Supremes - Where Did Our Love Go

I also believe I hear an extra handclap in the mono that is either not in or totally
mixed out of the stereo. It starts at 0:04.

Lunar, you are the first person to support my hearing that extra or mixed way
up handclap overdub. No-one else has. thank YOU!

It's not easy to spot in the mono as they mix in with the
'stomps'.

I agree about the Motown Year By Year mix.

Also, what Ron is calling the 1967 Greatest Hits mix I think actually debuted on the 1966 compilation LP The Motown Sound: A Collection of 16 Big Hits vol. 5. The 1983 digital mastering has a loud click in the fadeout, at 2:26.

The same mix appears on the following two CDs with no click, but mastered 1% slow, and with the very beginning not trimmed, so you hear a split-second of airy reverb on the left before anything else:

• Glory Days of Rock 'N' Roll: No. 1 Hits (2001)
• Body and Soul: Battle of the Groups: The Ladies (2006)

One feature of this mix is that at about 2:23 when the instruments drop out and you just hear the backing "baby baby", the claps (suspended boards being stomped on, actually) pan from left to right instead of just staying on the left. Then when the drums resume, they're very much like on the Motown Year By Year mix: loud and panned pretty hard to the right, with no echo in the left channel.

Revised to include more discs (I think I compared 58 of them!), and recommendations that have evolved a bit.

Mono version

There's only one mono mix. Thank goodness. (See below for details regarding the five different stereo mixes!)

In 1964, the hit was the 45 version, and the 45 was mono. (That's true of pretty much every hit in 1964.)

I see that the mono version appeared on CD on Motown's Supremes collection Every Great #1 Hit (1987), but I don't have this disc. It's one of the early Motown discs, mastered by John Matousek, so I'd be quite interested to hear what the mono 45 mix sounds in his hands. I'm surprised that an early Motown CD used the mono version, as most of those early Motown CDs used the stereo mixes.

I do have the mono version on Motown's 4-CD Diana Ross box set Forever Diana (1993). It sounds quite nice here, with seemingly low-generation source tapes, nice EQ, nice dynamic range, and no evidence on the fade of any added noise reduction. The same analog transfer is used on:

• Motown's Diana Ross collection The Ultimate Collection (1994)

There's another analog transfer on Motown's 2-CD Anthology (1995), which sounds about as good as Ultimate. The same analog transfer is used on:

• Motown's Supremes collection The Ultimate Collection (1997) - fades a second or two early, and seems severely compressed around -8 dB (!) Not sure what's happening here; avoid.
• Time-Life's 2-CD Classic Rhythm And Blues Collection Vol. 3 1964-1967 (2000) - also fades a second or two early, and seems severely compressed around -8 dB; avoid.
• Rhino's Millennium New Soul Party (2000)
• Rhino's Girl Group Greats (2001)
• Rhino's 4-CD Soul Spectacular! - The Greatest Soul Hits Of All Time (2002)

There's a new analog transfer on Hip-O's 3-CD Heaven Must Have Sent You The Holland/Dozier/Holland Story (2005). It sounds muddy here, and there's a 60 Hz hum. Not great.

There's a new analog transfer on Hip-O Select's Complete Motown Singles Vol. 4 1964 Disc 5 (2006). It's EQ'd with too much high end, making sound a little brittle. The tail of the fade is about 2 beats shorter than all of the above. Also not great. The same analog transfer is used on:

• Hip-O Select's 3-CD 50th Anniversary - The Singles Collection - 1961-1969 (2011)

Overall, I recommend Motown's 4-CD Diana Ross box set Forever Diana (1993) for the mono mix, although the Motown Supremes Anthology (1995, not the 1986 collection) also sounds great.

(I do wonder what the 1987 Every Great #1 Hit sounds like.)

Stereo

I know of five different stereo mixes for "Where Did Our Love Go".

Stereo 1964 Where Did Our Love Go LP mix

Starting at about 0:11, this mix has the claps in the left channel, and the drums in the left channel.

It showed up first on CD on a Motown Supremes collection called Compact Command Performances 20 Greatest Hits (1983), as part of Motown's first-ever CD releases. The same analog transfer is used on:

