Phony Oldies 💿 Re-Recordings & How to Avoid Them
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 20 ก.พ. 2022
- Inferior re-recordings have been an anathema to fans of '50s-'70s Rock, Pop, and R&B music ever since CDs became popular in the 1980s -- and these phony Oldies persist today on TH-cam and other streaming and download sites. This video provides examples of these re-recordings, comparisons to the original recordings, and tips on how to avoid re-recordings when collecting compilation CDs.
Slate article about re-recordings: slate.com/culture/2013/05/re-...
Music featured (in order of appearance):
The Shangri-Las - Remember (Walkin' in the Sand) [intro]
The Buckinghams - Hey Baby (They're Playing Our Song)
The Foundations - Build Me Up Buttercup
Ben E. King - Stand By Me
Jan & Dean - Surf City
Berlin - Take My Breath Away
The Chi-Lites - Oh Girl
Mary Wells - My Guy
Wayne Fontana & The Mindbenders - Game of Love
Dobie Gray - Drift Away
Petula Clark - Downtown
Bachman-Turner Overdrive - You Ain't Seen Nothin' Yet
Brook Benton - Rainy Night in Georgia
Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes - The Love I Lost
Mott the Hoople - All the Young Dudes
The Crests - 16 Candles
Danny & The Juniors - At the Hop
Lesley Gore - It's My Party
The Coasters - Yakety Yak
The Drifters - Save the Last Dance for Me
Gloria Gaynor - I Will Survive
The Animals - The House of the Rising Sun
Redbone - Come And Get Your Love
Bobby Darin - Mack the Knife
Elvis Presley - I Got a Woman
Orleans - Still the One
The Temptations - Ain't Too Proud to Beg
The Miracles - Shop Around
The Grass Roots - Midnight Confessions
Jimmie Rodgers - Honeycomb
Gary Lewis & The Playboys - This Diamond Ring
#oldies #cd #ripoffs - เพลง
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"Original" can also be used (cheekily) to mean "unique", and therefore could be used to decieve the buyers into thinking they are buying the recording that the song was made famous by.
Or even a demo, technically the original
@@Chickenpatty878 There are some cases where the demo sounds just as good if not better than the final release, the demo version of Part of Me by Mister Mister comes to mind as well as the demo version of Poor Hearts by Strawberry Switchblade. But this ain't always the case.
Yeah, they can say that it is AN original recording, not THE original recording.
@@LieutenantSandcastle Hence the use of the plural "original recordings", to avoid making that distinction.
I was actually thinking this exact same thing!
Here in Brasil we call this "Ghost Records" because it haunts record collectors who visits thrift shops
It exist here since the 60's and gaining force in the 70's until mid 80's, labels only did this to make some extra money and to put studios bands to work
There is a very long and interesting history about this "Ghost Records" but is very obscure even to Brazilian music lovers
This sounds extremely interesting. I love foreign music/record histories and how different things are in other parts of the world. I wish more people would talk about these kinds of things.
There is a documentary called "A História Secreta Do Pop Brasileiro" (The Secret History Of Brazilian Pop) but i dont know if it has English subtitles
Ghost Records (Discos Fantasmas) is the name we gave to this type of records, but there are famous labels who did this like Brasidisc, CID, Square, Fermata, Bervely and some others
There is a Brazilian channel i watch called "Baú Musical" and he post a lot of Brazilian pressed records, in the channel have a "Ghost Record" playlist
th-cam.com/play/PLxy4yZyELu8QtrV4mmlZ-T2zkQ3DapzkO.html
This sounds very similar to ripoff records here in the US, which have a long history here as well. They are different from the CDs shown here as the original artists are usually not involved in any way, and like the "Ghost Records" they were made as cash in products and to give studio bands some work.
The youtube channel Oddity Archive has quite a number of videos covering them. The ones he showcases are mostly from the 70s and 80s, but they go back to at least the 60s, maybe even the late 50s, I used to have a couple EP length ones on 45rpm from the early 60s. His videos do a good job of covering the subject though.
Yeah, here in Brasil there were a surge of "re-recorded" compilations between 1992 to 2000's when CD's gained force due to the mass production of 4 in 1 systems (Record/Tape/CD/Tuner in one small system), I am a big fan of Tina Turner, and due to her solo success a lot of distributors released these kind of CD's from her time with Ike in the early 60's/70's that, while had original recordings on them, sounded like were taken from a very worn out cassette tape, with poor sound and lots of dropouts.
Back in the 60s, my granddad fell victim to either a print ad in Reader's Digest, or a TV ad. It was advertised as "All the great classical music hits" It turned out to be a heavily edited snippets record of each song being 15 to 45 seconds ling. He was sooooo mad.
So this type of stuff has been going on for decades....
the condensed versions...
Ooh, that "Stand By Me" re-recording is just sad to hear. I bet a lot of these were unintentionally depressing, besides being disappointing.
I found that at 4:47 & had a listen & it sounds atrocious; the guy can't even sing. Yuck.
That remake of “Save The Last Dance For Me” has to be one of the absolute worst remakes I’ve ever heard in my life!
I'd rather have an imperfect hissy original recording than a perfect sounding re-recording of any song, any day. Any defects and imperfections just belong to the time period, no need to change that. Thanks for covering this, I never knew it was this 'shady'.
Amen!
Yes. I'm actually listening for the imperfections and defects within the song, since it adds that little something for me, if it was in the original version. G
Yup, you listen to old music partly because it's of it's time, and you want the version the artists recorded then. The version you've heard over and over on the radio and TV. Even with the original singer it's still like a cover version. Live versions are no good too, live music is great when you're at a gig and the band is playing for you, it's amazing, but for listening at home you want the benefit of a studio, multi-tracking, and the band being able to have another go if they get it wrong.
You want it to sound how the band intend it to sound. A re-recording decades later is likely to be done on a much tighter budget, and as the video shows, they don't bother getting the original instruments in, thinking most people's ears or memories aren't good enough to notice the difference. I think that's wrong, when you really love a song it imprints deeply on your memory. I dunno, maybe some people are happy with these karaoke versions, but if that's the case, why only mention it in such tiny writing if at all? Why not put "WITH MODERN HIGH QUALITY RE-RECORDING DECADES LATER!!!" on the label in big letters? "HEAR POOR BEN E KING NOW HIS VOICE IS SHOT!"
It's one reason I can't stand when old radio shows are "remastered" to remove the crackles. For really old recordings like that, the defects are part of the "charm" so to speak.
Sometimes tape hiss adds character, and as much as I may want clarity, I'll take the hiss over a clear-sounding digital remaster. But all else being equal, I'd take an analog remaster over anything else. That's the best possible sound quality because it doesn't suffer from loudness war compression like digital remasters do.
These remind me a lot of the "sound alike" albums of the 60's & 70's. They were often full of popular hits song by session singers who tried and failed to sound like the artists. One company even had audacity to name their vocal singers "The Original Artists" as the name of their group.
Soundalike albums--some of which are super awful--are the object of a series of videos on Oddity Archive's channel here. They're definitely worth a watch.
One label used a session musician called Reg Dwight (who later called himself Elton John). In a fairly recent radio interview he said it was great fun, and had the bonus that after making sure his time in the studio ran into the next hour he would go to the studios cash office and collect his money for the session.
In the 60s, there were also a slew of phony "Beatles" bands that were marketed by discount labels to SOUND like the Fab Four, but they were not. Blatant copywrite infringement sold in dollar bins at the time. The records would have titles like "Do the Beetle" or "Beetle Mania in the USA". Super sketchy.
Would that have been "K-Tel"?
Circa 1974 or so, they had many unknown "Artists" recording current songs - Sung by "The Sound Effects".
Many of the songs would have the second or third verse taken out, so they could claim that they had "25 current hits" on one LP.
Oh, I remember those as a kid - they often had sleazy photos of unnamed young ladies in various states of undress on the cover, and just had the names of the songs listed, nothing about the artists. The labels were usually Hallmark or Contour.
Rhino Records were the absolute best at collecting quality original recordings. And the Time/Life compilations, despite the cheesy ads, were very well put together, with all the ones I bought with original recordings that were exceptionally remastered.
My only issue with the Time-Life CDs is that on many (but not all) of the tracks, the left and right channels are reversed.
@@vwestlife
That's not something I have noticed, probably because the only collection I have complete is the Rock 'n' Roll Era set, most of which are mono recordings.
@@vwestlife That SUCKS
Rhino still makes great CD Box Sets like they did with Yes, Led Zeppelin, and David Bowie.
@@teddyfurstman1997 I have a couple of Rhino 3" mini CDs of The Turtles and Ray Charles
The bottom line is you can't re-create lightning in a bottle. There were so many factors that went into it. Producers, equipment, one in a million takes, happy accidents. Even modern bands are doing this too. Papa Roach re-released "Last Resort 2020". Same artists but something just doesn't taste right chef.
Can you name any that are better? It's essentially impossible that none of them have ever been done better....sounds like nostalgia
Same with JoJo she did albums in 2018 to get her masters back but they just don’t sound the same at all
I think you pretty much hit the nail on the head
@@dissraps I think some of the ones Taylor Swift re-recorded are better. Maybe not the music by itself, but she's a much much better singer now than she was when she was 16. Can't think of any others though.
