Blondie Greatest Hits - a question about NR

Had it once - bought it for 25 and sold it for 50 about 3 years ago. Wish I'd kept it. Pre-Hoffman Forum, I thought the remaster would suffice. Little did I know...

 

I found the DCC Parallel lines for $25 last year in one of my local shops and I ain't sellin'

 

Don't blame you - I love this album and am bummed that I sold the best cd version of it. That being said - I'll survive with the remaster -

 

Listening again (been a long time) the "wow" only seems to be present in four songs (marked with *):

Heart Of Glass
Denis
The Tide Is High
In The Flesh*
Sunday Girl*
Dreaming*
Hanging on The Telephone*
Rapture
Picture This
Union City Blue
(I'm Always Touched By Your) Presence Dear
Call Me
Atomic
Rip Her To Shreds

Phil - would you agree?

Here's a couple of mp3 clips:

Sunday Girl (intro)

Hanging On The Telephone (ending)

 

I don't have the US Greatest Hits, so when I saw they had the same tracklist and came out the same time, I thought they contained the same mixes (remastered at Capitol studios).

So are you saying the US version doesn't have the banshee wails over the start of Heart Of Glass, the English/French version of Sunday Girl, the glossy reverb Chapman mix of In The Flesh, etc? The UK version does.

 

Mal, you have the advantage over me; I no longer have access to "The Best Of" myself because it belonged to one of my sisters, and naturally I didn't want my own copy of it because of the wow! But, in addition to the above, I also remember wow on "Union City Blue" (check out where the lead guitars are playing the vocal line before the first verse) and "Presence Dear" (generally pretty bad throughout). From your list, I remember "Dreaming" and "Hanging On The Telephone" sounding the worst. Nasty stuff.

 

It seems that the mixes for Best of Blondie were unique. I never owned it, so I can't compare. However, I found this review on Amazon UK:

Reviewer: A music fan
Blondie’s ‘Greatest Hits’ is absolutely fantastic. This brilliant compilation album provides the perfect portrait of one of the most influential bands of the last 30 years. Every Blondie single is covered here, from the early days (‘X Offender’, ‘Denis’) to the household-name years (‘Hanging On The Telephone’, ‘Atomic’ etc) to the most recent times (‘Maria’). There is not one bad track- all of them are individual masterpieces. Whether it’s a pop song like ‘Denis’, a slow song like ‘In The Flesh’, a disco/dance song like ‘Atomic’ or an all-out rock song like ‘Maria’, the standards of the lyrics and music never, for one second, slip. Nice touches are the remixed or special editions of tracks: an extended version of ‘Heart Of Glass’, a rare promotional edit of ‘Rapture’ with an extra verse, a special mix of ‘In The Flesh’ and a gorgeous ‘franglais’ (half French) mix of ‘Sunday Girl’. If you’re new to Blondie or unconverted, this is the first album you should buy.

So, based on this, even though the track line up seems to mirror the US CD of the same name, it appears to have mixes that were on the Chrysalis Best of Blondie and not on the Capitol Greatest Hits. And I don't remember the wails over the intro to Heart of Glass or the extra verse in Rapture.

 

Mal,

I know you have been very busy. But thank you for getting back with me and my question!

 

I have a West German CD copy of 'Best Of Blondie'. I'll have to give it a listen, and compare it to your list. Thanks.

 

Well guys!

I have to apologize. The UK and the US Greatest Hits packages ARE identical in both mixes and mastering.

I was going by memory in my last post. Heart of Glass, In the Flesh, Sunday Girl and Rapture are the remixes that appeared on Best of Blondie. The only difference betwen the UK and the US is the cover.

 

Okay, I haven't listened to my 80's Chrysalis "Best of Blondie" in a long time, but I just pulled out my US pressed CD with the same cover posted earlier and it has a slightly different track listing.

Here's mine:


Heart Of Glass
Dreaming
The Tide Is High
In The Flesh
Sunday Girl
Hanging on The Telephone
Rapture
One Way Or Another
(I'm Always Touched By Your) Presence Dear
Call Me
Atomic
Rip Her To Shreds

Although I think the various alternate versions used are the same where the tracks match.

BTW, I just check the posted tracks and compared them with my CD. I could detect the fluctuations in the linked samples, but I could not hear the same fluctuations off the CD itself. Hmmm.

 

I just got Best of Blondie 2 days ago...played it once, not the greatest sound, but way better than the last 2 greatest hits ('98,04?)...those last 2 are loud, hard to listen to them, I finally dumped them...I will listen for the WOW today, and report back

 

listened carefully, no WOW that I could discern, although hearing "dreaming' with its unusual time signature could lead to a 'false positive'

 

That "wow" sounds like tape drag to me. FWIW, it's not present on the Best of Blondie LP I bought in 1980.

 

I have an early CD version of "The Best of Blondie" with the same cover as pictured in post #9.

My CD has a total playing time of 49:17. It says Printed in West Germany on the cover. No UPC on the back. Smooth-sided jewel case. CD has aluminum all the way to the center. Catalog number is CCD 1371. Matrix info is CCD 1371 2891444 01.

I think this is a first pressing from early 80's.

The CD sounds very decent to me. I compared Heart of Glass with the Steve mastered version on Rock of the 70's, and while Steve's version was still a little better, the compilation CD was a nice listen and sounded pleasant.


Is this the same version/mastering as the one people are referring to in this thread with regards to speed fluctuations.

 

How is this comp? Any remixes?

 

I just listened to my CD pressing and compared it to the sample clips. I don't think my first pressing has the speed problems, but I am not 100% certain.

 

It looks like a different mastering than my EMI Swindon.

 

Does your version have the tape drag?

 

Thanks, Mal, I thought no one else had noticed this. I was thinking of starting a thread called 'Why do some tracks always sound off-centre, even on CD'. If it's the same Blondie CD we're talking about (blue background, 'mirror' photo), I believe that this disc, in common with a lot of early CDs, was made from the lp master with, of course, a lot of the bass rolled off for vinyl cutting purposes. It was one of the first CDs I bought. £16.99 from my Aunt's mail-order catalogue!.

 

I have the US Digital Audio Disc Corp. pressing and it clocks in at 44:11 according to Foobar. Sounds very decent to me also... hiss before each track except Rapture(?) I didn't notice the wow.

 

Yes.

 

wow that Hanging On The Telephone clip is bad