I grew up in a household that played Beatles music incessantly. I was hooked by The Beatles from the first time I saw them on The Ed Sullivan Show on Feb. 9, 1964. My older sisters and my cousins all had Beatles records and albums. For Christmas and birthday gifts, I received Beatles albums. The first CD I bought was Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band when it was released on June 1, 1987 - 20 years to the day the original vinyl Sgt. Pepper's was released. (How ironic - the opening line of the album is "It was 20 years ago today..." Or was it a calculated marketing ploy?) So, yeah, I've been a Beatles fan for years.
The first 8 Capitol Records Beatles albums were released on CD a few years ago. I got those when they came out. All 8 feature the Beatles songs in both monophonic sound and stereo. The only problem is that the mono songs sound so much better than the stereo ones. The reason? The Beatles and their production engineers, headed by George Martin, put more emphasis into the mono mix because - at the time - there wasn't the proliferation of stereo sound systems available until the boom of stereo in the early 70's. Car audio was mono, most record players had a built in mono speaker, and AM radio was only broadcast in mono.
After the tracks were laid down in mono, production engineers would go back and mix the songs in stereo. Unfortunately, many of those tracks featured the vocals in one channel with the instruments in another channel. The mono tracks on the re-issues sounded so much better, more vibrant and lifelike. I ended up using some of the mono Beatles songs for demo material. They were well recorded, but still lacked some of the dynamics that you find in today's digital music.
For a reported 4 painstaking years, EMI chief engineers Allan Rouse and Guy Massey remixed the entire Beatles catalog in both stereo and mono. The result was an early September release of The Beatles Stereo Box Set and The Beatles in Mono, all of which are based upon the British release of the albums. While the differences between the originals and the remixed songs are not as dramatic as to what George and Giles Martin pulled off with The Beatles "Love" album, the songs are definitely more dynamic, more full and amazingly clean.
Rouse and Massey have been working on Beatles projects for over 20 years at Abbey Road Studios, so the remix of the box sets was a labor of love. The mono tracks were easy, mainly because that's how 10 of the 13 Beatles album releases were recorded. Even Sgt. Pepper's was recorded in mono. Then it was up to the engineers to transfer and mix the recordings to stereo. Even to me, it boggles my mind as to the work that had to go into these albums to record and release both in stereo and mono.
The feedback from audio critics was overwhelmingly positive - especially for the mono box set. Although it was smaller than the stereo box set (the stereo box set has all 13 Beatles albums plus a documentary DVD, while the mono only has 10 albums plus a bonus disc called "Mono Masters 1962-1969"), critics and audiophiles raved about the sound quality of the mono box set remixes. I first heard a track of the mono mix at the Rocky Mountain Audio Fest in Denver earlier this fall and I was blown away. It immediately became a "must have" item to my collection of Beatles discs and albums that I've collected over the years.
(As an aside - speaking of Beatles collections: One of the more difficult albums to find is an original copy of The Beatles "Yesterday and Today". This is because the original cover for the album featured The Beatles holding decapitated baby dolls and blood on their white smocks. The outrage caused Capitol Records to change the cover. Over 25 years ago, a friend of mine ran a record store and he was able to get me an original copy of the album from Canada. I think I paid something like $75 bucks for it. It was a prized part of my record collection. And, of course, like a dumb shit, I proudly showed it off to my friends - both savory and ne'er-do-wells, alike.
Through the years with many moves, many hazy nights and many people filtering through the places where I lived, I ended up losing a number of albums - one of which was the original "Yesterday and Today". I was sickened to find out a couple three years ago that the album (which is what collectors call a "first state" album) was worth up to $7,000 in mint condition. I don't know if mine was in mint condition, but it still would have been worth a lot of money. But someone else has it now. Just goes to show you never know about your friends.)
However, only 10,000 of the mono box sets were released. And even at a whopping $239 (U.S.) they sold out rather quickly. One of my dealers in Chicago, Music Direct, had sold out of their shipment of the mono release before they had them in stock. A friend of mine told me that you could find them on eBay for $1000. It looked like getting a set wasn't going to happen.
Due to heavy demand, EMI announced that it would release more of the box sets - both mono and stereo. The mono box sets were the first to show up in early November, while the stereo box sets were re-released last week. I heard tracks from both the mono and stereo box sets and relied upon recommendations from other friends and colleagues to tell me what I probably already knew - the stereo box set was nice, but the mono was the one to get.
Bes from Music Direct told me earlier this month that they had just received more of the mono box sets and I told him to hang onto one for me. I was in Chicago recently and picked up my box set from Bes. I couldn't wait to get it home and put the discs on the stereo in the family room.
The first disc I opened was "Beatles for Sale", which was roughly the same album as "Beatles 65" here in the U.S. I sat back on the sofa, hit "play" on my Cambridge Audio 840C CD player and waited for "No Reply" to begin.
From the first breath from John Lennon's mouth, his first words and the first chords on the guitar, I was blown away. It was so open, so lively, so airy, so dynamic, so LIFELIKE!! It was like the friggin' Beatles were playing in my family room! The cymbal crashes were open and sustained, the bottom end of Paul McCartney's bass was more pronounced and forward. The harmonies were more bright and subtle nuances like background hand-claps were more noticeable. It was just unbelievable. And I'm not kidding you a bit - the hair on the back of my neck stood up, it was that spectacular.
I could close my eyes and imagine The Beatles playing about 20 feet in front of me - dead center in the room. You couldn't even tell they were playing through a sound system. (Of course, that's sort of the hallmark of a good sound system, as well. Mono or stereo recordings.) Each subsequent album that I put on the CD player and played, I was even more impressed with the job Rouse and Massey did on the albums. The spectacular sound quality only enhanced the stellar performances the band put forth.
In addition to the great sound, the discs in The Beatles in Mono box set has all the original record sleeves and inserts that were in the 10 EMI mono releases in the U.K. The Beatles Stereo Box Set has all the Beatles albums, plus it has more paraphernalia and memorabilia to go along with the discs. While the mono box set is more geared for the audiophile Beatles fans, the stereo box set is more for the hardcore Beatles fan who craves more information on the Fab Four. I'll eventually get the stereo box set, but for now I'm overly happy with The Beatles in Mono. Even with the steep price, either box set should be at the top of every steadfast Beatles fan. To me, it's worth it.
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