Search - Jonathan King, John Fred & His Playboy Band, Tommy James & The Shondells :: Dick Bartley Presents Collector's Essentials: On The Radio, Volume One

ORIGINAL'S SOUND GREAT!!!

Ken Rogers | Easley, SC USA | 09/25/1998

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Cary Mansfield and Dick Bartley must have spent a lot of time getting this one together. This cd contains the original "radio only" edits. These are the songs that you heard on the radio when they were popular."No Sugar Tonight" by The Guess Who, "Sky Pilot" by Eric Burdon, "The Little Black Egg" by The Nightcrawlers, etc. are all in stereo and sound terriffic. If you are a person that wants first class, top quality sounds. This is the one. THIS WILL BE ONE OF THE TRUE COLLECTORS ITEMS IN ABOUT TEN YEARS...YOU NEED TO GET IT WHILE YOU CAN."

Undoing the crimes of modern-day Oldies radio

hyperbolium | Earth, USA | 06/02/2001

(4 out of 5 stars)

"One of the most flagrant crimes of Oldies radio is its musical illiteracy. The reduction of twenty years of weekly Top-40's to a single forty song rotation is compounded by the occasional play of the wrong version of a hit. Remakes, alternate takes and hasty stereo remixes substitute for the original radio gold.Enter syndicated DJ Dick Bartley and Varèse's archivists with a multi-CD set that corrects some of the mistakes, while introducing several alternates of their own. Original mono issues of "Everyone's Gone to the Moon," "I Saw Her Tonight" and "The Letter" are welcome reprieves from the poorly balanced stereo previously available on CD. The hit-single vocal of "Magic Carpet Ride" and the unedited tale of cannibalism, "Timothy, " haven't been widely heard since their initial release. Rare stereo mixes of "Hang On Sloopy" and "(Just Like) Romeo and Juliet" stray from the compilation's concept, but are collectible additions to the commonly available mono.A nice collection of singles, many of which will sound oddly unfamiliar to those weaned on oldies radio."

A.M. as it was but in digital clarity

Zub | Forks Twp., PA | 11/17/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"The tracks included in this collection provide an interesting sample of tunes not often found on compilation CDs. However what makes this CD unique is the version of the songs presented. Often, the versions originally heard on a.m. radio were not those available to be purchased by the public then or now. Edited versions for shorter play times, poorly mixed or totally different stereo versions, lyric edits - all kinds of discrepancies can come into play when tunes of that era make it to CD. Here, what you get are the versions as heard on the radio with the added bonus of many appearing in stereo. Of the 14 tracks, 3,5,7-12,14 are stereo with 1,4,6,13 being mono single versions. Track two, "Judy In Disguise" (With Glasses)" is part stereo, part mono. Backround notes on the song and the version included make for interesting reading in the eight-page liner notes booklet. A top-quality comp CD for the casual collector or purist looking for digital clarity of classic a.m. sounds."