Mamas & Papas 16 Of Their Greatest Hits

[Pat]

I'm arriving kinda "late to the party" on this title but I found a used copy of this today and decided to get it.

A couple of comments:

Is the single track/non-echo vocal intro on Dedicated To The One I Love, correct? I can honestly say that I have never heard this before, and I have the song on many different discs.

What about the intro by John Phillips (I think) on Dream A Little Dream Of Me. Never heard THAT left off before!

Look Through My Window is of course longer on the ending but, is the pitch different as well? It seems a tad slower overall (it could be me, who knows?).

Overall, I really like the disc. I noticed a lot more nuances in this pressing that I hadn't noticed before.

My pressing is CRC/MCAD-5701 (JVC-436) Made in USA

[David R. Modny]

Correct is such an overrated word...lol! Let's just say that the alternate single-tracked intro version of "Dedicated" made its debut on Steve's disc and has since been nicked by the good folks at BGO for their master tapes UK import of Deliver/Papas and Mamas. Ditto for the other respective Steve 16 hits mastered tracks on there.

The funny part is that the original album version of "Dream A Little Dream" had the John intro on it. When BGO put out their CD version, having nicked Steve's non-intro version, they managed to alter the original album - as with the other tracks.

Did the original Cass single eliminate the intro too? I seem to remember that - but don't own her single.

[Steve Hoffman]

A secret no more:

I cut out the channel that John and Cass' babble on during the intro and faded it back in when the singing began. It just felt better to me at the time! I wouldn't do something like that now though.

Hope this helps...:)

[Pat]

Thanks David and Steve for the comments.

I get your point, David, about the word "correct" (guess I used a "Grant-ism" there...LOL!).

Anyway, this really is a nice disc, I believe. I love those layered harmonies! Steve, this may be one of those rare exceptions, where a (dare I say it?) re-mix would have been welcomed. Songs like I Saw Her Again have vocal parts (Denny & John) that pan around a get lost (drop out) of the mix at times...weird! And of course the crazy "California Dreamin' is becoming a reality" ending would have been nice to hear on any STEREO version.

Kudos, Steve! :D

[Dugan]

If you listen really close to Steve's version of Dream A Little Dream you can hear the intro. It is buried way under but unless you know what John is saying you can't make out the words, only that he's saying something. In fact, to me, it sounds like the track starts in the middle of it, though I might be wrong.