Where Are You - Abridged Stereo Editions

 

ABRIDGED STEREO LPs

(Note: all sample clips mirror the 90-second, free clips available via iTunes, audible by clicking “VIEW” in the iTunes link, below.

Personal confession time:  I am an “album” guy.  My tendency is to put an album on (regardless of format) and play the entire album.  I rarely skip tracks.  I have no use for the “random” button, although I have no problem hitting the “stop” button if an album is no good.  Personally, unless there is some underlying point of interest within an abridged edition, such as the unique stereo mixes found exclusively on the abridged 1958 stereo tape release of WHERE ARE YOU, I simply have no use for abridged editions or jumbled running order.  Just give me the album “as intended.”  WHERE ARE YOU was conceived and originally released as a twelve-song album, therefore, where my own listening is concerned, I don’t see the point of listening to these abridged issues that have 10 or 11 songs.  That said, many people do enjoy them, and they certainly exist in huge quantities, and some sound okay.  (Side note:  For the mono fans who would make the case that, when push comes to shove, the mono release, which contains unique edits that were not recreated for any of the stereo releases, is the one “true” version, I add: Please be patient.  Not only was that line of argument hinted at in the preamble at the beginning of page one, but your argument will be made in more detail later in these very comparison pages.)


A little history: The stereo LP release of WHERE ARE YOU did not reach store shelves until about seventeen months after the mono release, with the stereo LP release coming in February of 1959.  One song, I Cover the Waterfront, was recorded in mono only, apparently due to technical problems on the “stereo side” as the April 29, 1957 session got underway.  That being the case, the stereo LP and earlier stereo tape release (which also faced strict running time limitations) were incomplete (“abridged”).  The LP contained only eleven songs, rather than the intended twelve.  Some later issues would pare this down even further to ten songs, assumedly to save on royalty payments.  Oddly, some of the later abridged stereo LPs actually removed one of the genuine stereo tracks and replaced it with the mono-only “I Cover the Waterfront” in horrible Duophonic sound.  (If TV’s Craig Ferguson worked for Capitol, this is where he would face the camera and say, “Capitol cares.”) 


CLICK PHOTOS TO HEAR CLIPS FROM THE TITLE TRACK:

Australian alternate cover, 11-song pressing, #S7015, made from USA N1 metal parts

N7 11-song pressing

N11 11-song pressing, courtesy stevelucille

D20 11-song pressing, courtesy greg1954

Early 1970s(?) 11-song UK pressing, courtesy ArneW

1976 11-song Japanese pressing, #ECJ-60001, courtesy ArneW

1982 G4 10-song pressing, #SN-16267, courtesy stevelucille

1982 J2 10-song pressing, #SN-16267, mastered by Jay Maynard at Capitol on the Scully lathe, January 14, 1982.

ABRIDGED STEREO TAPES

There have been two wildly different reel-to-reel releases of this title in the USA. 


1958: Capitol #ZD-17, a nine-song, two-track (plays in one direction only) 7.5 ips stereo tape, missing “The Night We Called It a Day,” “I Cover the Waterfront,” and “I’m a Fool to Want You.”  The last song was issued concurrently with this title, but on a compilation reel, Capitol ZD-21, “The Stars in Stereo.”  THESE 1958 TAPE RELEASES CONTAIN UNIQUE MIXES NEVER RELEASED ON LP OR CD, and have already been thoroughly covered on page one.


• Circa 1966: Capitol #Y2W-2339, an 11-song, 4-track (plays in two directions in stereo -- needs to be turned over like an LP) 3.75 ips stereo tape, missing only “I Cover the Waterfront.”  The 1966 releases use the standard-issue stereo LP mix.


Here is a clip that starts with the 1958 reel, transitions to a poor-condition, poorly copied (by me) 1966 tape (thanks to stevelucille), then reverts back to the 1958 reel again.  Listen here: IThinkOfReels-75-375-75.mp3


Starting in 1971, full-length 12-song versions began appearing in stereo (but always with “I Cover the Waterfront” in mono or re-channeled for “stereo”).  Please continue to page three to look at these unabridged releases on LP and CD.

D20 11-song pressing, courtesy Arkoffs