McCoys - Fever

It's almost as if they were going for a gated drum effect on the stereo CD mix. :)

The 1995 "Fever" stereo mix also adds reverb to the vocals during the three breaks in the beat (Rick's "fever that's so hard to bear" at :25 and "know you're gonna treat me right" at :58, along with the group's "fever started 'long time ago" at 1:56.) On the mono 45, those breaks are all bone dry.

I still recall perusing the Best Of's liner notes while listening to the CD for the first time. It was, indeed, interesting to hear the hits in first-time stereo. But when I read that note about the tracks having "been mixed from the original multi-track tapes to possess the same mighty wallop and intensity of the original mono mixes," I literally burst out laughing. "Fever" and "Come On Let's Go", in particular, sounded even more eviscerated in remixed stereo than "Cara-Lin" had on Legacy's companion Strangeloves collection, which included that exact same wording. I'd have given both of those CDs a lot more spins over the years if those tracks had been left in mono.

Speaking of wallop and intensity (and that pseudo-gated drum effect): the McCoys' previous hit had been the first instance where I'd really noticed the effects of compression on the radio back in 1965. During the bass-and-drum break in "Hang On Sloopy," sometimes the drum beats over the radio sounded pretty much like they did when I'd play the 45, but at other times, there was a whole lot more compression that really sucked up the beats and made them practically leap out of the speaker. For the life of me, I wanted my Bang 45 to sound just like that! I'd find myself cranking up the radio whenever it would get to the "sweet spot" in anticipation of the magic payoff. Never could put a finger on whether it was on just one of the two local stations or not; the record was several weeks into its chart run by the time I really took notice.

Edited by Yah Shure

I could be wrong but I don't recall Bang Records EVER releasing the McCoys, The Strangeloves, or Derek in real stereo. So any stereo LP version would have been electronically re-channeled. The two track stereo might have been something sent over to Europe for mixing down to mono, then used in the CD era to create a CD stereo version, before the mulitracks were finally found in Eileen Burn's basement.

thanks, Andy. I have since obtained the version of Fever from my CD, and I
confirm it does not contain the clicks and it is mixed as you state. Yes, Bang
did release McCoys stereo on the two LPs "Hang On Sloopy" and "You Make
Me Feel So Good". Bill, I believe you are correct on no stereo rom Bang for
Strangeloves (one LP - mono only) nor Derek (first LP appearance on 1970
VA LP "Bang And Shout Super Hits" - electronic stereo).

To complicate matters, I have Fever from a mono tape source (acquired the track from an acquaintance, so I don't know the exact source) but it has the drumstick clicks and a bit of reverb on the vocals that Yah Shure noted, although that doesn't sound like anything more than studio echo.