Reviews of Whipped Cream & Other Delights CD remastered

[bob]

I just got the cd version of whipped cream & other delights in the mail, and man what an improvement.

thanks to Randy and Bernie high five, the sound to me is amazing.. A taste of honey the bass drum has less

reverb that the original album. the sticker says it was remastered from the original analog tapes. the sound

is a lot brighter and more cleaner, I heard instruments I never heard before even on the shout release,

the trumpets was more panned to the left.so again thanks to Randy and Bernie for doing an

excellent job. and the bonus songs blueberry park and Rosemary was not on there, I guess they

wanted just the original release.

thanks guys.

bob

 

[Captain Bacardi]

You know, there's already a thread about these new releases....

http://forum.amcorner.com/threads/f...-in-decades-released-today.14705/#post-145438

 

[Harry]

I've hopefully got a line on getting the new WHIPPED CREAM CD at a Barnes & Noble, probably tomorrow. Can't wait.

Harry

 

[Mike Blakesley]

Mine arrived today, I'm going to take a drive and listen to it in about 10 minutes. The package is just like the Christmas Album with the cool ochre label.

 

[Rudy]

You know, there's already a thread about these new releases....

http://forum.amcorner.com/threads/f...-in-decades-released-today.14705/#post-145438

Vinyl only, though.

 

[Harry]

So the release date of WHIPPED CREAM & OTHER DELIGHTS on CD was to be 11/20/15. As it turned out, that was the day we were to begin our annual trek to Chicagoland for the Thanksgiving holiday. I didn't want to order it from Amazon and have it be waiting at home in held mail, so I thought I'd make the attempt to find the CD in a retail store somewhere along the way, or in the Chicago area.

My first attempt was at a stop in Macon, Georgia. We went out to eat at a Zaxby's Chicken store. While my wife spent a long time eating her salad, I walked next door to a Best Buy. I'd already checked their stock online and it said that it wasn't available in-store, but I thought since I was there, I'd give it a look. No dice. I did find a copy of COME FLY WITH ME on CD there, but that was the only Alpert title they had in their tiny CD section.

After arriving in Chicago on Monday, I checked the surrounding Best Buys to no avail. Next I thought about Barnes & Noble. Sure enough, several stores in this region listed it as available and in-stock. With other obligations in the way, I wasn't able to get to the store until today. It was still listed as available last night, so I used their website to put it on hold for me and got both text and email confirmations last evening.

This morning we headed out on the 10-mile trip to that location, and found this beautiful store with plenty of stock - CDs, vinyl, DVDs, and Blu-rays. Box sets galore for the holiday shoppers, and all neatly arranged before the throngs paw all over it on Black Friday!

The clerk had my disc. It was a little higher in price than Amazon, but it didn't matter. I'd found what I was looking for. Other commitments today have kept me away from giving it a proper listen. I resisted the urge to simply pop it in the car CD player. But now, back in our room, I've gotten it into the computer CD player and am enjoying "...That Unmistakeable [sic] TIJUANA BRASS Sound!" as it says on the sticker. I brought along the good Sony headphones in case I found the disc so I could give it a good listen.

It's clearly airier than any other version I've heard, begging for the volume to be turned UP instead of down. This one's a winner, just like the CHRISTMAS ALBUM before it.

Harry

 

[Harry]

Oh - and A&M obsessives will note that the cover art has "A TASTE OF HONEY" printed in yellow. There were of course two versions of the cover art, one that had that title in green like all the other titles and one highlighted in yellow. The Shout! issue, I believe, used the all-green version.

Harry

 

[Mike Blakesley]

I listened tonight after work (one day later than originally planned). I also thought it sounded better than the Shout! version. I remember being fairly underwhelmed with that upon first listen but this one makes you sit up and take notice. The kick drums in "A Taste of Honey" definitely have more kick now. I need to give it a headphone listen at some point to really get all the nuances.

My overall impression of the album remains the same: It kicks major butt for its first two-thirds, runs out of steam with tracks 9, 10 and 11, and then things get back on track in a major way with the last tune. My favorite tunes, as always, are "A Taste of Honey," "Green Peppers," "Bittersweet Samba" and "Love Potion #9," with "Whipped Cream" and "El Garbanzo" running a very close second.

 

[bob]

I agree with harry, that is why I would prefer Cd's over vinyl, but that is just my own opinion. the vinyl has a bit more warmer sound where the CD has a bit more high end to itand crisp sound to it.

and again Harry is right a taste of honey the kick drum does have more of kick to it and what I heard less reverb than the original that was out in 65 and which modern tec. you have digital where back then was all analog.

bob

 

[David S]

I have been listening to the CD I received today (I ripped to Apple Lossless and also to FLAC; currently listening to Apple Lossless) and good Lord this sounds fantastic. I am hearing things I didn't hear before and it sounds really smooth. My ten gallon Texas hat is off to Messrs Badazz and Grundman for a fabulous, clearly loving job on a really great "record". Nice touch that the album cover looks exactly like the original vinyl (front and back). It's been a pleasurable listen.

One small note: on the list of tracks on the, Sol Lake is credited on Bittersweet Samba as "Sol lake". On other tracks, he is credited as "Sol Lake". Not sure if that is how he was credited originally or if this is an editorial boo boo. On "Ladyfingers", Toots Thielemans is credited as "Toots Thielmans".

