"Puff (the Magic Dragon)" - P,P&M

In a recent e-mail conversation, David Clark and I were discussing "Puff (the Magic Dragon)" by Peter, Paul & Mary and he brought to my attention that the version on the Best of/10 Years Together CD (Warner Brothers 3105) contains reverb and echo (it's most noticable in the vocals), yet the new PP&M Very Best of disc on Rhino 73161 does not. I did an A/B comparison between the two and also found that: 1) the stereo channels are reversed, and 2) Peter Yarrow and Mary Travers' background vocals are mixed much more "up front" on the Rhino CD than on the Warner Bros. disc.

Does anyone have a commercial 45 copy and/or the original LP version of "Puff" who can describe for us which mixes appear on each?

When they first issued the PPM albums on CD in the late 80s, Peter Yarrow decided to go back to the multi-tracks and remix the early albums.

In this remixing, it's clear that they added alot of digital reverb. In fact, for simple 3 track recordings, the changes from the original mixes are pretty shocking (The Cruel War barely even sounds like the same recording). The differences are most pronounced on the PPM debut album and their second album, Moving, which contained Puff The Magic Dragon. Indeed, the remix of Puff reversed the channels and added a significant amount of digital reverb.

The CD issue of 10 Years Together used these remixes.

The Carry It On box set and the recent Very Best Of on Rhino are the first time the original mixes have been issued on CD. So, Puff is in its original stereo mix, which is very similar sonically to the mono mix.

My commercial 45, confirmed as WB 5348 with machine-stamped deadwax info of "E 12960-1A", has a listed time of (3:20), but an actual time of (3:24).