@@dissraps I'd say Taylor Swift. She tried to get *all* the original teams back, from instrument players to backup signers to engineers even. And she has matured as a singer than her 18 years old self.
Thank you for making this. The re-recording scourge… I remember buying some of these and being so annoyed at the horrible vocals and bad music, feeling completely ripped off. Your comments on these points are hilarious.
Also, I just love you have original Damark and DAK catalogs! They got so much of my money back in the day.
you didn't feel ripped off. you WERE ripped off. get your money back
I miss Damark like you wouldn't believe
His deadpan trashing of these re-recordings is hilarious - I love it.
I remember buying a Southlanders CD in maybe 2012 (released in *1997)* because I wanted just ONE silly "Mole in the Hole" song on it from the 50s. It was a re-recording. 1997 was a bit later on in the re-recording phase, but still... $20 later, I had a CD that I thought was "OK" and I found minor enjoyment out of, but not much.
I'll do you one better. Some of these re-recording is not even the original artist. It's just some random blokes they grabbed. I found this out working at Fry's when a customer was pissed that she bought a Drifters CD and was pissed. She claimed this is fraud how can the use the Drifters name and pics and not be them
I'm surprised you haven't yet run across any by the "Original Artists", a band that used to re-record a lot of hits, I think, in the 1970s. They were not the original artists. They were The Original Artists!
By the looks of it, there was another band going around called The Original Recordings too!
That sounds like the car parts maker called "O.E.M."!
I remember in Poland in the late 90's seeing plenty of compilations of a band called "The Best Of" :) Their quality varied from "cheap wedding cover band" to "you could fool me after my sixth beer". They've been bane of existence of many teenagers getting these as gifts from gullible grandparents. I'm pretty sure it was just the same companies that used to release pirate CDs/tapes getting busted after introduction of anti-piracy laws in 1994 an trying to find a way to survive in new world of copyright with some legal loophole allowing to sell cover-band compilations.
@@shana_dmr That's the thing about the collapse of Communism, all the Imperialist pig dogs could now sell their decadent music directly to good Socialists instead of diplomats smuggling in albums to the state record label!
Lol gotta admit that's pretty clever though lmfao a band named "Original Artist" and they were a cover band lmao!!! Perfect!!!😂😆😂
Many of these re-recorded versions end up on Spotify and other streaming music services. Absolutely DREADFUL!
damn that sucks i see why you guys are so opposed to that shit now lol
On Spotify, the re-recorded version of "Build Me Up Buttercup" by The Foundations not only is their 2nd most listened to song, But the re-recorded version got a remaster before the original!
Something that happened a lot in the 1960s and 70s was musicians changing labels and losing access to their earlier recordings. So if the new label wanted to release a greatest hits album, they would have the musicians record new versions of early hits, because the originals still belonged to the previous label. And then sometimes these re-recorded versions would appear on later compilations because they would be cheaper than the originals.
George Jones did this a lot. He was on Starday, Mercury, UA, Musicor, and finally Epic. At each stop he would record new versions of the old hits.
This isn’t a new thing. Between 1929 and 1931, Duke Ellington recorded at least six versions of “Mood Indigo” for different record companies.
That was because Ellington wasn't tied to any specific label before 1934- thanks to the influence of his manager, Irving Mills. He was free to record for any label he wanted (in most cases, under a pseudonym; for example, he recorded two tracks for Durium's "Hit of the Week" as the "Harlem Hot Chocolates" in March 1930). He often divided his recorded output between Columbia/American Record and Victor before 1934. Finally, Mills got him to sign an exclusive contract with Columbia (and their associated labels) in '34. Then he jumped over to Victor in 1940.....and so on.
That happened with the Kinks. When they moved from one label to another, they couldn't release a proper greatest hits. The didn't re-record the hits, per say, but they had to include live tracks of the earlier hits instead of studio re-recording. A bit annoying, but it made me search out all of the earlier work, and there are some serious gems on those records.
@@rumblehat4357 *"per se"
That's similar to what T. Swift experienced only a few years ago.
Spotify has so many re-recordings too. They're a particular scourge on streaming services because they're often not labelled correctly (eg. no mention of "Re-recorded version" in the title).
Yes, sadly. Sometimes the original isn't even available. Those re-recordings make me cringe hard.
@@Alaprine One of the worst ones I've heard is "Jackie Blue" by Ozark Mountain Daredevils. The original is great, but on the remake, the singer's voice sounds very grating (and almost like a parody of himself) whenever he tries to hit those high notes!
@@HandyAndyTechTips Yikes... That is quite something.
The stereo recording of The Flamingos' "I Only Have Eyes For You" on Spotify is a terrible crime.
Another reason to drop Spotify in favour of TH-cam Music (Vanced, natch)
As a rule of thumb, if the compilation CD cover looks like cheap garbage, the chances are the recordings are garbage too or are re-recordings. However, there are some slick CD covers out there hiding the poor quality of the CD or re-recordings.
That's so true. I remember developing that kind of common-sense intuition since my teens.
@@dancooper6002 Some of the one hit wonders actually put out a lot of great music but it's just that the followup singles didn't catch on.
Now That's What I Call Music really set a new standard when it came out in 1983.
That's a good way to kill rock and roll.
Yeah, if it's at Sam's Club in a big gimmicky looking aluminum can box, it's probably crap.
This is a great video. Side story, when i got my first apartment my neighbor was the keyboardist who origianlly did 96 tears. We soon became well aquanted and found out his roalty checks and licenceing checks were getting smaller due to re-recording of that song and cutting him out. he was trying constantly trying to hustle out his name, trying to get back on oldies circuits and such. I always felt bad for him.
? and the mysterians... i've got the 45.
Taylor Swift is doing the similar now, re-recording and re-releasing all her previous songs she lost access to. However unlike those albums who put those details in the small print, she clearly labeled the re-recordings with that big "Taylor's Version" banner. Also she tried hard to regroup all the original teams, and make the re-recordings sound as close as the original as possible.
Same with Paul Anka when he rerecorded his "21 Golden Hits" for RCA in 1963. He wanted to establish ownership of them {through his "Camy Productions" outfit, which produced the album} after he left ABC-Paramount in 1962. The album clearly stated " "Newly Recorded" on the front and back. *Were* they better than the original versions? Maybe...........
I just found out about this thanks to your comment. Such a weird and bizarre situation.
Not if you're trying to stay afloat financially and own your recordings. Paul was ahead of most performers when it came to establishing his rights to his material. Not many were as savvy.
One thing that drives me crazy (no pun intended) in collecting Patsy Cline compilation albums is that since the 70’s there has been this fascination with dubbing the vocals from the original 3 track tape onto terribly hokey new background tracks. It makes it necessary to go out seeking the original Owen Bradley masterpieces that originally accompanied them.
I think i heard some of those remixes before. They’re just awful!
Unfortunately, only “Patsy Cline’s Greatest Hits” is all that remains of the original recordings. All of the other Patsy masters were lost in the Universal Vault fire.
I blame Norman Petty for starting that trend with Buddy Holly and the Fireballs.
@@georgeprice4212 you might still find old original 45's or albums.
@@jimleech2364 that’s about it, really.
In 2000, the well respected compilation label Telstar released "The Ultimate Sixties Collection", an 8-disc box set, which at £20 a pop, ended up making the album chart. Those who bought it would discover that, of the 150 tracks, only about 15 were the original version, with absolutely everything else being a latter-day rehash. A 70s equivalent was also released, because clearly there is much to be made from shovelling shite. Even iTunes and Spotify are loaded with these abominations.
Even radio stations are not immune from this. Our (then new) local small town station started with an oldies format, even asking listeners for hit records, etc. to contribute. Imagine my surprise when "Scorpio" by Dennis Coffey came on...except it wasn't! It was a re-make or re-recording, not even close. Maybe not even Dennis Coffey, it was so bad. Long story short, apparently someone had contributed a bogus recording to the station.
@@stevenwilliams3083 Here in the UK, shops are starting to rely on them for their "radio station" styled background music. It must be a royalties issue. Buying kitchenware whilst listening to an ersatz Adele is quite something.
@@Fluteboy We had this here in Vienna much earlier... and they were actually playing cover versions by unknown bands, not even by the original artists. In a furniture store, for instance, I can remember hearing a cover of "If you can't give me love" that sounded more like Blondie than Suzi Quatro. Even the great supermarket chain BILLA had this once... before they reverted to having their own radio stations which are now called "Jö.live" and do play original versions... with one or the other re-recording still sneaking in, like a re-recording of "NeverEnding story" in a lower key where Limahl does all the parts without the female singer that was in the original, but including auto-tune to make up for that. Maybe sometimes the people that put together the music program can't even tell the new recording from the original because they're not that old... (sigh) And you're right, thy're out on Vinyl too... I have a double-LP called "Rock around the clock" which has mostly "updated" Rock'n'Roll songs, some of them being re-recordings (like the version of "At the hop" you also play), some totally unknown tracks and some covers of well-known songs by unknown artists, like "Burning love" by Loan Bennet instead of Elvis Presley.
