I'd guess they also ditched the elaborate booklet insert the original cover had ... it was like a libretto, with a "rice paper" front and back leaf, and several regular pages in between. Very classy and expensive especially for a first album by an unknown act.For some reason I've never read any info on, all subsequent vinyl pressings of the album after the original release ditched the original cover and used an alternate cover that's horribly cartoonish-looking and almost looks like something Pickwick would do
I've got all the CD versions of the album. I remember hearing the remaster with the 1987 "updates" and thinking, wow, that's really an improvement! (It was mostly a few guitar additions and they changed the drum sound to the more boomy '80s style.) But now, I prefer the original mixes. The updates make '87 version sound dated now. The coolest part of the remaster was, they added in some voice work by Orson Welles that was left off of the original, and they segued Side 1 and Side 2 together. I wish they would make a version that preserves the 1976 original mixes, but adds the segueing and the Orson Welles parts that were on the remaster.
It's kind of opposite of my experience with Carpenters records...I've always preferred the original mixes of those.