Questions for Ron Furmanek

Hi Mike

That was going to be a collaboration with Bob Hyde & Steve Kolanjian,..years before Bob went to work at Capitol,..one thing just led to another,..so to speak,.&,.it never got any further than in the paper stage,..This material was Bob's favorite & it would have been a lot of fun,..nowadays,..I doubt that any major would even attempt to release anything like this ever again!,..sounds like a good Sundazed project!,..no?

Ron F

PS Folks-- I'm fighting a real bad flu,..thats why I have not been posting any reply's,..lots of chicken soup & rest!

 

Feel better Ron!

 

Hi Tim

thanks,..almost every Hollies 60's multi survives, except for about 20 songs,..(which went bye bye in the early 70's),....."Do the best you can" was always in stereo on an old German lp on the Hansa label,....for my mix I utilized two 4 track tapes to "open" it up even more!,..lotsa fun!,..that song was only ever issued as a mono 45 here in the States & those are the only tapes that were used for the Epic Anthology CD

Ron F

 

Hi Bob

thanks,..we enjoyed putting that one together,..all cuts are directly off of the mono masters!,..we always wanted to do a volume two,....but,....its still available folks!

luckily the lp's are out now on Collectibles,..how do they sound,..anyone know?

Ron F

 

Hi Evan

yes,..its my younger brother Bob,..he worked a lot with the Abbott & Costello estates & with Jerry Lewis,..I have an older brother also,..he has a collection of old bus's!,..yes!,..thats right,.old bus's,.(Ralph Cramden style!),...I first made one of the bus's a star when it was featured in a Debbie Gibson promotional film clip--"We could be together",.that a friend of mine was producing!,..&,.then another one of the bus's is the featured bus in the film "a league of thier own",....my brother is actually seen it the film as the bus driver who gets off the bus & quits,..leaving Tom Hanks to take over!

Ron F

 

What about the bus in "Heart & Souls"? Was that his too?

 

Hi Mark

Thanks,..lots of cool folk here!

Ron F

 

I Love Dino's "Aint That a Kick in the Head"! I used it as the closing song at my wedding and on my wedding video. (and I used Ron's Capitol version, too!)

 

Hi again Ron,

Speedy recovery with the flu! Any material in the works for Red Bird/Blue Cat artists? That Taragon CD from 1998 has been a favorite of mine! Is there a STEREO version of (The Trade Winds) New York's A Lonely Town anywhere? I feel like I've heard it (many moons ago) on a Dick Bartley radio show, years before Pro Tools/Sync-Ups were commonplace.

 

Hi Pat

Thanks

Great CD indeed!,..LOTS of work went into that guy!,..almost every song was pieced together from "stages"

sadly The Tradewinds is the only "missing in action" tape,...I'm sure its out there somewhere,....but,..we looked everywhere!,..& it still couldn't be found!

thanks

Ron F

 

Hiya Dean

another Joisey guy I see!

Thanks,..thats really a great compliment,..I CANNOT believe the monster that song turned out to be!

Ya know,..there was always Thats Amore,..Memories are made,.Everybody loves,...&,..now,.yup!,...this is right up there!

makes one truly proud to be able to turn the world on to the best!

Ron F

 

Hey Evan

I don't know about that one,..but I do know there are some in scenes in the feature films "Malcolm X",.&,."Forrest Gump"

Ron F

 

Ron, First let me say that the Hollies are one of my all time favorites...(they are in my top 5)..the job you did on the EMI set was amazing..a real treat to listen to these tracks remixed to give them a whole new sound...I have a question about the version of "I Can't Let Go" ...The remix you did has for the first time no distortion on the guitar solo in the middle of the track....on previous stereo mixes there was always this nasty distortion noise and the song went to mono for a short time ...what king of shape was this tape in ? ..and was anything special done to eliminate this noise...or was it just a bad stereo tape that had been used for years ...the mono mix was always fine. Also..on the new EMI 2 CD set(The Hollies Greatest Hits) they used a version of Carrie Anne that has the vocals centered...don't know if it's your remix but thought I'd pass that along...any special way to identify your remix?? .there are some other new mixes on this collection also....first time I've heard them....sadly they used the noisy distorted version of "I Can't Let Go"...you gotta wonder!!!!!!

Anyway...thanks again for all the information on the Hollies,

JF

 

Howdy Ron!

I hope you are on the mend and feeling better. I wanted to share a story and ask a question...

After reading all of the positive comments about your Frank Sinatra Capitol Collectors Series disc, I decided to add it to my collection. Last week, I was in a local shop that I frequent to pick up a couple of special orders. While there, I looked in the Sinatra section and saw 4 copies of said disc. I decided that if I walked in the door with 3 new discs, my wife would probably be not be too thrilled with me, especially since 3 eBay purchases showed up the day before. So, I paid for my special orders and decided that I would stop back later in the week.

On Sunday, when I went back to the shop, all 4 copies of the disc were gone. After a few minutes, I asked a guy doing some work in the section if they sold out since I was last there. He said, "Sinatra?" "What's it look like?" "...Yellow cover, right?" "I remember that. It was on a list of 'deletes' and I pulled it to send back to headquarters."

Great... I thought.

"But," he added. "I'm pretty sure it's still here if you really want one."

He spent the next several minutes sifting through about 10-12 boxes of returns trying to find a copy, but came up empty.

I made another disc purchase and headed home. As I was relaying the story of the "almost" Sinatra purchase to my wife, the phone rang and it was the store manager calling to say that he found the Sinatra CD's and would hold one for me. In the end, I got it and it sounds GREAT! Nice job!!