@@stevenwilliams3083 Around 30 yrs ago Hammard, in one of their crappy lot of re-recordings, had "Leader of the Pack". Surprisingly it was the original but the first line of the second verse was missing( one day my Dad etc) wasn't there. It went straight into "I had to tell my Jimmy" etc This abomination actually found it's way into the files of the ABC (I'm Australian). I was amused whenever it was played. I even requested it a couple of times. Eventually someone sussed and it was replaced with the correct version.
@@wellsy1954 Unreal! I had Red Rubber Ball on a compilation CD. They took the left channel and panned it in the middle, completely omitting the right channel. Well, the right channel had the main keyboard riff which was the signature of the song. It sounded ridiculous!
This was my pet peeve going back to the 1970s, never mind the beginning of CDs. They were all cashing in on the oldies craze after American Grafitti. And EVERYTHING had to be in stereo. I got to learn the code language as a teenager. My parents, of the "song not the recording" generation, couldn't understand why rerecordings upset me so much! But part of the beauty of the originals was the production...reproducing how it used to sound on the radio. That being said, I didn't mind "electronically reproduced to simulate stereo" (or re-channelled or whatever) was a pretty good indication you got the original hit at least.
"or original members of the group..." That can only end well.
It's like having the beach boys do a re-recording of their songs but only inviting Mike Love and Bruce Johnston.
Or those two guys touring as “The Beach Boys.” Just as criminal.
In the case of "At the Hop" by Danny and the Juniors, Danny Rapp died and he was replaced on lead by another of the Juniors, Joe Terry. [11:10]
Yes, Joe sounded a bit "lackluster" on that version.
Or inviting Charles Manson...
@@lordofthemound3890 in 2007 The Beach Boys toured Australia. The great Oz band Daddy Cool reformed for the tour. Ross Wilson, leader of Daddy Cool, would tell the audience that there were more Wilsons in Daddy Cool(1) than in The Beach Boys(0)
This phenomenon wasn't limited to compilations- in some instances, artists rerecorded entire greatest hits albums! The one I remember was Roy Orbison's In Dreams: The Greatest Hits, which was apparently prompted by Orbison's fear that the original recordings might be destroyed during a rights dispute. Though in that case, Orbison worked with top-notch producers and musicians so the new versions still turned out pretty well.
That's one of the few times when a re-recorded album was just as good as the originals. It helps that Roy Orbison was still active musically into the 1980s and his voice still sounded good. I've heard that album and it's a prime example of how these re-recordings *should* have been done, but weren't.
I bought that cassette in a gas station for 5.98$. Yeah, it actually was good. I was unhappy it wasn't the originals but I didn't feel ripped off because it was still a good album. That's the only time, though.
Ricky Nelson's last album was a 2 LP set of re-recordings. Unfortunately his voice was wrecked by years of cocaine abuse, so that made it even sadder to hear.
There is also the Very Best of the Everly Brothers Warner Bros. comp where one side of it is re-recorded Cadence Records recordings, the other half is original Warner era hits.
Lots of artists go back and release re-recorded versions of their songs.
I had family members hit by the old re-recording curse. The tragedy is when they keep listening to it oblivious and I'm the only one suffering.
G'day Dan - I was listening to a cheap compilation my mother had bought back in the 90s - hits from the 70s or some such, and it's got Gerry Rafferty's Baker Street on there - pitched up a bit as though someone had taken a copy of the song vinyl and recorded it at + 3%. I found it uncanny to hear this song played out of key and a bit too fast - it makes the bass sound fretless, the percussion is racing, and the vocals have a strange timbre.
I played it to a mate, and he was seemingly oblivious to how it was different to the proper recording. I think it's nice that he gets to sit here and go, "I hear Baker Street" while my mind is boggling at how the event did not start a riot down at the local Brashs.
IKR? It makes you want to shake them like a ragdoll while screaming it's re-recorded garbage...
I listen to American and Mexican oldies all the time but if its Mexican oldies then I refuse to use spotify radio because I get stuck with alot of shitty remakes because Mexican artists have been worse with this trend in my eyes
Not all re-recordings are that bad.
Some are almost the same, some are better and some are just that bit different it makes them fresh.
But I’m worried if I’ve been listening to re-recordings all my life now.
Yes! The worst is when you try to point it out and everyone is just like "You're insane. What are you talking about? This IS the song."
As for that “Soft Rock” CD that falsely claimed to feature original recordings by the original artists, I can actually relate to that… and that’s because I actually bought that exact same compilation as part of a 2 disc set, and believe me, I was absolutely livid about that collection featuring nothing but re-recorded versions of every single song!
Here in the UK they used to give away free compilation CDs just like these with the national tabloid newspapers. The CD was housed in a cheap looking cardboard sleeve. Now you usually see thousands of them dumped in charity shops and they can't get rid of them. They were absolutely bloody awful 👎
One of those was the Daily Mail's 'Elvis and Friends' freebie CD, which I remember listening to a lot when I was 5 or 6. It was about half-and-half originals and re-recordings. It actually featured the version of 'At the Hop' featured in this video, which I fell in love with not knowing any better...
Funny thing is, growing up in the 80s people like me may be used to a re-recording, but think the original sounds weird and think that that one is not the original. Can't say for sure which, but I might have been "fooled" in the past and not realized it. A kind of a situation where you don't know unless it's deliberately pointed out to you.
It's always surreal when this happens because it's always easier to track down the originals, so finding the rest cording you're used to may be almost impossible
I was a super fan of K-Tel albums. Back in the 80's, I spent all my disposable income on them and 45s. I recently got a torrent from my father that is top billboard hits from 1954-2000. THAT is one big torrent.
I have that torrent! Its soooo good. Great for parties too.
Anyone want to PM me a link?
Hi Can you send link or tell the name of the torrent please.
Why don’t you buy music you free loader’s!
@@EclecticMusicMan No one has bought music for 30 years dude how old are you
There was a good documentary on K-Tel many years ago where they explained why this sometimes happened, artists sometimes did it if they got stuck with a bad publishing or label situation. Unfortunately like you point out, it's the listener who suffers.
I actually found ktel to be pretty good
Yeah, It's mostly a royalties issue.
An example why you should pirate music so the publisher gets no money. You can always donate straight to the singer.
@@timbo303official9 Pirating music is more effort than it will ever be worth. If I don't want the publishers to get money, I'd rather hunt for a second hand CD than give my computer 47 viruses to listen to a low quality mp3 of Walk of Life by the Dire Straits
If it's the same doco I'm thinking of, then you'll remember the 'K-Tel Useless K-Tel Crap Shredder'. It was probably a skit on SNL where they advertised a K-Tel device for shredding all those K-Tel gadgets you only used once and are now cluttering up your home.
I think you nailed it, I've been making a point to avoid re-recordings for over 40 years. As you said in the first couple of minutes, you're best to stick with Rhino, Time-Life, Eric (my favorites), and compilations by major labels like RCA, Columbia, EMI, Sony, etc. Avoid those obscure labels, and even bigger labels like K-Tel and Dominion. One thing I long noticed the "legit" releases had were notes saying something next to tracks like "Courtesy of RCA." The cheapies don't. And just recently I was surfing TH-cam for oldies and was somewhat surprised and disgusted by all the re-recordings out there (many with 100,000+ views).
You know why they had to rerecord their music?? Because most of those Artists don't own their masters and they have to wait 8 years so they can rerecord cause they can't use their original masters to make money without getting sued by the company that owns it.. I just learned this from a Rapper the other day saying *"He couldn't use his Original masters tapes so he had to wait 8 years to legally rerecord some songs to make money off of it"* I hate Rerecording cause it doesn't sound the same as the original.. The Originals felt right on the money..
@@kenrickeason That's interesting... irritating yes, but interesting. New artists are probably just happy to be getting paid, regardless if they own the masters or not. Later on it comes back around and bites them (and us).
@@kenrickeason The music business has some dirty practices. Some of the worst contracts in any business, period.
Ronald, even K-Tel had “Courtesy of….” on their albums, although on the 22 track albums, it read something like “We thank the respective artists and record companies for their contributions to this album, including: (list of record labels)”.
@@georgeprice4212 Thanks for chiming in. You're right, they did provide those notes of "thanks." And not all songs on those K-Tel compilations were "phony oldies," but you needed more of an element of caution. For example, if they contained a song by The Big Bopper or an artist who was long-deceased, it was a safe bet that they were original. But for others like The Coasters you couldn't be sure right away.
You mentioned at 3.56 the key reason why re-recording is actually good for the artists. Many gave up the rights to their masters early in their careers, and with the re-recordings they can finally reap some of the income. Interesting to note that Taylor Swift lost the rights to her first few albums through a bad deal a couple of years ago, and is now re-recording all of those albums, and making a big deal out of it, explaining the reasons, and calling the re-recordings "Taylor's Versions".
Yes, everyone thought she was doing something new and groundbreaking. Nope. Artists have been doing this for decades.
