James Bond on vinyl, mono, stereo and other variations of the soundtracks Options

[scaramunga]

I'm starting to get into vinyl records a bit lately. I have a few of the Bond scores, but am missing a few and have started looking around to get some decent copies.
I am curious about the early 1960's Bond soundtracks. I have seen both mono and stereo versions of Dr. No and Goldfinger. Are there others?

I've read a bit about mono vs stereo mixes. Some of The Beatles albums used different recorded takes for songs and albums. Did the recording of the early Bond soundtracks also do this? That is are they very different versions (mono and stereo) or even different takes such as was the case with The Beatles mono and stereo albums?

Thanks for the help and comments!

[alan_more]

There are mono LPs from Dr No up to Thunderball because the player's technology was not compatible. YOLT was the first mono/stereo compatible disc.
There were no differences in track contents between the mono and stereo versions, but only different track selection between some UK and US LP releases.

Because of the damaged status of the EMI archived tapes, some tracks from the early LPs sound quite better than their CD versions and even worse on the remastered series. It was an engineering choice to mask the tape faults on the original CDs mix while the remastering team took the opposite choice.

[lazenbyland]

There was an excellent article in the early eighties in the fanzine of the then "James Bond British Fan Club" about the various vinyl LPs and releases.

http://www.007magazine.co.uk

The gold standard in those days were the japanese LPs which had the best pressings.Some of the cheap LP re-releases by Sunset etc. came in for a bit of a slating as they weren't perceived that they would last very well.Of course we hadn't envisaged that CDs would take over.

But I miss the LPs.I still have mine but don't have a turntable to play them on anymore. Just hearing that faint crackle and hiss before the music started increased the anticipation.

I think the LP I miss the most is a covers album I had by Roland Shaw and Orchestra. They did some very powerful cover versions.

[Professor Dent]

A lot of it is that multi-track technology didn't exist in the early 60's. On the Beatles mention, Abbey Road was remixed in stereo years after it was recorded (there is a great article on it here that also talks about stereo vs mono). On the home end, if your turntable had a mono head, that was all it could play. If you had a stereo head, you could play both. Mono isn't a bad thing & the audiophiles will say that the best recordings are still the original mono versions.

For Bond, I have most of them on LP but only Goldfinger & From Russia With Love in mono. I haven't done any mono-stereo comparisons because I haven't owned a turntable in years. At some point in the future I will fix that.

[Marketto007]

I have only the TLD vinyl.

xxx

[The Cat]

I've read a bit about mono vs stereo mixes. Some of The Beatles albums used different recorded takes for songs and albums.

Not exactly that, but they often featured completely different tracks. If you own the CDs, you're not missing much though.

[bond 16.05.72]

Vinyl is much better than CD in my opinion and it's not just the quality it's the packaging.

One of my first Bond chilhood memories is opening the gatefold sleeve od OHMSS or the same with SWLM, the delight of opening the gatefold and seeing Laz stood in the ski suit with his gun or those chosen stills from SWLM gatefold sleeve. CD will never compete with that.

I have most of the earlier Bond soundtracks on LP plus some compilations like the Best of Bond or the 10th Anniversary double LP.

The vinyl versions look better & sound better, yes having those unreleased tracks is good like The Gumboldt sequence in OHMSS but you can't beat the sound when the stylus hits the black plastic.

In the words of Pearl Jam, Spin the black circle!

[jimbo bond 007]

I have a whole load of Bond related records (see http://www.toysofbond.co.uk/records.html ) and I don't think there is anything better than listening to the early soundtracks on vinyl.

My brother very kindly brought me an old Bush record player for Christmas and boy they sound good on that.

I agree with bond 16.05.72 as well, the artwork on some of them is great, especially some of the ones from Japan.

This post has been edited by jimbo bond 007: 19 July 2008 - 09:35

[Mark_Hazard]

I have a whole load of Bond related records (see http://www.toysofbond.co.uk/records.html ) and I don't think there is anything better than listening to the early soundtracks on vinyl.

My brother very kindly brought me an old Bush record player for Christmas and boy they sound good on that.

I agree with bond 16.05.72 as well, the artwork on some of them is great, especially some of the ones from Japan.

Hi Jimbo

Suggest you put a space twixt htlm and closing bracket in your link (as above) otherwise it doesn't work - nice collection by the way.

[stamper]

Er, I don't Think Abbey Road was remixed ever, are you sure ? It was the only Beatles record only released on stereo.

[tinkerdill]

The vinyl versions look better & sound better, yes having those unreleased tracks is good like The Gumboldt sequence in OHMSS but you can't beat the sound when the stylus hits the black plastic.

In the words of Pearl Jam, Spin the black circle!

Vinyl look nice, but sound thing with LP's is way too overrated.

[Marketto007]

I have "The Living Daylights" on Vinyl only.





xxx

[Solex Agitator]

I finally scored a very nice vinyl copy of LTK! This completes my official soundtracks on vinyl collection. That is unless GE was released on vinyl in some country unbeknownst to me...

[stromberg]

I finally scored a very nice vinyl copy of LTK! This completes my official soundtracks on vinyl collection. That is unless GE was released on vinyl in some country unbeknownst to me...

It wasn't, don't waste time looking for it.
The closest you can get is a maxi single with remix versions of the theme.

[scaramunga]

I finally scored a very nice vinyl copy of LTK! This completes my official soundtracks on vinyl collection. That is unless GE was released on vinyl in some country unbeknownst to me...

Nice work! That was one of the last ones for me as well.

I found a very nice copy of The Living Daylights too.

I have all of them on vinyl now. There's a few compilations that I may try and find at some point. The 10th anniversary compilation for one. Maybe the 13 Original James Bond hits. I found the first collection of hits that uses a red cover. I had the 13 one on tape as a kid, so I'll probably find that one at some point.

I guess there is a rare LP printing of The Best of James Bond 30th album. It's just the title songs and not the additional material on the 2nd disc. I'd like to locate that one at some point as well.

I've even managed to pick up some repeats as well.

I really enjoy listening to them on vinyl at home. Work I usually listen to the remastered cds. Great stuff.

Of course in terms of sound nothing compares with hearing the music in the films on blu ray. HD DTS Master Audio.

: )

[Marcato]

Have you seen this before ?

it has selected music from the 62 - 71 soundtracks

 hej_2.jpg ( 26.35k ) Number of downloads: 18


This post has been edited by Marcato: 27 November 2009 - 22:41

[Solex Agitator]

Ah yes, the 10the Anniversary SUPERPAK! My Dad gave that to me for my 10th birthday back in 1974! That is a terrific compilation.

[Mark_Hazard]

Here in the UK (and I thought Europe) the cover was blue, with insert pages.

http://bondpix.com/blog/wp-content/uploads...lp_10th-tn2.jpg

'twas the first time I heard the Goldfinger instrumental and was blown away - it didn't (as far as I am aware) appear on any other disc until the last few years.

[The Cat]

'twas the first time I heard the Goldfinger instrumental and was blown away - it didn't (as far as I am aware) appear on any other disc until the last few years.

It appeared on the American version of the LP, but in return that record was missing some of the stuff on the British version. Win some, lose some.

[Marcato]

and finally all was combined in the 2003 release

what a day what a day

[Jeao007]

My Grandmother owned the Goldfinger LP, but sold it in a garage sale..