The moral? At least for me, it pays to support your local retailer. I may pay an extra buck from time to time, but it's more than made up for in great service.

Now (finally...), my question. Why would a record company delete a title like this? More importantly, why would they recall all existing inventory on a catalog title in this manner? Is this normally done because the label is about to re-release the album in a new configuration or at a new price point? This doesn't make much sense to me.

Gary

 

Massive sales play a huge part (the hugest part), re-releasing the album at a certain price point plays a part, re-releasing the album in a new configuration plays a part.

 

The store manager was speaking about "returns" not "deletes" This (post-Christmas) is the time when all the stuff that didn't sell. ie bizarre catalogue choices and top-chart items. The Sinatra Collector's Series cd is alive and well (at least in Canada) and in print.

The payoff to me knowing that these were "returns" boxes and not "delete" boxes?...
10 or 12 boxes? That seems like bulk stock and overstock to me.

breathe easy!

 

Actually, Syd, I am pretty sure the title has been deleted. If you check the usual haunts, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, etc, you'll see that the disc is "no longer available" except in used form or from a third party vendor and perhaps as a British import. (Although, I do not believe that was the case even just a week or two ago.) The store had many boxes of returns, but a handful of them were boxes of deletes. The employee could not locate the right box. When the manager returned to the store, he knew right away where to look and gave me a call.

The bottom line here is that if you've been thinking about purchasing the domestic version of this disc and want to get Ron's original version, I would seek one out now.

Cheers!
Gary

 

Hi Evan

Thanks for the questions,..I was in charge of all of the film restorations & had to make special requests to remix,.....all of the tapes were easily found at the time,..one fun thing that I do remember a wrong reel being put on the machine for "YMSK",..it was a completely different version than released!,..we all looked at each other & said,"cool!",...(this version I believe eventually came out on the Anthology CD),...I did three songs for MMT back in 1988,.."Magical Mystery Tour",.."Your Mother Should Know",..&,.."Blue Jay Way"

I had finished remixing the entire film,& then went to tackle the songs,...the others I felt were fine enough mix's for the video,..& chose not to touch them,...these 3 however were a completely different story!,...I think that everyone at the studio thought I was a bit daft with what I was asking to do!,..I wanted to go back to the original "stages" takes for the songs,...we had three seperate 4 tracks for each song all synched together onto a 24 track tape!,..this way I was able to really "open" up the songs,..(they are very weak on the released stereo mix's)

The trick worked great,.& now you have great wide sepeation on these 3 songs!,.."Blue Jay Way" is now the rarer MONO mix,.but,..now in wide stereo!

George Martin was only there for the mixing part,..needless to say,..we spent a very long time on these tracks,..at one point during working on the "BJW" backing tracks, he looked at me and laughingly said,."this is rubbish!, did we release this?!)

Nothing personally against the man,.but,..after a while of trying all kinds of things,..nothing at all was coming across the way that I wanted it to,.he could see this,...he finally got up,.had me sit at the mixing board,& said,..go ahead,..do it the way you like!,.I personally think he had too much going on still inside him with regard to the recent remixing of the "Help" & "Rubber Soul" cd's!,..there were probably a lot of bad vibes at the time.

I did new stereo mix's for every promotional film ever made,(restored the visuals too!),...& a lot of "sync" material,....the songs in AHDN had many mono vs stereo variations as you know,...the final master I delivered to Walter Shenson for the restored feature is a full mono mix,...matching the 1964 theatrical release mono,..why Mirimax "butchered" it into PHONY 5.1 for the DVD,..is beyond me!

Ron F

 

Hi Thom

I know what ya mean!,..but its fun fun fun!

Ron F

 

Hi Joe

thanks!

Its her first two lp's on one,.Imperial/EMI records,..USA release,..."All I really wanna do"/"The Sonny side of Cher"


Ron F

 

Yello! Waddya think of that snazzy new avatar???

 

Howdy

Help! will be coming soon,..finding goodies for bonus treats right now!,..yes,..its brother Bob!

Ron F

 

thanks!,....yes,.."C A" same story!,why anyone would prefer that simply unlistenable old stereo mix boggles the mind!,.let alone the artist!...I will be the first to let you all know if these ever finally come out!

Ron F

 

Hi Ron,

I've got a Rick Nelson question for you. I've never been able to find the song Young World in stereo anywhere. I'm assuming if a stereo version was possible it would have been on one of your comps. Is there a story on why there's no stereo for that song?

 

Hi Joe

Thanks!,..agreed!,..in my top 5 also!,..this was the ultimate labor of love for sure!,...we actually had the UK mono master single tapes on the machine to match for comparing with each song we remixed,..(the famous Abbey Road echo ya know!) A fantastic man who has since passed away,..Mike Jarratt, worked very closely with me on this set,..Mike had engineered the guys back in the early 70's at Abbey Road,including "Air that I breath",..so,..it was great having him on board,...one of the nicest people one could have ever met & worked with.

Yes,."I can't let go",..a strange mix that old stereo one, hey!?,...why the problems back in 1966 I'll never know!,..the multi was in perfect shape & is so simply recorded!,...like other posts,..I think we all agree on one or two words to sum up these kind of strange mix's,.."cheapness",.&,..my favorite,.."lazy"

Carrie Anne on the new set you mentioned is probably just a squeeze job of the old stereo mix,(my guess).....my mix has all of one track (the music) in the center,...with all of the vocals split around both sides.
Were those unreleased songs fantastic or what?,....a few possible should have been A-sides for sure!

Keep playing it loud!,...hey!!,..by the way to the folks reading this,..somebody just informed me that this 3 cd set is currently on sale for $18.98 at the BMG CD club!,..BUY IT NOW!

Ron F