Blondie - Dreaming

"Dreaming" was the leadoff single from Blondie's 1979 album Eat To The Beat. It peaked at #27 in the US, but fared much better in the UK, where it peaked at #2.

Mark M noticed that the 45 is a different mix from the LP. It's not a drastic difference; nobody else noticed in the 41 years since the song came out! The big difference: the 45 is mixed much narrower than the LP; it's almost mono. One tangible difference: At 2:32, there's a single guitar note that slides up an octave, right before the word "dreaming". In the LP mix, it's hard-panned to the right channel. In the 45 mix, it's centered.

LP mix

I have the LP mix on three different CDs with three different analog transfers, all of which sound fine (excellent dynamic range, reasonable EQ, no evidence of noise reduction, and no truncation of the fade):

• Chrysalis's Eat To The Beat (copyright 1979)
• Chrysalis's US Best Of Blondie (copyright 1981)
• Chrysalis's UK Best Of Blondie (copyright 1983)

There's a little more hiss on the US Best Of than on Eat To The Beat, and still more hiss on the UK Best Of, but it doesn't really affect sound quality to my ears. Any of these three will work just fine for you for the LP mix.

Time-Life's Sounds Of The Seventies Vol. 34 Late '70s (1993) uses the same analog transfer as the US Best Of, but swaps the left and right channels, and shortens the tail of the fade by five seconds. Avoid.

45 mix

I have the 45 mix on Chrysalis's Platinum Collection (1994), where it's mastered loudly and clips a bit in the loud portions. It also shortens the tail of the fade by a second or two; the true 45 extends out to the same length as the LP.   On the plus side, it sounds like it uses very low-generation source tapes, has a clear (but not exactly warm) EQ, doesn't show any added compression/limiting, and has no evidence of noise reduction. This mastering is likely as good as it's going to get for the 45 mix.

EMI Music Special Markets's Ten Best Series Best Of (1999) is a digital clone of Platinum Collection, which is digitally identical in the right channel and has dithering noise at -90 dB in the left channel (insignificant).