The Best of the Girl Groups, Vol. 1: How's the sound on this one?

Mike - your review of that set is helpful. I never bothered with it because at one stage I had needledops of anything not on the Ace collection. From your review the only thing I'd argue, depending on the day, is which track is better: "What Am I Going to Do With You (Hey Baby)" or "I Never Dreamed" (by the Cookies). Fortunately both are Russ Titelman songs and they're interchangably my all time favorite girl group track.

 

I had always heard that "One Fine Day" was a backing track from Carole King's demo that was so good that the Chiffons' producers merely had them sing over it. Is that not true then? It does seem pretty advanced for a mere singer-songwriter demo (what with a sax solo and all), but you never know ...

 

Not a Carole King demo, though she is the piano player on it.

Little Eva originally sang on "One Fine Day," but her performance was apparently deemed unsatisfactory, and the instrumental track was brought over for The Chiffons to sing on instead.

 

Seconded. I just picked both up, and they sound very good to me. Some great songs- both radio favorites and also plenty of songs I'd never heard before. A no-brainer.

If anyone's on the fence about these, don't hesitate.

 

Grab the 2 Rhino discs and the new Red Bird in stereo for a great sounding girl group starter kit.

 

That new "Red Bird Girls In Stereo" is out of this world and Ron Furmanek should be handed the "Grammy" right now, for best remix of the year! Sadly though, that great idea of a release comes with a sharp and jagged knife, because, I know it and everyone knows it, that Ron and/or Real Gone Music will probably never get the clearance to remix the "big hits" in the Red Bird catalog, in this same manner, which is a damn shame.

Honestly, it's releases like this one that still gives me hope that when the "right people" are involved, good things happen!

 

I admit that I haven't ever heard any of the songs on the "The Red Bird Girls Very First Time in True Stereo" comp, but I'll have to go pick that up based on the glowing recommendations in this thread and others here. I'm sure I'll find plenty of "new" (to me) songs I'll enjoy on it.

 

In the liner notes of this CD, there is a story of when Ron went in to play his "remixed to stereo" tracks for the original engineer of these tracks, Brooks Arthur and he said, quote, "Those 47 minutes that happened 47 years ago will rank among the all-time great memories I've ever had in my life." Honestly, if THAT isn't enough of an endorsement for this release, then I don't know what to tell you? Buy it and pray that Ron or Gordon Anderson can get the folks that own the masters of the "hits" of the Red Bird catalog, to hear their hard work and allow for the "hits" to be done in the same manner!

 

One Fine Day has NEVER sounded good. Even the K-tel re-recording has no "boom" or bottom end.

 

I have both Volume 1 and Volume 2 and they both sound just fine to me. They're great compilations- highly recommended.