Quote Originally Posted by keith_hughes View Post
Just thought a note from the archives might be helpful to this discussion: the first stereo mix to be saved on a duplicate master [[DM) tape was "Nowhere To Run". There's no date on the box for this track, but other tracks on the same [[stereo) tape have dates in December 64 and January 65. [[They never issued this mix, btw: the stereo mix that appeared on their "Greatest Hits" dates from nearly a year later.)
Thanks, but stereo does not factor into this discussion, as stereo mixes were done at night by some other engineer in the house next door! They actually wired the two rooms together!

Co-incidentally [[?) this was the very same time-period when Mike McClean unleashed his new state-of-the art 8-track recording desk in the Snakepit. /QUOTE]

That's correct! But, the first eight-track recording was supposed to be "My Girl" by The Temptations. That was recorded in November of '64.

I'm there with Soulster in preferring the mono mixes of 1964 [[and earlier) material. Motown took a while in coming to terms with stereo mixing, which after all was a real cult rich-kids' thing back in 1965.
Like I said, this thread is not about stereo, but Motown did pretty good with it by late 1966. The singles were all mono until 1972, but their last mono LP was 1967.