Looking very forward to the other remasters next year.

Thanksgiving greetings to all.

Regards, David

 

[Captain Bacardi]

The original LP also had "Thielmans".

 

[Mike Blakesley]

One area where the Shout! version has the new version beat is the front album cover image. The new version (maybe we should refer to it as the HAP version?) lacks contrast and looks washed out compared to the Shout! version. It's interesting because the Christmas Album has the opposite situation: The cover art looks better on the HAP version of that album. On the Shout! version, Herb's fingers have a slightly greenish tint which is corrected on the HAP version, and the HAP version has better contrast..

One other packaging difference between Christmas Album and Whipped Cream -- on Whipped Cream, the cut-out on the disk pocket is a different style than on Christmas Album. Obviously this is not a complaint, just more of an observation. Maybe the packages were sourced from different vendors -- in fact maybe there'll be variations out there. I guess we'll see. Whipped Cream also places a list of the album's songs inside the gatefold, where that area is blank on Christmas Album. I wonder if this was done because the song titles on the back of the original Whipped Cream don't have the writers listed.

I've always wondered if the guy who, in about 2000, paid $149 for my extra sealed copy of the original CD issue of Whipped Cream knows about these reissues (and if he's irritated by them!)

 

[Rudy]

The original art for these albums is long gone, so there is no telling what they might have found to use when they created the covers for these releases.

 

[Harry]

And various printings of the WHIPPED CREAM cover varied widely in coloration. Some were VERY green, others looked more yellow-green, and some eve approached a brownish tone - much like the color variations in the A&M ochre label color. I have a Japanese first-pressing CD of WHIPPED CREAM that's a really dark green color, almost too dark - it looks unnatural. This new HAP CD has a lot of brownish tones to it, and Dolores Erickson's hair is kind of a washed-out red-brown.

Most original covers look like this:

And while it's hard to exactly match colors on a computer, I've approximated what the new WHIPPED CREAM color looks like to me with the vagaries of my laptop computer monitor. The real thing might even be redder than this:


Harry

 

[Mike Blakesley]

You've got the colors about right (as it shows up on my monitor anyway) but the real thing isn't as bright.

I took your graphic above and adjusted it on Photoshop and it came out looking way better, both contrast-wise and color-wise. I was going to post it here but for some reason my computer won't talk to my website server so... guess it ate too much turkey or something.

 

[Steve Sidoruk]

This is the file that was the origin of the cover - shot as a RAW file, saved as a TIF and compressed to a small JPG to meet the A&M Corner web limitations. There is some loss of quality in the compression. Unfortunately, monitors that have not been properly calibrated would be all over the map as far as appearance.

 

[Harry]

That's great Steve, but I guess we're questioning how the printed cover of the released CDs got so brown looking. I understand that printing variations occur - and occur frequently - still it seems that what was released *could* have been a little close to the original.

 

[Rudy]

Given the size of the LP jacket, I wonder what color variation might appear. The early 80s reissue I have is frame-worthy (nothing stands out as being imbalanced), so I will compare when it gets here. (It's en route to me now.) For color calibration, my laptop changes appearance (colors and brightness/contrast both shift) based on how the screen is tilted, so I have never bothered on that one. My desktop monitor is calibrated and does not have that image fall-off you get once you move to the sides.

And looking back 50 years, how many of our parents or relatives bought this one for the cover?

 

[Mike Blakesley]

To me, the fact that it's so washed-out looking (on the CD cover, that is) is the biggest problem. The photo isn't tinted properly and the very cool artist/title graphic just kind of blends into the background instead of standing out like it should. It took about 5 seconds to hit CTRL-ALT-L in Photoshop to make it look 100% better. I guess we shouldn't be griping about these kinds of things but ... that album cover being so famous, we all want it to look like its perfect, iconic self. Plus we KNOW it's possible to be better, given the great looks of the new Christmas Album CD released at just about the same time.

 

[Rudy]

I would probably just chalk this up to a printing error.

I highly doubt it left Herb's hands that way. If I get the vinyl and the cover looks normal, that would pretty much confirm it was a printing error.

 

[Acapulco 1922]

I agree with harry, that is why I would prefer Cd's over vinyl, but that is just my own opinion. the vinyl has a bit more warmer sound where the CD has a bit more high end to itand crisp sound to it.

and again Harry is right a taste of honey the kick drum does have more of kick to it and what I heard less reverb than the original that was out in 65 and which modern tec. you have digital where back then was all analog.

bob

If you'd had the TAPE 50 years-ago: ALL those things were/ARE on it (because TAPE has no RIAA eq to limit it).

 

[AM Matt]

So is the Herb Alpert Presents CD is better than the Shout! Factory CD in sound quality or is it the same?? Matt Clark Sanford, MI

 

[Harry]

So is the Herb Alpert Presents CD is better than the Shout! Factory CD in sound quality or is it the same?? Matt Clark Sanford, MI

Answered above:

It's clearly airier than any other version I've heard, begging for the volume to be turned UP instead of down. This one's a winner, just like the CHRISTMAS ALBUM before it.