Sinatra / Capitol Sound Quality (and general discussion): Singles, Soundtracks, Etc.

@jtaylor posted this:

Below, here's another checkered suit pic, but he looks a little younger, I think.

That one looks more like '54/'55 Sinatra to me, like this era:


The last two are ones that I've thought may stem from NBC Radio City sessions for To Be Perfectly Frank, but I don't think that's been even close to being confirmed. (I'll add parenthetically that the bottom two photos are so noise-reduced that I wouldn't 100% rule out that the suit may be checkered, despite how the smearing caused by noise reduction makes it look.)

 

Wow -- the control room shots and the last one that Bob posted are definitely Studio C, but the other ones are ones that I would have never pegged as Studio C on their own without supporting photos. Weird pics.

 

Longshot, but might there have been a radio session that same day, and the photographer was present at that? I doubt it, but some of those shots don't look very Capitol-y.

 

@MMM (or anybody else) -- do you know the dates for the actual recordings of To Be Perfectly Frank?

 

Thanks; no Capitol + NBC double-dips on those dates.

 

@Pieter Kozak has kindly shared some clips from his c. 1966 UK World Record Club mono release:

Some of you may recall that this LP is a FOLD-DOWN to mono from the stereo mixes, but since some of the actual, official mono mixes of some of these songs are dreadfully bad, being a fold-down is not always a bad thing, and, in these first four tracks that I've got posted, I've actually got two of them listed as "Top mono choice."

I've started to go through the tracks and post clips on my website. This album has a revised running order, and I'm starting with the side one tracks that we have already covered, and have these four now posted:

•All the Way, August 13, 1957, from Pieter's LP - Audio clip here. My take? Not great, but not too bad, especially considering that it is cut from the stereo tapes, which are fake stereo on this particular song, since the song was not recorded in stereo at all. Note, though, that it ("it" being the stereo LP source tape for this song) is not in Duophonic, which would not sum well to mono in a fold-down, but merely, as Capitol called it, "Enhanced monophonic sound." When collapsed to mono, it survives pretty well.

•Song from Some Came Running ("To Love and Be Loved") LP version - October 16, 1958, from Pieter's LP - Audio clip here. This is a fold-down to mono from the stereo mix, and there are some slight balance differences (vis-a-vis the true mono mix) that result, but I think most of us, in routine listening, would be hard-pressed to find major differences, and would think this sounds just fine. I like it okay.

•French Foreign Legion - December 29, 1958, from Pieter's LP - Audio clip here. I have ranked this as being the "top mono choice" for this song, despite the fact that it's a fold-down. Compare that clip from Pieter's LP with the former "top mono choice" (amongst very bad choices), 1982's Mr. Success LP from Australia (clip here). No contest, IMO.

•High Hopes - May 8, 1959, from Pieter's LP - Audio clip here. Again, the actual, genuine mono mix of this song stinks. Here's a clip from the 2016 mono reissue LP, which uses the original mono mix, for comparison. I'm listing Pieter's LP as a "top mono choice" (tied), even though it is a fold-down.

More to follow as I have time to review the side two songs, but at least that's a start. Thanks again to Pieter for sharing audio for us to compare.

 

I thought crossed my mind today regarding 1966's FOREVER FRANK and 1973's LIKE NEVER BEFORE.

FOREVER FRANK only had 11 tracks, not the usual 12 for Sinatra compilations of the time. LIKE NEVER BEFORE was a mix of mono, fake stereo, and stereo, and was, for some songs, a first-time LP release, but there clearly was not a mindset of "we're going to make the mono songs all Duophonic for this album," but rather, it was mastered from whatever tapes were floating around, be they mono, fake stereo, or stereo.

The 1954 Nelson Riddle version of "Day In -Day Out" appears on LIKE NEVER BEFORE in fake stereo with reverb added, raising the question: Why was there an existing tape of this song in fake stereo with reverb added? That said, the mono tracks on the Duophonic release of FOREVER FRANK are in fake stereo with reverb added. Is it possible, I wonder, if "Day In - Day Out" was intended for, but pulled from, FOREVER FRANK? Another possibility may be "Memories of You," which also appears in fake stereo on LIKE NEVER BEFORE, despite that being the first-ever release on an LP where other tracks are in true mono.

Just a thought. Those fake stereo tapes had to have been created "in the past" for some reason, no?

 

These may be contain new info on take numbers -- not sure.

 

Interesting that a 1959 stereo EP that had a very short production run apparently had two label variations, both using the original D1 metal parts for manufacturing: