Rascals - The Complete Singles A’s & B’s

Mike, you're more than welcome.

maciav wrote: 1. Does the same apply for the Stereo-33 singles that were released between 1959 and 1964? Did they also have a mono counterpart that was always released commercially?

Someone else can probably answer that one, since I never had any compact 33s. I can't imagine many retailers would have been thrilled with the idea of stocking four different formats for the same hit single, and even the two main labels issuing compact 33s (Columbia and RCA) weren't releasing every single on 7-inch 33s.

maciav wrote: 2.But anyway, is this version in mono? At times it sounds mono to me, and at times it sounds stereo: http://www.45cat.com/record/c1045

Mike, that BigBadBluesMan clip is in true stereo, warts and all. Funny you should mention the Fabian/Avalon The Hit Makers album on Chancellor 5009, because that was the very first rock and roll LP in our household (my sister asked Santa for it; the cover still looks new; the record... not so much.) It's true that it was only issued in mono, and I can confirm that it is, indeed, just that. If Jasmine stated that "Why" was taken from that LP, it most certainly would be a mono needledrop... *if* they're being accurate about its source. It's hard to tell with those public domain outfits.

It isn't hard to tell the difference between mono and stereo on this song; you can pick out specific instruments in the left and right channels, with Frankie's voice equally balanced between both channels. A true mono source would have everything - vocals and instruments - distributed equally between left and right channels. Only the surface noise, clicks and pops, would sound like they're coming more from one channel or the other, assuming both channels haven't been summed together from a mono vinyl record.

For example, on the stereo "Why" clip, the bells during the intro are coming from the left channel. In true mono, they'd be coming equally from left and right. BigBadBluesMan didn't help to clarify things: that clip's audio *is* from a stereo 45, but it shows a picture sleeve and the mono 45. There's another youtube clip showing the mono Chancellor 45 label, but the audio is true stereo. An American Bandstand clip has Frankie gamely lip-syncing in mono, but the screaming teens are a bit of a distraction.

maciav wrote: Why do so many compact disc releases only have the stereo versions available of certain songs, or make it nearly impossible to find them in their mono versions?

Customer expectations, mostly. Given a choice between mono and stereo, most people will want stereo. They've been conditioned to hearing their favorite songs in stereo for decades. Some mono master tapes have been lost or destroyed over the years, some have been damaged, while still others have been sitting in tape vaults, untouched for decades, either because they've been forgotten or that stereo-is-always-better mantra has left them in the dust, so to speak.

I don't think it's that manufacturers don't care about mono, it's just that they cater to wherever they perceive the demand to be, and, aside from the Beatles and other big names, that's likely to be stereo. Sometimes, it's a matter of what the labels owning the masters do or don't deliver. Look at what happened with Varese, and their planned mono Buckinghams singles collection CD: Sony dropped the ball and gave them only stereo, when they'd specifically requested mono. Who knows whether it was because Sony didn't have tape archivists familiar with the mono masters, or because those masters are gone or misplaced, or that someone just didn't want to take the time to dig for the proper tapes?

As you can see, there really is no one-size-fits-all answer as to why so much mono has gone AWOL over the last couple of decades.

I agree with you about "The Battle Of New Orleans": those cannons have all the impact of a peashooter on the stereo mix. If you're gonna have a battle, you've gotta have more bass! ;)
    

Edited by Yah Shure

One thing I have noticed in recent years is the trend of releasing the mono versions of many 1960s hits, especially those with dedicated mono mixes. Hopefully most, if not all, will eventually see the light of day.