Gang of Four also re-recorded for the same reason. Remind me to check which was used in a console ad.
The artist usually never has the rights to the sound recording especially early on. Some established artists leverage staying with the company and making another album for ownership stake. The labels own the sound recordings and the songwriters own the publishing.
Paul Anka did the same thing when he left ABC records and went to RCA Victor, He re-recorded his songs. Some are not too bad. And we got stereo. In fact, I think one of the Rhino discs from early on, I think it was the 1957 disc, has the stereo re- recording of “Diana”. I could be wrong though, as that was over 30 years ago.
I have read she had every opportunity to buy the masters, but refused. She denies this, but she/her management is nothing if not shrewd, so I believe it. Taylor gets to look like the aggrieved party and produce “new” product that isn’t really new over and over for a couple of years, reaping all the headlines and attention in the process. Way bigger net gain than just buying her old masters.
I've heard many of these types of CDs. Re-recordings really hit my ear hard. Memory is an amazing thing and music itself takes you back to either good times or bad times. When this scam occurs, it is an affront to those memories. All it takes is a different note, key, phrase, whatever it is, it is jarring. I have a very keen ear for this. These CDs are sometimes played in restaurants and stores for atmosphere. I cringe!
I can spot a RErecording in the first few notes! Just Awful...
I hate re-recordings of hit songs. I'm a former deejay and have a huge library of all kinds of music. I'm very meticulous about buying the original recordings of music I grew up listening to. Thank you for this video!!
I ran a multi unit DJ service for over 20 years and fought to remove these re-make versions.
When I started out as a mobile DJ in the early 90s, I got scammed by a few of these. I thought it was a really cheap way of building a decent back catalogue of old classics. I was wrong! A label called Tring was a major offender here in the UK, you used to find them in the budget bins in music shops all over!
I often found loads of albums and compilations from labels like Gusto Records (or their Highland Music, Inc. subsidiary), K-tel (especially from the 1990s onward), Madacy Entertainment, and even a few from Ripete Records sold in places like Walmart, Roses (especially for Gusto/Highland releases), as well as Target (where I actually bought my first three CD set called “Sun Jamming”).
Tring, Long Island Music, HHO (although some of these are 'real'), New Sound (some of which were shown in the video) and more; a lot of K-Tel and Pickwick, Tellydisc (and others) are some of those I recognise. Yes, some of these also released proper versions too, but most are budget re-recordings. The Tring ones were everywhere back in the day, in newsagents, petrol stations, supermarkets, convenience stores and more. Almost all of their material was re-recordings.
@@plan7a K-tel made compilations of real hits in the 70's and maybe 80's.
*WHEN* they had the rights to the original recordings. But sometimes, they could be cheap with the way they assembled their albums {poor vinyl, bad transfers, a little editing here and there}.
@@jimleech2364 some of those 20 fantastic hits type things on K Tel in the U.K. would have the original recordings but edit them to make them fit. I remember one I had included ‘Yesterday Once More’ by the Carpenters - a slow paced song which included one verse and then edited to the end chorus and fade.
This actually goes back to the 1930's when a record label called "Hit Of The Week" would sell single sided cardboard and resin "records" at the news stand for 15 or 20 cents each. Even when the original vocalist performed for the recording, the "backing band" was always the same group of studio musicians belonging to the record label. As for CD compilations, some of the best are from Eric, Ace, Bear Family, Rhino, and believe it or not, Time-Life usually gets it right.
I look at the Time-Life releases being a premium product (and they definitely are NOT cheap), so they certainly ought to get it right. Whether as excess stock or something else, I certainly have seen them for sale (brand new) in stores from time to time. I have acquired some secondhand Time-Life CD releases and all are excellent.
I'm generally happy with the Rhino records compilations I have, although in a few cases, it's clear they did not work from the best possible sources. They're generally good enough that I'm willing to let that ride.
Time-Life's releases are/ were actually extremely high quality. A lot of those compilation CDs still contain the highest quality CD releases of some old songs that no one else seems to care about these days. This is especially the case for music from the 1940s and '50s. They obviously took the time and the care to put out a top-quality product, with amazing production values for a compilation CD from 30 years ago. There's a reason why Time Life CDs still sell for full retail price even on the secondhand market.
@@Goldberg1337 What about Readers-Digest, I have a 4 disk comp of ABBA, and quite a few LP's of stuff from Big Band type stuff that I got from thrift shops.
Eric Records always for the most part used original masters, at least since the late 70's. The label started in 1969 as an oldies re-issue label, issuing mostly 45's (and very few LP's.) Today, they are still growing strong with many C.D.'s of original recordings. Their Stereo re-mixes of songs never recorded in stereo are good, but they sound like the many DES-stereo re-mixes of oldies here on You-Tube.
In the '60's a lot of UK 'Embassy' records (and more) were recordings by 'sound-a-like' artists, as were 'Top Of The Pops' albums. These were often re-recorded by 'no-name' artists to 'sound like' the original artists, sometimes they did a good job, other times not so good. (There were occasions, I believe, where some were so good they even fooled the experts!). These 'Embassy' records were usually sold in Woolworths (the 'Embassy' being their own 'in-house' label). Rumour has it that some of these were actual named artists, I don't think this has ever been dis-proven. Though I could be wrong.
Not all re-recordings are considered inferior. A case in point is Hank Snow's 1961 album "Souvenirs". It is a full album of new (for 1961) recordings of Snow's greatest hits, but what makes it relatively unique is that not only were the original recordings still readily available, but gave Snow, producer Chet Atkins, and engineer Bill Porter a chance to essentially "reimagine" those songs. To their credit, RCA never used these re-recorded songs on other compilation albums.
Very often when cheap recordings are made, base and snare drums are dominating the mix. It’s a commonly used technique to cover up imperfections and uninspired performance. So it is usually a giveaway.
I think Rhino has consistently made some of the best compilations. I remember being teed-off at the first one of those I bought at a cash register display without reading carefully and ending up with a collection of bad covers. :)
I have a compilation vinyl record (or did, a few years ago when I had my own apartment...) that had a re-recording of Yellow Submarine. It is decidedly not the Beatles singing, and they do all of the funny submarine noises with their mouths. Absolutely delightful and disgusting.
Obviously, it's NOT - I repeat- NOT the Beatles. A waste of time and money.
If you coild find and upload that that soinds amazing
And I think the music video for yellow submarine, is based on the re-recording.
Disgraceful! I'd put whoever the hell did this in front of a firing squad for decimating The Beatles that way!!
Thank you for sharing this video....I remember back in the early 1990's and was searching everywhere for a CD of The Spencer Davis Group (featuring Stevie Winwood) and it was impossible. But then to my surprise, I found a "Greatest Hits" compact disc at my local K-Mart department store and couldn't believe it! It advertised as "new sound / crystal clear recordings / all-time favorite songs"....I couldn't resist, I bought it, came home, put it in my CD player and.........immediately went back to get my money!! It was Spencer Davis with a different lead singer recorded in 1990!! Oh the horror.....
My father used to buy music from Walmart online for .99 per song. He bought the song "Goodmorning Starshine"
by Oliver and he was so happy to find it, but when he played it , I can totally tell it was a re-recording, I mentioned
it to him & he said "Better not be, I just paid .99 for it" I guess he didn't notice. Well I had the original version on my
phone & played it for him, and he said "That's the way I remember it sounding like, damn Walmart!!" He was so
upset over a .99 Oliver classic.
They took his money- and gave him *less* than what he expected, Matthew.
I always laugh when I hear David Gilmour's version of Money that Pink Floyd had to put onto A Collection of Great Dance Songs, just goes to show even a man as immensely talented as him struggled to pull this trick off, makes what Taylor Swift is doing with her re-recordings even more impressive.
This is a really interesting topic. My Aunt bought a lot of re recorded compilations from grocery stores in the early 90s, and some of them were really really bad. It’s funny that this re-recording phenomenon lives on in a much higher budget format with the Taylor Swift re recordings.
From what I've read, you would have a very hard time telling the difference between the the original Taylor Swift and the new ones
@@noyoucanthavemyhandle Apparently, way back when, both Neil Sedaka and Chubby Checker had to re-record their old hits just a few years after they originally did them as they lost control of their master tapes.
@@matthewlawrenson3628 Same thing with James Taylor, who re-recorded "Carolina in My Mind" for his Greatest Hits compilation, which has since become the definitive version of it, rather than the original version of it.
The whole reason Taylor Swift re-recorded her songs was because she didn't own the masters from her first six albums. So by re-recording she can own those versions. It wasn't like here where a song is re-recorded for a cheap compilation album.
@@scott8919 I agree with you that it wasn’t done on the cheap, but that’s 100% the same reason many of these were re-recorded.
15:54 I'm looking at the track list of the "British Invasion" compilation, and half of the artists on it are American. And The Supremes are on there 5 times. I think somebody either misunderstood the prompt, or they panicked when they couldn't get the rights to use The Beatles, and just filled the gaps with anything from the same time period
I’ve seen too many soundalike covers when I was a kid, even though most of them are okay. We have an album filled with Australian accented re-recordings of songs (like the Beatles’ hold your hand and the muppet show theme) which converted to mp3 from cd ages ago.
