A&M LP-9004 Dee Jay Sampler (mono version)

Mediaace

Active Member
A comparison between the 7" singles and the same tracks on this rare "Best of Herb Alpert & The Tijuana Brass LP indicates that the LP doesn't sound like the original 45s. The 45s have a wallop to them that is missing from the LP, and makes the 45s more desirable. It would be nice to have a CD reissue of this rare album, but with the sonic qualities of the original 45s, although I doubt that will ever happen. The singles were released back in the day when AM ruled the pop radio market, and singles were engineered to sound good on portable and car radios, as well as the small portable record players that singles buyers had as kids, but we got used to hearing the songs as issued on the 45s. Everything doesn't HAVE to be in stereo in this day and age, especially when most of us remember the hits from the singles we bought in our youth. Many of us, myself included, bought the stereo LPs as well, but what we remember mostly is the way the singles sounded on the radio and on the 45s we bought. At least with Carpenters' singles, they were mostly the same as the stereo LP versions, and if I remember correctly, the only Carpenters' single not issued commercially in stereo was "Ticket to Ride." The Forget-Me-Not reissues WERE stereo. It would be really cool to be able to buy a CD of all the original mono Tijuana Brass single mixes, as they're different than what was on the albums, and "Tijuana Taxi" was issued in three different mixes: the single mix (with the most horn honks), the stereo LP mix (with a few less horn honks than on the single) and the mono LP mix (with even fewer horn honks than on the stereo LP). At least if we could have all the mono singles on one album, mastered as they were on the Columbia and Monarch pressings of the 45s, we'd have all the hits as we knew them in one place.
 
I have done just such a compilation, doing all of the a-sides and b-sides too. I lucked onto a set of Herb's original A&M singles that completely filled in my collection and most were in really nice shape. There are a couple that have a bit of groove-wear, but they still sound pretty much OK with some clean-up.

Details are in this thread: TJB 1962 - 1969

My project managed to take three full CDs that takes things from the "Lonely Bull" beginnings up through some singles from THE BRASS ARE COMIN'.
 
The key to doing quality dubs from mono styrene singles is to obtain a 1.2 mil mono stylus for a Stanton 500 series, Pickering NP/AC, or V15-AT2 cartridge wired for mono (strap the channels together). The 1.2 mil stylus (available from Esoteric Sound Phono cartridge, custom stylus, 78 rpm stylus, LP stylus, record needle - scroll to the bottom of the page) will ride higher in the groove and not track the bottom of the groove where all the wear is from being played with stereo styli. The stylus number you want is D5112EJ. It's not cheap, but it's effective! FYI, Columbia didn't press all of the A&M singles. West coast pressings were done by Monarch, who also pressed for Liberty/UA, ABC/Dunhill, Carlton, and several other independent labels. Monarch pressings have labels printed with a different typeface than CBS used for title and artist, and the font is narrow rather than wide. This is a CBS pressing. Note that the A&M logo is centered on the label and the bold font used for the title and artist.

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This is a Monarch pressing. Almost all early Monarch pressings for A&M have the logo too large to fit on a 45 rpm single label without being either cut off a the center hole or on the left edge.

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You will notice the print isn't dark like on the CBS pressing and the font is smaller and narrower.

CBS pressings were done in either Pittman, NJ or Terre Haute, IN (the one above was pressed in Terre Haute) and the labels from both are a bit different as far as the title and artist font goes, but the A&M logo on this style of label is never cut off on either side of ANY CBS pressing that I've ever seen.
 
I've not seen promo singles, but I know that Monarch pressings were common on the west coast with Columbia (Pittman, NJ) being common on the east coast and Columbia (Terre Haute, IN) being common in the central states. Bear in mind that the companies used several different printing companies to print labels, and two different batches from the same plant may have different typefaces.
 
Use a 1.2 mil on worn mono 45 RPM singles only. On nice copies, use a .7 mil conical. A good reason why we need stylus options. Keep nice copies nice, don't use too wide tips as they are unsuited for those. 1 mil was mono standard. .7 mil works with most mono and Stereo LP discs old and new.
 
