🎵 AotW AOTW: Miguel Rios A SONG OF JOY (A&M SPX 4267)

[LPJim]

MIGUEL RIOS
Song Of Joy
A&M SP 4267

Miguel Rios, a native of Grenada, Spain, had a hit single with the title song, which was based on Beethoven's "Ode to Joy" from his 9th Symphony. He was a bona fide pop star by 1970, known in Mexico, Central America, Columbia, Peru, Chile, Uraguay, Argentina, Portugal and Bolivia for hit singles such as "El Rio," "Vuelvo a Granada," "Yo Solo Un Hombre" and "El Cartel."

Side One: A Song of Joy 4:44/ She's Gone 3:44/ Look to your Soul 3:15/ The Life I Knew 2:58/ Vuelvo A Granada 2:30.

Side Two: Second Glance 3:15/ Soledad 3:50/ The River ("El Rio") 2:39/ Like an Old Time Movie 3:39/ Himno A La Alegria (A Song of Joy in Spanish) 4:44.

Waldo De Los Rios Orchestra recorded in Spain by Hispavox/ Producer Rafael Trabucchelli/ Licensed by Hispavox Records, S.A. - Madrid/ Photography: Ontarion/ Art Direction: Tom Wilkes/ Album Design: Chuck Beeson.

Not available on CD to the best of my knowledge.
JB

 

[W.B.]

I recall that the single of "A Song of Joy" (#1193) was released using the infamous HAECO (Holzer Audio Engineering Co.) "CSG" process; and that the composer of its B-side, "El Rio," was one F. Arbex who later penned "Hijack," a hit for one-off A&M/CTi alumnus Herbie Mann in 1975 (Atlantic 3246). (Atlantic, for a time in 1968-69, also used HAECO's CSG system.)

 

[Harry]

Thanks for finally clearing up what the HAECO stood for. Being young and naive back then, I alway thought that the "HA" just had to stand for "Herb Alpert."

I bought the single of "A Song Of Joy" b/w 'El Rio". Still have it. I also acquired the Forget Me Nots promotional album, where the hit single is included. I understand it was included in a latter-day version of the Something Festive album, too.

I've never seen the SPX 4267 album, nor that later Something Festive.

There are a few Miguel Rios compilation CDs available on Amazon that contain some of the songs from this album. Follow the link on the main page to check them out.

Harry
NP: A Song Of Joy, Miguel Rios

 

[Dave]

Miguel Rios, a native of Grenada, Spain, had a hit single with the title song, which was based on Beethoven's "Ode to Joy" from his 9th Symphony. He was a bona fide pop star by 1970, known in Mexico, Central America, Columbia, Peru, Chile, Uraguay, Argentina, Portugal and Bolivia for hit singles such as "El Rio," "Vuelvo a Granada," "Yo Solo Un Hombre" and "El Cartel."

Side One: A Song Of Joy 4:44 ...Covered by The Sandpipers a couple of AOTW's ago...and both Johnny Mathis and Floyd Cramer do a not so bad version of it (the latter done as an instrumental), too

/ She's Gone 3:44/

Look To Your Soul 3:15 ...Oooh! The Johnny Rivers Song! Nicely Done!


/ The Life I Knew 2:58/ Vuelvo A Granada 2:30.

Side Two: Second Glance 3:15/ Soledad 3:50/ The River ("El Rio") 2:39/

Like an Old Time Movie 3:39 ...this was also recorded by Scott McKenzie (the guy who advised those 'going to San Francisco to wear some flowers in their hair'... )


/ Himno A La Alegria (A Song Of Joy in Spanish) 4:44.

Waldo De Los Rios Orchestra recorded in Spain by Hispavox/ Producer Rafael Trabucchelli/ Licensed by Hispavox Records, S.A. - Madrid/ Photography: Ontarion/ Art Direction: Tom Wilkes/ Album Design: Chuck Beeson.

Sounds a lot like recordings done here in the U.S.; maybe 'cause the majority of what I listen to is done here.

Not available on CD to the best of my knowledge.

If only it could be reissued. Musician info and maybe New liner notes would be nice.