Wow, I know the Beatles did a version of 'I wanna hold your in German' but I guess they didn't fancy doing it with an Aussie accent!
Turned out to be far more interesting than I expected. I recently brought a large collection of CDs, full of old RnB, Disco, Funk etc.
I checked a bunch of them on discogs, I was surprised to see a lot of the single artist compilations with high sold price histories on discogs.
Now I understand why, I had no idea the extent to which these songs were re-recorded and resold. Definitely will help me in the future knowing this.
My gosh, I HATE re-recordings, the originals are always better. I'll take mono originals over re-recorded stereo ones.
Cringe for sure
I agree! I don’t understand why so many people are allergic to monophonic. Sometimes a mono mix has more punch than stereo.
I just a original copy of stupid cupiy but I have to say it sounds pretty flat
@@blindlemon9 If you listen to 50s and 60s music, the mono mix is usually way better than the stereo. Back then, the artists and producers knew most of their audience (especially for singles) only had mono equipment and spent ages getting it right so it sounded good through one speaker. The stereo mix, on the other hand, was knocked off quickly as they assumed anyone with a stereo setup would manipulate it at home.
Pop music was mono for a good reason. They were meant to be played in jukeboxes and cheap portable players. No way would dad allow that derck to be played in the "good" system and fill the house.
A Party City I used to work at would play re-recordings like these all the time and some are truly abysmal.
It can be quite fun to dig through them all on Spotify and such, just to hear how bad some songs have been butchered.
I remember seeing on itunes before The Beatles finally released their stuff digitally, knockoff soundalike covers of their hits were topping sales charts.
At a work place. That might have been produced by an outfit like AEI Music Networks. Who are providers of background and mood music for shops, malls, restaurants, factories,, etc. What they provide is only cover versions played and sung by anonymous studio musicians, not with any of the original artists.
Don't get me started. My mom used to buy those shitty Drew's Party Mix CDs there and didn't give a shit that they were bad cover versions. It was especially bad when they couldn't get the lyrics of "YMCA" right.
Oh God, please give us more information on this terrible ymca cover. It sounds gloriously bad.
@@rokuronzoni6274 You can find it on TH-cam with "Drew's Famous YMCA" or "The Hit Crew YMCA"
Flubs are quitr common in these covers, I remember hearing a version of "No Doubt - It's My Life" Where the singer comes in late and speeds through the first few words. I've also heard The Black Eye Pea's "Let's Get It Started" where the multi-person vocal harmonies were all out of sync with each other.
@@larryinc64 awww lawdy. You just introduced me to a whole new thing. Thanks for responding. I love media disasters.
*edit - alright, there's a few different versions of drews famous ymca. Annand yeah, they're not good, but I wasn't able to find the aforementioned one. However, drews famous does have some golden fuckups. The Pokémon theme (aka pokeman) and the power rangers theme are gloriously bad.
As Mary Wells "Died in poverty" I can't blame some of them.
If they really were destitute, that was one thing. But if they did it as a cash grab when they didn't need the money, that's just lazy, low, and greedy.
As a huge fan of Jan & Dean, the little knock at their singing was hilarious 😂😂😂
“They took away her dx7 too”😂😂😂
Hi Nate !! Jeffrey Snow from Face Book :) LOL
@@ventues9751 hey Jeff 😎👋
In the world of vinyl, it's the same thing. Even nowadays it's possible to buy a compilation of hits and discover that most of the songs are mediocre re-recordings. There is a popular box set called The Complete Vinyl Collection by Bellevue Publishing Uk which consists of 20 records, and it mostly features re-recordings, even though there is no mention about it on the cover. Also, back in the 70's there existed soundalike records that feature crappy covers of contemporary hits, even though the sleeve made it look like it's the original recordings.
Yup. I bought "The Perfect Vinyl Collection" by Bellevue (8 LPs) a few years back. Threw it on and it sounded "off" from the first track. Good thing I only paid about 10 EUR for it. It now holds a less than prominent spot in my collection never to be played again and to always serve as a reminder never to buy anything from that label again.
On a side note - it has a 4,11 out of 5 on Discogs for some strange reason.
I've had an obsession with collecting foreign synthpop versions of these re-recording compilations on vinyl. Sometimes it's so bad it's good!
See, this is what I was thinking. I wonder if some of these do have genuine merit as other versions
If credit is where it's due
Exactly. Here in San Francisco's Chinatown, there's a discount store where there's about 5 HUGE boxes, full of tapes from Singapore and Hong-Kong, Taiwan, 25 cents each, with some beautiful versions of American music and sweet-sweet
Karaoke instrumentals😐
...well ...its something like 2-3 out of 10 tracks are worth the quarter. Good cover-art too.
Someone could probably spend a lifetime trying to identify and document all the different recordings of some songs between album and single versions, live recordings, different edits, and rerecordings.
Please upload audio to TH-cam if possible
Good subject! I'm glad iTunes has previews because I can spot a re-recording a mile away. I HATE re-recordings.
They were doing re-recording compilations back in the 60s. Most of them are like "Hits of The Beatles....(as performed by no-name band X)".
Some of those no name artists were actually quite well known, or would become well known. It was paid session work, quick and easy. Elton John recorded many of them which are on a comp. Reg Dwight's Piano Goes Pop
They definitely were doing this in the early 70s as I've seen a Bowie one (likely 1972 after Ziggy Stardust). I also have a Sounds Like Star Wars which is 1977/78 release. This one isn't so bad, as its orchestral music played off the score but as good as the film score recording.
I have an album on vinyl that's "Simon and Garfunkel - King's Road". When I first saw it I thought well, maybe kings road is the name of the album or something. No, it's the name of the duo that plays the songs
The surfsiders sing the beach boys…
"Stagger Lee" was a hit for Lloyd Price in 1958 (not Tommy Roe of course!), which may be why they included it. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stagger_Lee
The night was clear and the moon was yellow, and the leaves came tumbling down ... BA-BOM BA-BOM BA-BOM BA-BOM....
Yes. I remember it well.
"The Return of Stagger Lee" by Don ReVels (1960) continues the story. Stagger Lee served a prison term, was paroled, and set out to live a better life. Don ReVels was accompanied by an uncredited female singing group, the Primettes, who would later have a string of hits after changing their name to the Supremes.
Big Car enters the chat! (I'm a "big" fan, I guess you could say...)
@@blautens VWestLife rocks!
beware of the Sonoma box sets they might include a lot of imitions namely some recordings allegedly by the grassroots and other soundalikes rather stick to the original artists maybe you tube music, original groups original artists.
I can't express my gratitude to you for making this. This has been an area of fascination for me for a while too and I'm pleased to learn I'm not alone. Great video!
AMEN!
I love how Leslie Gore’s voice is *mostly* still golden in that recording of It’s My Party, yet that has to be one of the lousiest cover bands I’ve heard in a long time.
At least *Problem Child* managed to get the original recording.
I remember K-Tel would put out compilation albums of recent hits that were advertised on TV. Barely discernable under the music was "All the hits you love recorded by that great group The Sound Effects."
Not always with K-Tel. Pickwick was worse about it, and the even more budget labels in the 70’s and 80’s made Pickwick look legitimate!
I ranted about this on Facebook as I have all of the Television's Greatest Hits CDs. The problem with those? If they didn't have access to the original themes they would re-record them on what sounded like a Casio keyboard. If they needed singing, they hired a radio shout group. Most TV themes, especially from the 50s, right through to the 80s had full orchestras. These CDs were great novelties back in the day, but now, I can build a playlist of REAL TV themes on TH-cam. Not in stereo most of the time, but most TV was in mono anyway up to the mid 80s.
I just did build a playlist of themes. Based on the first TV tunes cd I assembled 60 real themes.
One problem was that many original recordings of TV themes were only as long as necessary for the opening credits and so too short for a single.
If a theme was released as a single then it was usually a different recording which may or may not have been fairly faithful, with the same musical personnel and set up, or it might be an entirely different outfit with little similarity to the feel of the original. In either case there was probably an additional middle 8 etc to extend the original - which may or may not have been appropriate or even by the original composer.
I was just about to complain about the 80s synth and electric drums added. I hate what they did in the late 80s to buddy Holly’s intentionally made raw and open sound and ruining with adding terrible sound effects with new electrical updated technology to make it sound “80s current” to get the attention of younger ears.
They were hit and miss with getting originals. They did a better job getting original recordings for sitcoms than dramas. But even then they were often bad about album credits. The 1980s sitcom *Gimme A Break!* had two theme songs over six seasons, and they used the first theme but credited the writers of the second one! Some of the later compilations weren't as bad with re-recordings but any regular viewer of most of these shows could spot one from a mile away.
However, the Rhino TV theme collections from the 1990s managed to bring more weirdness into the mix, so to speak. If a theme got a single or album release, they would usually use that. Except in the case of *the Facts of Life* where they used a mono version of the same on-air 1985-1988 rock version TVT records released in stereo back in the 1980s when the show was still running! They ignored the fact that Gloria Loring did an extended cover version on a 1984 album called *A Shot in the Dark.* Even when they used singles, they were often shortened. For *The Golden Girls,* they used the original "Thank You For Being A Friend" by Andrew Gold but they used a cut version of it!
