The Lovin' Spoonful - Summer in the City-45 RPM Mono

Summer in the City is still available in great-sounding mono on 25 All-Time Greatest Summer Songs: The Ultimate Collection (Varese Vintage, 2000). It's also a nice CD to pick up for its other summer songs this time of year:

1. Summer in the City - The Lovin' Spoonful
2. Summer Song - Chad & Jeremy
3. Summertime, Summertime - The Jamies
4. Vacation - Connie Francis
5. Wipe Out - The Surfaris
6. Summer Means Fun - Bruce & Terry
7. Dancing in the Street - Martha & the Vandellas
8. Sunny Afternoon - The Kinks
9. In the Summertime - Mungo Jerry
10. Happy Summer Days - Ronnie Dove
11. Sealed With a Kiss - Brian Hyland
12. Theme from "A Summer Place" - Percy Faith & His Orchestra
13. On the Beach (In the Summertime) - The 5th Dimension
14. Summer Wine - Lee Hazlewood, Nancy Sinatra
15. Summer Sand - Tony Orlando & Dawn
16. Here Comes Summer - Jerry Keller
17. School Is Out
18. Palisades Park - Freddy Cannon
19. Let's Go Trippin' - Dick Dale
20. Beach Party - Annette
21. Lost Summer Love - Shelley Fabares
22. Gonna Hustle You - The Legendary Masked Surfers, Dean Torrence
23. Wombling Summer Party - The Wombles
24. Summer - War
25. Summertime - Billy Stewart

 

Dude! I have this CD! This must be what I was thinking about.

 

Thanks for the recommendation. I wasn't aware the mono was availabe on CD. I can finally replace the whimpy sounding stereo
version.

Who mastered this?

 

I don't have the CD handy at the moment because it's in a box, but Steve Massie and/or Marty Wekser usually do their CDs. Bill Inglot has also mastered stuff for that label.

 

I don't have my copy handy either, but Dan Hersch gets the credit according to All Music Guide:

http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:djfyxqlkldde~T2

 

I don't know what you mean by "splatter"
I used to have a re-issue 45 of Surfin Bird that was on the Happy Tiger/Era label. I don't know who did the cutting but the low end 40hz band is jacked up though the floor, the grooves are so wide they look like they were cut with a nail. This is subwoofer material, a Danelectro bass playing a E chord though a Fender Showman amp never sounded so good.

Most of the Spoonful's recordings were done on 3-track (just like Aftermath) which explains the mono band track, vocal, and third channel overdub spread. I've been collecting a lot of mono LPs of late, another band who's stereo recordings stink but mono mixes rule is the Four Seasons.

Reading that earlier post, I knew a guy who was inside the MGM vault. He said it was a warehouse that had no heating or air. There was also a hole in the ceiling, and because of that there was 10" of water on the floor with boxes floating in it. This guy was a Polygram records exec. who was there checking it out around the time of PGM's purchase of the MGM catalog in the late 70's.

 

I recently attempted a needle drop of Spoonful 45s and using a lot of NOS I found too many that just weren't good pressings. A lot of distortion. Summer In The City was probably the best one, it kicks ***. This is definitely one I hope AF or CC and Steve can do.

 

You can learn more about "mono limiter splatter" here:

http://www.stevehoffman.tv/forums/showthread.php?t=2613

Bob-

 

I tried to listen to my dad's 45s of theirs and they all sounded horrible. My dad probably was playing them on pretty bad equipment, but they were kinda unlistenable. The mono lp's sound great though!

 

That doesn't explain why there isn't "stereo limiter splatter", though, since according to Recording The Beatles, the Fairchild wasn't setup for stereo linking until June 1966. I.e., the Altec compressor was used for stereo mixing as well, at least until that time.

 

Likely (2) Altec's ganged together for stereo, not pushed...

Bob

 

Thought everyone might like a sample of SITC from the mono Hums Of The Lovin' Spoonful LP for comparison:

https://www.yousendit.com/transfer.php?action=batch_download&batch_id=MnFoSlJ5eFViR0xIRGc9PQ

Dale

 

Thank you! I have a mono "Hums" too, but I have not played it in some time. This is very interesting... The LP version sounds like a completely different mix to me. I am pleasantly surprised at how faithfully the Varese track reproduces the sound of the single. Back in the mid-Sixties, Spoonful singles sounded absolutely "killer' on AM radio, and SITC was always one of their very best IMO! I looked for this comp a few years back but could never find a retailer who had it in stock. I even tried special ordering it. Must be Varese found some old stock (or they re-pressed which strikes me as highly unlikely) since it appears that several etailers have it for sale right now.

 

The mono Loving Spoonful 45 singles are miles superior when you can turn up nice copies. Pressings aren't the best in the US but decent ones can be found. MGM Records pressings were often lacking then (MGM distributed Kama Sutra then).

 

Speaking of summer and hot mono, get a load of Billy Stewart's Summertime:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j_9gyaNOw_g

Echo galore and an almost violent mix, in a good way...

 

I don't know about limiter splatter, but my beat-up red "splatter" label 45 of "Do You Believe in Magic" sounds pretty hot.

 

this so called limiter splatter is part of the magic of the sound, whether it's technically "correct" or not. compressors/limiters were developed by the phone companies (probably Bell Labs) to keep the levels of their signals consistant, as I understand it. I've read somewhere that compressors weren't "allowed" on UK radio stations til the early 70's or so! Especially classical stations. Things have really gone downhill, haven't they? Let's blame it on The Beatles! My Mom was right...


heh heh [maybe]

rharper

 

Hi, I bumped this to ask this:
Are all of the Lovin' Spoonful 7" singles in mono?
If they aren't how can I tell which ones are?

All of the singles I have access to, the label catalog numbers start as "KA" does anyone know what Kama Sutra was using to denote "mono" on singles.

lastly I have all but 'Do You Believe in Magic' in mono on LP, are any of the 7" mono mixes different to the LP mixes?

 

To the best of my knowledge, all of the Lovin' Spoonful 45's were mono at the time of issue. None of the mixes released on 45 differ from their mono LP mix counterparts. The 7" singles were certainly cut "hotter" and they may sound a bit different as a result.

Bob-

 

I concur.

I still like the LP stereo mixes though. I vacillate between the mono and stereo tracks to this day. The stereos are more open, typically I can hear the nuances of individual instruments a lot clearer and can 'follow' them. I like that. But the monos do smoke.

 

Thanks for the replies gentlemen, I have the Stereo stuff and love it, but after reading here about the mono mixes I decided it would be a fun project for me. I have 6 of the singles in, surprisingly, NM condition and 3 of the LPs also in NM condition.

 

The 45 of DYBIM is different from the mono LP mix. The vocals on the 45 after the last chorus, '....set you free, aaaaahhhh, talkin' 'bout magic....', the vocals get a lot more reverb on them that stays up all the way through to the end.

On the mono LP, just like the stereo mix, the reverb level stays the same throughout.

 

The mono 45 of 'She is still a Mystery' sounds different to the mono LP version. More trumpet at the end...

 

This won't add anything useful, but I love the single and remember buying it that summer in 66. Know what I always hear in this one? I hear Zal saying in an interview that summer, "how'd ya like the chaka-chaka parts I did".

And he's right. Masterpiece song/recording aside, that is just about the best chaka-chaka rhythm playing I've ever heard on a single of anything by anybody. Especially at the fade.

And when I saw them in concert later that year, Zal sounded just the same. What a cool song, cool record, and cool year that was.

 

Hot summer, though.


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