https://top40musiconcd.com/forum/ Copyright (c) 2006-2013 Web Wiz Forums - All Rights Reserved. Sat, 02 May 2026 17:36:21 +0000 Sat, 31 Jan 2026 14:09:37 +0000 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Web Wiz Forums 12.07 360 https://top40musiconcd.com/forum/RSS_post_feed.asp?TID=9195 https://top40musiconcd.com/forum//images/Top-40-Music-on-CD-Forum-Logo.png https://top40musiconcd.com/forum/ https://top40musiconcd.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=9195&PID=67731&title=bobbie-gentry-ode-to-billie-joe#67731 Author: LunarLaugh
Subject: 9195
Posted: 31 January 2026 at 2:09pm

The original stereo mix appears on DCC's The Best of Tragedy CD from 1995 (as mastered by Steve Hoffman). It appears to be either a different transfer of the same analog source used on Rhino's Billboard Top Pop Hits with a lot less high end applied in the mastering OR it is sourced from a decent flat analog dupe (30 ips).

I think the Rhino sounds like a better, cleaner transfer. For my own collection, I re-EQ'd it to shave off some of the Rhino's high end and added just a touch more low end resonance for the bass notes. I also adjusted the pitch to correspond with the later era remix which runs a hair faster.

Edited by LunarLaugh - 31 January 2026 at 2:11pm]]> Sat, 31 Jan 2026 14:09:37 +0000 https://top40musiconcd.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=9195&PID=67731&title=bobbie-gentry-ode-to-billie-joe#67731 https://top40musiconcd.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=9195&PID=65491&title=bobbie-gentry-ode-to-billie-joe#65491 Author: davidclark
Subject: 9195
Posted: 28 November 2024 at 6:57pm

John,

I agree, I noticed the same. Don't know when/where I got the MM info -
scanned email and couldn't find anything.]]> Thu, 28 Nov 2024 18:57:23 +0000 https://top40musiconcd.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=9195&PID=65491&title=bobbie-gentry-ode-to-billie-joe#65491 https://top40musiconcd.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=9195&PID=65490&title=bobbie-gentry-ode-to-billie-joe#65490 Author: eriejwg
Subject: 9195
Posted: 28 November 2024 at 5:42pm

The bass notes are much more prominent in the mono 45 mix.]]> Thu, 28 Nov 2024 17:42:38 +0000 https://top40musiconcd.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=9195&PID=65490&title=bobbie-gentry-ode-to-billie-joe#65490 https://top40musiconcd.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=9195&PID=65489&title=bobbie-gentry-ode-to-billie-joe#65489 Author: eriejwg
Subject: 9195
Posted: 28 November 2024 at 5:31pm

I tried folding the reverby stereo mix and compared it to a
45 dub from YouTube. The folded stereo mix didn't sound
like the 45 posted on the 45 Prof's page.]]> Thu, 28 Nov 2024 17:31:12 +0000 https://top40musiconcd.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=9195&PID=65489&title=bobbie-gentry-ode-to-billie-joe#65489 https://top40musiconcd.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=9195&PID=65485&title=bobbie-gentry-ode-to-billie-joe#65485 Author: crapfromthepast
Subject: 9195
Posted: 27 November 2024 at 6:02am

I think I'm convinced that the reverb mix is the 1967 mono mix from the 45, and the dry mix is a non-hit stereo mix that may have first appeared on the 1990 Curb CDs.]]> Wed, 27 Nov 2024 06:02:57 +0000 https://top40musiconcd.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=9195&PID=65485&title=bobbie-gentry-ode-to-billie-joe#65485 https://top40musiconcd.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=9195&PID=65481&title=bobbie-gentry-ode-to-billie-joe#65481 Author: davidclark
Subject: 9195
Posted: 26 November 2024 at 8:27pm

I found this what is stated as a dub of the 1967 (stereo) LP:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QYZu6kcdY9E

It has the reverb, so I've concluded, for myself at least, that the reverb mix is
the original (the stereo pretty much matching the reverb of the mono 45) while
the dry mix is a later version - as to WHEN it was first issued, I don't know
that.

