cascades rhythm of the rain

I was surprised to discover a three-second speed difference between my Valiant 6026 DJ and stock 45s. Actual times are (2:32) for the promo 45 and (2:29) for the stock. The pitch differences are rather noticeable. So are the differences in the sound quality: the DJ 45 runs circles around the stock copy; the drumming is crisp and energetic on the promo, but sounds less distinguished on the stock.

Why the differences? The promo is a vinyl RCA Hollywood pressing, mastered outside of RCA, while the stock is a styrene Columbia Terre Haute animal, mastered in-house by Columbia. One would normally expect a Columbia mastering to be louder (and indeed, it takes up more of the available playing area than the promo does) but in this case, it's the RCA pressing that is actually louder.

Interestingly, there's a similar discrepancy between the promo and stock copies of Valiant's other 1963 top 30 hit, Barry & The Tamerlanes' "I Wonder What She's Doing Tonight" (#6034). This Columbia Terre Haute styrene stock also runs faster than its RCA Hollywood vinyl promo counterpart, although ever-so-slightly so. But the sound quality differences mirror those between the "Rhythm Of The Rain" DJ and stock 45.