Pratt & McClain-"Happy Days"

There's the 2:34 version on Rhino's Have A Nice Day Vol. 18 (1993), which sounds very nice.

Then, a bunch of CDs that use the same analog transfer as Have A Nice Day Vol. 18:

• Warner Special Products' 2-CD 40 Summer Fun Hits (1993)
• Time-Life's Sounds Of The Seventies Vol. 34 Late '70s (1993)
• Rhino's Tube Tunes Vol. 1 The '70s (1995; digitally identical)
• Time-Life's AM Gold Vol. 23 1976 (1996; digitally identical)
• Time-Life's Sounds Of The Seventies Vol. 40 TV Themes (1996; digitally exactly 0.1 dB quieter)
• Time-Life's Dr. Demento Collection Vol. 1 The Mid '70s (1996; digitally exactly 1.5 dB quieter)
• Time-Life's 2-CD Seventies Music Explosion Vol. 1 Sunshine (2005)

Then, the outlier - a 2:41 version on a CD called Double Date With Joanie And Chachi (Nick At Nite/550 Music 63456, released 1997).

I then found a needledrop of the 45 (mine was credited to "Mr.M 45-rip, cleaned by Xenomorf (time corrected)"). To my amazement, the 45 matches the 2:41 version on Double Date With Joanie And Chachi! Same reverb, same fade points.

It appears that someone pulled an incorrect (but nice-sounding) tape for Have A Nice Day Vol. 18 in 1993, with a different mix from the 45. The nice mastering from that incorrect tape was used for all subsequent CDs except Double Date With Joanie And Chachi (1997). Could the Rhino version be an LP version, with a different mix from the 45? Was there even a Pratt And McClain LP released in 1976?

So, for the 45 version of "Happy Days", I recommend Double Date With Joanie And Chachi (1997). (It's very inexpensive nowadays.)

Edited by crapfromthepast

crapfromthepast wrote: Could the Rhino version be an LP version, with a different mix from the 45?

It is, indeed, Ron! The actual length of the track on my copy of the Reprise 2250 LP is 2:36.

The LP mix has a much more pronounced bottom end than the 45. It also runs just a tad faster (by maybe a half second) and the fade begins sooner than the one on the 45 (2:21 vs. 2:28) and dumps out sooner.

Here's the easiest way to tell the mix difference: when the low bass "those happy days" line is sung at the :16 mark, it's in the left channel on the 45, and the right on the LP. It isn't a matter of channels being reversed, because the sax is mixed to the left on both the 45 and LP mixes.

Edited by Yah Shure