[added later] ... Oh, and our very own Mark Matthews had determined the
mono is a fold-down, so that means that dry mix is NOT the original LP.

Edited by davidclark]]> Tue, 26 Nov 2024 20:27:20 +0000 https://top40musiconcd.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=9195&PID=65481&title=bobbie-gentry-ode-to-billie-joe#65481 https://top40musiconcd.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=9195&PID=65474&title=bobbie-gentry-ode-to-billie-joe#65474 Author: RichM921
Subject: 9195
Posted: 24 November 2024 at 9:17pm

When I worked on air at an oldies station in the ‘90s, we had two versions.
On GoldDisc 405 was the reverb version, and on GoldDisc U4 was the dry
version. The one that the station chose to play was the dry version. But I
always thought the reverb version sounded much better, so I would always
substitute that version when the song came up on the log on my shift. ]]> Sun, 24 Nov 2024 21:17:29 +0000 https://top40musiconcd.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=9195&PID=65474&title=bobbie-gentry-ode-to-billie-joe#65474 https://top40musiconcd.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=9195&PID=65473&title=bobbie-gentry-ode-to-billie-joe#65473 Author: NightAire
Subject: 9195
Posted: 24 November 2024 at 9:01pm

Do David's notes suggest that the mono 45 is a dedicated mix rather than a stereo fold-down?]]> Sun, 24 Nov 2024 21:01:32 +0000 https://top40musiconcd.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=9195&PID=65473&title=bobbie-gentry-ode-to-billie-joe#65473 https://top40musiconcd.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=9195&PID=65471&title=bobbie-gentry-ode-to-billie-joe#65471 Author: davidclark
Subject: 9195
Posted: 24 November 2024 at 5:35pm

When I listen to the mono 45 mix, I hear the reverb on "plow", and in general the song has reverb.
I do hear the difference on the two stereo mixes, one rather dry, the other with reverb. The
question remains, did the stereo LP match the 45 reverb, or was it the drier mix.? If Ron's
conclusion is correct regarding the Curb CDs beting a dry stereo LP, perhaps those later CDs
have it mixed with more reverb to better match the 45?

I would really like to hear the original stereo LP. Anyone have the stereo LP to confirm?]]> Sun, 24 Nov 2024 17:35:20 +0000 https://top40musiconcd.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=9195&PID=65471&title=bobbie-gentry-ode-to-billie-joe#65471 https://top40musiconcd.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=9195&PID=65465&title=bobbie-gentry-ode-to-billie-joe#65465 Author: crapfromthepast
Subject: 9195
Posted: 23 November 2024 at 10:01pm

Mono

The 45 is mono, and doesn't seem to exist in the digital world.

Stereo

The song started appearing on some relatively common compilations in 1989. I've noticed that many of those tracks base their masterings on some earlier release. I don't have any earlier releases for this particular song, so I'll just document some of the early CDs where "Ode" appeared.

In 1989, the song appeared on a 10-track collection from Capitol called Bobbie Gentry's Greatest!, which is a CD release of a 1969 LP.

The song appeared on three cheap-looking discs in 1990, all on Curb: 60's Hits Country Great Records Of The Decade Vol. 1, 60's Hits Great Records Of The Decade Vol. 1, and an 11-track Bobbie Gentry Greatest Hits.

The song appeared on a 10-track multi-artist compilation from Capitol Records Nashville called All Time Country Classics Volume 1 in 1991, and a nice-looking 20-track multi-artist compilation from Capitol called When AM Was King Fiftieth Anniversary (1992).

I don't have any of the above. EDIT: I found a file labeled "Curb CD" in Mark M's folders. Yay, Mark! I've updated the info below to include the Curb info.

