Johnny Tillotson - Out Of My Mind

Was just sent a stereo version of this one! Don't know how I missed it - I
had only the mono from 1995 CD "Poetry In Motion Best Of", and, being a
single-only issue, I guess I assumed no stereo 29 years ago. And if there
was any discussion on it being issued in stereo later, I missed it nor can I
find it.

Further, I see that it it was issued on 1977 Barnaby LP "Greatest" (Barnaby
being where many of the Cadence tapes went). No idea if it was stereo
there.

https://www.discogs.com/release/9098187-Johnny-Tillotson-Joh nny-
Tillotson-Greatest

At any rate, the version from 2001 CD "25 All-Time Greatest Hits" is stereo,
however it sounds rather rough, like it's from vinyl. Pat doesn't mention that
in the database. Anyone else with that CD think it's from vinyl. or just a very
noisy tape...

There has never been a question about Johnny Tillotson
stereo. Varese did a 12 track single CD before the 25
cut CD. Marty Wekser did the remastering because it was
before I was doing remastering for them. But Cary
Mansfield and I compiled the CD and produced it. Marty
got me a "test" CD after he did it the first time. He and
I both noticed that "Out Of My Mind" was not nearly as
good as all the other tracks but it was definitely off
tape and Marty said the only master they had. If a disc
dub had been done it would have been me doing it. I have
a version of "Out Of My Mind" from a vinyl LP of Johnny
Tillotson that included a piano intro to the song. On the
Bear Family outakes CD there is a version without strings
that also does not include the piano. There are two cuts
from the Johnny Tillotson "Best" stereo LP that have
never shown up anywhere else in stereo, "Princess,
Princess" and "Much Beyond Compare." I transferred and
cleaned them both up from my LP. There is even a CD
version of that "Greatest Hits" CD with the same cover
and same track listing but those two songs are mono. The
Cadence tapes for the most part were in excellent shape.
As a matter of fact I did a Julius LaRosa for Varese and
everything was off tape, 7' reels but in remarkably good
shape. I don't know if anyone else has noticed but
Archie Bleyer had the tendency to make the the first LP
from his artists as a "Greatest Hits" LP. He did it
Johnny Tillotson of course, and with Andy Williams and
Lenny Welch but I am not sure about the Everly Brothers.
By the way Richard Weize did a two disc Johnny Tillotson
CD on Bear Family called "Out Takes" which has nothing
but alternate takes of all of Johnny's stuff.

Thank you Santi. Yes it is and I am very happy to be here
knowing you are here too. After Andy Balogh died you
certainly jumped right in a did a great job.

Dave, I don't see a link to a Johnny Tillotson LP. That
LP as did all the other Cadence Hits LPs had a different
kind of texture to them. But "Out Of My Mind" is not on
that LP. If I remember correctly all songs are stereo
except "Dreamy Eyes" and "Without You" which have never
been stereo. I read an article once that said "Dreamy
Eyes" was recorded in New York when Cadence was still
based there but all his other song were done in Nashville
as Archie Bleyer moved the label there in 1958 I think.
Link to CD reissue of the exact "Greatest Hits" LP.
https://static.qobuz.com/images/covers/9a/6u/gwv9kv3td6u9
a_600.jpg

You're right Dave that first Johnny Tillotson CD on
Varese was 17 tracks. By the way Cary Mansfield put
Johnny on the phone with me on time Johnny was in Cary's
office because Johnny wanted to thank me for my work on
his CD. I asked him at the time why "Without You" had
never been stereo. I told him my thougth was because
there was his recitation in the middle of the song and
that was probably done as an overdub later and Johnny
said that was exactly the case. By the way in my brief
conversation with him he was one of the nicest artists I
dealt with. He and Cary Mansfield became good friend and
Johnny would drop by Cary's office from time to time just
to sit and talk to him. Varese also put out his Christmas
LP on CD. I believe he owned his Cadence masters.

Dave, I'm not familiar with that album so I don't know if
"Out Of My Mind" was stereo or not although I tend to
think it was. Columbia had a label in the late 70s or
early 80s called 51 West, which was Columbia's address in
NYC. They mostly were releasing things from Scepter and
Musicor, things that had been on Springboard.
Springboard owed Columbia money for manufacturing so
Columbia took over the Springboard label which was
releasing mostly the Scepter and Musicor product. I
think the Springboard label was purchased by Moe Lytle of
Gusto/Starday so he got control of those label. Meanwhile
I had a Greatest Hits" LP by Johnny Tillotson on 51 West.
I just looked up 51 West but the Johnny Tillotson album
is not listed there but I know I had it. Anyway "Out Of
My Mind" on that album was stereo but had a piano intro
to it. I'm guessing the intro was used for recording
purposes since the song has a cold beginning but I don't
know for sure the reason it had that intro. But that is
the only place I ever found that song with that intro. Of
course I don't have the album anymore but I know I am
right about the piano intro because I always loved that
song so it immediately stood out to me that it had that
intro. I wish I would have thought of that when I talked
to Johnny. But because "Out Of My Mind" was stereo on
that album I think it probably was on that Janus album
you found on Discogs. I think one of the amazing things
is that the Cadence tapes survived as well as they did.
When you see all the things Bear Family had on their two
CD "Outtakes" obviously those multi tracks survived and I
told you about the Julius LaRosa tapes. I'm trying to
remember if Taragon's Lenny Welch had any studio talk.
But look at all the Everly Brothers tapes that exist.
Isn't there a whole CD of just their outtakes? I forget
the label but there were I think two CDs of Everly's
outtakes. It was never confirmed but that label was
actually a label Richard Weize had after Bear Family. It
was really a bootleg label. But what Weize did and it is
documented was copy complete reels of a tape when he was
releasing certain artists so that's where the Everly's
stuff came from and that same label had complete CDs of
outtakes by Neil Sedaka and Rick Nelson, both artists
Weize had box sets on Bear Family as of course the
Everly's did too.


Edited by OldiesLover