[78-L] Fake stereo

[Michael Biel]

From: David Lennick <dlennick at sympatico.ca>
> Then there were "mono" lps which turned out to be stereo.
> I found a few of these on Everest's Piano Roll series and
> 101 Strings, and didn't know they were stereo till years
> later. Cheapskates only bothered to cut stereo masters! dl

The Mercury group was doing this for about a year around 1966-67 on
Mercury-Philps-Fontana-Smash pop records.  The matrix numbers in the
vinyl were marked like 2/63456 with the mono being 23456 and the stereo
being 63456.  You can find this on hundreds of releases.  During this
time I attended a national college radio conference with my great pal,
the late Ed Sciaky.  There was a panel session with 5 or 6 national
promo men for record companies who were trying to get their stuff aired
on our stations -- because REAL radio stations wouldn't.  With his droll
suppressed sarcastic delivery, Ed stood up during the Q&A and asked the
Mercury Group guy "When are you going to admit that all of your records
are stereo even if they are marked mono?"  The guys from the other
companies all turned towards the Mercury guy and in unison asked "Yeah,
when ARE you going to admit that all your records are stereo?!!"  I
don't think he had an answer other than surprise that WE ALL HAD
NOTICED!!!  The price differential ended that summer, and soon they
stopped issuing mono, but when they remaindered all those mono copies,
many of them were stereo!!! For 79 cents!!!!  Even now, when Mercury
group mono copies from this era show up, I've taught Leah how to check
the matrix number and if she wants the disc in stereo some of the ones
marked mono are stereo.  There was one drawback.  There was a Piaf
reissue on Philips Connoisseur that even the mono copies were electronic
stereo.

Mike Biel  mbiel at mbiel.com


On 3/1/2013 3:27 PM, Cary Ginell wrote:
>
> Then were releases whose catalog numbers implied that they were
> fake stereo, only to reveal TRUE stereo when it was played.
> I believe I recall some things on RCA Camden that were like this.
> Cary Ginell