Van McCoy - The Hustle

One of three instrumentals that hit US#1 in 1975, along with "Fly Robin Fly" and "Pick Up The Pieces".

LP length (4:03)

The LP fades from about 3:55 to 4:03.

It sounds shrill and extremely treble-boosted on Connoisseur Collection UK's 5-CD 100 Dance Hits Of The '70s (1988). Not good.

It sounds extremely boomy and severely compressed/limited on K-Tel's 2-CD Party Of The Millennium (1998). Very bad.

It sounds much better on Madacy's Rock On 1975 Midnight Blue (1998), but still not great. On the plus side, it has a nice dynamic range, a midrange-heavy EQ, decent-sounding source tapes, and no evidence of added noise reduction in the mastering (the high end doesn't disappear on the fade). But overall, it has an unnatural, pinched sound, like when you used to use the wrong kind of noise reduction on your cassette playback. And in addition, this one disc has its left and right channels swapped. (The shaky percussion instrument should be mostly in the right channel; it's mostly in the left channel here.) A mixed bag, to be sure, but the best of this motley bunch of LP-length CDs.

45 length (3:27)

The 45 fades from about 3:17 to 3:27.

The first appearance on CD of the 45 length was Silver Eagle/Warner Special Products' 2-CD Dancin' The Night Away (1988). It sounds like a high-generation tape source, so it sounds pretty muffled. The same analog transfer is used on:

• Priority's Mega-Hits Dance Classics Vol. 10 (1991)

It sounds just a little better on Time-Life's Sounds Of The Seventies Vol. 8 1975 (1990), which is probably from a lower-generation tape source than Dancin', but is still far more compressed/limited than all the non-45-length discs. The same analog transfer is used on:

• Warner Special Products' 2-CD 40 Summer Fun Hits (1993)
• Time-Life's Sounds Of The Seventies Vol. 44 '70s Dance Party 1975-1976 (1997; differently-EQ'd digital clone)

Previously unreleased 3:44 length

This version fades from 3:28 to 3:44, making it 17 seconds longer than the 45 and 19 seconds shorter than the LP.

I believe that all of these originated with Rhino's Disco Years Vol. 1 (1990). This version has much more treble than everything listed above. I like the Rhino treble boost, but even I think it may have too much high end on this one song. It also runs about 1.4% faster than everything listed above. Yet even with all that, I think it sounds more open and natural than everything listed above.

The same analog transfer is used on:

• Razor & Tie's 2-CD Disco Fever (1991)
• Rhino's cheapie Disco Hits Vol. 1 (1992; digitally exactly 0.239 dB quieter)
• Warner Special Products' 2-CD Disco Collection (1993; absolute polarity inverted, which is no big deal)
• JCI's Only Rock 'N Roll 1975-1979 (1994; differently-EQ'd digital clone)
• Rhino's Rock Instrumental Classics Vol. 3 The '70s (1994; digitally identical)
• Hip-O's 2-CD Best Disco In Town Vol. 1 (1994; slowed down by 1.8%, making it comparable to the LP-length and 45-length discs)
• Sony's Collector's Edition Disco (1995)

My recommendations:

For the LP length, go with Madacy's Rock On 1975 Midnight Blue (1998) but swap the left and right channels.
For the 45 length, go with Time-Life's Sounds Of The Seventies Vol. 8 1975 (1990).
For a previously unreleased 3:44 length, with better sound than the others and possibly running 1.4% too fast, go with Rhino's Disco Years Vol. 1 (1990).

I realize that this is not a resounding endorsement of any of these.

Edited by crapfromthepast