100 Recommended All-Analog LP Reissues by Michael Fremer of Analog Planet

100 Recommended All-Analog LP Reissues Worth Owning

1) Ellington Masterpieces (Analogue Productions)
2) Duke Ellington: The Feeling of Jazz (Deluxe ORG Music) )
3) Duke Ellington: Indigos (IMPEX) )
4) The Sound of Jazz (Analogue Productions) )
5) Art Blakey: Night in Tunisia (Music Matters SRX vinyl) )
6) John Coltrane: Blue Train (Music Matters SRX vinyl) )
7) Eric Dolphy: Out To Lunch (Music Matters) )
8) Larry Young: Unity (Music Matters) )
9) Coltrane’s Sound (ORG Music) )
10) Sonny Rollins “The Bridge” (ORG Music) )
11) Ornette Coleman “The Shape of Jazz.. (ORG 2 45) )
12) Wynton Kelly: Smokin’ At the Half-Note (Analogue P.
13) O. Peterson Trio: We Get Requests (Analog Prod.) )
14) D. Brubeck Quartet: Time Out (Analogue Prod.) )
15) Sonny Rollins: Saxophone Colossus (OJC)
16) Gerry Mulligan and Ben Webster (ORG) )
17) Kind of Blue (Mobile Fidelity) )
18) Miles Davis “Sketches of Spain” (Mobile Fidelity) )
19) Miles Davis “Nefertiti” (Mobile Fidelity) )
20) Miles Davis In A Silent Way (Mobile Fidelity) )
21) LeGrand Jazz (w. M. Davis) (IMPEX) )
22) Gil Evans & Ten (Analogue Productions) )
23) The Individualism of Gil Evans (Speakers Corner) )
24) Charles Lloyd: Forest Flower (Speakers Corner)
25) Desmond/Mulligan: Two of a Mind (ORG)
26) A. Blakey’s Jazz Messeng W. Monk (Analog Spark)
27) Paul Desmond: Desmond Blue (Analog Spark) )
28) The Monty Alexander Trio: Montreux Alex. (MPS)
29) John Lewis&Sacha Distel: Afternoon in Paris (Sam) )
30) Chet Baker and his quintet with B. Jaspar (Sam) )
31) The New Standard: Saft, Swallow,Previte (R.Noise) )
32) Jerome Sabbagh: The Turn (Bee Jazz Records) )
33) Yuko Mabuchi Trio Vols. 1&2 (Yarlung) )
34) Armstrong/Fitzgerald: Porgy&Bess (Sp. Corner) )
35) B. Holiday: Songs For Distingué Lovrs (Analog Pro) )
36) Ella Fitz. Sings the C.Porter Songbk (Analog Spark) )
37) Ella Fitzgerald. Ella Swings Lightly (ORG) )
38) Cassandra Wilson: Belly of the Sun (Pure Pleasure) )
39) Cassandra Wilson: Blue Light ‘til Dawn (P. Pleas.) )
40) Ray Charles and Betty Carter (Analog Productions) )
41) Johnny Hartmann: Once in Every Life (Analogue P.)
42) Dean Martin: Dream With Dean (Analogue Prod.)
43) Tony Bennett: At Carnegie Hall (Analogue Prod.)
44) Nat King Cole: Love is the Thing (Analogue Prod.)
45) Harry Belafonte at Carnegie Hall (Analogue Prod.)
46) Peggy Lee: Is That All There Is? (Pure Pleasure)
47) Joe Jackson: Night and Day (Intervention)
48) Judee Sill: Judee Sill (Intervention)
49) Gene Clark: White Light (Intervention)
50) Stealers Wheel: Ferguslie Park (Intervention)
51) The Flying Burrito Bros: Gilded Palace (intervention)
52) Jefferson Airplane: Surrealistic Pillow (mono): Mo-Fi)
53) Grateful Dead: American Beauty (Mobile Fidelity)
54) Aretha Franklin: Aretha’s Gold (Mobile Fidelity)
55) The B. Boys: Pet Sounds (mono) (Analogue Pro.)
56) The B. Boys: Surfer Girl (stereo) (Analogue Pro.)
57) Elvis Costello: My Aim Is True (Mobile Fidelity)
58) Elvis Costello: Get Happy (Mobile Fidelity)
59) E. Costello: King of America (Mobile Fidelity)
60) The Crickets: The Chirpin Crickets (Analogue Prod.)
61) Buddy Holly: Buddy Holly (Analogue Productions)
62) E. Presley: Stereo ’57 Essential Elvis (Analog Prod.)
63) Jimi H.: Live at the Miami Pop Festival (Exp. Hend.)
64) Jimi Hendrix: The Cry of Love (Experience Hendrix)
65) Van Morrison: Astral Weeks (WB)
66) Van Morrison: Moondance (WB)
67) Bob Dylan: Blonde on Blonde (Mobile Fidelity)
68) Neil Young w. Crazy Horse: Everybody Knows (WB)
69) Neil Young: After the Goldrush (WB)
70) Neil Young: Harvest (WB)
71) Carole King: Tapestry (Mo-Fi or ORG Music45)
72) The Band: The Band (Mo-Fi)
73) Love: Forever Changes (Rhino)
74) Joni Mitchell: Blue (WB)
75) Joni Mitchell: Court and Spark (WB)
76) Eric Clapton: I Still Do (Surfdog)
77) The Mothers of Invention: Uncle Meat (Zappa F.)
78) The Moths of Invent: Burnt Weenie Sand. (Zappa)
79) Cat Stevens: Tea for the Tillerman (Analogue Prod.)
80) Gillian Welch: Soul Journey (Acony)
81) Gillian Welch: The Harrow & The Harvest (Acony)
82) Janis Ian: Breaking Silence (Analogue Productions)
83) Peter Paul & Mary: Peter, Paul & Mary (ORG)
84) Shelby Lynne: Just A Little Lovin’ (Analog Product.)
85) Dusty Springfield: Dusty in Memph (Analogue Prod.)
86) Phoebe Snow: Phoebe Snow (Analogue Prod.)
87) Samantha Crain: Under Br. &Thorn&Tree (Ramseur)
88) Son House: Father of Folk Blues (Analogue Prod.)
89) Muddy Waters: Folk Singer (Analog Prod.)
90) Ry Cooder/V.M. Bhatt: Meeting By River (Analog P.)
91) Unpopular Music (Various Artists) (Gearbox)
92) OST: TRON (Audio Fidelity)
93) OST: West Side Story (Analog Spark)
94) OST: A Fiddler on the Roof (Analog Spark)
95) D2D: C.Teal Trib. to Ella Fitzgerald (Chas. Dragon)
96) D2D: Syd Lawr. Orch: Big B. Spect.! (Chas. Dragon)
97) BOX: The Kinks The Mono Collection )(Sanct)
98) BOX: Buff. Springfield: What’s That Sound (Atlantic)
99) BOX: Jimi Hendrix: Electric Ladyland (Exp. Hendrix)
100) BOX: The Nat King Cole Story (Analog Productions)

