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PopArchivist
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| Posted: 22 October 2018 at 6:53pm | IP Logged
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Just wondering what everyone's thought about incorporating stereo recordings for the period of 1955-1959 for top 40 hits where stereo did not exist in releases, but is available for the song. For the 1960's I can see collecting the stereo releases along side the mono, with the mono pretty much being the hit version all the time until 1968.
One of the examples I bring forth is the DES of Rock Around The Clock which sounds great (and I love it) but never existed back in that time. So do you stay true to mono up until stereo releases in 1968, or do I include stereo releases from 1960 on since that is when it was possible to actually have stereo.
I collect the dirty versions of songs just as I would the clean versions, so should I not collect any stereo just as I would the mono? Is it an apt comparison? Your thoughts much appreciated.
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Paul Haney
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| Posted: 23 October 2018 at 4:20am | IP Logged
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There were stereo singles prior to 1960. In fact,
Billboard even had a special symbol for those songs
starting with the Hot 100 chart dated May 18, 1959. That
said, they made some mistakes.
There's a great listing here for stereo 45s from 1958-61:
https://www.bsnpubs.com/stereoproject/stereo45s.html
IMO, collect what you like. If you want those DES
versions, I say why not? Most of them do sound fantastic.
Edited by Paul Haney on 23 October 2018 at 4:27am
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Brian W.
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| Posted: 23 October 2018 at 4:23am | IP Logged
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Well, there were quite a few during '58 to '59 where
singles were released simultaneously in mono and
stereo, and Billboard eventually Billboad started
putting an "S" next to the entry on the Hot 100 to
indicate that. (Stereo records came around in 1958,
BTW, not 1960.)
I do that in my own comps if no mono version was
issued on CD and there was a stereo single, I'll just
use that instead. It can legitimately be considered
the single version.
But as far as collecting reissues in stereo or fake
stereo? Personally, I don't. But you can make your
own rules for your own collecting.
Many classic movies were either released in mono-only
or very primitive stereo in the theaters, but they
often can go back to the original stems and remix them
into first-time stereo (or better stereo) for home
video release. People rarely take issue with that, so
I don't know why we should do so with music. (But we
do, LOL.)
Edited by Brian W. on 23 October 2018 at 4:24am
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PopArchivist
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| Posted: 23 October 2018 at 8:56am | IP Logged
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Brian and Paul,
Thanks for the correction on the year. I think my frustration stems more from the 1955-1959 period in general then the 1960's, which have countless stereo releases for the songs.
I keep forgetting that during the 1960's and 1970's a lot of those 50's classics were made into stereo and they are just as official as the mono versions.
The DES sounds great. Its more about striving for accuracy. With that being said I try to stay true to what was available at the time. Not everything in the top 40 from 1955 to 1959 is available in stereo.
I do find it interesting you mention the movie comparison. We can take a 40GB Blu Ray movie and shrink it down to 3GB and be satisfied downloading it from Itunes but if a true music collector wanted a high quality file for a song the CD is always the best place to look, not Itunes. The double standard we apply to movies vs. music is something I have always thought was rather strange considering movies that did not exist in color in 1955 are in color and stereo sound is applied for movies before that when stereo did not exist.
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Top 40 Music on Compact Disc : Chat Board
Topic: Stereo and the 1950’s Top 40
