wendex.net » Rare Stereo

Son of Songs for People with Two Ears

CGH — Sun, 10 Dec 2006 20:05:46 +0000

Because I can, again yet another collection of songs that are seldom heard in stereo, with yet another variation on the same cover art. This includes rather a lot of DES — “Digitally Extracted Stereo” — which is essentially fakery, but often really good fakery. One such (no points for guessing which one) actually made it to a commercial release.

Track listing for 111129-2:

The Surfaris: Wipe Out
Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich: Save Me
The Crystals: He’s Sure the Boy I Love
The Beach Boys: Help Me, Rhonda
The Essex: A Walkin’ Miracle
Procol Harum: A Whiter Shade of Pale
Bill Justis: Raunchy
The Zombies: She’s Not There
The Dave Clark Five: Because
Diane Renay: Kiss Me, Sailor
The Marvelows: I Do
Georgie Fame and the Blue Flames: Yeh, Yeh
Jerry Butler and Betty Everett: Let It Be Me
Leapy Lee: Little Arrows
The Dixie Cups: Iko Iko
Jimmy Reed: Big Boss Man
Spencer Davis Group: I’m a Man
Terry Stafford: Suspicion
Senators Bobby and McKinley: Mellow Yellow
Neil Diamond: You Got to Me
Sam Cooke: Wonderful World
Manfred Mann: Mighty Quinn (Quinn the Eskimo)
Jorgen Ingmann: Apache
The Ronettes: Do I Love You
Herman’s Hermits: A Must to Avoid
Ritchie Valens: Donna
The Nashville Teens: Tobacco Road
Thurston Harris: Little Bitty Pretty One
The Champs: Tequila

Copyright © 2010 wendex.net. This Feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this material in your news aggregator, the site you are looking at is guilty of copyright infringement. Please contact chaz@dustbury.com so we can take legal action immediately.
Plugin by Taragana

Mono-lithic

CGH — Wed, 29 Mar 2006 02:28:24 +0000

A customer wrote to a record company and sent me a drop copy, which I reproduce herein:

I recently bought the subject cd and found that many of the tracks were in mono. many of these mono tracks were played on the radio in stereo. can you explain why in this high tech age these tracks are in mono instead of stereo? I would have preferred to hear this in stereo as much as possible. I understand that recordings originally done in mono can not be made into stereo, but what of those that I’ve heard on radio in stereo?

I should point out here that the “subject cd” was a compilation by the Beach Boys, much of whose recorded oeuvre was released in mono or in (gag) “Duophonic” phonus-bolognus simulated stereo — because, we are reminded, Brian Wilson was deaf in one ear and mixed this stuff to mono because that’s all he could hear.

In the 1990s, for whatever reason, the group, or Brian himself, relented, and allowed some of these tracks to be remixed into stereo. The obvious place to begin was Pet Sounds, and a yummy box set was issued with both mono and remixed stereo versions, plus bits and pieces from the stage tapes. It was successful enough, decided Capitol, to allow further expeditions into the vaults, and the results have been generally successful — because they have the session tapes and therefore the capacity to remix them into proper stereo.

The operative word here is “proper,” keeping in mind that a good mono mix is always to be preferred to a bad stereo mix. I wrote about this at length some years ago and cited some examples of the latter. (Among the worst stereo mixes extant is the overechoed, ping-pongy “I Love You” by People — on Capitol, by coincidence — which becomes unlistenable long before the 4:35 running time is over.)

Still, if Capitol does have fresh new Beach Boys mixes available, why don’t they use them on all Beach Boys product? The answer, of course, can be found at the cash register: the number of people who can be sold any old Beach Boys compilation is far greater than the number of people who insist on hearing “Heroes and Villains” in stereo for once. And they’re not going to go back and remaster a CD that sold well just to punch in new tracks that Joe and Susan Sixpack may not recognize as new.

As for myself, I have accumulated a fair amount of uncommon (if not always “rare”) stereo, and I use it on my personal compilations most of the time, though there are reasons why I might not. Often it’s a question of length: staying with the Beach Boys for the moment, the stereo mix of “Fun, Fun, Fun” fades out almost 20 seconds earlier than the mono 45 version. And sometimes the stereo mix just rubs me the wrong way: Capitol redid the Outsiders (the US band) material for a compilation, and the vintage mixes, despite dubious placement — the lead vocal on “Time Won’t Let Me” falls hard left — somehow sounded more forceful than the more-conventionally-placed remix.

That said, though, I still get something of a kick when I hear something in stereo that I never thought I would. And to that extent, I have to sympathize with my (once-removed) correspondent.

Even More Songs for People with Two Ears

CGH — Sun, 11 Sep 2005 23:58:47 +0000

And yet another collection of songs that are seldom heard in stereo, with yet another variation on the same cover art. (Actually, a few of these are seldom heard in any configuration these days.)

Track listing for 111075-2:

The Kingsmen: Louie, Louie
The Chiffons: He’s So Fine
Dobie Gray: The “In” Crowd
Vanity Fare: Early in the Morning
Gene Chandler: Duke of Earl
The Shangri-Las: Remember (Walkin’ in the Sand)
Wilson Pickett: Mustang Sally
Shades of Blue: Oh How Happy
The Jive Five: My True Story
Lorne Greene: Ringo
Los Bravos: Bring a Little Lovin’
Marcie Blane: Bobby’s Girl
Arthur Alexander: Anna
The Raindrops: The Boy You Can’t Forget
Creedence Clearwater Revival: Proud Mary *
Tommy James and the Shondells: I Think We’re Alone Now
Gene and Debbe: Playboy
Dusty Springfield: I Only Want to Be with You
Ronnie Dove: Say You
Bubble Puppy: Hot Smoke and Sasafrass
The Marvelettes: BEechwood 4-5789
The Beach Boys: God Only Knows
Norma Tanega: Walking My Cat Named Dog
Aaron Neville: Tell It Like It Is
The McCoys: Hang On Sloopy
Bernadette Carroll: Party Girl
The Byrds: Mr. Tambourine Man
The Jaynetts: Sally Go ‘Round the Roses
The Rolling Stones: 19th Nervous Breakdown

* The original LP mix is stereo, but just barely; this mix is from the short-lived quadraphonic LP issue of Creedence Gold, folded down to two tracks by, um, me.

