The Replacements announce ‘Pleased To Meet Me’ Deluxe Edition

Updated edition features an abundance of previously unreleased material

Rhino Records has set The Replacements Please To Meet Me: Deluxe Edition for October 9th. Following last year’s widely acclaimed Dead Man’s Pop release, Pleased To Meet Me will be receiving a similar “deep dive” treatment with a 3 CD/1 LP deluxe boxed set, which will tell the story of the album in ways not previously possible with more than half of the content previously unreleased.

Twenty-nine tracks, which makes up more than half of the music on the Deluxe Edition, have never been released, including demos, rough mixes, and outtakes as well as Bob Stinson’s last recordings with The Replacements from 1986.

The boxed set features a new remaster of the original album by Justin Perkins, who was also behind the boards for the Dead Man’s Pop reissue; 1986 demo session with Bob Stinson – his last recorded Replacements performance, with his guitar tracks reinstated for the first time; Additional 1986 demos with the band as a three-piece outfit (sans Bob); Previously unreleased rough mix of the album with alternate track listing; Studio outtakes from the album recording sessions in Memphis 1987; and
rare single mixes.

An exclusive bundle offered via Rhino.com comes with a 10″x14″ paper placemat that is a replica of the original Pleased To Meet Me promo item from 1987, a bumper sticker, a 3″ patch, a limited edition cassette, Pleased To Meet Me t-shirt and Pleased To Meet Me Tote Bag. The cassette features a previously unreleased interview with Paul Westerberg recorded just before the release of the original album. Brief excerpts from the interview were originally included in a radio promo LP that was released in 1987 but this marks the first time that the complete interview has been made available.

The music is presented in a 12×12″ hardcover book loaded with dozens of rarely seen photos along with a detailed history of the Pleased To Meet Me era written by Bob Mehr, who authored The New York Times bestseller, Trouble Boys: The True Story of the Replacements.

The making of Pleased To Meet Me was a transformative journey for The Replacements, one that began with the combustible Minneapolis combo on the brink of collapse and culminated in one of the definitive albums of the band’s career. That transformation is chronicled in-depth in this boxed set.

Pleased To Meet Me is the critically acclaimed fifth studio album by the American rock band. Released in 1987 by Sire Records, Pleased To Meet Me is the only album recorded by the band as a trio, after original guitarist Bob Stinson acrimoniously left the band.

The album was recorded over three months at Ardent Studios in Memphis with legendary producer Jim Dickinson before it debuted in June 1987. The collection opens with a newly remastered version of the original 11 track album along with a selection of B-sides and a version of “Can’t Hardly Wait” that was remixed by Jimmy Iovine. All of the music included in this boxed set has been remastered by Justin Perkins, who remastered the band’s widely acclaimed 2019 boxed set, Dead Man’s Pop.

The second disc explores the creative process behind Pleased To Meet Me with 15 unreleased demos recorded at Blackberry Way Studios in Minneapolis during the summer of 1986. The first seven of these demos represent the last recordings made by all four original members of The Replacements. After those demo sessions stalled out, singer/guitarist Paul Westerberg, bassist Tommy Stinson and drummer Chris Mars made the painful decision to part ways with lead guitarist Bob Stinson after recording five albums together.

The disc’s remaining eight demos feature the band as a trio and include “Shooting Dirty Pool,” two versions of “Kick It In,” and “Even If It’s Cheap,” whose opening line (“Pleased to meet me/the pleasure’s all yours”) would ultimately inspire the title of the album.

The collection’s final disc features 13 previously unreleased rough mixes by studio engineer John Hampton that include the majority of the album along with non-album tracks like “Election Day” and “Birthday Gal.” These rough mixes are also featured on the 180-gram vinyl record included in the set.

Rounding out the collection are several unreleased tracks (Westerberg’s “Run For The Country” and “Learn How To Fail,” Stinson’s “Trouble On The Way”) along with a selection of outtakes (“Beer For Breakfast” and “I Don’t Know”) that debuted on the 1997 compilation, All For Nothing/Nothing For All.

Buddy Iahn
Buddy Iahn

Buddy Iahn founded The Music Universe when he decided to juxtapose his love of web design and music. As a lifelong drummer, he decided to take a hiatus from playing music to report it. The website began as a fun project in 2013 to one of the top independent news sites. Email: info@themusicuniverse.com