Stones Singles Collection SACD

yellowdog · May 8, 2003

Are the mixes used on the SACD the same as the LP issue? Does anyone know which were originally mono and which stereo? I can't remember right off-hand the original singles configurations and I'm feeling too lazy today to research it myself.

guy incognito · May 8, 2003

There's been maybe two dozen threads here about that particular title. Just type "Stones Singles Collection" in the search engine and you'll find plenty to digest.

For the basics, let me copy this bit from one earlier thread:

4.18) The Singles Collection: The London Years (3CDs)

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Track List [Disc 1]: 1) "Come On" 2) "I Want To Be Loved" 3) "I Wanna Be Your Man"
4) "Stoned" 5) "Not Fade Away" 6) "Little By Little" 7) "It's All Over Now" 8) "Good
Times, Bad Times" 9) "Tell Me (You're Coming Back)" 10) "I Just Want To Make Love
To You" 11) "Time Is On My Side" 12) "Congratulations" 13) "Little Red Rooster" 14)
"Off the Hook" 15) "Heart of Stone" 16) "What a Shame" 17) "The Last Time" 18) "Play
With Fire" 19) "Satisfaction" 20) "The Under Assistant West Coast Promotion Man" 21)
"The Spider and the Fly" 22) "Get Off of My Cloud" 23) "I'm Free" 24) "The Singer, Not
the Song" 25) "As Tears Go By"

[Disc 2]: 1) "Gotta Get Away" 2) "19th Nervous Breakdown" 3) "Sad Day" 4) "Paint It,
Black" 5) "Stupid Girl" 6) "Long Long While" 7) "Mother's Little Helper" 8) "Lady Jane"
9) "Have You Seen Your Mother, Baby, Standing in the Shadow?" 10) "Who's Driving
Your Plane" 11) "Let's Spend the Night Together" 12) "Ruby Tuesday" 13) "We Love
You" 14) "Dandelion" 15) "She's a Rainbow" 16) "2,000 Light Years from Home" 17) "In
Another Land" 18) "The Lantern" 19) "Jumpin' Jack Flash" 20) "Child of the Moon"

[Disc 3]: 1) "Street Fighting Man" 2) "No Expectations" 3) "Surprise Surprise" 4) "Honky
Tonk Women" 5) "You Can't Always Get What You Want" 6) "Memo From Turner" 7)
"Brown Sugar" 8) "Wild Horses" 9) "I Don't Know Why" 10) "Try a Little Harder" 11)
"Out of Time" 12) "Jiving Sister Fanny" 13) "Sympathy for the Devil"

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Alternate Versions: None

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Definitive Version: ABKCO remaster (although the old release *does* have material
unavailable on the remaster)

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There's no such thing as a "London Records" version of the Singles Collection;
while London apparently released it in both Europe and Japan, it was ALWAYS merely a
clone of the ABKCO set.

The old ABKCO set was alarmingly uneven. The Singles Collection purported to
finally collect all of the Stones Decca-era singles into one place; consequently, most
assumed that the single MIXES would also be used. This was, sadly, not entirely the case,
and consequently the Singles Collection's value was tremendously diminished.

Thankfully, the new ABKCO release rectifies this somewhat, as the new set gains
many single mixes. The problem is, it also LOSES a few tracks, and there's some suspect
stuff going on that suggests that forgeries still plague the set. Also, it's quite obvious that
more care was taken on the more "universal" tracks than the tracks that only appear here;
like Between the Buttons, there's an awful lot of extreme fidelity-switching going on.

As there're tons of tracks contained here, I'm going to single out the most
important ones/most important changes between the sets.

