Bobby Fuller Four - what's worth to get?

I assume this is the one being talked about (these oldies reissues with all their overlaps can be a headache!), with the original mono mixes:

http://www.amazon.com/Fought-Law-Bo...swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&sr=1-1&qid=1375650053

 

Stunning they released a disc of mono mixes with no "Never To Be Forgotten", the single most essential mono recording of the bunch. Pass.

On the other hand, the 1990 Rhino release is stereo but pretty much perfectly chosen. It also pre-dates the loudness wars.

 

I have the the 1990 Rhino disc and it is great.

 

After getting poked by this thread I've been listening to the 3 CD Never to Be Forgotten Mustang comb via Beats Music streaming, which includes two versions of the song "Never to Be Forgoteen" — both of them in horribly unbalanced wide stereo with a giant donut hole in the middle!

 

It's true, the vocal gets almost totally washed out in the stereo mix(es). The mono mix is about a million times better on this one.

 

Hi, Mike

I recently got a copy of the Ace "I Fought the Law / KRLA" + 7 bonus tracks compilation -
Many of those those stereo mixes do NOT matcxh the stereo mixes on the Del-F box.

So which are the original LP mixes and when were the other mixes done and by whom?

Any idea?

Thanks

 

the rhino best of.

 

I don't own any original lps, so I'm afraid I can't help out much in that department. The Del-Fi tapes were MIA for quite awhile (legend has it Bill Inglot paid out of pocket to get them out of limbo from the facility they were being stored at), and when they reappeared there were a lot of reissues that popped up with stereo mixes of songs. I don't know the details of what songs are original mixes, and which songs are remixes. Perhaps Ed Bishop might show up with some thoughts.

 

The Del-Fi cd reissues have a lot of peculiar sonic quirks/problems; it sounds like mono tapes were played back on a stereo head. The Rhino and Ace Records reissues sound better to me than most of the reissues done by Del-Fi after the label was reactivated in the cd era (I say that because I think a few Del-Fi reissues are clones of Ace discs). It's the boxes that have mastering/mixing done by folks brought in for the multi-disc sets that have the odd sound issues.

 

Norton owns/controls Fuller's home studio material. Del-Fi also released the same material - there were legal issues dealt with, and Norton ended up with the rights.

 

Regarding "Never to be Forgotten" on CD...

There is not a great mix available that I can find. I doubt that Rhino or Del-Fi have the mono mix since it's never appeared on CD. It doesn't matter that much because the mono nothing all that great either. The original Rhino best of from the early 90s has the wackiest mix of the song in my opinion. And not only is it wacky but it's very thin sounding. At least the NTBF box set has a fuller sounding version. The best, most balanced version of the song is probably the one on the Ace CD but I'm still partial to the alternate mix on the box set.

 

The mono mix of "I Fought the Law" appears on the the NOWHERE BOY soundtrack.

Nowhere Boy - Original Soundtrack | Songs, Reviews, Credits | AllMusic »

 

If you're a big fan, there is a FB page...Bobby Fuller Four Official Page. It's run by the families of the band members and there are some hardcore fans, from around the world, who show off their collections. There was a finite amount of music from the band, but the different pressings, are impressive.
Apparently, there is a Canadian vinyl pressing of IFTL, that's suppose to be superior in sound.