 

Nice list! I have many of these reissues and a lot of them are the absolute best version out there.

There are just a few where I found original pressings I preferred, but that was a lot of work and trial and error.

 

62) E. Presley: Stereo ’57 Essential Elvis (Analog Prod.)

Unless there was an analog compilation tape created by Roger Semon in 1989 (and I don't know if there was or wasn't), I have my doubts that this one is AAA. The edits are exactly the same as the original CD.

 

Analogue Productions' long winded blurb:

"The discovery of these 2-track masters comprising Stereo ‘57 - The Essential Elvis Volume 2, is nothing short of a miracle, and this 200-gram pressing cut at 45 RPM from Quality Record Pressings sounds so astonishing, your jaw will hit the floor!

From the moment Elvis began working with a new song, sound engineer Thorne Norgar had the 15 ips mono tape machine rolling simultaneously with a 2-track protection copy. The machines weren't switched to pause until Elvis was satisfied with the take.

A couple of years before the advent of the stereo LP in mid-1958, major record companies were experimenting with stereophonic recordings, often refered to then as binaural. Studios were using the new Ampex 2-track tape recorders for other purposes, such as for recording session back-ups. But few Elvis fans know how close history came to permanently losing these precious audio glimpses of a young Elvis engrossed in the creative process.

Founded in 1933, Radio Recorders of Los Angeles was the preeminent recording studio of its day, and its director of recording, long-time engineer Thorne Nogar, engineered all of the Elvis sessions from 1955 to 1961. Some of popular music's greatest hits: "Jailhouse Rock," "All Shook Up," "Loving You," and "Teddy Bear," are just a few of the blockbusters that Nogar oversaw Elvis record at the studios, located at 7000 Santa Monica Blvd.

Elvis would be right in the center of everything, at every recording session, Nogar would later recall. "Like with the Jordanaires when he sang, we would set it up with a unidirectional mike, so he would be standing right in front of them, facing them, and they would have their own directional microphone and they would be singing to one another."

The 2-tracks from which this record was pressed could not have sounded better, and there was no one more careful, more experienced and technically skilled to record these historic sessions than Nogar, says Acoustic Sounds' founder and CEO Chad Kassem.

Yet one day years later when Thorne was "cleaning out" his tapes closet, remarkably, he set these 2-track backup tapes aside, intending to dispose of them. Noted producer Bones Howe had worked for Nogar as a tape operator at Radio Recorders, and thanks to him the tapes were saved from a final resting place in the trash can. Bones took the tapes home with him. He'd put them safely away in a bank vault.

