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

Michael,

Good description of every version that I have - acceptable. I have heard the sound described as mushy. Well, for me, it is just historic since that that is the way, I remember it. It is no sonic gem, however, relatively speaking (comparsion to better sounding tracks of similar vintage)

Bob

 

Wow! I didn't know that about the EH Singers' "Oh Happy Day." It really does sound damned good for 1969, and I remember it being fairly impressive while it was a radio hit. Still packs a wallop on CD.

ED

 

Some recordings of it sound surprisingly good. Some have really dreadful azimuth misalignment problems.

My candidate for worst recording of all time was the first Utopia LP. Compressed, bassless and distorted, and just plain grungy. Sometimes I like Todd R.'s quirky productions; sometimes not at all.

 

Almost, but not quite--it was trying to emulate the Duophonic re-processed for stereo sound of early US Beatle mixes (the Raspberries wanted to be the Beatles, not Spector). They did a great job-they sound like ****!

Deep Purple---3rd 45 I ever bought. Has the greatest B-side title ever---"I've Been Carrying A Torch For You So Long, That I've Burned A Great Big Hole In My Heart"!

Hanky Panky
Quarter To Three
Go Now

 

"Worst Sound" record for me?

Without question, "Quarter To Three" by Gary U.S. Bonds. Don't know if the sound was intentional, but boy it sounds like crap.

What's the story on that one, Steve?

 

RUSH's latest record Vapor Trails!!!

 

Quite right, my man--Beatleish, not Spectorian; still stupid mixing, if you ask me.
Anything Frank Guida recorded sounded like crap, but of course it was intentional, at least up to a point. I like some of the stereo mixes, but you need the clean original mono vinyl to appreciate what he was up to. Whatever THAT was. I know Little Walter DeVenne remastered quite a bit of that stuff for '80s vinyl and later CDs; he'd probably know more than anybody else about what was behind the "Norfolk Sound," having worked with Guida on some of the remastering.

ED

 

Hanky Panky
Quarter To Three
Go Now [/B][/QUOTE]

Isn't it true that the master to "Hanky Panky" had disappeared long before it became hit nationally, and that Roulette had to use an acetate copy of the song as the master, which would account in part for it's poor fidelity? Supposedly the case with "A Quarter To Three" was that it was recorded at very low volume. Anyone know for sure about these, any insights?

 

In most copies of "Hanky Panky"you can hear the surface noise at the very beginning of the song. My understanding was that Roulette used a stock copy of the Michigan area 45 as their master.

 

Jeff,

Hanky Panky - most of us have this as recorded from a needle drop. Some lucky collectors have an original Snap records 45 that reportedly sounds much better...less "pinched" sounding.

Quarter To Three - I know that Steve knows the story behind this track. I had heard, along the way, that it was recorded using inferior technology - old sound boards, etc. - but that certainly is not the complete story, either.

Bob

 

Roy Wood's Wizzard---Wizzard's Brew (the entire LP). WAY too many overdubs=total sonic mush.

 

I only knew the song as it was on the 1969 Pavillion single. I no longer have the single, but I recall it sounding very compressed and "splatty".

 

I have only heard the stereo mix of these two Raspberries songs. I never thought they were *that* bad. I can still make out a lot of detail.

 

That's one I keep hoping will show up in a bargain bin some day because no one will know what the heck it is -- the original edition of the LP "Let Us Go Into the House of the Lord" by the Northern California State Youth Choir on the Century Custom label. Yep, that album was originally pressed by one of those custom labels that schools, etc., use to make small runs of records, mostly for sale as fundraisers or for family and friends. And that's what it was originally -- no more than 1,000 of them were pressed, and fewer sold. But one of them ended up in the hands of an FM disc jockey... and the rest is history.

That song had to be one of the most unlikely hit records of all time.

 

Oh yeah, my vote for the worst sounding single is "Love On A Two-Way Street" by the Moments on Stang records. A typical, low-fi Sylvia Robinson production. She, and her husband Joe Robinson say it was intentional. I don't know about that, but it works...

 

There is no mono mix--the LPs and 45s were only in stereo (maybe the promo 45s, but I think they were fold-downs). You CAN hear detail, but placement of instruments is intentionally vague in order to sound Duophonic (note that only cuts that were used for singles [Go All The Way, I Wanna Be With You, Let's Pretend] were mixed like this--the LP cuts were more conventional).

 

Grant, I know exactly what you're talking about. It's hard to believe that a song that was that successful sounded that crappy. Even the version on the Rhino CD sounds bad. The best sounding version of that song I've heard is on a Moments compilation put out by Sequel Records in the UK. A lot less distortion, more bass and it's longer than any other version I've heard.

 

Grant,

What about "The Whole World Is A Stage" by the Fantastic Four?

Bob

 

I don't listen for instrumental placement. It's not high on my priority list until I get to multi-channel.

Yeah, I have a couple of the LPs, and I know. It was Ed Bishop who said the singles were mono, but it doesn't make sense because Capitol was releasing stereo singles by 1970.

 

The LP versions of this song don't sound as bad.

 

That song was not part of my history. I necer heard it until I got that "Beg, Scream & Shout" box from Rhino. Even now, I can't remember what the song is because I never pain attention to it. Maybe someday i'll get around to listening to it.

 

Grant,

Well...listen to it and tell me if you agree with my observation of the sound?

Bob

 

I think this one on the Sequel comp is the LP version. Clocks in at 3:44, and if I remember right the Stang 45 was 3:25.

 

That's right. I have the long version on a Priority "Lowrider" CD.