I agree that the mono singles (and LPs) are best reproduced using a 1.0 mil stylus, and stereo vinyl should never be played with anything wider than a .7 mil tip. My recommendation was for use on worn polystyrene injection pressings from CBS or Monarch, which don't take kindly to repeated plays with older, heavier tonearms that were the standard in homes when singles like "A Taste of Honey" or "Whipped Cream" were initially released. I don't suggest that the pressings sounded bad, but styrene wears faster than vinyl, yet a clean and unworn styrene single can sound better than the same recording pressed on vinyl. Collectors will agree that it's harder to find clean, unworn styrene pressings of singles than it is to find used vinyl pressings without signs of repeated plays in the grooves. The 1.2 mil stylus will allow better reproduction of used styrene singles with the "ssssssssshhhhhhhhh" effect (commonly called "cue burn sound") one hears throughout a worn styrene disc. since that groove wear is always at the bottom of the groove. The 1.2 mil stylus will ride higher in the groove and therefore not reproduce the groove bottom wear, as it will track the groove's sidewalls, which is where the modulation is on a mono single anyway.
 
My nice copies in well cared for condition are played with .7 mil styli of high quality, on magnetic cartridges of high quality, they're played on high quality, broadcast grade tonearms like all my other records get. Which are maintained to high standard and maintained regularly as needed. 1.2 mil should be reserved for very worn singles only. Don't use on good copies.

Not every owner in 1965 or 1966 had poor quality, heavy tracking equipment. People had good turntables and tonearms and even changers. In Oak Ridge, TN, many a music lover in those days had separate components, usually a middle to high end Garrard or Dual, or ELAC/Miracord record changer, and a Shure Magnetic cartridge and cared for their collections. Our best record shop then sold Fisher, Garrard, KLH, HH Scott, Sony, Ampex, McIntosh, AR, Electro-Voice, and more in that era. And many but the cheapest console stereos, if cared for, weren't too bad on records if cared for. Don't assume every owner had junk. Many music lovers were willing to pay a little bit more and get something a bit better.
 
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My nice copies in well cared for condition are played with .7 mil styli of high quality, on magnetic cartridges of high quality, they're played on high quality, broadcast grade tonearms like all my other records get. Which are maintained to high standard and maintained regularly as needed. 1.2 mil should be reserved for very worn singles only. Don't use on good copies.

Not every owner in 1965 or 1966 had poor quality, heavy tracking equipment. People had good turntables and tonearms and even changers. In Oak Ridge, TN, many a music lover in those days had separate components, usually a middle to high end Garrard or Dual, or ELAC/Miracord record changer, and a Shure Magnetic cartridge and cared for their collections. Our best record shop then sold Fisher, Garrard, KLH, HH Scott, Sony, Ampex, McIntosh, AR, Electro-Voice, and more in that era. And many but the cheapest console stereos, if cared for, weren't too bad on records if cared for. Don't assume every owner had junk. Many music lovers were willing to pay a little bit more and get something a bit better.
As I've said many times it still bears repeating IMO "It's all about Quality".
 
I just had one of those "where in the world did I put THAT?" moments looking for my homemade CD of the DEE JAY SAMPLER, THE BEST FROM HERB ALPERT & THE TIJUANA BRASS (mono). I found a CD that was made by someone else, but I also knew that I had made my own, needledropped from my very own LP, complete with artwork.

My computer still had the artwork files on it, so I established that I wasn't crazy - at least not about this one thing! So I started looking for a misfiling through my CD shelves. Since I knew that the spine I made was plain white with black printing, I was able to easily look past anything with color on it, so it didn't take long to scan the spines of all of my CDs.

As things turned out, it was misfiled - sort of. For some reason, I'd placed it after the main alphabetical section of my CDs, in the place where all of my Various Artist discs are filed, and it was within the section of A&M 19xxx discs that I'd made.

If anyone's made their own copy and you need artwork, here's mine:

DEEJAYFrontMonoSm.jpg DEEJAYRearMonoSm.jpg DeeJayMonoLabel1.jpg DeeJayMonoLabel2.jpg DEEJAYRearCDMonoSm.jpg
 
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