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Hit Songs That Should Never Be Played On Radio Today

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TheFonz said:
As far as I can tell, all of the original Beatles LPs were available in mono.
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I'd like to see the label on that Sgt. Pepper album. The color would tell me everything.

Sgt Pepper was the first US Beatles album that was exactly the same as the UK. Prior to that, there were different albums, and sometimes different covers. Yesterday & Today is a US-only album. For Sale is a UK only album. Revolver and Rubber Soul each have extra songs in the UK that aren't on the US versions. But by 1967, The Beatles got more control over the records, and I believe got a slightly better royalty rate. I believe Sgt Pepper was the first stereo-only album they did. But I'll stand corrected if I can see proof.
 
semoochie said:
If most 45rpms were stereo, by the late 1960s, they weren't labeled as such or at least most of the ones I saw. In the back of my head, I'm thinking that we had to wait until 1970 for a stereo version of "Hey Jude", for instance.
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That's a good point. Most singles were issued in mono until the late '60s. It was probably a sales ploy. Many of us who had stereo players would buy stereo LPs just to get the stereo versions of hit singles.
 
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TheBigA said:
I'd like to see the label on that Sgt. Pepper album. The color would tell me everything.

Sgt Pepper was the first US Beatles album that was exactly the same as the UK. Prior to that, there were different albums, and sometimes different covers. Yesterday & Today is a US-only album. For Sale is a UK only album. Revolver and Rubber Soul each have extra songs in the UK that aren't on the US versions. But by 1967, The Beatles got more control over the records, and I believe got a slightly better royalty rate. I believe Sgt Pepper was the first stereo-only album they did. But I'll stand corrected if I can see proof.
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Does this help?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Beatles-Sgt...9250837?pt=Music_on_Vinyl&hash=item1e90da6595

Or this:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/The-Beatles...1242368?pt=Music_on_Vinyl&hash=item5669255780
 
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It's original black Capitol label, so that's good, but doesn't specifically say Mono on it. I'd like to check the release number. There's an M in it, which implies it's mono. But I think there's a message in the bottom of the back cover that says it will play on both mono and stereo players. What I've found is there are some records, particularly late 60s Columbia, that were issued as mono, but would actually play in stereo on stereo systems. I have a Bob Dylan Greatest Hits like that.
 
TheBigA said:
It's original black Capitol label, so that's good, but doesn't specifically say Mono on it. I'd like to check the release number. There's an M in it, which implies it's mono. But I think there's a message in the bottom of the back cover that says it will play on both mono and stereo players. What I've found is there are some records, particularly late 60s Columbia, that were issued as mono, but would actually play in stereo on stereo systems. I have a Bob Dylan Greatest Hits like that.
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Yes, that's true. Mono records could always be played on stereo systems (I'm still doing it today), but the reverse wasn't true. Stereo records could be damaged by mono needles. As another poster stated, changes were made to phono cartridges to fix that. I don't think that the word "mono" was used on record labels until a time when mono records were very much in the minority. I'm thinking that in 1967 mono/stereo was about 50/50. After that, the pace of mono to stereo player conversions picked up quickly. Music buyers wanted to hear the Beatles (and other Pop music) in stereo.
 
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TheFonz said:
I don't think that the word "mono" was used on record labels until a time when mono records were very much in the minority. I'm thinking that in 1967 mono/stereo was about 50/50.
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My Bob Dylan Greatest Hits says Mono on the jacket and label. So does The Byrds Younger Than Yesterday. I think both were 1966.
 
semoochie said:
If most 45rpms were stereo, by the late 1960s, they weren't labeled as such or at least most of the ones I saw. In the back of my head, I'm thinking that we had to wait until 1970 for a stereo version of "Hey Jude", for instance.
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The problem with recollections like "most" or "some" is that different record companies made adjustments at different times. Elektra was releasing most 45s in stereo by around 1966. Columbia (which included Beatles releases on Apple) started making all their 45s stereo a little later. I suspect it was a manufacturing issue, so even if a label owned a factory or two, they still might also farm out some manufacturing to other companies. The simple truth is that the whole truth isn't simple.