@@moxie96 I agree and we are still paying the price for this shit.
This was a very common thing in the early/mid-80's with country music. The small labels popping titles out didn't have $$ to lease the original recordings so they brought the original artists in to rerecord their old hits, often with a far inferior backing track. Unfortunately these artists were often broke or near broke so they jumped at the chance.
As an artist myself I know how hard it is to go back and try to re-record something I made in the past with my more high end equipment and experience and it often doesn't go well. It's near impossible to capture the same soul and feeling that you and or the entire band had at the time. Some do a decent job but at the end of the day you are just stuck with a knock off of the original that makes the listener feel like they living in another universe. I guess on rare occasions they end up just as good or even better than the originals but I would say those are straight outliers.
Back in the 90’s, I bought a compilation of hits from the 60’s. I was livid when I found out they used copies of the original recordings and added extra strings and brass tracks with harmonies that had nothing to do with the original arrangements.
For me this re-recordings, are the cancer of original music.. I bought a 8 lp compilation, with best of 50s, 60's, 70's and 80's I was so glad, until i put my stylus on the record and realised that the songs are not original, i was so disappointed. Different voice range, different arrangements.. Horrible. Great video explaining the phenomenon
I bought a tape at a certain thrift shop you and I both frequent, and it was a compilation of music from the 80s for use at a party function where you needed a compilation to keep things fresh. yeah, turns out the ENTIRE TAPE was re-recordings, by NONE of the original artists, and in some cases were absolutely terrible renditions of the music in question. no disclaimer, no warning, just terrible music at the highest quality a tape can allow for. I was so distraught that I went full dankpods on it and took my very own one-grit outside my house to it on the big rock that sat out front. I wish I took pictures of the event, but I was too angry that I spent a whole dollar on it that I could have spent on something else.
Oh man, finding the right version of Del Shannon's Runaway that I grew up listening to is proving to be quite the task. I think he must have re-recorded it dozens of times because none of the versions that I've found on TH-cam sound quite right.
It's on Spotify. I have a very massive Golden Oldies playlist that I compiled and my playlist only includes original versions. Runaway is definitely on there.
@@nerdygrl647 right, but the version that I'm looking for is likely a re-recording from the 70s if I had to guess. I used to have it on an unmarked cassette tape and it's the version that I grew up listening to. It sounded very close to the original except Del Shannon's voice was a bit more mature sounding.
If I recall the major ones were the original song from 1961 and Runaway '67.
@@Mahoromatic I think I found the version that I was looking for. Yay! th-cam.com/video/GOn1LF86Smk/w-d-xo.html
It's very close to the original, but I think the production and Del's vocal performance are a bit more polished in this version.
@@davidd.6448 In these moments Discogs is your friend.
I think the original song sounds better (with the Mellotron, they don't have that in later re-recordings)
When you showed that clip of "I Will Survive", I wanted to listen to the original song (since it's one of my favorites in the genre). I searched it up on TH-cam and clicked on the first official one that came up. Lo and behold, it was a re-recording. Ay, ay ay... And I have really good ears, too, so I can tell in the first couple of seconds whether a recording is original or live/re-recorded, if the speed is off, or when an artist is lip-syncing versus actually singing. It makes these sneakily slipped re-recordings that much more scummy. They bother the hell out of me.
The original starts with Gloria singing "FIRST I was afraid.......". The *re-recorded* version has her singing, "At first I was afraid........."
As a collector of old compilations, this has happened to me more times than I care to think. I can generally spot it right away, as 50s and 60s songs sound VERY different to 80s and 90s songs, even if it's the same song, the same artist and the same instrumentation. I've never been able to put my finger on exactly why, but I think it has something to do when they moved from valves to transistors in recording equipment in the late 60s.
The best way I've found to avoid re-recordings is either buy your compilations put out by the budget imprints of major labels or make sure it's a decent specialist reissue label that care about their product (Cherry Red, Rhino etc.).
Recording techniques changed a lot from the 50s to the 80s. The practice of one-track, one or two mic sessions gave way to multitrack tape and individual mics for every instrument and vocalist.
@@leebryantutah I also noticed the drumming techniques changed and more drummers starting using plain old drumsticks instead of wire brush drumsticks.
Even just remastering is often bad, a friend of mine was thrilled to find one of his favorite jazz albums remastered, after listening to it he returned it and was really glad he kept the old CD.
Old people want to hear the old recordings, when I hear something from the tube age I want to hear that tube distortion! Young people are put off by the old sound and want to know what kind of potato they used to make the recording. This was just as true when I was the young person, I loved big band music but was put off by those 78's. Now I just love the music and I'm happy it was recorded at all, even on those old clay platters!
Young people want their music getting puked out by their phone's built-in speaker (or a barely better portable speaker made of rubber and other ugly materials) at highmost level of distortion (different kind of distortion, loudness-war, limited bass and ear-bleeding treble). That's what they call "good bass and clear sound".
From the technical point, those modern "speakers" are simply not "compatible" to the old "tube recordings" where you need a poerful fullrange (or at least 10cm-wideband) speaker to play them. A wurlitzer or rock-ola is clearly the better choice here. A shoebox-sized two- or three-way-speaker would do its job too. But young people prefer rubber speakers with only midrange-tweeters and passive pseudo-woofers in it....
So remastering is done to old music to fix that... -.-
Re-mastering is only done in that direction. No one re-masters into opposite direction: Modern charts music nade for rubber speakers sounds even worse on real speakers and totally fails on tube-driven gears like wurlitzer (which can't handle those rectangular waves at all!).
Sadly it doesn't even matter to most these days, even with good recorded/mastered productions they go unnoticed, I mean, years ago people at least had a mini component system, that was the typical "stereo" which was surely crap but virtually way better than what is the norm these days almost everyone listen on crappy apple or skullcandy earbuds or worse, crappy alexa, Bose, google boutique "smart" speakers.
@@user-pb1mz2el7fEven on larger setups a lot of subwoofers seem to produce one note really loud, which is nice to feel the beat but I'd like to hear all the notes the bassist is playing not just thumpa thumpa. Of course they are not all boomy but many are.
I often wondered how many kids are really put off by that stuff
Growung up i played a lot of old videogames, i listened to a lot of old songs and i watched a lot of very old movies and shows
And i knew a lot of kids ny age that did the same
I dunno if that has somethibg to do with me growing in a third world country and old media being easier to access when you have no money
@@wichtelchen ugh. This irritates the crap out of me. You need like $10k to find new full range stereo systems. Every consumer product is garbage like you say.
But there's a bunch of vintage gear out there and some of it is dirt cheap because no one wants it.
I've gone to a lot of trouble to tune systems for my office and bedroom. I dont have a single piece of equipment made after 1995. Found a set of advent prodigy speakers for free, another pair for $25 at a thrift store and a nice pair of JPW bookshelf speakers at a pawn shop for about $30. Only had to re-foam two of the 8 woofers.
I'm 35 by the way. I will say that there is tons of new music being produced today from young artists that do care about sound quality and even record on 2 inch tape and release on vinyl. You won't find any of it on the radio or pop charts, but it's out there.
My mom bought a massive "As seen on TV" compilation setup here in Canada, I think was like 8 records, called "The All American Pop Collection". This was around 1980-81.
I didn't notice as a kid, but when I snagged it from them years later, I realized that 90% of the songs were re-recorded.
That's the earliest that I know of the re-recording scam.
There is a problem with listening to "scam-re-recordings" as a kid without noticing it: If you don't get used with the original later, it's hard to get "your originals" back if you don't find a copy of the record you had anywhere.
I ran into this with the song "Day O". I had to search whole shelfes in thrift stores to finally find "my original", sung by the forgotten "The Trinidads" imitator band. I was so happy once I found it, purchased it and took it home^^.
@@wichtelchen oh I know. That's why when my parents wanted to get rid of their record collection, I snagged them.
All because the re record of Jimmy Rogers "Honeycomb" I still think was better than the original.
The comparison of "Honeycomb" was a night and day difference. The new one sounded off key to me. I suppose it might be clearer than the original recording, but, to my ears there was nothing that wrong with the original that would warrant redoing it.
It made me think about cars of all things. I own a couple of classic cars, and I keep them original/period correct. Why? Because I want the _experience_ of driving in the period in which they came from. AM radio, leaks, wind whistles, finicky to start, drum brakes etc. All of the quirks. When I want modern convenience or features, I drive the modern beater.
I feel the same about music. When I listen to a song like "Honeycomb" I listen to it to experience the song as it was recorded, and heard by those when it came out. 1957 instruments, vocals, recording equipment. All of the quirks. When I want something sterile, overproduced, and crystal clear I'll listen to a modern recording.
Besides, I'd rather listen to an artist or group when they were in their prime than when they get dragged out of the nursing home for some PBS-style "hits of the ___ era" stage show bastardization of songs that were done right the first time.
