04-21-2016, 09:06 PM
(This post was last modified: 04-21-2016, 09:08 PM by andypandy.
Edit Reason: typo
)
I'd say the obvious, simple answer to your question is "yes, clearly this was released some time before the About A Girl promo, but exactly how much is hard to say".
From the catalog numbers it seems that the All Apologies promo was the earliest of the promos you mentioned*.
*This does not always have to be true. Catalog numbers can be assigned far in advance, and discs with higher numbers can be released before lower numbers. However, in the case of these PRO-CD discs, I think they are assigned fairly "on the fly" so we can use them like this with a high certainty.
All Apologies PRO-CD 4618
About a Girl PRO-CD 4688
The Man.. PRO-CD-4707
According to the text on About a Girl, that promo was distributed before the release of Unplugged as you say, so All Apologies must have been even further in advance.
Adding some more to the list, In Utero promos:
HSB PRO-CD 4545 (the single was released in August 1993)
All Ap. (Utero) PRO-CD 4581 (the single was released in December 1993)
There's a sizeable gap in the numbers between the In Utero promo and the "double-promo", 4618-4581=37.
This is similar to the gap between the two In Utero promos, 4581-4545=36. Over four months, that's 9 numbers each month on average. You can then imagine that maybe there are four months between the In Utero All Ap and the double All Ap promos, too, putting it around March 1994. This is obviously very speculative. There's also the fact that these singles were not released in the USA, I'm applying rest-of-world release dates to American promo CDs.
The About A Girl single was released end of October 1994 (though still not officially released in the USA). Difference in numbers is 4688-4618=70. 70/9=7,8 months. Counting backwards, this also puts it around March.
Very speculative to quantify like this, from the catalog numbers, but I think it's not too far off.
Either way, it came out "some time" before the About a Girl promo, which is still the simple and 100% certain answer.
From the catalog numbers it seems that the All Apologies promo was the earliest of the promos you mentioned*.
*This does not always have to be true. Catalog numbers can be assigned far in advance, and discs with higher numbers can be released before lower numbers. However, in the case of these PRO-CD discs, I think they are assigned fairly "on the fly" so we can use them like this with a high certainty.
All Apologies PRO-CD 4618
About a Girl PRO-CD 4688
The Man.. PRO-CD-4707
According to the text on About a Girl, that promo was distributed before the release of Unplugged as you say, so All Apologies must have been even further in advance.
Adding some more to the list, In Utero promos:
HSB PRO-CD 4545 (the single was released in August 1993)
All Ap. (Utero) PRO-CD 4581 (the single was released in December 1993)
There's a sizeable gap in the numbers between the In Utero promo and the "double-promo", 4618-4581=37.
This is similar to the gap between the two In Utero promos, 4581-4545=36. Over four months, that's 9 numbers each month on average. You can then imagine that maybe there are four months between the In Utero All Ap and the double All Ap promos, too, putting it around March 1994. This is obviously very speculative. There's also the fact that these singles were not released in the USA, I'm applying rest-of-world release dates to American promo CDs.
The About A Girl single was released end of October 1994 (though still not officially released in the USA). Difference in numbers is 4688-4618=70. 70/9=7,8 months. Counting backwards, this also puts it around March.
Very speculative to quantify like this, from the catalog numbers, but I think it's not too far off.
Either way, it came out "some time" before the About a Girl promo, which is still the simple and 100% certain answer.