Frank Sinatra Theme From New York New Yor

I have 3 vinyl items including this tune.

commercial 45
(Reprise RPS49233 STEREO run-out groove # XNY 2103-S-SR1 SP) actual 3:25 listed 3:26

vinyl LP "Trilogy: Past, Present, Future"
STEREO (Reprise 3FS 2300) actual 3:25 listed 3:26

re-issue 45 "Back To Back Hits" series
(Reprise GRE0122 STEREO run-out groove #XNY2103-S JW-1) actual 3:24 listed 3:26

The commercial 45 and the LP have 4 cymbal crashes. There are no differences between two.

"Back To Back Hits" 45 has 3 cymbal crashes. Good catch and wonderful finding, NightAire!

--abagon

Hi all,

This seems resolved but, when i first read the question, i was curious myself, so i emailed Tom Daly, a huge Frankie fan and trivia buff.

Here was his reply:

>>>> I can tell you that it was NOT remixed for the 45. There was a 12” 45 rpm single issued to radio stations, though. Unfortunately, I don’t have it. With WEA, the tendency with 12” radio singles was to use the 45 version with better modulation and dynamics. Sometimes, they’d put the 45 version on one side and the LP version on the other side, but in the case of Theme from “New York, New York,” there was no difference between the original single and the LP.

Here’s what I’ve discovered:

The original single, Reprise RPS 49233, contains exactly the same mix as Trilogy: Past, Present and Future, and has 4 cymbal taps at the start. The reissue single, Reprise GRE 0122 is missing the first cymbal tap (probably due to an error attaching leader to the reissue master tape). The “stereo” effect at the start of the reissue sounds to me like it’s just panned to the right a bit. As far as I know, having The Complete Reprise Recordings, The Reprise Collection and Reprise: The Very Good Years on CD, all CDs contain the original single version and not the erroneous reissue version. ALL versions have only mono reverb on Frank’s vocals. A 1% variation in speed is allowable, due to minor differences in analog tape machines and disc cutters and therefore would not be considered an issue by a professional audio engineer.
I do notice that the CD reissues are EQ’d a little brighter than the 45s, which might account for some of the lack of reverb presence on vinyl, making the vocals appear to be drier. To sum up in one sentence, the reissue suffered from HUGE mastering errors and should be burned (unless you need the flip-side for your collection). Any other issue is the same as the original 45 except for EQ changes during mastering. - TD

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MM