As was the case with the original set, disc 1 is the least essential completism-wise,
as most of these tracks are available in mono-only quality anyway. "Tell Me (You're
Coming Back)" was the 2:57 edit on the original set, which corresponds with the original
single. Strangely, ABKCO elects to use the regular 3:47 album edit this time around,
although this version is NOT digitally identical to the one on More Hot Rocks (it's in true
mono, as far as I can tell). "Heart of Stone" is a LOT clearer than it was before, although
the clarity of the backing vocals makes me suspect that this might be a mixdown of the
stereo. "The Under-Assistant West Coast Promotion Man" on the original set was a 3:14
"uncensored" edit of the track, which contained the line "I bust my ass every day." The
new ABKCO set loses this variant, and instead uses the album version from Out Of Our
Heads.

Disc 2 presents a much rosier picture, initiating many first-time-on-CD mixes.
"Gotta Get Away" sounds a bit duller than usual, and might be suffering from some phase
cancellation. "19th Nervous Breakdown" is the odd re-working from Hot Rocks, instead
of the actual single mix (again, why bother?). "Stupid Girl" and "Lady Jane" sound like
the actual mono mixes; pity ABKCO doesn't see it fit to release the entire Aftermath
album in mono. "Ruby Tuesday," strangely enough, sounds like a knockdown of the
incorrect new stereo mix, although this could be the *correct* mix (and the previous set's
version could be a knockdown). "Let's Spend," "Dandelion" and "We Love You" are once
again presented in their correct single mixes. The Satanic Majesties tracks are also finally
in their correct single mixes, as opposed to the bizarre semi-forgeries from the old set.
However, the fidelity on "The Lantern" is somewhat questionable, as what sounds like
surface noise can be heard during the quiet, opening passage

Disc 3 starts off with a nice surprise. For the first time in thirty years, the original,
amazingly hard-to-find mono single mix of "Street Fighting Man" is easily available! The
fidelity is surprisingly bad, and the mixing rather sloppy-it isn't hard to see why they
replaced this version with a downmixed version of the album mix-but it presents a
fascinating alternate to a familiar track. "No Expectations" may or may not be a mono
reduction of the new "correct" version, as it's very hard to tell. "Honky Tonk Woman"
was in mono before, but is now in stereo; however, the mono mix was apparently just a
knockdown of the stereo, so this isn't a big deal. On the flip side, "You Can't Always Get
What You Want" was the edited version in stereo before, while now it is in mono (still
edited).
Click to expand...

Long story short...the new set is different from the old CD and LP version. It corrects a number of the earlier version's mistakes, and unfortunately adds a few new ones. Overall I'd say it's an improvement and well worth getting if you're a fan.

Michael · May 8, 2003

A huge improvement! Do an a/b comparison if you have the original Cee Dee set, You'll be amazed...

Todd Fredericks · May 8, 2003

A huge improvement! Do an a/b comparison if you have the original Cee Dee set, You'll be amazed...
Click to expand...

Agree 100%. The first release of this set was high marks on the concept/potential but low on the results...

Todd

Michael · May 8, 2003

Originally posted by Todd Fredericks

Agree 100%. The first release of this set was high marks on the concept/potential but low on the results...

Todd
Click to expand...

I alway's thought the Stones recording quality S**ked! After hearing a few of these new SACD's, my opinion changed...Shame it took this long for us to hear them in their proper form!
The sound quality was all over the place before...Finally almost all in one place now...where they belong!

Tyler · May 8, 2003

I've got the original 3 cd set of the Singles collection. I balked at the high price tag for the SACD version. I opted to buy Hot Rocks instead of the Singles collection.

In retrospect I should have picked up the Singles collection instead of Hot Rocks (which I picked up with Let it bleed and beggar's banquet on the day of release).

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Stones Singles Collection SACD

yellowdog Member Thread Starter

guy incognito Senior Member

Michael I LOVE WIDE S-T-E-R-E-O!

Todd Fredericks Senior Member

Michael I LOVE WIDE S-T-E-R-E-O!

Tyler Senior Member

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Stones Singles Collection SACD

yellowdog Member Thread Starter

guy incognito Senior Member

Michael I LOVE WIDE S-T-E-R-E-O!

Todd Fredericks Senior Member

Michael I LOVE WIDE S-T-E-R-E-O!

Tyler Senior Member

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