"1960's MOTOWN - MONO Versus STEREO"

[Philles/Motown Gary]

Stereo buffs in general seem to prefer ANY recorded material in Stereo format ONLY, regardless of the genre, the artist, the song, or the mix. Me? I like whichever mix sounds best. I’ve always preferred Mono when it comes to Phil Spector and the early-to-mid-1960's Girl-Group genre in general. The mono mixes are powerful, whereas the stereo mixes usually lost something important in the translation, leaving much to be desired. Back in the day, I usually preferred Motown in mono, as occasional stereo mixes sounded strange to my ear. Now that I’m [[much) older, however, I find myself preferring Motown’s stereo mixes over the mono mixes. As much as I love the "Cellarful Of Motown" previously-unreleased CD series, I find myself wishing that the stereo mixes were available. For the most part, Motown’s Stereo mixes are hot, especially given the excellent remastering quality that we’ve come to know thanks to Harry, Andy, George, and Keith. There are a few exceptions, however, where I insist upon the Mono mixes for my listening pleasure. Those exceptions, followed by the reasons why, are as follows:

1) MARVIN GAYE & KIM WESTON - "What Good Am I Without You". The Mono mix utilizes handclaps which, to me, are really hot. The Stereo mix, for some reason, deletes the handclaps leaving a void, at least to my ear.

2) MARY WELLS - "Honey Boy". Again, the Mono mix contains handclaps, adding magic to the Motown mix, whereas the Stereo version deletes them.

3) THE SUPREMES - "Love Is Like An Itching In My Heart". The mono mix is HOT, whereas the Stereo mix contains different, unidentifiable instrumentation which I've always found somewhat annoying.

4) MARVIN GAYE - "Little Darling [[I Need You)". The Mono version contains strings, which I really love in that song. The Stereo version, however, deletes those gorgeous string passages, leaving the song sounding empty and barren.

[I have to wonder why Motown would delete some of its most identifiable trademarks [[handclaps and strings) from it’s stereo mixes. Maybe that’s a question that Ralph or Russ could answer?]

And, last but not least, the most noticeable difference between a Motown Mono mix versus a Stereo mix:

5) MARTHA & THE VANDELLAS - "Jimmy Mack". As previously discussed on the Motown Forum a couple months ago, the hit Mono 45 version is a newer recording with handclaps and a HOT, jump-out-at-you mix. The Stereo version, however, is a slower, totally different recording from a couple of years earlier. [NOTE: If any of you recall "The Motown Story" 5-disc LP boxed set, released back in 1970 or so, which contained interviews by each Motown artist as the intro of their respective song played, I’ll never forget Martha Reeves enthusiastically reminiscing about "Jimmy Mack" and how it had the "grooviest beat" of all of the Vandellas’ records. And then, instead of the hit 45 Mono version, the alternate Stereo version kicks in with it’s slower, lackluster, very un-groovy beat. Talk about anticlimactic! I’ve always felt sorry for poor Martha and wondered how she must have felt the first time she heard the playback of her interview segment for "Jimmy Mack" on "The Motown Story". She was probably just as shocked and floored as the rest of us were!

How about the rest of you Motowners? Do you have any particular preference for Motown Mono versus Stereo? Would love to hear your opinions. - Gary