Originally Posted by
gman
the first LP I noticed different mixes on was The Very Best of Connie Francis! my brother had the mono LP....I was 7 and had the stereo issue....3 songs were entirely different vocal takes...WTF? its the same record...I thought he just had a wimpy record player. At the time I was using the big Zenith TV/Radio/Phono credenza in our living room which really had great stereo separation and sound.
So indeed, it wasn't just Motown doing this sort of thing!
[/QUOTE]
Back to Marvelettes...I first heard them and practically everything else but DRATS and Heat Wave, & I Can't Help Myself on the 5 LP Motown Story...they used all fat mixes on that set....when I started inheriting and buying used 45s I found many sounded different...My guess is [[and I am uneducated here) the yellow Anthology '75 [[?) LP used Stereo mixes [/QUOTE]
For the most part, yes. The yellow Anthology album featured stereo mixes, except oddly, "I'll Keep Holding On" was mono. I had never thought much about that until I started writhing this. My feeling is that Motown may have gone with the mono mix of that one song because the stereo mix really loses all of the punch and dynamic of the mono mix.
[/QUOTE]
... my 1st group CD Compact Command Performances used some Mono mixes? on Anthology So Long Baby and Strange I Know and a few more sound like they are standing in the room singing to me...on the 45's and CD not so....school me up, folks![/QUOTE]
I haven't played that Compact Command Performances CD in some years, so I'd have to go back to it- but if you think you're hearing a few songs in mono, you probably are. Again, maybe the feeling was to go with the strongest mix of certain songs. Still, I'll see if I can find it and I'll give it a listen...
The other thing to consider, those first generation CDs sometimes gave you excellent, crystal clear sound while other times you got some muddy, sort of flat mixes. That fact became clear when I started getting newer CDs after they had been remastered. As far as 45's there was so much going on with trying to get the biggest, most dynamic sound, you could end up with something light years away from the raw, unprocessed tapes.
Stereo mixes, as I've read over and over, were an afterthought, so I think a lot of times you got something closest to the rawer, direct-to-tape studio sound. Maybe you were hearing the stereo mixes of "So Long Baby" and "Strange I Know" [[?) The CD version of the "Playboy" album actually has that sound to me- like you're right in the studio with the musicians and group; but it's also a stereo mix without a lot of added reverb and such.
Bookmarks