[78-L] Fake stereo

[David Lennick]

I wonder if the tapes Mercury sent up for Canadian processing were stereo? New 
Vaudeville Band, f'rinstance. My first copy was mono. Don't know if I still 
have it.

dl

On 3/1/2013 8:21 PM, Michael Biel wrote:
> 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
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