The music on the Canadian edition of the Times Square soundtrack is identical to the US version. All the international editions are musically identical. (I suppose some might sound better or worse than others, but none of the actual tracks are different.) That’s why, other than the few examples I’ll be sharing here, I haven’t bothered collecting all the variant editions: musically they’re identical, the artwork differs in the most inconsequential ways, and the text differs in only slightly less inconsequential ways. Among editions I don’t have, there are promotional copies with white labels, and there’s a Japanese edition with an obi. Supposedly there was an edition that came with 8x10s of some of the artists, but I’ve only ever come across it once, and I suspect someone placed the photos in after the fact. Now, if something turns up with a different picture of Robin on the back, that I’ll be interested in. Otherwise, nah.

The most obvious difference is Tim Curry’s image on the front cover being replaced by a blank red circle. There’s also an assurance in English and French that there are two records inside. On the back cover, RSO’s credits for manufacturing and distribution have been given to Polygram. And most interestingly, although I don’t really know what it means, the sound recording copyright, belonging to RSO in the United States, is attributed to a company named Multiplier N.V. (this is the case with all the non-US editions). The inner gatefold is identical to the US edition, although in my opinion it (and the entire package) is printed better. (The yellow seems brighter on all the non-US pressings; that could just be because my US copy is faded through lots of handling.) And on the spine, “Printed in USA” is gone, but there is a small logo consisting of the letters “ER” in a circle. I don’t know what that means either.
 

On the inner sleeves, all the attributions to sound recordings being owned by RSO are replaced by notices of copyright to Multiplier N.V., in a different typeface, as if they had simply been pasted over. And the line “Mastered at STERLING SOUND by George Marino” has been deleted.

The color of the labels is slightly darker than the US edition. The information has been slightly reformatted, and RSO is replaced by Multiplier in the song information and by Polygram in the manufacturing and distribution credit. And Bill Oakes’ credit has changed from Album Executive Producer to simply Executive Producer.

I wonder if the original recordings being owned by RSO, Inc. in the US and by Multiplier N.V. in the rest of the world has anything to do with the soundtrack never being re-released. Does anyone have a non-US edition of the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack, to check the copyright information there?

I think that’s enough Canadian excitement. Wherever shall we go next?