For the search engine: Merrilee Rush And The Turnabouts - Angel Of The Morning. A brilliant record from 1968.
The 45 was in mono. The promo LP was in mono, and was the same mix as the 45. There song was never mixed to true stereo. The stereo LP was likely the fake stereo version that appears on some CDs, with un-subtle stereo reverb that sounds awful in headphones.
Mono (45 and mono promo LP version)
The song fades to silence at 3:09, immediately after the word "baby". The mastering history is best summarized by just listing the discs in chronological order.
Rhino's Dick Bartley Presents One Hit Wonders Of The '60s Vol. 2 (1990) is just about perfect for this song. Great source tapes, nice EQ, nice dynamic range, a fade that runs out to the end of the song, and no loss of high end on the fade (i.e., no evidence of added noise reduction). It runs 3:09 here.
Good Music Record Company's 2-CD Rare Gold (1990) sounds like a higher-generation tape source than the Dick Bartley CD. The left channel is a bit louder than the right. On the plus side, it does run out to the end of the song.
Time-Life's Superhits Vol. 2 1968 (1990) shortens the tail of the fade by about 1 beat, compared to the Dick Bartley CD.
Time-Life's Classic Rock Vol. 27 1968 Blowin' Your Mind (1991) shortens the tail of the fade by about 2 beats, compared to the Dick Bartley CD.
Time-Life's AM Gold Vol. 4 1968 (1995) is a repackaged version of Superhits, and also shortens the tail of the fade by about 1 beat, compared to the Dick Bartley CD.
Varese Sarabande's Sunshine Days Pop Classics Of The '60s Vol. 5 (1998) is mastered a little loud, so it clips in the loud portions of the song. Too bad, because it otherwise sounds about as good as the Dick Bartley CD.
There are a bunch of later Time-Life compilations that likely use one of the above masterings.
Fake stereo ("Stereo" LP version)
It turned up first on Priority's Best Of 60s Mellow (1987), which sounds pretty terrible. It sounds like the fade is truncated slightly, and there's added noise reduction. Avoid.
It sounds better on BMG Special Products' 3-CD Sixties Classics (2001), which appears to be from decent source tapes, has reasonable EQ and decent dynamic range, and doesn't seem to have any added noise reduction. But I find this mix to be brutal to actually listen to; I'm no fan of fake stereo.
There are a handful of BMG Special Products compilations that all use the fake stereo version. I would assume that all are based on the same mastering.
My recommendation
If you're going to actually listen to the song, go with Rhino's Dick Bartley Presents One Hit Wonders Of The '60s Vol. 2 (1990).
Any of the BMG compilations will work fine if you want the fake stereo version.
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