Another "Worst Recording Of All Time" thread...

Another worst recording of all time...

I just heard "Deep Purple" by Nino & April on the radio last night and it sounds like they're singing with their hands covering their mouths. What a terrible recording!

 

Paul,

A nortiously poor sounding record - that is because the commercial release of this single was the Demo - it was never re-recorded. I have it both Mono and Stereo and neither sounds very good.

Bob

 

Was recently listening to "Keep on Running" by Spencer Davis Group. Yikes! Either this was recorded with two dixie cups and a string or something went horribly wrong with the master tapes!!

Anyone know what's up with this one?

Ray

 

I never noticed it sounding particularly bad. Perhaps there's something odd about the version you have?

 

Ray,

To my ears, just a highly compessed Mono mix - made "hot" for AM Radio and to create a certain sound. Check out "Somebody Help Me" - same thing.

During the British Invasion, this practice was very typical of certain hits recorded in the UK.

Bob

 

Maybe it's just the version that I've been listening to - from one of the Rhino "British Invasion" discs. I really don't remember the recording sounding that bad before.

Bob, yes it is compressed, but that's not the problem here - it sounds very distorted to me, and very "noisy." This isn't really the kind of thing that bothers me - it's a great track and the grittiness of the recording only adds to it. But it did stand out to me as I've been listening to the comp the last few days in the car.

Probably just the version - I have it elsewhere and will have to compare.

Ray

 

Ray,

Then you may just have a bad version. I have it on a UK Spencer Davis Group anthology. It sounds clean but, compressed, as we have discussed here.

Bob

 

Another song that applies in the "Great song, but poorly recorded" category is "Go All The Way" by The Raspberries. That song sounds like it was recorded on a cheap boombox!!! I've never heard a band sound so small on record, which is amazing because it really rocks. Ditto for "Shame, Shame, Shame" by Shirley and Company.

 

Ian Hunter - Welcome to the Club (remastered version). I guess this thread is relative to Original master recordings, but this CD sounds sooo bad I had to mention it.

 

I kind of like "bad", or "odd" sounding recordings, much in the way that Steve likes the raw sound of master tapes. They have a certain charm. The recording quality adds to the personality of the song. Sometimes, to low-fi is exactly why a song becomes a hit.

 

Grant,

Very good historical point! I believe Go All The Way was mixed and mastered the way it was in order to create a certain "sound". One of the reasons, it does "rock", as Jeff H. describes, is ceause it was highly compressed to sound "hot". Well.. it works!

Bob

 

Re: Another worst recording of all time...

I have it on CD, It's not that bad? Maybe the Radio station's copy?

 

It's also why I am against remixing.

 

Re: Re: Another worst recording of all time...

Michael,

See my post - explained the less than superior sonic quality. It is not gut wrenching awful but, as A Demo that was originally released as a B-side, it is not as good as it would have been had it been re-recorded. In those days, Demos were typically, of inferior quality.

Bob

 

It was ironic when the Nino & April comp was put together that Nino went for the mono mixes; "Deep Purple"sounds better to me in stereo than it ever did in mono(not that it ever sounded great, just a bit better). "Keep On Running" actually sounds really hot on the US Atco 45; but SDG material while Winwood was there always sounded grungy and 'hot'; in the case of 'Gimme Some Lovin'" and "I'm A Man" the sound they went for worked better than on other singles(where did the stereo go for these, anyway; some must have been recorded that way). The Collectables' Shirley & Co. CD has a decent stereo mix of "Shame, Shame, Shame" which is an improvement over the mono 45 or the original, tighter stereo Lp version. "Go All The Way" and "I Wanna Be With You" were intentionally mixed--well, bungled, actually--to approximate Spectorian sound, but you need the mono 45's to truly appreciate the attempt.
But all these pale against the worst-sounding hit I have in my collection: Thomas Wayne's Fernwood 45 "Tragedy" from 1959. Even a mint 45 sounds like he recorded it a mile away from the microphone. A very odd single, much improved upon by the Fleetwoods a few years later.

ED

 

Re: Re: Re: Another worst recording of all time...

Bob,
What Cd's do you have it on?

 

Re: Re: Another worst recording of all time...

I have a copy of "Deep Purple" on Hard To Find 45's volume 5. That's probably the best that song is going sound, and it's actually not that bad. No worse than "Just One Look" by Doris Troy which I believe is a demo that ended up as a released master, or "Angel Baby" by Rosie & The Originals neither of which would ever win any audiophile awards. In the case of those records it's the quality of the performance more than the recording quality that makes those songs great.

 

Re: Re: Re: Re: Another worst recording of all time...

Michael,

I have it many times over on numerous CD's in both Mono and Stereo versions.

A great song!

Bob

 

I have it on the 'Hit Singles" 1958-1977 CD Atlantic-7 81909 2.
Sounds acceptable.

 

Yeah, a good performance will survive a bad recording any day, but the reverse is rarely true.

 

Steve so is that the reason for the "interesting" stereo balancing on "Oh Happy Day". Lead vocal and choir hard left and right? The tape was recorded at 7 1/2 ips??? Wow it sounds surprisingly good for it to have been tracked at that speed.

 

Ed,

Tragedy - Thomas Wayne & the Delons

Good example! Very Mid-rangy type of sound with lots of echo. I believe the sound on that single was somewhat intentional. The best sounding version that I have is one the Ace comps. - most likely, EQ'ed up a bit.

Bob

 

Same here. I never had a problem with it.

 

I figured it was just because the lead singer was moving around...