I edited the following info to correspond to what we determined later: 1967 stereo mix has reverb, other mix is dry. (Edited Dec 2024)

1967 stereo mix

The 1967 stereo mix has a significant amount of reverb. Listen to the reverb on the word "plow" at 1:19. The strings are panned to close to the center - listen around 0:56. If you look at the waveform, the level of the vocals looks normal.

The oldest CD I have with the 1967 stereo mix is Rhino's Billboard Top Pop Hits 1967 (1995, RE-1 reissue but I'm not sure that a non-RE-1 disc exists).

There's another analog transfer that's almost certainly from a CD released 1995 or earlier, but I don't know which one. It seems to use the same source tape as Billboard. It appears on:

• Cema's Rock N Roll Greatest Hits Of All Time Vol. 3 (1995) - has added noise reduction
• Time-Life's Classic Country More Great Story Songs (2002)
• Time-Life's 2-CD Classic Country Vol. 24 Great Story Songs II (2002)
• Time-Life's 2-CD Classic Country Hard To Find Hits (2003)
• Time-Life's 2-CD AM Gold Hang On Sloopy (2021)

An outlier that isn't based on any of the above masterings: Capitol Nashville's The Girl From Chickasaw County The Complete Capitol Masters (Box Set) (2018) - sound is similar in reverb to Billboard, but EQ isn't as bright

Non-hit remix, likely first appeared on 1990 Curb CDs

We don't know for sure that this remix first appeared on the Curb CDs, but that's my assumption here in this post.

The Curb version has very little reverb overall. The vocals are relatively dry, and have a much greater dynamic range than the rest of the instrumentation. If you look at the waveform, the vocals seem huge compared to the guitar. The strings are panned slightly to one side - listen around 0:%6.

The same analog transfer as the Curb CDs is used on:

• Time-Life's Classic Rock Vol. 15 1967 Shakin' All Over (1989) - has left/right channels swapped
• Time-Life's Country USA Vol. 17 1967 (1990)
• Time-Life's Superhits Vol. 5 1967 (1991)
• Time-Life's AM Gold Vol. 8 1967 (1991)
• Heartland/Warner Special Products' 2-CD Hooked On A Feeling (1995) - left/right channels swapped
• Reader's Digest's multi-CD American Pie (1998)
• Time-Life's 2-CD Classic Country Vol. 7 Golden '60s (1998)
• Time-Life's 2-CD Treasury Of Folk Music Vol. 4 Folk Rock (1999)
• Time-Life's Spirit Of The '60s Singers And Songwriters (2000)
• Time-Life's 2-CD Singers And Songwriters Vol. 14 1964-1969 (2001)
• Time-Life's 2-CD Singers And Songwriters Vol. 20 The Folk Years Yesterday's Gone (2002)
• Time-Life's Classic Country Queens Of Country (2003)
• Time-Life's 2-CD Classic Country Vol. 26 Queens Of Country (2003)
• Ace UK's Chartbusters USA Vol. 3 (2003) - left/right channels swapped
• TM Century track no. 00003050

Time-Life certainly knew how to repackage.

An outlier that isn't based on any of the above masterings: Ode To Bobbie Gentry (2000, UK release) - sound is comparable to the Time-Life releases above, with very little reverb

My recommendations (Also edited Dec 2024)

For the mono 45 version, you'll need vinyl.

For the hit 1967 stereo mix, go with Rhino's Billboard Top Pop Hits 1967 (1995). As noted above, the version on The Girl From Chickasaw County The Complete Capitol Masters (Box Set) (2018) sounds nice, too.

For the non-hit "dry" stereo remix, you can grab any of the three 1990 Curb CDs.

Edited by crapfromthepast]]> Sat, 23 Nov 2024 22:01:00 +0000 https://top40musiconcd.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=9195&PID=65465&title=bobbie-gentry-ode-to-billie-joe#65465