Still More Songs for People with Two Ears

CGH — Sat, 10 Sep 2005 02:36:35 +0000

Yet another collection of songs that are seldom heard in stereo, with yet another variation on the same cover art.

Track listing for 111065-2:

The Ronettes: Baby I Love You
Donovan: Mellow Yellow
Dion: Donna the Prima Donna
The Beatles: I Should Have Known Better
Nino Tempo and April Stevens: All Strung Out
Three Dog Night: Joy to the World *
The Hollies: I’m Alive
The Fireballs: Bottle of Wine
The Beach Boys: Wouldn’t It Be Nice
Perez Prado and His Orchestra: Patricia
Peter and Gordon: Woman
Raspberries: Go All the Way
The Rose Garden: Next Plane to London
The Dave Clark Five: Glad All Over
The Reflections: (Just Like) Romeo and Juliet
Kyu Sakamoto: Sukiyaki
Jimmy Soul: If You Wanna Be Happy
Ritchie Valens: La Bamba
Freddie and the Dreamers: Do the Freddie
The Vogues: Five O’Clock World
The Miracles: You’ve Really Got a Hold on Me
Paul Revere and the Raiders: Kicks
The Shangri-Las: Give Him a Great Big Kiss
Whistling Jack Smith: I Was Kaiser Bill’s Batman
The Halos: “Nag”
Del Shannon: Little Town Flirt
Martha and the Vandellas: Heat Wave

* With the proper guitar solo during the break, as on the 45.

More Songs for People with Two Ears

CGH — Mon, 05 Sep 2005 20:56:51 +0000

Obviously a sequel to the first Two Ears disc, with the colors of the cover picture transmogrified. At the time, it seemed like stuff like this would be the bulk of my CD-R production.

Track listing for 111054-2:

Dion and the Belmonts: I Wonder Why
The Beatles: Boys
Skip and Flip: Cherry Pie
The Ronettes: Be My Baby
Peter Sarstedt: Where Do You Go To My Lovely
The Rolling Stones: Heart of Stone
Brook Benton: Hit Record
Tony Orlando: Bless You
The Dave Clark Five: Can’t You See That She’s Mine
The 4 Seasons: Dawn (Go Away)
The Beatles: Please Please Me
Chubby Checker: Loddy Lo
David McWilliams: The Days of Pearly Spencer
Charles Randolph Grean Sounde: Quentin’s Theme
The Beach Boys: Kiss Me, Baby
Zager and Evans: Mr. Turnkey *
The Four Preps: More Money for You and Me
Elvis Presley: Love Me Tender
Les Cooper and the Soul Rockers: Wiggle Wobble
The Rolling Stones: The Last Time
The Brotherhood of Man: Where Are You Going To My Love
Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers: I’m Not a Juvenile Delinquent
Thee Prophets: Playgirl
Lonnie Donegan: Does Your Chewing Gum Lose Its Flavor
Tom Jones: What’s New Pussycat?
The Beatles: Twist and Shout

* The followup to “In the Year 2525,” this is amazingly creepy. Further discussion here.

Songs for People with Two Ears

CGH — Mon, 05 Sep 2005 03:41:28 +0000

This is the first CD-R I ever produced and decided to keep. The title indicates that all these tracks are in stereo; this matters because most of them are most commonly found in mono, when they’re found at all. The cover art is a mostly-unchanged template from Adaptec (later Roxio) Easy CD Creator, which I used for my earliest burns before switching to Nero; I added both the Wendex logo and a copy of the old 1960s Liberty Records “Visual Sound Stereo” tag.

Track listing for 111051-2:

The Beatles: I Saw Her Standing There
The Ronettes: Walking in the Rain
The Rolling Stones: Time Is On My Side
The Dave Clark Five: Bits and Pieces
Bobby Darin: Dream Lover
Simon and Garfunkel: You Don’t Know Where Your Interest Lies *
Jackie DeShannon: What the World Needs Now Is Love
The Beatles: Anna
The Strangeloves: Cara-Lin
The Marvelettes: Please, Mr. Postman
Strawberry Alarm Clock: Sit with the Guru
The Tempos: See You In September
The Dave Clark Five: Try Too Hard
The Beach Boys: California Girls
Sandy Posey: I Take It Back
The Rolling Stones: (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction
The Beatles: Do You Want to Know a Secret
The Crickets: Oh, Boy!
The Troggs: Love Is All Around
The Crystals: Then He Kissed Me
The 4 Seasons: Let’s Hang On!
The Bell Notes: I’ve Had It
The Dave Clark Five: Catch Us If You Can
Elvis Presley: Jailhouse Rock **
The Tremeloes: Suddenly You Love Me
The Beatles: I’m Happy Just to Dance with You
The Byrds: Turn! Turn! Turn!

* B-side of “Fakin’ It,” never on an LP.
** From the motion-picture soundtrack as issued in stereo.