These 2-tracks have "erase" clearly written on the master log sheets. They're from January 1957 sessions at which Presley produced material for two EPs and the film "Loving You" soundtrack. They're the only known ones surviving from the pre-stereo era.

RCA's Essential Elvis series was a vehicle for the release of Presley's alternate takes. On this double LP set, listeners hear Presley at work, refining band arrangements and working through the nuances of his vocal performance. The LP reveals the Jordanaires voices' sparkling with a natural lifelike sound that's both sonically rich and detailed.

The Jordanaires, a vocal quartet originally formed as a gospel group in 1948, gained fame largely for being Elvis' background singers, both in live appearances and recordings, from 1956 to 1972. If discovering these rare, almost lost recorded treasures weren't enough, the sound reproduction puts this release over the top! When the Jordanaires sing "Peace in the Valley," you'll swear you're hearing a melody sent from heaven. An audiophile's prayer come true!

There are a number of first and second takes, during which Presley and his backing musicians make tentative passes at the material. As the record progresses, arrangements take shape and Presley, growing more confident that a keeper take is imminent, sings with more enthusiasm. Throughout, Presley is heard directing the proceedings and demonstrating a lot of "aw shucks" charm in the process, goofing with band members and laughing through his and others', flubs.

Like other reissues pressed by QRP, this magnificent 200-gram LP is notable for its absolutely silent background. The vocal harmonies are tingle-inducing, life-sized and utterly natural.

For serious Elvis fans and anyone else interested in the creative process, Volume 2 meets the first definition of "essential" as well as the second: it's indispensable stuff."

Additionally, if Analogue Productions gets busted using digital masters, I'm gonna need to make some popcorn.

 

I mentioned at AnalogPlanet that he didn’t include The Beatles mono box.

Oversight? Or did Please, Please Me confound the issue? It shouldn’t have.

 

Elvis Costello’s “My Aim is True” on Mofi is very average imo, I’m suprised to see it on his list.

 

I only have about 10 of these titles.

 

I would have opted for Peter Paul & Mary's ORG reissue of In The Wind over their first LP. I think it sounds more natural, especially Mary's voice.

 

Yep. It is NOT Stellar.

No Lynn Stanley on there, either. And he raved about at least one of her LPs.

 

I must agree that's an average recording. On vinyl, I prefer the original UK vinyl to the MoFi.

 

It's a bad recording, though. The MoFi is by far the best I've heard "My Aim is True." It can be a great reissue without being a great-sounding reissue.

 

They used digital masters for their stereo vinyl reissues of The Beach Boys' "Today", "Summer Days and Summer Nights", "Party" & "Smiley Smile", but that's because they were mixed digitally to begin. The mono versions were cut from the original mono tapes.

They were transparent about their sources on their website.

 

Also "The Trinity Sessions" by the Cowboy Junkies. And "Pet Sounds" stereo is also 16/44 (fed back onto analogue tape).

 

I suppose I meant "busted" as in saying it's from tape when it isn't, as would be the case with the Elvis record in question

 

I don't believe any of the Lynn Stanley releases are reissue.

 

And there you have it.

 

This Year’s Model is even worse imo, After comparing to a UK original I sold it.

My experience with Mofi vinyl is that titles mastered by Krieg Wunderlich sound great, he mastered ‘imperial bedroom’ and ‘king of America’ (They sound lovely) but not ‘my aim is true’ and ‘this year’s model’.

 

But then agin #33 isn't a reissue, either.

Fremer also made a boo-boo.

 

+1

I go to my WLP US for that one. Sounds great.

 

I expect I’m not gonna be the last to say “I can’t believe X isn’t on there” but honestly the WB release of Dire Straits Communique is out of this world good and truly odd to not make anyone’s top 100 list of AAA reissues if they’ve heard it.

That Dave Brubeck 45rpm is so good. Wish I could win a contest with one mint copy of each title on this list.

Haha

 

I've read this. It's not possible for George Marino to have cut these records from the original Radio Recorders binaural tapes. Either they were cut from the digital master used for the 1989 CD, an analog backup was made in 1989 when the original LP was compiled (possible), or the entire thing was re-edited and recompiled to analog tape from the original binaural tapes (highly unlikely).

 

Huh...I wonder why they included the long-winded anecdote about discovering the tapes then. Seems like a bunch of unnecessary information otherwise.

 

So the MFSL 2X45 Surrealistic Pillow blows away the Sundazed mono ? Funny how Fremer praised both highly, years apart of course.

 

It's AAA. I have it on the 45rpm version and no digital transfer could sound like this.

 

Weird, how is the Beatles mono box not on there? Maybe because it's so popular already, or because it's out of print?