Byrds Turn Turn Turn / Mr. Tambourine Man

For "Mr. Tambourine Man":

Hit 1965 mono mix

It's the hit.

The mono version first appeared on CD on Columbia's Byrds collection The Original Singles 1965-1967 Volume 1 (1987). This CD is not exactly a sonic masterpiece, and is best avoided if possible. It seems to use extremely high-generation source tapes (maybe from a C-120 cassette). The same analog transfer is used on:

• Entertainment Weekly's 35 Years Of Rock And Roll (1992)
• TM Century track no. 00006238

Rhino did a new analog transfer for Billboard Top Rock 'N' Roll Hits 1965 (1989). It sounds significantly better here than on Original Singles. The same analog transfer is used on:

• Time-Life's 25 Years Of #1 Hits (1991)
• Time-Life's History Of Rock 'N' Roll Vol. 2 Folk Rock 1964-1967 (1993)

I have one outlier, which isn't based on any of the above masterings and falls sonically between Original Singles and the Rhino disc:

• Sony's Forever Rock Vol. 2 (1996)

The song wasn't mixed to stereo in 1965, but if you want the song in stereo...

Narrow stereo mix (I previously misidentified this as the narrow stereo mix from Never Before, then misidentified it as a fake stereo mix.)

This first appeared on the vinyl stereo Mr. Tambourine Man LP from 1965.

The opening guitar starts panned slightly left. The vocals are panned slightly right. The instruments are really panned, so it's a true stereo mix, although an absurdly narrow stereo mix. (I no longer believe that it's fake stereo. In an out-of-phase-stereo test, with a little volume adjustment, you can get individual instruments and the vocals to (mostly) cancel. The source tape must have been in rough shape.)

I believe that this version first appeared on CD on Time-Life's Classic Rock Vol. 1 1965 (1987); it existed in 1987, and Columbia would have sent the mix to Time-Life on reel-to-reel tape. It sounds pretty terrible, as if it's (surprise) from a high-generation source tape. The same analog transfer is used on:

• JCI's Only Rock And Roll 1965-1969 (1994)

The same source tape for Classic Rock appears to be used for Columbia's Pop Classics Of The '60s (1989), which sounds significantly better and runs out to about the same length as Classic Rock. The same analog transfer is used on:

• Columbia/K-Tel's Seems Like Yesterday Vol. 5 (1990)
• Time-Life's 2-CD Singers And Songwriters Vol. 20 The Folk Years Yesterday's Gone (2002)

Non-hit 1987 stereo mix (I previously misidentified this as being remixed specifically for the 1990 box set. It wasn't.)

Lawrence Wendelken and Jim Dickson remixed the song in 1987 for Re-Flyte Records' LP/cassette release Never Before (1987), which appeared on CD on Murray Hill Records in 1989.

Overall, it sounds smoother than the mono or narrow stereo mixes, with the hi-hat mostly drowning out the tamborine. It runs a teeny bit faster than the narrow stereo mix on Pop Classics.

Vic Anesini and Tim Geelan did a new analog transfer (but not a new mix) of the song in 1990 for Columbia/Legacy's 4-CD box set The Byrds (1990, US catalog number 46773). It has a more full EQ on the box set, but the sound quality is comparable to Never Before. The same analog transfer is used on:

• Realm Canada's Greatest Hits Of The '60s Vol. 1 (1995)
• Time-Life's Treasury Of Folk Music Vol. 4 Folk Rock (1999)
• Ace UK's Chartbusters USA Vol. 2 (2002)
• TM Century track no. 00001289
• TM Century track no. 00008212

Non-hit 1992 stereo mix

Vic Anesini and Tim Geelan remixed the song in 1992 for Columbia/Legacy's 20 Essential Tracks From The Boxed Set 1965-1990 (1992). The opening guitar part in the first four or five seconds is entirely in the right channel, with nothing at all in the left channel. The entire song is in wide stereo, with the drums entirely in the right channel, and so forth. It runs about 2:29, about 12 seconds longer than any other version.

The same analog transfer is used on:

• Sony's full Mr. Tambourine Man album (1996 rerelease)
• Sony's Advanced Music promo (1996)
• Sony's 2-CD Rock The Train Kept A Rollin' (1999) - fades 17 beats early; avoid for this track
• Time-Life's AM Gold Vol. 33 The '60s Generation (2001)
• Time-Life's 2-CD Singers And Songwriters Vol. 6 1960s (2001)
• Time-Life's Legends For Your Love (2004)
• Time-Life's 2-CD Flower Power Age Of Aquarius (2007)
• Time-Life's AM Gold Kind Of A Drag (2021)

Non-hit early recordings (demos mixed after-the-fact)

There are a few different mixes out there, including:

• In The Beginning (1988)
• Preflyte Sessions (2001)
• one called Preflyte, which seems to be a different recording than the above two

My recommendations

For the hit mono version, go with Rhino's Billboard Top Rock 'N' Roll Hits 1965 (1989, runs 2:17).
For the (1965-era) hit narrow stereo mix, go with Columbia's Pop Classics Of The '60s (1989, runs 2:17).
For the 1987 narrow stereo mix, go with Columbia/Legacy's 4-CD box set The Byrds (1990, US catalog number 46773, runs 2:16).
For the 1992 wide stereo mix, go with Columbia/Legacy's 20 Essential Tracks From The Boxed Set 1965-1990 (1992,runs 2:29).

For the early demo recordings, take your pick.

Edited by crapfromthepast

The wide stereo version of "Turn! Turn! Turn!" is on the Forrest Gump soundtrack. The vocals are in the left channel only, while the instruments are panned slightly to the right.

p.s. There are also narrow stereo and wide stereo mixes of Scott McKenzie's "San FranciscO". The narrow stereo version has some tape dropouts and sounds pretty terrible, while the wide stereo version sounds fantastic. (I have it on "California Pop 1963-1967".)

Well, nuts.

Thanks to Mike (mjb50), I can confirm that Never Before includes the same version that's on the 1990 box set. I prefer the EQ on the 1990 box set, but otherwise they're pretty close in sound quality.

I revised my post above to show the most up-to-date info. Thanks for all the help, everybody!

Edited by crapfromthepast

Thanks for the help, Mike! I always appreciate the help getting the details right.

In "Turn!...", like around 1:30, I hear the tambourine sometimes in the center, sometimes on the right. I'm inclined to think this has to be accidental, which makes me think all of it must be.

My interpretation of the comments in that SH forum thread is that everyone is still just speculating.

It's weird. The stereo effect is too subtle for me to confidently say it's process stereo (fake, rechanneled, whatever you want to call it). It doesn't have the distinctive out-of-phase sound you would expect.

They almost certainly aren't dedicated stereo mixes, or else they'd sound more like the rest of the albums. And if it were intentional, you'd think it would be a more dramatic effect. So I lean toward the idea of it being accidental stereo, a result of hardware glitches, quirks of those songs' master tapes, and/or inconsistent frequency response in the mixing & mastering.

On the other hand, it seems hard to believe Columbia engineers would have wanted it this way. It also might be "not intentional, but intentionally not fixed".

Who knows!