the 5 stairsteps - "o-o-h child"

there seems to be some discrepancy between the b-side of "o-o-h child"... whitburn lists the b-side as "dear prudence" which made it on its own to #49 on BB Hot 100... however, my 45, Buddah 165, has "who do you belong to" as the flip... can anybody shed some light on this?
thanks...
by the way, just for clarification, the 45 lists the group as "The 5 Stairsteps" with the number rather than the spelling of "Five"...

Sorry, can't help much with this one. I remember Dear Prudence on the B side, but that's all, and I don't have the 45.

GM

Andy, I have ONLY ever seen "O-o-h Child" b/w "Dear Prudence"! And you and I only live three hours away; you'd think we'd have had similar 1970 distribution channels!

yes, the album is called simply, "Stairsteps", but the label says "The 5 Stairsteps"... this group seems to have a bit of a confusing, although interesting, history:
1966 - 1967: The Five Stairsteps
1967 - 1969: Five Stairsteps & Cubie (5 year old brother?)
1970 - The 5 Stairsteps
1971 - The Stairsteps
1980 - The Invisible Man's Band
Also, of their 16 charting singles, only one hit the top 40 and that was of course "o-o-h child" i do not remember much airplay in upstate NY, although i imagine that they were chart-busters in and around chicago...
good call by Gary Mack, as "Dear Prudence" hit the charts first as the a-side in 3/70, while "o-o-h" hit the charts as the a-side in 5/70... all three songs are on the lp "stairsteps" alluded to above...

(Post edited to include much more detail.)

Stereo LP version (printed 3:17, actual 3:14)

I assume that the Stairsteps LP was the only place to find the song in stereo. The commercial 45 was in mono, and the various promo 45s listed on Discogs don't show a stereo/mono configuration.

The oldest CD that I have with the stereo LP version is Rhino's Didn't It Blow Your Mind Vol. 2 (1991), where it runs 3:14 and sounds excellent. Great dynamic range, nice EQ, seemingly low-generation source tape, and no evidence of noise reduction on the fade. The last words I hear on the tail of the fade are: "Right now/Gonna get better." The same analog transfer is used on:

• Razor & Tie's 2-CD Sweet '70s Soul (1991) - severely blunts high end and fades about two beats earlier
• Rhino's cheapie Seventies Smash Hits Vol. 2 (1993)
• Time-Life's Solid Gold Soul Vol. 5 1970 (1996) - tail of fade is about two beats shorter
• Razor & Tie's 2-CD Suddenly '70s (1997) - severely blunts high end and fades about two beats earlier
• Varese Sarabande's Dick Bartley On The Radio Vol. 5 (1998) - tail of fade is about half a beat shorter
• Rhino's multi-CD Have A Nice Decade (1998)
• Time-Life's 2-CD Seventies Music Explosion One-Hit Wonders (2005) - tail of fade is about two beats shorter

There's another analog transfer on JCI's Only Rock 'N Roll 1970-1974 (1994). Here, it runs a little slower than Didn't It Blow Your Mind. It seems that the left and right channels are a bit out of synch, so that the high end is blunted when the channels are summed to mono; avoid, if possible. (Didn't It Blow Your Mind sounds just fine when summed to mono.) The same analog transfer is used on:

• Madacy's Rock On 1970 In The Summertime (1998) - tail of fade is about half a beat shorter

There's one more analog transfer on Rhino's multi-CD Can You Dig It The '70s Soul Experience (2001). This mastering seems to use the same source tape as Didn't It Blow Your Mind, but just runs slower. Sound quality is comparable to Didn't It Blow Your Mind.

Stereo LP version faded early (2:54)

This is just an early fade of the stereo LP version, from 2:49 to 2:54. This early fade didn't exist on record back in 1970.

The early fade originated on Pair's Best Of Buddah (1988) or Pair's Best Of Bubblegum Music (1988); not sure which came out first.

I assume that all the 2:53 or 2:54 versions on CD are also this early fade, and all trace their masterings back to one of the two Pair CDs.

It also shows up on Time-Life's Superhits Vol. 4 1970 (1990) and AM Gold Vol. 2 1970 (1990; a digitally identical repackaging of the whole Superhits disc).

Mono 45 version (printed 3:11, actual 3:12)

The mono 45 is a dedicated mix, not just a fold-down of the stereo LP mix. At the 0:14 mark, the stereo LP mix has reverb on the tom-tom drum fill, but there's no such reverb on the mono 45 mix. (Thanks to Mark M for finding this difference!) There may be other differences as well, but this is the easiest to spot.

The mono 45 mix doesn't appear on a commercially available CD.

But, it does appear on one promo CD! It's on Rhino's Didn't It Blow Your Mind Vols. 1-5 Sampler (PRO2 90055, released 1990). It runs 3:13, and sounds quite nice, with excellent dynamic range, nice EQ, and no evidence of noise reduction on the fade. The tail of the 45 fade is shaped a little differently than the LP fade, so that you can see a difference in the waveforms if you zoom way out.

My recommendations

For the stereo LP version, go with Rhino's Didn't It Blow Your Mind Vol. 2 (1991).

For the mono 45 version, I'll recommend Rhino's promo Didn't It Blow Your Mind Vols. 1-5 Sampler (PRO2 90055, released 1990), although I realize that you probably won't be able to actually find this disc.

Edited by crapfromthepast