Sly & The Family Stone-"Thank You..."

I just happened to be playing this song today off of my 2-CD "Essential" collection, and to me this CD version sounds musically "busier" to me than I recall from 1970, Extra horns and guitar licks appear to me to be present that I don't remember hearing in there back in the day, but I wonder if this could just simply be the result of a quality remastering job? Could someone with a better "ear" than I happen to possess please give this one a quick listen for me, and let me know what you think? Thanks.

The stereo mixes of "Thank You", "Everybody Is A Star" & "Hot Fun In The Summertime" were created by Bob Irwin & Vic Anisini.

Although they sound very good, surprisingly they emulated the instrument/vocal balance of the tracks on the quad 'Greatest Hits' LP (albiet in-phase) more than the sound of the mono-only 45s.

Although I am extremely grateful for Bob & Vic's stereo mixes, I would really enjoy hearing the sound of the 45s in true stereo ("Everybody Is A Star" is the closest of the three to the 45 sound).

Andy

Hi
Re:
Thank You
Hot Fun In The Summertime
Everybody Is A Star
Aside from the Quad mixes,
those stereo mixes actually pre-date "Essential" by quite a few years. Sly was in possession of his masters, so i heard.
They were passed around a little prior to cd issue, and i had heard them played for me, but i believe the first to make a commercial CD was "Thank You"...then the others surfaced on the Legacy series.

These were mixed just for mono at their time of their release, and I suppose when the albums were being assembled it was easier for them to re-channel the mono masters then to try to duplicate the mixes in stereo.

Now, each song has some small differences in the stereo that Andrew and Aaron refer to. I compared Thank You carefully and found that the tracks in the left and right channels in the stereo are at differing levels in the mono mix so at parts the horns and guitar are louder or lower depending where they are in the mono mix.
In "Hot Fun", the entire mix is basically the same, however the end chorus was edited differently for the mono, but they didn't do that for the stereo, they simply faded it as is.
The biggest differece however has always been the EQ! The mono mixes sounded "punchier" because they were more compressed and were rich in bass, making their stereo counterparts a little "wussy" by comparison. There was also more reverb added to the mono ones.

Earlier cd's sounded completely flat for these, at least Essential has some of the bass restored.
If interested, i created my own versions of "Thank You" and "Hot Fun" that more resemble the mono, with the added reverb restored, and the EQ more like the mono. I edited Hot Fun to have the 45 fade.

-MM

Jim reports that the actual and printed commercial 45 run time of Sly & the Family Stone's "Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)" is 4:47. The reason I post this is because database CD entries widely range from 4:38 to 4:50.

The 45 more resembles the rechanneled Stereo on Greatest Hits. Both LP and CD versions. The 45 is still the best version of all of them. And was available in mono to the end of the Memory Lane reissue singles. When the GH LP was compiled, Epic couldn't find the Stereo masters for the LP. When the Quad SQ LP was compiled, Sly found the masters at home so they were used.

Edited by KentT