Funny thing: The threads about Ring-a-Ding Ding and Sinatra and Strings contain lots of chit chat about slapback reverb on those albums, but there's slapback on the original mixes for I Remember Tommy, too, and a search in this thread for "Slapback" turned up nada.
It seems worst to me in that infamous mix of RING-A-DING DING!. I can't say why. There's a bunch in SWINGIN' BRASS also, though it's so wacky sounding to begin with, what's a little more (as you'd call) "knob twiddle".
I question whether or not the mastering engineer was sober on that one, going by my R9 stereo pressing.
I've "grown up" on the early 90s CD. Upon hearing the R9 stereo, the band sounds OK, but Frank is moved mostly left and a little muffled, not groovin' with the band very well.
From the web: (cause I am not near any of my collection) "The rights to the rich Reprise Records catalog are held by Bristol Productions L.P., which Sinatra formed in the mid-1950s to hold his budding film interests. (He chose British-style names for his companies, like Bristol and Sheffield, which sounded classy to him.) As part of his estate planning, he later assigned control of Bristol to his children."
Here's the pic to which Simon was referring in that old post: Oddly, there was apparently also a blue-texted variant: (....or the text got somehow skewed during the photographic process of the Ebay photo?) Also, I recently bought one of the dark-texted cover LPs, and the label is completely different: Looking at the Japanese releases of this title I *think* that they came in this order: •Original Japanese mono and stereo had the US cover, with this style label: •In December, 1971, the alternate-cover version was released (as pictured earlier in the post). My pressing of this alternate-cover release is in great condition, but it's a total dog, sonically. #P-8170R. •In 1975 (at least according to Discogs, and apparently available for several years, as mine looks like an early 80s pressing), a new re-issue landed that reverted to the original cover (non-Gatefold), #P-6157R, with stone-quiet vinyl and much improved sound vis-a-vis the 1971 release. (IIRC, @paulmock also has and likes this version. My copy has the plain "steamboat label," with no photo of Frank.) --------------------------------------- Also, on a tangentially-related note, I'm curious something that to which maybe @W.B. or somebody else can speak. At some point in the late-70s or early 80s, mastering and manufacturing of Sinatra's Reprise LPs shifted from Columbia Records to Capitol. (This has been discussed before.) I've commented on pressings that have either JW-1 or WW-1 in the deadwax. Any chance that maybe the first letter referred to Jacksonville and Winchester, respectively? And was Warner cutting their own replacement lacquers? Might the second letter stand for Warner? I'm just thinking out loud here and am likely way off base, but it just strikes me as funny that JW-1 and WW-1 keep coming up on these Capitol (for Warner) pressings, handwritten after the handwritten catalog number in the deadwax, and the WW-1 pressings are Winchester pressings.
Great -- thank you for clarifying that. Makes sense. Also, does anybody have a copy of F-1003, as opposed to R-1003? The F mastering should be different, and we don't have a copy on the samples page. If you've got one and can dub a clip for me, please send a PM. Thanks!
I've updated the LP & reel-to-reel comparison page: http://www.11fifty.com/Site_108/1961_-_I_Remember_Tommy2_2.html Aside from a format update with better pictures, I've added some new samples: •1971 Japanese LP (direct audio link) <---The worst of the 8 stereo LPs sampled •c. 1980 Capitol/Winchester -WW1 pressing (direct audio link) PS - I'm still looking for clips from other releases, especially: •Mono pressings •Other pre-WB stereo pressings (R9-1003 on label) •Other WB-era stereo pressings (FS-1003 on label -- I only have a 1-H pressing) •Non-USA pressings Any contributions appreciated!
This is still so true for me. My admiration for Sinatra went way up after listening to his struggles and then stoically accepting his new limitations. Nothing but an impressive guy was he.
As earlier stated somewhere...maybe this thread...the head cold he had on 5/3/61 didn't help matters much. You can hear him blowing his nose many times between blown takes.
Regarding who engineered this album, from nearly four years ago: Any further info on who engineered this one? (I'm not just asking Steve. The floor is open....)
I saw this today at a record shop (but did not buy it): Early Reprise (pre-WB) pressed at Decca? Was that common? I always associate the early Reprise pressings with Waddell and then Columbia. (Paging/pestering our expert, @W.B. .....)
I have some original era Sinatra/Reprise pressings like that. One of my R9 TOMMY LPs is such. Forgot what that plant is.
Nope. . . . by MGM's Bloomfield, NJ plant, with label typesetting by Pace Press in NYC. It was during this time that the MGM plant first used the 1.25" diameter pressing ring. (This was also during the period that MGM acquired Norman Granz' Verve label.) Decca at the time, still had an old-style deep groove, but would transition over this decade to the approx. 0.96875" ring. Not to mention their own set of fonts which are not on here. What happened was, at the outset of Reprise's existence, MGM pressed that label's product for the East Coast, Southern and Midwest markets, and Waddell for the West Coast and the outer two states of Alaska and Hawaii.
@W.B. -- thank you! I saw that inner ring and a little bell went off along the lines of, "Is that the small Decca ring, or not quite small enough?" M-G-M -- of course, that makes sense. Thanks! I will say that, at least in my own record buying experience, those M-G-M pressings are pretty rare out here in the lumberjack territory of western Washington.