Dave

Gioccho Adesso: Miguel Rios "Soledad" A SONG OF JOY A&M SP 4267

...and also wondering what Miguel is up to these days...

 

[Rudy]

"CSG", I've found out, stands for Compatible Stereo Generator. Its effect was to make one channel 90 degrees out of phase (halfway out of phase) with respect to the other, so that the mix remained more intact when played back in mono. This is opposed to simply combining the channels into mono (a fold-down) where instruments in the mix could appear louder or softer depending on the phase content of when the stereo version was originally mixed. This saved engineers having to make separate mono or stereo mixes.

Once you've heard it, especially over headphones, you wonder why they'd ruin a perfectly good stereo recording this way. For stereo listeners, the bass, especially, does not appear to be focused in one location, but instead rather diffuse and spread over both channels. It's getting to where, inside of a couple seconds with suitable material, I can tell if it's been processed with CSG.

 

[Tim Neely]

Related to this album, which alas I do not have (and my 45 of "A Song of Joy" is pretty beat, if I recall) --

Over the holiday I found a copy of the album by Walter de los Rios called Sinfonias (United Artists UAS 6802, released circa April 1971), which has his versions of some famous classical pieces. The version of Mozart's Symphony No. 40 in G Minor, K. 550, 1st Movement, actually made the charts for a few weeks.

The lead-off track is "Ode to Joy," based on Beethoven's 9th, and the de los Rios version is exactly the same as the Miguel Rios "A Song of Joy," but without Rios' lead voice.

I knew this had to exist because I've heard it used as background montage music for Olympics highlights reels... and here it is.

 

[W.B.]

"CSG", I've found out, stands for Compatible Stereo Generator. Its effect was to make one channel 90 degrees out of phase (halfway out of phase) with respect to the other, so that the mix remained more intact when played back in mono.

Thank you very much. Now, between your information and mine, everyone frequenting A&M Corner knows the initials to both "HAECO" and "CSG." (The info on the origins of the HAECO initials came via an informative book called The Audio Cyclopedia by Howard Tremaine(sp?), published in 1969 by Sams; this was contained in the section dealing with vinyl disc mastering.)

But as to the "ruination of a good record" comments: I find that if you hook a turntable to a mixing board and phase-cancel while playing a CSG stereo record, it sounds like regular mono instead of center-mix being silenced while all you heard was the left or right mix as common with conventional stereo. While playing it mono, it sounds kind of out-of-phase and somewhat distant. Which reminded me of the vertical (instead of hill-and-dale) grooves of old Edison 78's.

The lead-off track is "Ode to Joy," based on Beethoven's 9th, and the de los Rios version is exactly the same as the Miguel Rios "A Song of Joy," but without Rios' lead voice.

Kind of reminds me of some late 1960's and early '70's soul records on the Brunswick label. Like Barbara Acklin's "Am I The Same Girl," which used the same instrumental backing track as on the Young-Holt Unlimited instrumental hit "Soulful Strut." The label did this quite a few times with a few other songs. And, in an A&M connection, Barry White's production of Love Unlimited's 1973 record "Oh Love, Well We Finally Made It" used the same instrumental track (albeit mixed somewhat differently) as a version by a group called Smoke as released two years prior on the "Mo-Soul" label.

B.T.W. . . . was the "X" in the SPX- prefix indicative of a CSG-processed release? From what I could tell of my copy of Sergio Mendes & Brasil '66's Fool on the Hill LP, this seems to be the case, but I'd like to be sure. . . .

 

[Rudy]

B.T.W. . . . was the "X" in the SPX- prefix indicative of a CSG-processed release? From what I could tell of my copy of Sergio Mendes & Brasil '66's Fool on the Hill LP, this seems to be the case, but I'd like to be sure. . . .

I thought it had to do with a specific price point (a dollar more than standard releases, maybe?)....but now that you mention it, I had that same idea when I saw LPJim's post with the "X" in the catalog number. The era certainly is correct! CSG seemed to have been very short lived, coming at the tail end of the mono era.

I've noticed that A&M"s "Audiophile" series used SPJ as the prefix. While I didn't initially make a connection, it may have stood for "Japan" since that may have been where they were pressed.