TheBigA said:
My Bob Dylan Greatest Hits says Mono on the jacket and label. So does The Byrds Younger Than Yesterday. I think both were 1966.
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Weren't they also both on Columbia?
 
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TheBigA said:
Are you saying that Capitol used Columbia's record pressing plant?
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No, I'm saying that I made a typographical error confusing Capitol and Columbia. Though I've read that even when labels owned their own production facilities, they often farmed out work to contractors, including competitors.
 
Avid Listener said:
No, I'm saying that I made a typographical error confusing Capitol and Columbia. Though I've read that even when labels owned their own production facilities, they often farmed out work to contractors, including competitors.
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Maybe, and Columbia DID press a lot of records for competitors. But the Capitol plant in Scranton PA did a lot of the same in the 60s.

As I recall Columbia had the first CD pressing plant, and got a lot of business that way.
 
OK, about stereo 45's. Most sources I've consulted agree the first stereo 45 was "There Goes My Heart," by Joni James on MGM, around 1959. MGM made other stereo 45's as well; so did Liberty, ABC-Paramount, and others. They were a huge flop because the teens who bought 45's didn't have stereo players, while mom 'n' dad, who owned those big console stereos, didn't buy 45's. The stereo 45 was pretty much dead by about 1962, and stayed that way for almost a decade.

It was probably the need for stereo promo copies for FM use that brought back the stereo 45. Some labels still manufactured their store-stock 45's in mono only into the early-mid 70's (Bell, Parrot, maybe others.) And of course promos were usually stereo on one side,mono on the other.

As for stereo LPS, reissues of material recorded in mono to begin with (old jazz or classical, radio shows, etc.) were and still are released in mono; the "fake stereo" so popular in the 60's and 70's less prevalent now. As far as I know, Capitol never used Columbia's pressing plants; though Warner Bros. switched all their pressing from Columbia to Capitol in the mid-70's because Columbia was apparently slowing down on filling WB's orders in order to do them harm competitively. (You might remember WB singles suddenly having that Capitol raised-grooved rim around the label.)
 
JeffM said:
The stereo 45 was pretty much dead by about 1962, and stayed that way for almost a decade.
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As I said, I have a stereo 45 of The Doors singing People Are Strange. Also a stereo version of Hello I Love You. Those were both late 60s. I attribute that to the owner of the label, Jac Holtzman, who was a real stickler for audio quality.

I even have a stereo promo copy of Brain Salad Surgery by Emerson Lake & Palmer on 45. Somehow it has a picture sleeve. Don't know how that happened. I'm sure I have tons more, but not interested in looking.

Anyone wants to make me an offer on these can send a PM.
 
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TheBigA said:
As I said, I have a stereo 45 of The Doors singing People Are Strange. Also a stereo version of Hello I Love You. Those were both late 60s. I attribute that to the owner of the label, Jac Holtzman, who was a real stickler for audio quality.

I even have a stereo promo copy of Brain Salad Surgery by Emerson Lake & Palmer on 45. Somehow it has a picture sleeve. Don't know how that happened. I'm sure I have tons more, but not interested in looking.

Anyone wants to make me an offer on these can send a PM.
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I never said stereo 45's became completely extinct; a label like Elektra with its audiophile leanings very well could have continued making them. But nearly all the major-label 45's of the 60's were mono (Columbia, Capitol, RCA Victor, Decca, Atlantic, MGM, Liberty, etc.) Brain Salad Surgery was released in 1973; by then Atlantic was manufacturing their singles in stereo, as were most of the other labels I mentioned (Decca had become MCA, Liberty was absorbed by United Artists.)

There's some fairly active discussion among audio anoraks on what was the last LP offered in both stereo and mono. It may have been the Beatles on Capitol, or may have been a lesser-known artist and label; something like the Baja Marimba Band on A & M or similar. And as I said, mono LPS never disappeared completely. As a veteran crate digger, it's interesting (to me anyway) that nearly all the comedy LPS I find are mono. (Bill Cosby, Allan Sherman, the Smothers Brothers, Bob Newhart, etc.) Apparently buyers didn't feel the extra 75 cents or dollar for stereo was "worth it" for comedy. Yet when I do find one in stereo, it gives the album so much more of a "you-are-there" feeling; the audience's laughter and applause really surrounds you.
 
