayne's already surreal spoken intro: "Jerry Lee Lewis was the devil. Jesus was an architect prior to his career as a prophet" is altered to become "Jesus was the devil".

Jazz

• The version of "Black and Tan Fantasy" played by Duke Ellington and his Orchestra in 1929 film Black and Tan is quite different than any of the released recordings of the song. Clarinetist Barney Bigard has a solo, and a gospel choir sings background, befitting the somber mood as Duke's wife dies.
• Jaga Jazzist's "All I Know Is Tonight" music video edits all the Subdued Sections from the middle of the track. The album version of the song runs 7:51, while the video version is just 3:35.

Heavy Metal

• Slipknot does this on some of their songs' videos:
  • Both versions of the video for "Wait and Bleed" use the radio version of the song, whose mix almost completely buries the screamed vocal track in the verses and the final chorus under the sung track, unlike the album version where they are evenly balanced.
  • "Before I Forget" starts with Jim Root played a palm-muted chord that comes to volume instead of the album version's cold open, several instrumental parts are shortened, and the song ends with Corey Taylor dropping the mic and the band walking off the set, leaving mic noise and feedback instead of the album version's electronic/scratch outro.
  • "Duality" shortens a few instrumental parts and the bridge and completely cuts off the final "All I've got / All I've got is insane" section, ending the song after the final chorus and a short melody line instrumental.
• Metallica made two versions of the video for "One". The first is the entire song and is intercut with scenes from the film Johnny Got His Gun. The second, called the "jammin' version", leaves out the movie scenes and fades out during the last bridge.

Metalcore

• For the video for Killswitch Engage's "My Curse", almost all the screamed vocals were re-recorded being sung cleanly, which drastically changes the feel of the song.

New Wave Music

• Duran Duran:
  • The video for "The Reflex" is based on the single version produced by Nile Rodgers rather than the Seven and the Ragged Tiger cut. It adds a male/female a capella intro.
  • The video for "Ordinary World" uses the shorter radio version of the song instead of the album version from The Wedding Album, removing the intro and mashing two instrumental bridge sections together.
• The video for "Red Skies" by The Fixx had singer Cy Curnan singing live, instead of lip-syncing.
• New Order were infamous for releasing remixed, extended, radio edit, and updated versions of their songs and songs from their previous band incarnation Joy Division. The video for "The Perfect Kiss" has them playing live, as they refused to lip-sync.

Pop

• ABBA's video for "On And On And On" has an extra verse which was cut for unspecified reasons on its single release and the Super Trouper album, cutting the song down from 4:12 to 3:40. It didn't appear on a physical release until the Super Trouper Deluxe Edition CD many years later.
• The award-winning video for "Take on Me" by a-ha has a different ending than the one on the Hunting High and Low album. While the album version does a repeat-and-fade at the end, the video has a quick, 3-note cold finish using unique instrumentation.
• There are two official music videos for The B-52s "Rock Lobster". One is a live performance from 1979, which may have served to promote the song at the time of release. The other was made without the group's involvement for Island's 1986 edit of the song, set to a montage of their other music videos interspersed with archive footage.
• INXS added a longer intro to their "Never Tear Us Apart" video.
• Michael Jackson:
  • The video version of "Thriller" has all the choruses moved to the end of the song instead of between verses, with Vincent Price's rap coming before the choruses. The bridge is also omitted.
  • "Black or White": The instrumental intro was extended. The ending chorus is also longer, in order to accommodate the several morphing faces.
• Madonna:
  • The "Express Yourself" video uses a remix version of the song created by Shep Pettibone instead of the original album version from Like a Prayer.
  • The dance mix version of "What It Feels Like For A Girl" was used for its video instead of the original from Music.
• The video for George Michael's "Too Funky" uses a shortened version of the original from the Red Hot And Dance charity album, still keeping Mrs. Robinson's "I'm not trying to seduce you" line from The Graduate intact in its intro.

Power Metal

• The video versions of DragonForce's "Through the Fire and Flame" and "Operation Ground and Pound" are only about 5 minutes long while the original versions are over 7 minutes long.
• Iced Earth's video for "Desert Rain" is an alternate recording to the album and has a different arrangement, omitting the long intro. It is unusual that the group did this when their other music videos are direct lipsyncs, though it is plausible that it was done as a live-in-studio performance for a TV show.

Progressive Rock

• In an interesting variation of this trope, nearly every song on Pink Floyd's 1979 album The Wall was redone for its 1982 film adaptation, with these re-recordings having noticeable differences from the originals. The Other Wiki's page on the film has a full list of all the changes made to each song.

Rock

• The Beatles:
  • They made videos for both sides of their "Hey Jude"/"Revolution" single. Both are filmed performances, semi-live (live vocals with at least some instruments synched from the recordings). The "Revolution" video is a hybrid of the single "Revolution" and the album version "Revolution 1", with the harder sound and faster tempo of the single but the "shoo-be-doo-wah" backing vocals from the album version. "Hey Jude" is a good minute shorter than the single, and if you listen to the long coda, Paul McCartney ad-libs different words, like when he gives a Shout-Out to The Band by quoting the "take a load off, Fanny" chorus from Band single "The Weight".
  • They also did this in the Let It Be film. The versions of "Let It Be" and "The Long And Winding Road" performed in the movie are different takes than the ones used in the soundtrack album (Let It Be... Naked would later use a remix of the film version of "The Long and Winding Road", noticeably missing Paul's wordless vocals during the break, and a hybrid edit of the standard and film versions of "Let It Be").
• Phil Collins' "In The Air Tonight"—the video uses the single remix, which has additional drums added at the suggestion of Atlantic Records head Ahmet Ertegun.
• Radiohead's "There There" video has one version that runs 30 seconds shorter than the song does on Hail to the Thief. The beginning and end, in particular, sound dramatically trimmed. A version featuring the whole song has appeared in such places as director Chris Hopewell's Vimeo page, and the DVD The Best of Radiohead.
• Many of Simon & Garfunkel's live performances of "The Boxer", including the one released on the album Live 1969 and their performance at their 1981 concert in Central Park, feature an entire verse (starting with "Now the years are rolling by me/They are rocking evenly") that is absent from the original version of the song as recorded on Bridge Over Troubled Water. On the album, that part of the song is an instrumental break.
• The video for ZZ Top's "Legs" uses a version of the song that adds backing vocals and another instrumental track as well as a different intro.
• The video for Neil Young's "Rockin' in the Free World" has the song played one step higher (to the key of F), and omits the bridge.
• The video for Nickelback's "Rockstar" has the final line of the last chorus replaced with the audience singing it at a live performance, along with the band thanking the audience afterward.
• The video for Queen's "Headlong" contains an extra five or so seconds of guitar in between the first chorus and second verse.

Other

• Cat Hairballs: The music video cuts an opening dialog where Ren and Stimpy are exchanging gifts, which ends with Stimpy hwarfing the titular hairballs all over Ren as the latter's "present" before the song proper starts. The music video cuts this and instead heads straight into the song.

---