Matt Monro - The George Martin Years CD (& appreciation thread) *

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by vzok, Aug 6, 2016.

  1. voles

    voles Forum Lurker

    Location:
    UK
    Well that wasn't how we wanted to listen to them but each to their own.
     
    Last edited: Dec 28, 2017
  2. vzok

    vzok Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    UK
    If Richard is saying that they recorded in stereo, and folded it down to a delta mono, then the producers seemed to have been mainly aiming for us to be hearing it in stereo. They seemed to have been at the cutting edge with bringing Matt out in stereo at that time.
     
    Last edited: Dec 28, 2017
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  3. Great Music Lover

    Great Music Lover Well-Known Member

    Location:
    UK
    It would be interesting to know the ratio of mono to stereo Monro albums bought in the early to mid 60s. I came across a few of his albums in various charity shops recently and they've all been in mono.
     
  4. Great Music Lover

    Great Music Lover Well-Known Member

    Location:
    UK
    Of course and I'm sure back then, listening to songs in stereo was great if you had the equipment. Out of all the old singles I bought by lots of different artists in those days, it was great to eventually get them in stereo too when the opportunity arrived and as a huge collector of Elvis records, it was super news when RCA released the Gold Record series (and others) with the stereo versions. But it is nice to have them in mono too, just as they were heard back then, because although they were mostly fold downs, the mono was given a bit of a boost for AM radio. Sony have recently gone into the vaults and made some of the mono singles/albums available again so for me and other collectors, having them in pristine condition on CD, is the best of both worlds.
     
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  5. Great Music Lover

    Great Music Lover Well-Known Member

    Location:
    UK
    Can anyone confirm that these two song titles are actually the same, but just with slight title differences.

    Didn't We (from For The Present LP)
    Didn't We Girl (from The Singer's Singer)

    Just Yesterday (from Yesterday LP)
    Just Yesterday Your Love Was Mine (from Complete Singles)
     
  6. voles

    voles Forum Lurker

    Location:
    UK
    Yes, it is curious that George Martin took such a different approach to The Beatles whose output was almost entirely mixed in mono before producing an entirely new, and some say less considered stereo mix, with little or no input from the artists. No Beatles' single was released in the UK in Stereo until 'Let it Be' in 1970 - or so I believe.
     
  7. vzok

    vzok Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    UK
    My CD of The Singer's Singer lists it as Didn't We, with no mention of girl. Though Matt does sing that (Sinatra didn't).
    My CD of Complete Singles lists it as Just Yesterday (Your Love Was Mine).
    Both of those point to the songs being the same, but I don't have a copy of Yesterday to check for certain.
     
  8. RMoore

    RMoore Forum Resident

    You will find the odd compilation with a mixture of mono & stereo, but they aren't particularly revelatory. Matt was always meant to appeal to adults and was recorded with Stereo in mind so it was never a consideration to use Mono. I have dubs of all the original singles that I used to A/B the correct versions for the Singles set. Almost none of them offer anything special. Those that did (and we are talking about From Russia & Softly only) were kept in mono from the original singles masters. There is really very little "Pure Mono" when it comes to Matt. If it was recorded in Stereo, that was the way it was mean't to be heard and I see no point in issuing the mono versions. Very few of Matt's single are rare and can easily be obtained.

    There are only a few tracks locked in Mono that weren't recorded that way. When Love Comes Along - Recorded in Stereo on 4 track, but the master vocal isn't on the reel. April Fool - Recorded in Stereo, but even the Stereo master for the album it was made for "Love is the Same Anywhere" contains the mono version. Why? There is nothing to say in the EMI Archives. Perhaps there was a fault with the Stereo machine during the session. No session reels survive so it will remain a mystery. Other than that there are three tracks from 1967 where the multi's had gone prior to stereo mixes being made (which in it's self is odd as Mono & Stereo for Matt were often mixed at the same session) and a couple of the same tracks in Spanish plus the single version of Southern Star, not mixed to stereo (and subsequently re-recorded for the album version) due to a mistake made by an engineer when recording the French language version - Mixed direct to Mono whilst Matt sang, for the French soundtrack - where the first 40 second of English vocal were accidentally erased.
     
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  9. RMoore

    RMoore Forum Resident

    Very much a pointless exercise. Matt's recordings were made to be heard in Stereo.
     
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  10. RMoore

    RMoore Forum Resident

    I'll get to it at some point for you when I have time.
     
  11. RMoore

    RMoore Forum Resident

    Yes these are official - despite the bad spelling! and licensed from the TV companies who made the shows. The estate earns nothing from them though.
     
  12. RMoore

    RMoore Forum Resident

    All B sides are on that set. Once again, majority in stereo. I really don't know why you want to hear them in Mono. It really doesn't bring anything to the party, but each to their own.
     
  13. RMoore

    RMoore Forum Resident

    Matt's audience was considered to be more adult than the pop records of the day and was recorded in Stereo as the buyers would be assumed to be more likely to have Stereo sets. More like a Sinatra type, especially in the USA, where Matt was more of an album artist. Stereo mixes of singles were made almost exclusively for the US album market.
     
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  14. Great Music Lover

    Great Music Lover Well-Known Member

    Location:
    UK
    If there is no difference ie they were not tweaked for radio play, then sure, no reason to have them in mono on a CD and for nolstagic purposes, easy enough to press the mono switch in the amp or convert on the computer. The other reason I look for mono variants is that I am in the process of finishing playlists of Top 30 Chart hits and as many of them are only available in Mono even on CD, I like to have everything with the mono sound instead of going between mono and stereo, which for me, jars the listening experience.
     
