Herman's Hermits - new Bear Family Anthology CD set...

Since these glorious remixes were done in 1991, I wonder why it took so long to release them?

 

I suspect that ABKCO, which holds the release rights to this material in the US and presumably elsewhere, to maximize its profits, blocked the use of the remixes, preventing widespread issue of Ron's work. It instead used the same, inferior masters for its 2004 Hermits' SACD. Note that, even now, this new set was not released by a US or British label, but, rather, on Bear Family. Even from the grave, Klein is being his obstructionist self.
Hopefully, the Most-produced Animals, another ABKCO "property," is next on Bear Family's schedule. Like the Hermits SACD, ABKCO's for the Animals was not much to talk about.

 

ABKCO may have prevented a US release by not agreeing to license the material here, but that wouldn't have been an issue elsewhere, where EMI had the rights.

Somebody else suggested that now that WEA owns this material in Europe, they were willing to license it to a company like Bear Family, whereas EMI was not.

I'd like to see an Animals set, although the ABKCO CD is pretty good for what it is. The notable exception would be Sky Pilot.

 

So those last three tracks play fine in my car but skip on my home Rotel... Haven't tried the iMac yet.

 

He has worked for a lot of re-releases:

http://www.allmusic.com/artist/ron-furmanek-mn0000279984/credits

I know not all the credits in the list are accurate.

 

Reading the booklet made me look for a biography on Mickie Most, but I couldn't find one. Is there one?

 

Try Wikipedia.

 

Just got my copy. The booklet alone is worth it. Listened to the first few tracks and really enjoyed what I've heard so far. This collection is a must have for both Hermits and British Invasion fans.

 

Listening to the first disc now. Sounds great! But, I'm disappointed that they used the single versions of Hold On and Leaning On The Lamp Post.

 

The stereo album versions of these 2 tracks are on the Mrs. Brown You've Got a Lovely Daughter/Hold On twofer CD on ABKCO (these 2 are mono on most other discs and are the album versions including the 1987 ABKCO Greatest Hits CD. The album both of these tracks you've mentioned were originally released on is the "Hold On" soundtrack, and this is the only original MGM vinyl that is 100% true stereo.) while the single versions are mono only on "Retrospective."

 

Thank you! I just happen to have the Hold On/Mrs. Brown twofer.

 

I've never heard of Ernie B's. I had already purchased my set from Amazon but decided to check out Ernie's. Found a copy of Miles Davis "Miles Ahead" that I had been looking for at a very good price. Hopefully when the LP arrives I'll become a repeat customer. Thanks for the indirect tip!

 

Brad,
Your comment above about the Hold On soundtrack being the only H.H. album that is 100% true stereo got me to thinking. Was there a dedicated mono version of the Mrs. Brown soundtrack or was it only released in "stereo"?

 

I also got mine from Movie Mars on eBay for $16.29. You gotta love it! The only bummer is that the spine has a little gouge in it. The old OCD is acting up telling me to order another copy but I'm trying my best to fight back.

Oh, and it sounds awesome too! I've only had a chance to listen through once casually but "There's A Kind Of Hush" is a revelation - almost like hearing a new song!

This makes me wonder about all of those other bands and records that were supposedly recorded straight to mono with no chance of a stereo remix. Didn't they say that about a lot of the Mickie Most stuff?

 

Apparently there was confusion over the fact that the material was only *mixed* to mono, but not necessarily *recorded* that way.

On the other hand, Andrew Oldham specifically talked about recording in mono for those early UK sessions after Come On.

 

The Mrs. Brown soundtrack on vinyl was stereo for the most part but 2 tracks are the rechanneled versions from the previous "stereo" MGM LP issues (the title track and A Kind of Hush...)

E/SE-4548ST Mrs. Brown You've Got a Lovely Daughter (Soundtrack) - Herman's Hermits [1968] (9-68, #182) It's Nice To Be Out In The Morning/Holiday Inn/Ooh, She's Done It Again/There's A Kind Of Hush All Over The World (E)/Lemon And Lime//The Most Beautiful Thing In My Life/Daisy Chain (Part I)/Daisy Chain (Part II)/The World Is For The Young/Mrs. Brown You've Got A Lovely Daughter (E)

The first time these fake 2 fake stereo tracks were issued in true stereo anywhere is the soundtrack twofer CD and again on this new set. On vinyl, the best way to get all of the soundtrack without any fake stereo is to either get the mono LP of this or buy the stereo LP and a mono best of LP and do not play the fake stereo tracks on the Mrs. Brown soundtrack LP. There are more stereo LPs of Mrs. Brown than mono LPs. The "Hold On" on MGM vinyl was stereo to begin with and that's one of the only stereo LPs to keep, the other being Mrs. Brown but get a mono best of comp for the 2 fake stereo tracks on the soundtrack vinyl or better yet, get the soundtrack twofer CD, in other words, Mrs. Brown on vinyl is about 98% or 99% true stereo but not 100% and the best tracks on the soundtrack (the hits) are what you either need the new collection or the soundtrack twofer to get stereo of.

 

Thanks Brad and if I'm reading you correctly there are stereo and MONO versions of the entire soundtrack of Mrs. Brown. I have a stereo version and wanted to know if it's possible to find a Mrs. Brown soundtrack album in mono.

 

Yes, that's right. You can get the Hold On soundtrack in mono on vinyl as well, but still, I still consider Hold On the only 100% true stereo album due to the 2 fake stereo tracks on Mrs. Brown.

 

This UK version appears to be in mono. I've never seen a US pressing in mono, though.

 

Added to my wish list.

Darryl

 

Thanks for replies Brad and Swandown.

 

Just finished listening to the set and I'm very impressed. Lots of great tunes which stand up to re-listening. I like the alternate takes with the longer endings. This has become my favorite Hermits collection and is a must have.

 

I finally listened to this set with headphones so I could hear exactly what was going on. Most of the remixes have the music panned midway left with the vocal panned midway right. While it's nice to hear the separation you tend to lose a lot of that vocal "punch" you get with the mono mixes. I noticed that a couple of the remixes have that flangy/out of phase sound but that's probably due to what they had to work with or how they put it all together. Overall, the remixes are very enjoyable and it's nice to be able to hear new things that weren't noticeable before but I can't say that any of them sound better than their mono counterparts, except for maybe "There's A Kind Of Hush." It's most likely due to the fact that I've never heard any of these songs in stereo and I know the mono mixes by heart so it's probably going to take a little while to get accustomed to the new "alien" Hermits stereo experience.

 

I just finished listening to the new CD in headphones, and I wanted to compliment Ron on the mastering. The EQ and levels are damn near perfect track to track. In particular, there's far more low-end on these songs than I've ever heard from previous Hermits CDs. This is about as good as you could possibly hope for from music of this era.

The lopsided 2-track mixes actually did not bother me nearly as much as I feared they would. I would be curious to see if somebody who wanted to experiment could go in with Spectral Editing and see if they could separate out and remix some of these songs. It'd take many hours of work, but at least once you have 2 split tracks, there's some room to go in and pull out the kick drum, the bass guitar, and maybe even the lead vocal.

The balanced mixes -- where the engineers had more tracks to work with -- are spectacular. To me, the overall sound quality is in the same league as the Beatles releases, which also have their issues with 2-track stereo and later balanced mixes. People forget this was the style of the times, and people were still feeling their way along with stereo. It's a miracle so many of these mixes are just about perfect -- I can't imagine how they could be improved.

 

Would one more disc have been enough to include the rest of their work? Wonder why Bear Family didn't go their usual completist route.