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Just bought this from HMV - same price as Amazon.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Original-Album ... ff+richard


So far, listened to 'Me and My Shadows' (Very, very good) and 'Cliff' (great and very raw!). I like the way the albums are presented in miniature card sleeves, with all original credits present and correct. The only difference I can see is that they are all now on Parlophone as opposed to Columbia.

'Ready Teddy', from 'Cliff', features an amazing bass sound from Jet - sounds more like a syndrum! In my opinion! Amazing stuff!

Recommended.

Do these CD's feature the mono and stereo versions of the tracks, like on the 1998 digipaks? On these releases, the albums "Cliff", "Cliff Sings", "Me And My Shadows" and "32 Minutes And 17 Seconds With Cliff Richard" featured the mono and all corresponding stereo versions of the tracks, while "21 Today" only featured the mono album and "Listen To Cliff!" the mono album with stereo versions of "True Love Will Come To You" and "I Want You To Know".

As far as I can tell, they are all stereo. Of the two CDs that I have listened to thus far, that seems to be the case. I suppose this makes sense if they only intend to release ONE box set with the albums presented in their original form.

drakula63 wrote:As far as I can tell, they are all stereo. Of the two CDs that I have listened to thus far, that seems to be the case. I suppose this makes sense if they only intend to release ONE box set with the albums presented in their original form.

It was normal at that time to release the mono version first, with a stereo version later. That policy continued at least as late as 1964, with the first few Beatles albums enjoying their mono release some time before a stereo version was made available.

As a matter of fact, until the mid-sixties, the mono and stereo versions used to have different catalogue numbers. Later, they were given the same number as each other, modified by a different alpha prefix or suffix. For example (Columbia), 33SX (mono) or SCX (stereo).

And some mono versions are different and have better guitar breaks do they not? e.g Choppin' and Changin' and I'm Gonna Get You ??

Yeah. When I said 'original form' I meant as released originally with no extra tracks or different album artwork.

I actually have 'Jigsaw' in both Stereo and Mono versions and, for one reason or another, the Mono sounds better!

I think if I had to choose between a boxset of original albums in either Mono or Stereo, I'd probably choose the Stereo variant. Which I suspect was their thinking too.

Having said all that, I DID like the EMI releases from the 1990s which contained both!

All in all, pretty good for £12.99 I think.

Yes a good price,but personally I have not yet worn out the previousCD
Digipack reissues from around 20 years back?
Cant see a lot of sales potential in this set as Cliff's early back catalogue
has seen umpteen reissues in recent years.
Most collectors (of a mature age!!) seem to be downsizing, so one wonders
if it really is the Record Company making something at a low cost and still
making a very sizeable profit for every unit sold to casual purchasers?

Mike