 

[Ed Bishop]

I have a white label promo of A SONG OF JOY; very nice album, a shame only the hit single version seems to be on CD. Rios has many CD's out there, but I don't trust them for the older material.

ED

 

[Rudy]

Hey, Ed! Long time no see! (Where's Buffy??)

I only have the single track myself...it has a very different sound compared to other A&Ms...very spacious, almost like it was recorded in a shower, not to mention being very orchestral/operatic. I'd like to find more of Rios one of these days. It sounds like English is his second language.

 

[Rudy]

But as to the "ruination of a good record" comments: I find that if you hook a turntable to a mixing board and phase-cancel while playing a CSG stereo record, it sounds like regular mono instead of center-mix being silenced while all you heard was the left or right mix as common with conventional stereo.

In this age of stereo, CSG really isn't needed--I just notice that some existing tracks, like "Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head" sound really "weird" (for lack of a better term). It's not as bad as that "eardrums getting sucked out of your head" feeling you get when listening to out-of-phase headphones, but heh, it's halfway there anyway. I wonder if it's possible at this late date to modify the tracks back to their original state. (With tape alignment issues, I would almost think that reverting the 90 degree phase shift may have some unwanted side effects.) Just a shame that CSG was used on these at all, especially when mono was on the way out.

 

[scott]

One of my musical hobbies is collecting popular music from 1970 so I am eagerly awaiting the release of Miguel Rios - A Song Of Joy on CD (I hope Universal monitors this site for reissue ideas). I know it was available on a Japanese A&M Gold Series various artist collection, but by the time I got up the nerve to try mail order, it was no longer available (insert unhappy face here).

According to Joel Whitburn's book of Pop Singles, A Song Of Joy is the highest charting single (position # 112 for the year) that I don't have on CD yet. The whole album is good too. If Andrea Bocelli did a version of "The Life I Knew" in Italian, it would rival "Con Te Partiro" as his greatest song (hey Universal, is Andrea Bocelli one of your artists). Anyway, here's hoping that it will be released someday. thanks!

 

[Ed Bishop]

Scott,

"A Song Of Joy" is on a CD now OOP, but not extremely difficult to find if you search: A TIME TO REMEMBER 1970, issued on the Card/EMI imprint. Great sound, too, BTW. Would be nice to have the original US version of the S/T Lp on CD, but I'm not holding my breath for that one....

ED

 

[W.B.]

Thanks for finally clearing up what the HAECO stood for. Being young and naive back then, I alway thought that the "HA" just had to stand for "Herb Alpert."

In a sense, I could understand why you'd've been confused . . . just as young aficionados of Atlantic Records growing up in the same period might've thought that the "AE" in HAECO stood for "Ahmet Ertegun."

 

[LPJim]

True. I suppose many pop and easy listening fans might think the CO stood for "Columbia."
JB

 

[mikeking]

I seem to remember another version of "Song of Joy" in the late sixties by an artist other than Miguel Rios. I also believe the title was not "Song of Joy". Can anyone help with the artist/title/label etc?

Many thanks!

 

[Harry]

This is a really old thread, but I've recently managed to finally get a copy of the Miguel Rios album. The LP is in decent shape and cleaned up nicely.

Reading over this old thread, I thought I'd add a couple of factoids for future reference. The copy of A SONG OF JOY that I've gotten is SPX-4267, a standard stock A&M release. It has a gatefold cover much like the Sergio Mendes A FOOL ON THE HILL but this album DOES NOT have the CSG processing that was detailed in this early thread. I suspect that the X in the catalog must have denoted a higher price point, perhaps for the gatefold.

The 45 RPM single of "A Song Of Joy" (1193) that I have does indeed have the CSG designation and the out-of-phase sound.

What I've found a little interesting is that the album contains "The River" and the single has the same song in Spanish as "El Rio". Paul Williams is credited with the English lyrics on the album.

 

[Steve Sidoruk]

While doing some of my recent research, I found that A&M Canada made the hit, A SONG OF JOY, before it was even considered for a U.S. release. I've had the album and single since initially released. I like his voice and the other tracks are also quite good. His DE COLLECCION CD compilation is on Polydor.