crapfromthepast
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Joined: 14 September 2006
Location: United States
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Posts: 2255
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| Posted: 08 January 2025 at 10:10pm | IP Logged
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The song was mixed only to mono when it was a hit in 1966.
I have this song on a total of 47 CDs, more or less. I will now perform the thoroughly unnecessary task of tracing the mastering history on CD.
1984
The song appears on Motown's very early CD More Songs From The Original Soundtrack Of The Big Chill (1984). It runs 2:49 here. Overall, a valiant first effort at getting the song into the digital world. On the plus side: nice EQ, plenty of headroom, no added compression/limiting, and no evidence of added noise reduction on the fade (not that such NR existed in 1984). On the downside: The mono tape was played on a stereo-head deck, and the left and right channels go slightly in-and-out of phase every few seconds. (We can fix this by using just the left channel or just the right channel of the audio.) Plus, there's a tape dropout at 2:42.
The same analog transfer is used on the following CDs:- Atlantic's Percy Sledge anthology The Ultimate Collection - When A Man Loves A Woman (1987)
- Time-Life's Classic Rock Vol. 2 1966 (1987, original release) - muddy sound; avoid
- Time-Life's Classic Rock Vol. 2 1966 (1987, RE-1 reissue) - sound much improved over original release
- Time-Life's 2-CD Tonight's The Night (1989)
- Time-Life's Rhythm And Blues Vol. 1 1966 (RE-1 reissue; not sure if a non-RE-1 exists; 1990)
- Time-Life's Solid Gold Soul Vol. 1 1966 (1990)
- Time-Life's Superhits Vol. 1 1966 (1990)
- Time-Life's 2-CD Desert Island Classics (1990)
- Atlantic's 8-CD Atlantic Rhythm And Blues 1947-1974 (1991 reissue, not 1985 original)
- Time-Life's 25 Years Of #1 Hits (1991)
- PolyGram's promo PGD Presents Great Sounds Vol. 2 (1992)
- Time-Life's AM Gold Vol. 9 1966 (1995)
- Heartland/Warner Special Products' 2-CD Hooked On A Feeling (1995)
- JCI's 18 Soulful Ballads (1996)
- Simitar's Number Ones: Hot In The '60s (1998)
- Time-Life's 2-CD Classic Rhythm And Blues Collection Vol. 3 1964-1967 (2000)
1985
There's a new analog transfer on Atlantic's 7-CD Atlantic Rhythm And Blues 1947-1974 (1985 original release). It runs 2:50. The first few seconds are very muddy-sounding, with a loss of most of the high end. It seems that there's a little tape drag in the first half of the song, too, when speed-corrected and matched with the Motown mastering above. The same analog transfer is used on:- Warner Special Products' Atlantic Soul Classics (1985) - adds fake stereo effect, because the early compilations just couldn't use mono; avoid for this track
- Atlantic's Golden Age Of Black Music 1960-1970 (1988)
Late 1980s
There are a handful of mail-order compilations that received their tracks on analog reel-to-reel tape, and, as a result, don't sound very good. Avoid these:- Silver Eagle/Warner Special Products' Summer Love (1987)
- Silver Eagle/Warner Special Products' 2-CD Heart And Soul Of The Sixties (1989)
- Sessions/Warner Special Procuts' 2-CD Everlasting Love (1989) - fake stereo
1992
There's a new analog transfer on Rhino's It Tears Me Up (The Best Of Percy Sledge) (1992). It runs 2:50. It's an improvement over the earlier masterings. It's in true mono here, with both channels being the same audio, and not a mono tape played on a stereo tape head. It seems to be free from the tape drag that's on the 1985 Atlantic set. There's no dropout at 2:42. The same analog transfer is used on:- Rhino's promo Rhino Atlantic Remasters Collection CD Sampler (1992, PRO2 90127)
- Rhino's Billboard Top R&R Hits 1966 (1993 reissue; this song replaces "You Can't Hurry Love from the 1988 original release)
- Rhino Special Edition's cheapie Soul Hits Vol. 3 (1993)
- Time-Life's 2-CD Body Talk (1994)
- Time-Life's Body Talk Vol. 3 Moonlit Nights (1996; both the 1-CD and 2-CD versions)
- Time-Life's 2-CD Body And Soul Vol. 28 Wedding Songs (2003)
- Time-Life's 2-CD Classic Soul Ballads Nite And Day (2004)
- Time-Life's Ultimate Love Songs Collection When A Man Loves A Woman (2004)
1994
There's a new analog transfer on Rhino's 6-CD The R&B Box - 30 Years Of Rhythm & Blues (1994). It runs 2:54, which is about 5 beats longer than everything listed above. It sounds comparable to the 1992 mastering, but it has tape drag issues similar to the 1985 Atlantic set. The first half of the song seems to run a little slow. The same analog transfer is used on:- Rhino's promo R&B Box Sampler (1994, PRCD 7090)
- Rhino's promo Rock The Dome (1994; PRCD 7101)
- Time-Life's Heart Of Rock 'N' Roll Vol. 20 1965-1966 (1997, RE-1)
- Rhino's Smooth Grooves Vol. 2 The '60s (1997)
- Rhino's Atlantic Ultimate '60s Soul Smashes (1998)
- Time-Life's Solid Gold Soul Vol. 27 Deep Soul (1999)
1998
There's a new analog transfer on Rhino's The Very Best Of Percy Sledge (1998). It runs 2:54. It's a definite improvement on the R&B Box, in that it doesn't have the tape drag issue and the first few seconds of the song sound much cleaner than everything listed above. The second half of the song pretty much sounds just like R&B Box, including the same fade points. The same analog transfer is used on:- Varese Sarabande's Dick Bartley Rock And Roll's Greatest Love Songs (1999)
- Rhino's Millennium New Soul Party (2000)
My recommendations
I prefer Rhino's The Very Best Of Percy Sledge (1998).
If you'd prefer a multi-artist compilation, may as well go for the Rhino's inexpensive Millennium New Soul Party (2000).
These two discs have a nice, crisp first half of the song with no tape drag, and play longer than all of the pre-1994 releases.
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Topic: Percy Sledge - When A Man Loves A Woman
