The "best" shadows recordings?

[dave robinson]

I like The Complete A & B sides compilation.

[drakula63]

I like The Complete A & B sides compilation.

Yeah, forgotten about that one. I agree, it's also very much an essential purchase.

[JimN]

The musical content of the original 1977 LP issue of "20 Golden Greats" is more interesting than the 1986 CD issue, because ten of the tracks have different mixes:
- "Apache" and "The Frightened City" have slightly different stereo mixes.
- "Guitar Tango", "Atlantis", "Geronimo", "Stingray" and "Theme For Young Lovers" have its stereo channels reversed.
- "Foot Tapper" is in mock stereo.
- "Wonderful Land" and "F.B.I." are also in mock stereo, but are different from the 1971 mock stereo mixes from the stereo issue of "The Shadows' Greatest Hits" and the 1972 3-track single "Apache"/"Wonderful Land", "F.B.I.".

All true, but there is one other characteristic of the vinyl pressing: in order to cram ten tracks (at an average of about 2:30 per track) on each side of the LP, the material was compressed to death (in order to reduce the need for lateral movement of the stylus and allow the groove to be more closely spaced).

In the days when we all had tape-decks with VU meters, you could see the difference between (say) Apache on "20 Golden Greats" and on "The Shadows' Greatest Hits" just by looking at the meter travel.

[iefje]

The musical content of the original 1977 LP issue of "20 Golden Greats" is more interesting than the 1986 CD issue, because ten of the tracks have different mixes:
- "Apache" and "The Frightened City" have slightly different stereo mixes.
- "Guitar Tango", "Atlantis", "Geronimo", "Stingray" and "Theme For Young Lovers" have its stereo channels reversed.
- "Foot Tapper" is in mock stereo.
- "Wonderful Land" and "F.B.I." are also in mock stereo, but are different from the 1971 mock stereo mixes from the stereo issue of "The Shadows' Greatest Hits" and the 1972 3-track single "Apache"/"Wonderful Land", "F.B.I.".

All true, but there is one other characteristic of the vinyl pressing: in order to cram ten tracks (at an average of about 2:30 per track) on each side of the LP, the material was compressed to death (in order to reduce the need for lateral movement of the stylus and allow the groove to be more closely spaced).

In the days when we all had tape-decks with VU meters, you could see the difference between (say) Apache on "20 Golden Greats" and on "The Shadows' Greatest Hits" just by looking at the meter travel.

That's true indeed. As a young lad in the 1980's, I experimented with that too, using my parents' cassette-tape deck and record player. This must also mean, that for for instance "Apache", there is more sonic information and thus a better sound quality on the LP "The Shadows' Greatest Hits" than on "20 Golden Greats".

[Uncle Fiesta]

The Beatles early recordings were all on 2-track. They went to 4-track in 1963 (their first 4-track recording, I want To Hold Your Hand, was done on October 17th - my birthday!) and the 8-track arrived in 1968.

As the Shads shared the same record company, and the same recording studio, then I imagine their experiences to have been similar.

[JimN]

The Beatles early recordings were all on 2-track. They went to 4-track in 1963 (their first 4-track recording, I want To Hold Your Hand, was done on October 17th - my birthday!) and the 8-track arrived in 1968.

As the Shads shared the same record company, and the same recording studio, then I imagine their experiences to have been similar.

Very similar as regards the recording equipment, but not similar in the use that was made of it.

It was normal for The Shadows to be recorded in two-track stereo (live-in-the-studio) when the studio had two-track machines. But at the same time, George Martin was using the two-track machines as two-track multitrack, which only lends itself to mono final recordings. Stereo versions of those recordings (most of the first album, for a start) are unsatisfactory because of the way the instruments are arranged on the tracks.

The Shadows' vocal track I Want You To Want Me was recorded in "George Martin stereo", though. And the "stereo" version of it (the only version available on CD until the release of the recent "Early Years - expanded version" box set) shares the same difficulties with the first Beatles LP.

I was determined to get the mono mix onto that CD box set... and succeeded.

[Fenderman]

If you listen to the first Beatles LP in stereo all the vocals come out one speaker and the instruments come through the other, not great seperation but i thought this was due to the limitations of 2 track technology.
The 4 track stereo recordings are better, they have much better seperation of the instruments.

[Iain Purdon]

My question after all this would be...

Does a compilation exist that contains all the best and only the best versions of each track?

[ecca]

The cleanest and best re-master is (in my opinion, and without a single doubt), the six-disc "The Early Years - expanded version", available for £15 or so:

http://tinyurl.com/nolzl33[/quote]

I must be mad , I've ordered it , in spite of being in possession of the previous multi disc set .
This is all your fault Jimbo !

[Didier]

If you listen to the first Beatles LP in stereo all the vocals come out one speaker and the instruments come through the other, not great seperation but i thought this was due to the limitations of 2 track technology.
The 4 track stereo recordings are better, they have much better seperation of the instruments.

It was also because in the early years of stereo sound, there was a trend to make "ping-pong" stereo with very maximum separation, rather than "natural" stereo.

Didier