Ooof. Just got to that part of the video. It's got like...microphone feedback on the main vocals???? And you're right about the tuning; it's definitely different.
Recorded in a lower key
Shortly before he died, Ricky Nelson re-recorded his greatest hits which came out in CD form. He used the Jordanaires as backup singers for a more authentic sound. I actually like it very much, although I much prefer the original version of Garden Party.
For whatever reason, Gordon Lightfoot's original version of The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald was quite hard to find. I found it finally on a Rhino release.
The Summertime Dream album was released on CD back in the 1980s and this CD mastering is what is still available.
Excellent video. I've unwittingly acquired a few of these Phony Oldies compilations. I recall in the late 1990s and early 2000s, your typical discount department store (i.e. Walmart, Fred Meyer) carried a lot of these at cheap prices in "dump bin" type displays. Interesting, several of the Madacy collections were issued in distinctive tin-can boxes. One of the real surprises of the Madacy catalog is a 5-CD set of the nine Beethoven symphonies in very good performances (Krips/London Symphony), referred to on Internet blogs as "Beethoven In A Tin Can".
When I was younger there were commercials for huge package collections that inspired the joke "everything ever recorded for 89 cents. For an extra $10,000 we'll take out everything ever recorded by Jerry Vale".
"Baby its You" by the Shirelles and "Tears on my Pillow" by Little Anthony and the Imperials were always hard to find on TH-cam in their original recordings. It frustrated me for several years until the originals were posted.
I learned my lesson on this sort of release sometime in 2002, with the purchase of a compilation of hits from The Animals. I put it on the stereo as soon as I got home... instantly knew something was off as soon as I heard the first song. As i continued to listen, Iooked the packaging over more closely. I ended up spotting the re-recordings disclaimer in tiny letters on the cover. Turned out it was Eric Burdon and some other guys... I returned it the next day. Pretty lame. Accept no substitutes!
ABKCO in the US or EMI (now Warner) Parlophone in the UK have the originals
At least they let you return it! A lot of record stores or department stores I've been to will only exchange you "like-for-like"...and even then only if your original purchase happened to be damaged or defective in some way.
I left more than a few CDs and cassettes laying in the ditch on the side of I-94 on account of this.
I prefer the original recordings. That's why I make sure I find the original recordings on Amazon Music.
I actually bought a CD called Eric Burden and Friends. The songs were pretty disappointing
The Eric Records series featuring digitally extracted stereo and remixed stereo songs is wonderful.
I was sorry to see it's been happening with new LP releases. Bought a Foreigner "greatest hits" LP and didn't read the album notes closely. Every last song was a "new" recording. Juke Box Hero didn't have it's original punch and pretty much every song on the album sounded "off". Immediately found Foreigner 4 and Head Games in there original releases...Read the fine print before buying.
Yeah, I really, really hate re-recordings, but luckily, I've managed to avoid them for the most part by carefully reading the list of contents on the album.
My mother gave me a 'Hits of the 60's' CD that looked cool initially, but it was obvious that the songs were re-recordings and my mother realized that too which is why she wanted to get rid of the CD. In the end, I'll just donate the CD since it may appeal to someone out there, but it won't remain in my collection.
Same here. My parents, especially my mom got burned a few times. The only time I ever did was buying a few CDs from the Success label. They were good enough to list that their stuff was re-recordings but I thought I was getting live CDs from Jan and Dean and Jefferson Airplane and what I wound up with was a weird blend of original studio versions, bad studio re-recordings, none of the Jan and Dean CD was live, some of the Jefferson Airplane CD was live to be fair but crazily their CD had a few songs at the end that were studio recordings and not by Jefferson Airplane at all. Rhino and Time Life tend to be reliable for compilations and sometimes feature hard to find single edits or mixes.
In the 1950’s and 1960’s, there were budget labels including Tops, Crown, Pickwick, Diplomat, Spin-O-Rama, Coronet, and others put out their own compilations including re-recordings of original songs, or mostly original recordings by original artists. The album covers for all of the original albums looked cool, including cheesecake covers featuring sexy models of the 1950’s and 1960’s, or kids on their album covers on many children’s albums.
Little Richard must have re-recorded his '50s hits at least 20 different times. In the early to mid-'80s the market was flooded with records where he tried but could not nail the same excitement, especially on his trademark "whooooos." Finally I got hold of "Little Richard's Grooviest 17 Original Hits," on the original Specialty label. There was even a personal,signed disclaimer by Richard himself on the cover, confessing that he had re-made his hits many times over, but these here were the original and the grooviest, and he was right. I treasure that LP. It's dangerous, dangerous stuff.
If you're into jukeboxes, do NOT buy Little Richard 45s on the "Collectables" label.
Make damn sure they're on the Specialty label just like the originals were, and you'll be getting The Real Deal.
I have an album of The Ventures greatest hits, and it took me a while to realize it’s re-recordings because they’re actually really good.
The worst part about these re-recordings, is that now there popping up on streaming platforms like Spotify! I tried to find "Oh Babe, What Would You Say" by Hurricane Smith, & I had to scroll down to like #50 on the list to find the original. And some of these are popular too, Apparently people thought the Re-recording of "Build Me Up Buttercup" by The Foundations was so good, that it should get remastered rather than the original recording!
Here in the UK, up until the early 80s, there were K-tel compilations where the tracks were shortened to squeeze more on each side. Also back in the 60s and 70s, there were Top of the pops" albums. These were cover versions of chart hits, that were sold very cheaply. In 1983, the first "Now that's what I call music" album came out and changed all that.
Great cover art for those phoney Top of the Pops albums ;-) two rip offs in one, using the non-trademarked title of the UK's most popular pop TV show at the time backed with cheap orchestral remakes etched into cheap vinyl... beware: rabbit hole alert if you investigate ;-)
If it is the same K-tel as I remember, ( en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K-tel ) Philip Kives was a side show, fair ground merchandise pusher that moved to TV commercials to sell As-seen-on-TV products in the 70's - 80's and later included compilation records in their product line.
K-Tel used to sometimes shorten the songs, but at least they were the original recordings. But yeah those cheap cassettes (I think it was mostly cassettes) of bad cover versions of current hits were really awful.
Shortening the songs might have been part of the licensing agreement.
The UK "Now" albums are a mostly excellent source - they don't always get it right as to what was actually a hit, but at least they are all definitely original recordings. One egregious example is Now 34 has the Los Del Mar version of Macarena, whereas it was the Los Del Rio (Bayside Boys Mix) single that was the UK and European chart success
You have to watch out for this in the iTunes store too, especially with oldies from the 50's and 60's. A good way to tell if the song might be a re-recording is if the label is K-Tel. Back in the day, I did purchase a 60's compilation CD specifically because it stated it contained re-recordings and I was curious. It stated all recordings had the original lead singer. One of the selections was "Come And Get It" by Badfinger. I was very curious to hear whether they brought Tom Evans back from the dead. My curiosity was satisfied and I never purchased a re-recording again. At least on iTunes, you can listen before you buy.
These remakes have found their way to streaming services like Pandora, AccuRadio and even iHeartRadio, the biggest radio station owner in the US!
Spotify is filled with them too, at least that's a streaming app though. Another thing I needed to watch out for were tribute bands and cover bands. I never got into those. I think I remember coming across some of those in compilation cds.
@@MadameSomnambule Yes!I noticed this on Spotify.
Good old Mr. Kives and his company (Kives means "testicle" in Finnish, LOL)
Who did they use on Come and Get It?
I've noticed this craze (or con) of re-recording the originals on these complilation CDs which is why I've always stayed well clear of them. I only buy the full original album by the artist.
Yeah I just don't get the appeal of these compilation CDs in general tbh. Seems kinda like an old person thing
@Ichijou Miyamoto well the point is compilations are a dumb idea in general imo
One thing I also hated was a band's "Greatest Hits" CDs where they don't tell you that one of their songs features their later lead singer and not the original.
Actually, collecting "doppelganger" recordings can be an entertaining hobby. I do it with classical music L.P.s from the 1950s-70s. The same recording will appear on multiple thrift labels attributed to a smorgasbord of fake conductors and orchestras. This was done much less in the CD era. Smaller classical market, I guess.
Finding original recordings by The Drifters is a real headache. They changed personnel so often and appear on so many CD labels.
Be suspicious of imported CDs. Copyright laws are different from country to country. A compilation CD from overseas is more likely to have original recordings-- but unlicensed and ripped from dubious sources: worn 45s, old cassettes, taped off the radio, etc. Great fun, actually. Read outraged purchaser reviews on Amazon.
Enjoyable video. Thanks.
In the case of the Drifters, their prime stuff was on Atlantic and any comp on Atlantic or Rhino is the real deal.
The other reason for re-recordings is that sometimes as a result of bands switching labels, or labels restructuring and merging over the years, artists may lose the rights and royalties they already had to the music, and need to re-record their songs to keep getting paid. Taylor Swift is defiantly the most notable example right now, needing to re-record a large chunk of her back catalog, but bands have been doing this for decades. That’s why older bands will often release their own compilation albums (for example Blue Oyster Cult, Def Leopard, and Scorpions) and if you ever hear an older song in a comercial, it’s pretty posable that’s re-recorded too (there was a car comercial a few years ago that featured a re-recording of Under My Wheels by Alice Cooper.)
