The Mamas & The Papas: Complete Singles - 50th Anniversary Collection - 2 CD Set (Real Gone Music)*

Just stumbled on this - and would LOVE to hear stories about how & where they located sources ... whether needledrops were necessary for any tracks, etc.
http://www.amazon.com/Complete-Sing...948759&sr=1-1&keywords=mamas+&+Papas+complete

"With the debut of their first hit, California Dreamin' , on the charts, The Mamas and the Papas proclaimed themselves to be a potent new force in the burgeoning West Coast folk-rock movement, announcing to the world that something special and beautiful was happening in California. Now, 50 years to the day after California Dreamin' entered the Billboard Hot 100 on January 8, 1966, Real Gone Music is celebrating this very special anniversary by releasing The Mamas and the Papas: The Complete Singles The 50th Anniversary Collection, a two-CD, 53-track set that includes for the first time ever the A and B side of every single the group released, all in their impossible-to-find-on-CD original mono single mixes. But this one-of-a-kind collection which is re-mastered by Aaron Kannowski, the engineer responsible for Real Gone s acclaimed collections of singles by fellow Dunhill label acts The Grass Roots and Steppenwolf doesn't stop with The Mamas and the Papas singles; it also includes the solo single sides that group members Mama Cass Elliot, Denny Doherty and John Phillips cut for the Dunhill and ABC labels, again in their rare, original single mixes. Co-Producer Ed Osborne s notes feature quotes drawn from extended interviews with Mama Michelle Phillips and Dunhill label head and producer Lou Adler, while the package also includes a number of rarely-seen images of this eminently photographable band. Many of the solo singles and B-sides have never been on CD, let alone in their single mixes; plus, over the course of listening to this set (which clocks in at over 150 minutes) you re going to hear such legendary songs as Monday, Monday, California Dreamin' , Creeque Alley, I Saw Her Again, Words of Love, Dream a Little Dream of Me, Glad to Be Unhappy, Dedicated to the One I Love, and It s Getting Better exactly as folks heard them over the radio back in those halcyon days. Due to the unfortunate situation with the Dunhill single master tape reels (supposedly thrown out at the behest of one of the label s owners), Mamas and Papas fans had despaired of ever hearing the group s original singles on CD. Now, after countless hours spent tracking down sources, Real Gone Music is proud to release the most significant addition to The Mamas and the Papas discography in years!"

Track List:
Disc: 1
1. Go Where You Wanna Go
2. Somebody Groovy
3. California Dreamin
4. Monday, Monday
5. Got a Feelin
6. I Saw Her Again
7. Even If I Could
8. Look Through My Window
9. Once Was a Time I Thought
10. Words of Love
11. Dancing in the Street
12. Dedicated to the One I Love
13. Free Advice
14. Creeque Alley
15. Did You Ever Want to Cry
16. Twelve Thirty (Young Girls Are Coming To The Canyon)
17. Straight Shooter
18. Glad to Be Unhappy
19. Hey Girl
20. Dancing Bear
21. John s Music Box
22. Safe in My Garden
23. Too Late
24. Dream a Little Dream of Me
25. Midnight Voyage
26. For the Love of Ivy
27. Strange Young Girls
Disc: 2
1. Do You Wanna Dance
2. My Girl
3. Step Out
4. Shooting Star
5. California Earthquake (Mama Cass)
6. Talkin to Your Toothbrush (Mama Cass)
7. Move In a Little Closer, Baby (Mama Cass)
8. All for Me (Mama Cass)
9. It s Getting Better (Mama Cass)
10. Who s to Blame (Mama Cass)
11. Make Your Own Kind of Music (Mama Cass Elliot)
12. Lady Love (Mama Cass Elliot)
13. New World Coming (Mama Cass Elliot)
14. Blow Me a Kiss (Mama Cass Elliott)
15. A Song That Never Comes (Mama Cass Elliot)
16. I Can Dream, Can t I (Mama Cass Elliot)
17. The Good Times Are Coming (Mama Cass Elliot)
18. Welcome to the World (Mama Cass)
19. Don t Let the Good Life Pass You By (Mama Cass Elliot)
20. The Costume Ball (Mama Cass Elliot)
21. Watcha Gonna Do (Denny Doherty)
22. Gathering the Words (Denny Doherty)
23. To Claudia on Thursday (Denny Doherty)
24. Tuesday Morning (Denny Doherty)
25. Mississippi (John Phillips)

 

for me disc 2 is a washout but disc 1 has some awesome tracks and the mono versions should be great, Euro sources should be able to provide tape of their singles as they were released worldwide.

 

I'm so in for this! And the week of my 50th birthday - yay!

 

Likewise!

 

I'm in.

Bring on Three Dog Night

 

I already have our host's 16 Of Their Greatest Hits and the All The Leaves Are Brown set, but those mono versions sound interesting. However, "tracking down sources" is quite vague and doesn't say too much about the actual quality of what they finally found and used for this set. I'll definitely wait for the first reviews from forum members ...

 

Oh, wow! Never imagined something like this would actually be released. So excited!

