A Motown Oddity: Smokey Robinson & The Miracles "Away We A Go-Go" CD

Maybe it sounded like this on albums in the U.K. and other territories outside of the U.S. on its original release. Maybe not.

I have the 80's CD release of Smokey Robinson & The Miracles "Away We A Go-Go" album and it's the oddest thing; the vocals [[lead and backing) sound especially crisp, and mixed way out front with a pretty nice reverb effect [[almost as if they played the vocal tracks in an echo-y bathroom!) This is not the way it sounds on the vinyl album mixes, not even in mono. Did anyone else find it odd? I just thought maybe they found the original masters and did a bit of remixing/remastering. It doesn't sound bad at all, just not at all like the vinyl. However, later CD releases revert back to the original vinyl mix and sound 100%

[[And before anyone confuses what I mean with "alternate takes" found on mono vs. stereo, that's not at all what this is about. It's the actual sound of the vocals being a lot more pristine and mixed distinctly differently than on the vinyl albums.)

It must due to using alternate mixes of Away We A Go-Go for that CD release. When Motown introduced the '2 albums on one CD' series in the mid '80s, they were produced very quickly without checking for accuracy so there are a lot of variations on them. For instance; on the '2fer' of Marvin Gaye's What's Going On/Let's Get It On, "If I Should Die Tonight" kicks off with Marvin's vocal without the strings backing him [[as they did on the original LP).