  15. RMoore

    RMoore Forum Resident

    Both songs are the same. "Just Yesterday (Your Love Was Mine)" is the correct titles as listed on the single. Some issues over the years lose the parenthesis. "Didn't We" is the correct title for the song, should never have "Girl" on the title - Record Company cock up!
     
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  16. Great Music Lover

    Great Music Lover Well-Known Member

    Location:
    UK
    I would like to get as many of Matt’s recordings that are available on CD (mostly deleted now I guess) and since joining this thread, and now have four CD sets winging their way to me - The Singer's Singer, The Singles Collection, The George Martin Years and Matt At The Movies, which look like the "Sets to have". I have a database which lists the songs on all the studio albums that I am aware of and matching them up with tracks soon to be received, I can see there are some tracks (71) that are not covered by these 4 sets. I have looked at the track listings on The Rare Monro and Matt Uncovered, but apart from a couple of tracks, the list is still quite long. Below is a random selection of songs (and the album they were originally on) that I have not located yet on compilation sets.

    (They Long To Be) Close To You - We're Gonna Change The World
    All The Wishing In The World - The Long And Winding Road
    Come Sta - Love Is The Same Anywhere
    Friendly Persuasion - I Have Dreamed
    How Soon - I Have Dreamed
    How Little We Know - Matt Monro Sings Hoagy Carmichael
    If I Were A Carpenter - We're Gonna Change The World
    Leaving On A Jet Plane - We're Gonna Change The World
    Nacida Libre = Born Free - Alguien Cantó
    No Me Dejes = If You Go Away - Alguien Cantó
    Spanish Eyes - These Years
    The Happening - These Years
    There's A Kind Of Hush - These Years

    Do I need to buy the “twofer” sets that cover some of these albums or are there other sets which cover these tracks/albums. Apologies if this has been answered elsewhere. Thanks to anyone for help and advice offered.
     
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  17. voles

    voles Forum Lurker

    Location:
    UK
    Well 'All The Wishing in The World' is a single. I had thought that the '97 mastering of 'Love is Same Anywhere' was the best but I await correction. The Hoagy Carmichael tracks are on 'Words and Music' which is well worth having. The rest I would like to know about as well!

    I would also like to know which tracks are unique to Matt at The Movies in Mr Moore's remasterings.
     
  18. vzok

    vzok Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    UK
    I think I'll have a go at starting up a thread to run through Matt's albums shortly. I'd like to include his singles also, as he had so many songs that never featured on a studio album. Not sure if it would be best to do the whole thing chronologically, or albums first and then all the rest.
     
  19. Personally - but that's just me - I favour the chronological approach.

    Chronological threads become such a fantastic repository of combined knowledge and opinion that I find myself referring to them quite often.

    But I understand there are merits in covering albums first and then rounding up everything else, singles, live albums, TV shows etc.,

    Best Wishes,
    David
     
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  20. RMoore

    RMoore Forum Resident

    Please, Call me Richard!

    I didn't remaster Matt at the Movies i'm afraid so there are no unique tracks other than the three previously unreleased ones mentioned in an earlier post.
     
  21. RMoore

    RMoore Forum Resident

    If it helps this is a list of most of the discs I've remastered, including all Matt ones!

    Richard Moore (Mint Audio)
     
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  22. RMoore

    RMoore Forum Resident

    Avoid most of the "twofers" They used 2nd generation Mono album masters of Capitol Stereo Albums (all fold downs), dreadful noise reduced versions of albums that didn't need it in any way and worst of all, disc dubs from battered copies of albums when the masters were easily accessible. Only decent transfer is These Years which came across to the UK as a UMATIC copy of the US Stereo Master, although that too may have been noise reduced I can't remember.

    "Love is the Same Anywhere" LP is best on the 1997 digipack/
    Close to You I THINK is on a VA compilation somewhere.
    "I Have Dreamed" LP was made available in full once in 1991 with the original heavily compressed mastering of Hoagy on the MFP "Matt Monro Sings" compilation
    Hoagy is best on "Words and Music"

    Some tracks from "We're Gonna Change the World" plus it's US equivalent "Close to You" have yet to see CD release. This is the same for the albums "The Long & Winding Road" and "If I Never Sing Another Song"
    The Spanish LP's were on a twofer. I remastered "Grades Exitos" on that set (first one I ever did for EMI) which was a slightly different version of Alguien Canto (different track order I think) but this I had to do from a vinyl dub so i've never been happy with it, especially as the tapes were sitting in the EMI archive and easy to find when I started researching.

    If it helps I'll happily list all the recordings ever made available in chronological order if you wish.
     
  23. Great Music Lover

    Great Music Lover Well-Known Member

    Location:
    UK
    Hello Richard - a list would be great. That’s really disappointing to hear about those "twofers" as I had a couple lined up at a second hand record shop nearby. As it is, I might have to resort to downloads as Alternate Monro is not available and Words and Music seems to command pretty high prices. Thanks for help.
     
  24. Thanks for the list Richard - love that Patsy Cline album.

    Best Wishes,
    David
     
  25. voles

    voles Forum Lurker

    Location:
    UK
    Richard, could you please do a similar listing to the one that you did for 'Matt Uncovered' for the Rare Monro or better still the full Rarities Collection? I know that tracks in that set should show in the Sessionography but I having trouble placing 'Mirage' on the Rare Monro and the Rarities collection which would seem to belong to 6th June 1961, though it isn't shown as such.


    thanks, Norman
     
    Last edited: Dec 29, 2017

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