 

What is Real Gone Music's policy on this? I know it has been proven that Sundazed has used neededrops for some Mamas and Papas material.

 

I'm excited, I'm sure we'll hear from @kanno1ae ( Aaron Kannowski ) as soon as he's ready to share any details he can share.

I love waking up to news like this !!!! >

 

This sounds too good to be true.
If so, I'm in for this.

Darryl

 

I picked up a 3-cd set recently that sounded ok. Except for the mono stuff, I wonder how much better this will be.

 

8 reasons why I know this set will be the Definitive compilation.
.

 

I have Steve's excellent 16 Of their Greatest Hits CD and the 2-disc Creeque Alley comp (which I've always thought sounded pretty good). I also bought the 3 Sundazed releases.
From the Sundazed releases, we know that mono tapes of their first two albums were found. What I don't know is how many of their singles had dedicated mono mixes. That's a whole "nuther" thing altogether, trying to track tapes of those down - assuming that they had to look in other countries. While we never particularly "like" needledrops, I would not be surprised if there are a few. There comes a point where you don't want to hold up a project.

 

The problem with all of the "Mamas & Papas" recordings for me, in MONO or STEREO, is that thanks to the shortage of multiple track recording at the time, John Phillips kept "bouncing down" a new track onto an old track to get his complete vision of each song and because of all of that bouncing, the mixes became muddy and the elements get lost in the mix, in my opinion. Naturally, the MONO versions of their songs add that tinge bit more "boom", but not like many other original mono mixes do for other groups. Listen to the song "Monday, Monday" in Mono or Stereo and just imagine just how great that song probably sounded, before John buried everything from all of the bouncing down. You can clearly hear that many instruments got buried thanks to what John did. Sadly, even if you had the original multi-channel master tapes, there is no way to separate all of those layers that John added from the bouncing down!

The song "Words Of Love" is an entirely different beast in it's mono single mix, with added brass and more. However, having been raised on the album version of that song, I'm not really a fan of the original mono mix of that song.

 

Add "April Anne" (B-side to "Mississippi") by JP as the final track on disc two.

 

I picked up the imported set last year--the one which was licensed by UMG to some overseas company who has been releasing "Singles Plus..." sets--the name of which I can't recall. The tracklist was very similar, but I was a bit peeved to have everything in stereo from the LP mixes.

This is a no-brainer....

The stereo mix of WORDS OF LOVE, for instance. Naked. Simply naked.

 

True for the 1st album (UK copy tape), but it was determined earlier this year that Sundazed just used needledrops for the main body of songs, while splicing in the intros and fadeouts from the stereo mixes and folding them. Note that Sundazed hasn't responded to this issue yet. @lukpac was the one who analyzed and confirmed this, he might be able to back me up here.

To my knowledge, everything up to Twelve-Thirty should at least have a dedicated mono mix, whether having its own 45 mix ("Words of Love") or just using the mono LP mix ("I Saw Her Again"). I can't say whether or not the single after that ("Straight Shooter") used the mono or stereo mix, though.

This isn't directly in response to you, but the main issue I've got with Sundazed's needledrop is that it sounds so distorted... it's like they chose the most worn LP out there. A fan needledrop I've got sounds a lot better. If Real Gone does have to resort to needledrops (which I pray they don't have to and are able to find tape sources for all tracks), I just hope they use much cleaner pressings than Sundazed did.

 

Yes. No question about it. Often really bad needledrops too.

 

As for my thoughts on this issue, I just hope they're able to find a good tape source for the 45 mix of "California Dreamin'"! This is neither common nor uncommon knowledge, but the 45 mix actually had a longer fade, giving it a few more seconds of audio than the mono LP version. I hope this difference gets preserved on the upcoming Real Gone M&P Singles set!

 

Would be great to have a Mamas and Papas expert chime in here about 2hich songs on this comp aren't otherwise already available on CD (same mono single mixes)

Would also be great to learn which songs on this new comp are from tape sources and which are needle drops. I think we got that info in advance for the Grass Roots.

 

Yep, I mentioned that in the last third of my post above. I think you also mentioned there might be an alignment issue with their turntable setup that might be causing more distortion than what's actually there, though that could've been somewhere else.

I'm sure some might pop in at this point and say how they can't even hear it and you're an awful sacrilegious person for even giving one negative word, however.

 

I'm confused about the Real Gone edition. Will say, "Words Of Love" be the brass version? ... which was the only one I ever heard on the radio when the song was on the charts. I keep forgetting if the brass version was considered the 45... or was considered a promo dj mix or whatever. I bought the 45 single in Dec of 66 but forget if it had the brass or not. Too lazy to dredge it out of the boxes of singles.

 

Never heard this version before right now. It's interesting but not something I would buy a new box set to get.

 

What are you talking about? California Dreamin' ends cold, no fade.

 

OK, I'll admit to screwing up, it's not "California Dreamin" that fades early on the mono LP, it's "Monday, Monday" that runs longer on the 45, about 5 seconds longer, to be exact: http://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threa...irst-lp-on-mono-cd.261656/page-4#post-7066978