Question about US 7" singles of Michael Jackson

[becane]

Hello,

I have a question about the US commercial 7" singles of "Little Bitty Pretty One/If I Have To Move A Mountain [[http://www.discogs.com/Jackson-5-Little-Bitty-Pretty-One/release/2769873)", "Rockin' Robin/Love Is Here And Now You're Gone [[http://www.discogs.com/Michael-Jackson-Rockin-Robin/release/2334740)" and "I Wanna Be Where You Are/We've Got A Good Thing Going [[http://www.discogs.com/Michael-Jackson-I-Wanna-Be-Where-You-Are-Weve-Got-A-Good-Thing-Going/release/1848094)" : Are they mono or stereo ?

Thank you very much :)

[thomas96]

I'm sure it's stereo, but I'll check later to make sure. Promo/DJ copies could've been mono, but I doubt they ever issued it commercially in mono.

[soulster]

Hello,

I have a question about the US commercial 7" singles of "Little Bitty Pretty One/If I Have To Move A Mountain [[http://www.discogs.com/Jackson-5-Little-Bitty-Pretty-One/release/2769873)", "Rockin' Robin/Love Is Here And Now You're Gone [[http://www.discogs.com/Michael-Jackson-Rockin-Robin/release/2334740)" and "I Wanna Be Where You Are/We've Got A Good Thing Going [[http://www.discogs.com/Michael-Jackson-I-Wanna-Be-Where-You-Are-Weve-Got-A-Good-Thing-Going/release/1848094)" : Are they mono or stereo ?

Thank you very much :)

Mine play stereo.

[becane]

I'm sure it's stereo, but I'll check later to make sure. Promo/DJ copies could've been mono, but I doubt they ever issued it commercially in mono.

Have you checked ? :)

[becane]

Up... ! :)

[thomas96]

I apologize, I completely forgot to check... All three of my commercial copies are mono, but I do have a promo of Rockin' Robin that I believe is stereo. It's RR on both sides.

[BayouMotownMan]

The commercial versions of Got To and Rockin' were issued in mono. I have them. I'm told Motown did issue some commercials in stereo. I Wanna Be was in stereo

[Sotosound]

I believe that "Got To Be There" and "Ben" were fold-downs of the stereo mixes. In the UK, "GTBT" was released as a single in stereo but "Ben" was released in mono.

IMHO some of the mixes from that period walked a fine line between quality and accessibility due to the mixture of playback equipment and broadcast formats around at that time. When Motown was doing dedicated mono and stereo mixes of whole albums, we got the best of both worlds, i.e. great mono mixes and [[some) great stereo mixes.

When Motown dropped mono and mixed in stereo in such a way as to sound good on mono gramophones and AM radio as well as on good hi fis I'm not certain that the result wasn't actually worse in many cases.

Eventually we ended up with stereo single mixes and stereo album mixes that were different and that were tailored towards what they would be first heard on. If we compare the un-released single mix of "Smiling Faces Sometimes" by The Temptations with the album mix from "The Sky's The Limit" it's easy to hear the different approaches. The single mix sounds nasal and congested compared to the album mix but it is also better suited, however, to radio play.

[soulster]

It still irks me that UMe couldn't find it to create a J5 collection with all the mono mixes in one place. As it is now, one has to gather them from all sorts of CDs. They are all out there, you just have to hunt for them. I had to create my own comp.

[mjdestiny]

It still irks me that UMe couldn't find it to create a J5 collection with all the mono mixes in one place.
I agree with you.

[becane]

Thank you very much for your replies :)