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R_F_Burns said:
Were you the one that fired Jan Jefferies?
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No, I was the one who hired him away from WKRG in Mobile. He came in to do PM Drive on AM 960 and was recommended by my friend Bill Tanner at WJDX in Jackson.
 
DavidEduardo said:


No, I was the one who hired him away from WKRG in Mobile. He came in to do PM Drive on AM 960 and was recommended by my friend Bill Tanner at WJDX in Jackson.
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He was my PD at WSGN very intense man almost to the point that I was afraid of him but he knew radio like no other. When he teamed TC and John Ed in AM drive they cleaned Layton's clock.I ran across him in the late 80's and he remembered me and was disappointed when I told him I left radio in 83 to go into skilled trades.
 
JeffM said:
OK, about stereo 45's. Most sources I've consulted agree the first stereo 45 was "There Goes My Heart," by Joni James on MGM, around 1959. MGM made other stereo 45's as well; so did Liberty, ABC-Paramount, and others. They were a huge flop because the teens who bought 45's didn't have stereo players, while mom 'n' dad, who owned those big console stereos, didn't buy 45's. The stereo 45 was pretty much dead by about 1962, and stayed that way for almost a decade.

It was probably the need for stereo promo copies for FM use that brought back the stereo 45. Some labels still manufactured their store-stock 45's in mono only into the early-mid 70's (Bell, Parrot, maybe others.) And of course promos were usually stereo on one side,mono on the other.

As for stereo LPS, reissues of material recorded in mono to begin with (old jazz or classical, radio shows, etc.) were and still are released in mono; the "fake stereo" so popular in the 60's and 70's less prevalent now. As far as I know, Capitol never used Columbia's pressing plants; though Warner Bros. switched all their pressing from Columbia to Capitol in the mid-70's because Columbia was apparently slowing down on filling WB's orders in order to do them harm competitively. (You might remember WB singles suddenly having that Capitol raised-grooved rim around the label.)
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I don't know if this adds to the discussion but the Beatles issued their first stereo LP in 1964, while their first stereo 45 ("Get Back") wasn't issued until 1969.
 
TheFonz said:
I don't know if this adds to the discussion but the Beatles issued their first stereo LP in 1964, while their first stereo 45 ("Get Back") wasn't issued until 1969.
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It confirms the observation that the switchover from separate SKUs for mono and stereo recordings to nothing but mono-compatible stereo recordings took some time, and wasn't exactly a well planned process. That leads to reminding everyone that all aspects of the recorded music industry were rather confused, especially during the second half of the 1960s. That gives me another opportunity to repeat my mantra that programming radio stations based on the date a song was released is just plain stupid.
 
JeffM said:
OK, about stereo 45's. Most sources I've consulted agree the first stereo 45 was "There Goes My Heart," by Joni James on MGM, around 1959. MGM made other stereo 45's as well; so did Liberty, ABC-Paramount, and others. They were a huge flop because the teens who bought 45's didn't have stereo players, while mom 'n' dad, who owned those big console stereos, didn't buy 45's. The stereo 45 was pretty much dead by about 1962, and stayed that way for almost a decade.

It was probably the need for stereo promo copies for FM use that brought back the stereo 45. Some labels still manufactured their store-stock 45's in mono only into the early-mid 70's (Bell, Parrot, maybe others.) And of course promos were usually stereo on one side,mono on the other.

As for stereo LPS, reissues of material recorded in mono to begin with (old jazz or classical, radio shows, etc.) were and still are released in mono; the "fake stereo" so popular in the 60's and 70's less prevalent now. As far as I know, Capitol never used Columbia's pressing plants; though Warner Bros. switched all their pressing from Columbia to Capitol in the mid-70's because Columbia was apparently slowing down on filling WB's orders in order to do them harm competitively. (You might remember WB singles suddenly having that Capitol raised-grooved rim around the label.)
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A lot of mono sides on those mid-70s mono on one side-stereo on the other promo 45s seemed to be mixed and EQ'ed with the lower fidelity/reduced bandwidth of the average AM-only receiver (and maybe aging AM transmitters) in mind.
 
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