Sinatra / Reprise Sound Quality: "I Remember Tommy" (1961)

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by MLutthans, Apr 16, 2012.

  1. MLutthans

    MLutthans That's my spaghetti, Chewbacca! Staff Thread Starter

    Some of you may recall seeing this oddball artwork version that I have in my collection:
    DSC03055.jpg
    I came across this (below) on Ebay today:
    s-l1600-505.jpg
    Was it actually released in the UK that way, or did somebody take a box cutter to the front cover?
     
  2. mahanusafa02

    mahanusafa02 Forum Resident

    Location:
    UK
    The photos on Discogs appear to show the cut-out cover we are used to, so I'm thinking box cutter...it might simply have been flimsily made, as one of the UK versions shows the lower half of the oval around Frank torn off.
     
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  3. MLutthans

    MLutthans That's my spaghetti, Chewbacca! Staff Thread Starter

    It looks like there is a bit of a ring around Frank's portrait where the cover cut-out would have been, so I do suspect it's a knife job by somebody.
     
  4. CBackley

    CBackley Chairman of the Bored

    I’ve been on an I Remember Tommy kick lately. This is one of my absolute favorite Sinatra albums. It has my favorite version of “Polka Dots and Moonbeams.” Other favorites are “Without a Song” “The One I Love (Belongs to Somebody Else),” “There Are Such Things,” “Imagination,” and “I’ll Be Seeing You.” Heck, I love the whole album.

    I listened to the tracks from this album on the huge Complete Reprise Collection yesterday. I really enjoy the mastering on those tracks.

    I have about 5-6 copies of this on vinyl, on mono and stereo. I forgot to make note of which ones I thought sounded best, so one of these I’m gonna have to sit down and listen to them all again I guess!

    I see some mixed reviews of this album (e.g. Allmusic), and I’m a little shocked. To each their own, but I love this one.
     
  5. McLover

    McLover Senior Member

    I love to blast this LP a lot. And every track you mention are prime ones. "Without A Song" really grabs me especially, that passage where the band drops out, and returns full steam ahead really livens up the place when blasted.
     
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  6. Steve Hoffman

    Steve Hoffman Your host Your Host

    It’s sad that today people would read this album title and think he was talking about the Pinball Wizard.
     
  7. paulmock

    paulmock Forum Resident

    Location:
    Hollywood, CA
    REALLY????!!!!!
     
  8. teag

    teag Forum Resident

    Location:
    Colorado
    Great LP. In general, you still like the sound of the stereo over the mono?
     
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  9. Steve Hoffman

    Steve Hoffman Your host Your Host

    Yeah, sadly.
     
  10. yasujiro

    yasujiro Senior Member

    Location:
    tokyo
  11. CBackley

    CBackley Chairman of the Bored


    I do. Seems more lively to me.
     
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  12. roda12

    roda12 WATERTOWN FOREVER

    Location:
    Berlin, Germany
    The Sinatrafamily sessionography states that some of the songs were intercut. Does these intercut versions differ from any other released versions?
    Also it seems that "Take me" differs on the 45rpm single from the album version. The album has an intercut and runs seven seconds longer than the single version.
    Anybody?
     
  13. Bob F

    Bob F Senior Member

    Location:
    Massachusetts USA
    The intercuts shown by the SFF Sessionography are from the Reprise files. They agree with (and are probably copied from) the Silva discography. I’m not aware of any differences in OFFICIAL released versions (other than the “Take Me” single, as noted).

    Alternate takes from the “Tommy” sessions were contained on the bootleg “Inside” CD, also listed by Silva. (See this blog article.)
     
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  14. Artur Torres

    Artur Torres New Improved Full Dimensional Stereo

    Location:
    Brazil
    Only now did I know that the sessions used on this album were recorded at United. I thought the sessions were on Radio Recorders, how annoying to know that the session in this late studio was aborted, even though I do not know what the recorded sound quality is like. But I think it must have been great, as some of Ella Fitzgerald's best sound albums, IMHO, were recorded on Radio Recorders as The Johnny Mercer Songbook.
     
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  15. MMM

    MMM Forum Hall Of Fame

    Location:
    Lodi, New Jersey
    The version of "In the Blue of Evening", released on the original CD of this album, plus the 20 disc complete Reprise box, is from the sessions held at Radio Recorders.
     
  16. Bob F

    Bob F Senior Member

    Location:
    Massachusetts USA
    The ORIGINAL (1991) album CD did not have “In the Blue of Evening.” It was added as a bonus track to a SECOND (1993) CD issue, and then dropped again from the THIRD (1998 EOTC) Reprise CD. The latter matches the current (2010) UMG version.

    If anyone is looking for the bonus track CD, its catalog no. was 9 45267-2. (Original CD was 9 27019-2.)
     
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  17. MMM

    MMM Forum Hall Of Fame

    Location:
    Lodi, New Jersey
    You are correct, sir. :) I always forget about the '91 disc...
     
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  18. James_S888

    James_S888 Forum Resident

    Funny, I don't remember ever having actually played this one...
    Checked, I have four copies
    Stereo Warner Bros issue - Smiling Frank
    Mono Warner Bros issue - smiling Frank
    Stereo French press - serious Frank. Can't tell from the deadwax if it's a US or French mastering job...

    Then... turns out I have a mono promo copy of the record. Looks unplayed! That is going on this weekend :)
     
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  19. MLutthans

    MLutthans That's my spaghetti, Chewbacca! Staff Thread Starter

    You may recognize this detail from an old Garrard print ad from my website (or elsewhere):
    [​IMG]
    I had never seen this one (below) before last night:
    s-l1600-580.jpg
    (Maybe I should have posted this in the Nice 'n' Easy thread?????)
     
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  20. Bob F

    Bob F Senior Member

    Location:
    Massachusetts USA
    I owned that exact Garrard model. Nice to see it again!
     
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  21. Arkoffs

    Arkoffs Remote member

    Location:
    Right behind you
    That is cool. Do you know where that second ad was placed, or did you just run across it online somewhere?
     
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  22. MLutthans

    MLutthans That's my spaghetti, Chewbacca! Staff Thread Starter

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  23. kwadguy

    kwadguy Senior Member

    Location:
    Cambridge, MA
    Note that that's a first era pinball game, more a game of chance than a game of skill. It has no flippers. You just launch the ball and hope for the best. In 1944 you could get one for about $50. With inflation that would be $730 today.

    In later years, some of those machines, which were rendered hopelessly out of date when flipper machines appeared in the mid 1940s, were retrofitted with flippers. Not that they were all that much more fun with them).

    (For those who care, that machine is Bola Way, which was made in 1941).
     
    Last edited: Sep 9, 2019
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  24. paulmock

    paulmock Forum Resident

    Location:
    Hollywood, CA
    It looks like it had a huge cartridge.
     
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  25. MLutthans

    MLutthans That's my spaghetti, Chewbacca! Staff Thread Starter

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