The Scorpions and Def Leppard re-recordings are at least called out as such, and the new versions are actually produced and intended to be a "refresh" more like how Taylor Swift did it than how these shovelware CDs did it. Moment of Glory and Comeblack are great examples of reformulating their sound for modern equipment and sensibilities, and I greatly prefer the Moment of Glory versions to the originals (though some of the "blame" for that falls on the Berlin Philharmonic ;)).
I would love to get a release (not a re-recording) of the Scorpions performance early in their career at the Oakland Coliseum / Day on the Green. It's on TH-cam in 4K if you go look. It's great.
I've gotta admit, some of those re-recordings sound very convincing--so convincing that I couldn't tell at first on some of them (like "It's My Party") whether or not they were original. I can't tell you how many times I've gone on iTunes and tried to find some oldies and only found these sneaky covers. Two of the worst offenders I've found are "Don't Pull Your Love" by Hamilton, Joe Frank and Reynolds and "Tired of Toein' the Line" by Rocky Burnette. The last time I checked for the former (in the last year or two) all I could find was re-recordings, and with the latter I couldn't find the original on either iTunes or Amazon. At this point, I've mostly just resorted to using Audacity to record songs from other YT videos and export them as MP3s. Not only can I make sure it's the original, but it's also literally free. No more paid music downloads for me, I guess.
And speaking of Amazon, I recently saw a playlist on Amazon Music called "100 Greatest 50s Rock & Roll Songs," and "One Fine Day" by the Chiffons was on there. One little problem, though...just like with the 70s song on a 50s CD, "One Fine Day" was released in 1963, not the 50s. I can understand the mistake, though; most early 60s rock sounded almost identical to that of the 50s. I've thought about trying to get a hold of them to let them know so they can put it in a comparable 60s playlist.
I rarely watch your videos but these are the kind of obscure topics I stay subscribed for, information about problems no audiophile would bother with because "compilations suck sad face", I'm not a big fan of compilations myself but there are a bunch I really enjoy and you actually explain (quite a lot of) stuff I've not heard yet. Thank you!
I used to love 50s and 60s pop (actually, I still really love it) and in the early 2000s, I'd always buy cheap compilation CDs at Walmart. At the time, I wondered why the songs sounded just a little bit different than what I heard on the radio.
OOH this is a fantastic video for any music collector! Oh man do I ever hate re-recordings, and the only time anyone ever buys them is by accident lol. When these were new, the price was a huge indication, you'd get 4-disc sets with 20 songs each and the whole thing would cost about $7 haha. I used to have a few of these and at one point I tossed them all in the garbage, they're not even worth donating to the thrift store, but at least you can re-use the jewel cases for good CDs lol.
I like old compilations of then-current music because you get to hear a LOT of songs that have since faded into obscurity. They're like samplers of what people actually listened to in a specific moment in time rather than a modern compilation that just has the same top-10 hits you'll hear on the radio all day.
11:10 I actually know something about that one! Danny Rapp, the "Danny" of Danny and the Juniors, committed suicide in 1983 and one of the other Juniors (Joe Terry) took his place as lead singer. They were a trio for a while: Terry, original Junior Frank Maffi, and Maffi's brother Bobby. They appeared on _Sha Na Na_ and worked the oldies circuit. Eventually the other Juniors retired and by the end Joe was the only member of Danny and the Juniors left.
The Danny and the Juniors recording sounded very weak!
The best way to avoid this is to get the vinyls and then use those to make your own remastered version.
What I find strange is that the majority of re-recordings are so awful. Some are unlistenable - usually from a technical point, yet I would pay good money to go see these artists perform, and they sure are capable of making in many cases outstanding performances that could eclipse any studio efforts...Yet we rarely experience this in what must have been a cheap quick rushed job on a rainy Monday morning with whatever session musicians available. Shame. For instance watch the Beach Boys when they must have been in their 70s making wonderful work. Marmalade are on TH-cam 30 years after their hit and it is better in many ways...and many others .It seems a real waste of talent if a bit more care was taken these could be as sought after as the originals. All down to cash and short shortsightedness as usual.
There may well have been time restrictions as well. My (admittedly limited) experience with the recording industry is that label bosses give the green light for a project but then expect everything to be finished yesterday.
Yeah, it's honestly kinda sad to hear some of these recordings when the vocalist is trying their best to do a good preformance, but the backing track is just awful and sounds more dated than the original
@@rattyeely And that's the irony of it: the fakes were supposed to make them sound more palatable to modern listeners when they just had the opposite effect of making them sound cheap and chintzy.
@@Attmay Why would they care about modern listeners?
Glad you mentioned K-Tel! If memory serves, it’s the K-Tel re-recording of “Surfin’ Bird” that ended up in a particular Family Guy episode, not the original recoding
I’m glad someone has heard about the bird. XD
The original isn’t even in the family guy show because of rights issues.
@@SlapstickGenius23 Making it all the more ironic John Waters could still get it for *Pink Flamingos* when it was restored and re-released in the 1990s with an "updated" soundtrack. This was after he had to settle for re-recordings of select Cameo-Parkway Records tracks for the *Hairspray* soundtrack because that greedy bastard Allen Klein wouldn't let them out to anyone for years. That's why the actual soundtrack album just has the title song and 11 tracks from the movie: they didn't want to deal with the fake re-records outside of the context of the movie.
The first time I noticed this was hearing a re recording of Rock Arund The Clock by Bill Haley and his (new) Comets from the sixties. Gone was the ambience and that driving double bass of the original from the previous decade.
As far as Spotify goes, there can be multiple compilation albums of artists from the 50's onward and you literally have to wade through to find an original recording if it's there and in some cases there's even multiple re recordings.
This phenomenon has always boggled my mind. Thanks for the video!
Back in the 60s, when I was a little kid, my Dad used to get annoyed at LPs that he would get that had Big Band Hits Re-Recorded by crappy jazz bands that were inferior. I remember one album he got that said "The Hits of Count Basie" in really large typeface, then in really small print it said, "Played by new studio musicians" Clearly an attempt to fool the public!
Look for those on major labels or European public domain labels
@@BradOlsonBemidji better yet, pirate them. It's not like Basie is getting the money anyway.
So it didn't even start with rock 'n' roll.
@@Attmay Oh yeah, they even did that WAY back in the 1940s, when lesser jazz performers would do versions of Louis Armstrong songs that were originally released back in the 1920s!
Here in the UK we had a whole series of compilations sold under the Top Of The Pops name, but every one of the tracks were copies recorded by session musicians and not the original artists. Incidentally "Now That's What I Call Music" was going in the UK from the early 80s, surprised they didn't make it across the pond until the 90s.
True. I'm not sure that many of the session musicians have claimed "credit" but I understand that a pre-fame Elton John appeared on some.
Jimmy Nichol who briefly stood in for the ill Ringo on a Beatles tour had the benefit of previously having played on a cover LP of their hits.
I ditched Spotify because of re-recorded songs by the original artists. Every time I listened to ‘70s and early ‘80s I’d here re-recorded versions twice an hour. The magic was gone. There is always a lightning-in-a-bottle aspect of all great recordings. It’s a combination of production, engineering, equipment, feelings of the moment, and performances at that time. It’s a vibe. Ugh.
A store in the town I grew up had a small locked case with a bunch of fluorescent-colored 8-tracks. Each had a disclaimer at the bottom that the songs were recorded "by our studio artist in the same manner s the original...." which I thought (even as a kid) was very odd. I bought at least one and yes - they were crummy.
This sort of album originated out of the 1970's. Many groups of the 50's and 60's never saw a lot of money due to bad contracts. So, by the 70's.... with failing careers, they did what they had to do to make money. Little Richard of all people was I think one of the first to re-record his 50's Specialty Hits put out on a K-Tel LP.
And then, another indie label called Kid Stuff Records, when it was under IJE did put out albums of bad cover songs as performed by the Kid Stuff Repertory Company and they were dreadful. I used to have these albums, and I uploaded them on my other channel when it was played on my 1967 Magnavox Collaro which I used to have, but I got rid of it and threw it in the trash since the Maggie wasn’t good since I got a Victrola 8-in-1 stereo system.
One example is a Bee Gees cover of “Night Fever” which was a total cringe. It has been re-recorded twice on two albums. The first one was bad. th-cam.com/video/DnMAjzIHvkU/w-d-xo.html
And then second re-recording of “Night Fever” got even worse than the other one. th-cam.com/video/x1-Z0ifm-zg/w-d-xo.html
Are you sure about this? I HAVE that Little Richard K-Tel album (though I don't think I've played it in more than 30-odd years). It was sold on TV circa 1982. I bought it from the ad. I thought that album used the original cuts, not re-recordings. The original Specialty Records cuts were pretty well-recorded back in the '50s, so the high-quality sound didn't seem suspicious to me. I'll have to go back and take another listen.