Box Tops - The Letter

Stereo

The first appearance on CD is on Warner Special Products' The Ultimate Box Tops (1987). The EQ is really bass-heavy. The same analog transfer is used on:

• Time-Life's Classic Rock Vol. 5 1967 (1988)
• JCI's Only Rock And Roll 1965-1969 (1994)
• Starland/Warner Special Products' 2-CD 40 Party Classics (1996)
• Time-Life's 2-CD Summer Of Love The Hits Of 1967 (2007) - mastered far too loud and clips in the loud passages

There's a new analog transfer on Rhino's Billboard Top Rock 'N' Roll Hits 1967 (1989). I think it's an improvement over Ultimate. In addition to being a little clearer, the fade starts later than Ultimate and the tail of the fade extends 5 beats longer than Ultimate. The same analog transfer is used on:

• Time-Life's 25 Years Of #1 Hits (1991)
• Rhino's Billboard Top Rock 'N' Roll Hits 1967 (1993, RE-1 reissue) - digitally identical

Finally, there's a new analog transfer on Arista's Best Of...Soul Deep (1996). This collection is compiled by Bob Irwin and mastered by Kip Smith and Bob Irwin. It sounds like they got some stellar source tapes. The stereo separation is wider than everything that came before, and the length is about the same as Billboard. Overall, a superb package. The same analog transfer is used on:

• Simitar's Number Ones The '60s (1998)
• Sundazed's The Letter / Neon Rainbow (2000) - the lone horn toot in the right channel at 1:33 is boosted; nice touch, going into the airplane sound at the end
• Time-Life's Spirit Of The '60s Garage Kings (2001)
• Ace UK's Chartbusters USA Vol. 3 (2003)
• Time-Life's 2-CD AM Gold Kind Of A Drag (2021)

Mono

The oldest CD with the song is Priority's Best Of 60s Rock (1986), which sounds like fake stereo, with added noise reduction that sounds weird on the fade. It's bad. I'll ignore it, even though it extends about 6 beats longer than all the discs listed below.

The first CD with the song in proper mono is Varese Sarabande's Dick Bartley On The Radio Vol. 1 (1997). It sounds great here. Excellent dynamic range, nice EQ, seemingly low-generation source tape, no evidence of added noise reduction on the fade. The same analog transfer is used on:

Rhino's Millennium Sixties Rock Party (1999)

There's another analog transfer on Sundazed's The Letter / Neon Rainbow (2000), which sounds nearly identical to the Dick Bartley disc. The same analog transfer is used on:

• Varese Sarabande's Totally Oldies Vol. 4 (2002)
• Bell/Arista/Legacy's Playlist The Very Best Of The Box Tops (2013)

My recommendations

For the mono version, you can get Varese Sarabande's Dick Bartley On The Radio Vol. 1 (1997).

For the stereo version, you can get Arista's Best Of...Soul Deep (1996).

Or, if you don't mind springing for the full 1967 album, you can get both on Sundazed's The Letter / Neon Rainbow (2000). Bob Irwin and Co. put out an outstanding reissue with this one. (If you're really motivated to tweak the sound, you can resynchronize the left and right channels by 3 samples, which will center the lead vocals perfectly. The Arista disc doesn't need any tweaking.)

Edited by crapfromthepast