• Motown's 20 Greatest Songs In Motown History (1985) - digitally exactly 2 dB louder
• Motown's Composer Series The Greatest Songs Written By Holland Dozier Holland (1985) - digitally exactly 1.6 dB louder
• Motown's Good-Feeling Music Of The Big Chill Generation Vol. 1 (1985) - digitally exactly 2 dB louder before 0:40 and 1 dB louder after 0:40
• Motown Supremes Greatest Hits Vol. 1 And 2 (1986)
• Motown's Motown's Biggest Pop Hits (1986)
• Motown's Every Great Motown Song The First 25 Years (1986)
• Motown's Every Great Motown Song Vol. 1 The 1960's (1986)
• Motown's Motown's Biggest Pop Hits (1986)
• Original Sound's Oldies But Goodies Vol. 8 (1986) - adds noise reduction; avoid
• Motown's You Can't Hurry Love (1986)
• Motown's Motown 9000 Series (1987)
• Motown's 16 #1 Hits From The Early '60s (1987)
• Motown's Most Played Oldies On America's Jukeboxes (1987)
• Motown's Motown Dance Party Vol. 1 (1987)
• Motown's Radio's #1 Hits (1987)
• Time-Life's Classic Rock Vol. 9 1964 The Beat Goes On (1988) - left/right channels swapped; makes a very cool descending noise down around -40 dB at the end of the fade, but that's not part of the song
• PolyGram's PGD Presents Sound Savers Vol. 1 (1991)
• Time-Life's Rock And Roll The Legendary Years 1961-1964 (2004)

There's a different analog transfer on Rhino's Billboard Top R&B Hits 1964 (1989). The high end is boosted, but the sound is otherwise comparable to Compact Command Performances. The Rhino disc likely uses the same source tape as Compact Command Performances. The same analog transfer is used on:

• Time-Life's Rock 'N' Roll Era Vol. 10 1964 (RE-2 reissue, copyright 1987, unsure of release date)
• Time-Life's 2-CD Desert Island Classics (1990) - has left/right channels swapped
• Time-Life's Superhits Vol. 12 The Mid-'60s (1991)
• Time-Life's AM Gold Vol. 5 The Mid-'60s (1995)
• Time-Life's Classic Love Songs Of Rock 'N' Roll Vol. 4 (2003)

There are different analog transfers on:

• Warner Special Products' 2-CD Real Rock (1987) - sounds muddy; avoid
• Time-Life's Rock 'N' Roll Era Vol. 10 1964 (original release, 1987) - sounds muddy

I recommend Motown's Supremes collection Compact Command Performances 20 Greatest Hits (1983) for this mix.

Stereo 1967 Greatest Hits LP mix

Starting at about 0:11, this mix has the claps in the left channel, and the drums in the right channel. From 2:08 to 2:10, the claps migrate from the left channel to the right channel.

A YouTube video shows this version as being on the 1973 Anthology LP, with the silver cover.

I have two different analog transfers for this mix:

• Motown/Silver Eagle's 3-CD Motown 25th Anniversary (copyright 1983) - sounds awful
• Motown's 2-CD Supremes Anthology (1986)
• Motown's Collection Of 16 Big Hits Vol. 5 (1989) - uses same analog transfer as Anthology

I recommend Motown's 2-CD Supremes Anthology (1986) for this mix.

Stereo 1995 mix

There's a mix I can't identify on Motown's Motown Year By Year 1964 (1995). The same analog transfer is used on:

• Motown's Supremes Anthology (2001)

The initial claps have some low-frequency reverb on them. Starting at about 0:11, this mix has the claps in the left channel, and the drums in the right channel. From 2:08 to 2:10, the claps stay in the left channel.

The Year By Year discs are known for occasionally using previously unreleased mixes. This may be one of them. I recommend Motown's Motown Year By Year 1964 (1995) for this mix.

Stereo 1999 mix

There's another mix I can't identify on Motown's 20th Century Masters The Millennium Collection (1999). The same analog transfer is used on:

• Time-Life's 2-CD Glory Days Of Rock 'N' Roll Vol. 17 No. 1 Hits (2001)
• Time-Life's 2-CD Body And Soul Battle Of The Groups The Ladies (2006)

Starting at about 0:11, this mix has the claps in the left channel, and the drums in the right channel. From 2:08 to 2:10, the claps migrate from the left channel to the right channel. The description sorta matches the 1967 Greatest Hits LP mix, but the overall mix is much more laid-back than the GH mix. The drums are pulled back so that they're not WAY out in front like the GH mix.

I recommend Motown's 20th Century Masters The Millennium Collection (1999) for this mix.

Stereo 2003 The No. 1's album mix

Suha Gur remixed all the Supremes tracks on The No. 1's (but not the Diana Ross solo tracks). May as well get Motown's Supremes No. 1's (2003) for this mix.

German version

I'm not sure when the Supremes rerecorded their tracks in German.

It's on Motown Around The World (1987), in a reasonably gentle EQ-based fake stereo, and running 2:32. It sounds fine here, with a terrific dynamic range. (Thanks, mastering engineer John Matousek.)

It's also on Motown's 50th Anniversary The Singles Collection 1961-1969 (2011), in mono, and running longer at 2:38. But it sounds awful, with muddy-sounding source tapes and extreme added compression/limiting.

Edited by crapfromthepast