It has been claimed, dating back at least as far as the released of the 2002 reissues, that the original mono Spoonful masters no longer exist. However, 1st generation "safety copies" of "Do You Believe In Magic", "Daydream" and "Hums Of The Lovin' Spoonful" surfaced last year, and are set for release at the end of June.

There has been no word on whether these wlll be the only such mono reissues; the Spoonful also released two soundtrack albums ("What's Up Tiger Lily?" and "You're A Big Boy Now") and a final studio album ("Everything Playing").

I've reluctantly become a mono convert to the extent that these mixes are collectable, even if they don't necessarily sound better (to me) than the stereo mixes. However, as the Spoonful have been criticized by some for lacking any musical edge, one wonders if the mono mixes might restore some of the musical propulsiveness that was watered down by stereo separation. (No, I'm not sure if "propulsiveness" is actually a word.)

In the meantime, the nerd in me is still thrilled to have exchanged e-mails with Steve Boone and have him as a Facebook friend.

---

"Do You Believe In Magic"
CD: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00WZBWCJ4/?tag=imwan-20
Vinyl: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00XC86D6M/?tag=imwan-20

TRACK LISTING:
1. Do You Believe In Magic
2. Blues In The Bottle
3. Sportin Life
4. My Gal
5. You Baby
6. Fishin Blues
7. Did You Ever Have To Make Up Your Mind
8. Wild About My Lovin
9. Other Side Of This Life
10. Younger Girl
11. On The Road Again
12. Night Owl Blues

---

"Hums Of The Lovin' Spoonful"
CD: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00WZBW6N6/?tag=imwan-20
Vinyl: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00XC869IO/?tag=imwan-20

TRACK LISTING:
1. Lovin You
2. Bes' Friends
3. Voodoo In My Basement
4. Darlin' Companion
5. Henry Thomas
6. Full Measure
7. Rain On The Roof
8. Coconut Grove
9. Nashville Cats
10. Four Eyes
11. Summer In The City

---

"Daydream"
CD: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00WZBWAU0/?tag=imwan-20
Vinyl: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00XC86BC8/?tag=imwan-20

TRACK LIST:
1. Daydream
2. There She Is
3. It's Not Time Now
4. Warm Baby
5. Day Blues
6. Let The Boy Rock N Roll
7. Jug Band Music
8. Didn't Want To Have To Do It
9. You Didn't Have To Be So Nice
10. Bald Headed Lena
11. Butchie's Tune
12. Big Noise From Speonk

I've added the Amazon CD links, which are there, but not active yet. As soon as they go live I'll be in for all three.

I am thrilled! Just saw these on the Sundazed website.

Wow! Finally!

According to Steve Boone (via Facebook), "We used to make our mono mixes to a 7" car speaker to make sure it would sound good on a car radio...Stereo was for the wine sipping jazz fans on FM stations."

Well, the samples on Sundazed website sure sound nice.

The CDs are pre-orderable from Amazon now:

   

And all of the links for the mono CDs and vinyl have been updated in the first post.

Well, right now they are substantially cheaper ($11.68) on Sundazed site. I doubt one would pay $9 shipping.....

I expect Amazon to end up cheaper (but I expect that in most every case).

Be careful when using Amazon's "Buy All Three" button to buy all three of these titles with one click. I did it from the "Do You Believe in Magic" page and Amazon added the already released versions of "Hums" and "Daydream" to my cart.

The Hums CD is down to $11.99 now. Expect the others to follow suit in due course.

Yep, all three are down to $11.99.

Excellent! Thanks, Linda. That makes the order over $35, so shipping is free. (Somehow, I think that the shipping from Sundazed would be more than 93 cents!)

I pulled the trigger on all three of these tonight, and got an e-mail saying that the MP3 versions of "Magic" and "Hums" (but not "Daydream") were available to me now. However, the MP3's are all in stereo--and include the 2003 bonus tracks, which I seem to have gathered from...somewhere are not going to be on these Sundazed reissues?

In the meantime, and call me an eternal optimist, but I sincerely wish, hope, and pray that "Everything Playing" and the two soundtrack albums are slated for similar treatment. (In checking discogs.com, Zal's solo album and "Revelation: Revolution '69" do not seem to have ever been released in mono.)

There are no bonus tracks on the new mono Sundazed CDs. Amazon gave you the digital versions of the 2003 Buddah stereo remasters (complete with their bonus tracks) because there are no MP3 versions of the mono albums up for pre-order yet.

Yeah, but under that reasoning, they also should have included "Daydream"...I think.

Amazon's sloppy marketing concerns me. Not bothering to state what distinguishes these reissues from the 2003 reissues is one thing (these pages contain no tracklisting, nor any use or mention of the word "mono") but even more troublesome is that this current approach is far sloppier than it was in the past, indicating that Amazon is actively cutting corners as it expands.

Oh, it's the opposite of cutting corners -- the system has been upgraded over the past few years to try to link multiple formats, multiple pressings, multiple countries of origin all in the same listings -- it has to be set up that way in order to send free MP3 versions of CDs as they're purchased, for one thing. But it makes for confusion with groups like The Lovin' Spoonful who have had a lot of releases of the same material.

That's one of the things we always try to make sense of here, along with which mastering, the correct tracklists, etc.

In the case of Daydream, you didn't get the MP3s because the mono album you ordered isn't linked to a digital version (or any other version, for that matter):

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00WZBWAU0/?tag=imwan-20

Technically speaking, we shouldn't be receiving any free digital tracks when ordering the new mono CDs because MP3 versions aren't up for pre-order. I don't know that the mono mixes will be available digitally at all -- Sundazed has been inconsistent about making their catalogue available that way. So what you did receive was a mistake, but a bonus.

I was surprised to learn that Sundazed actually released CDs--I'm pretty sure that these will be first I ever buy from them (I do have the "Alley Oop" 45.) Of course, everything about these reissues comes as something of a surprise. I still have no idea how Sundazed packages their CDs--do they use jewel-boxes, or are they all about the eco-friendly packaging? The effort put into recreating the Kama Sutra label on the "Alley Oop" 45 would have done the Japanese proud.

Speaking of which, I'll bet that the Japanese will be all over these mixes, and part of me suspects that if I'm patient, they will eventually create versions of these albums which collect every Spoonful mono and stereo mix known to mankind. I know that there is a French label which was releasing individual CD versions of each of the Spoonful's original French EPs; I have a 2-disc set from the same label which collects all of the EPs and artwork.

Lately Sundazed has been doing digipaks (with lyrics plastic trays), and that is what I expect here.

Just got mine in the mail - Can't wait to get home and spin them!

So these are out already? 30 days early?

How is the sound?

I was listening to the "What's Up Tiger Lily?" soundtrack in the car today, and it struck me that "Pow!"--in stereo--is mixed very strangely; it starts off with some prominent percussion that seems to just suddenly drop out of the mix for the most part, leaving Joe Butler mostly drowned out by the rhythm guitar. When I got home, I got out my portable turntable, plugged it in, pulled out my old "Rain On The Roof" 45 that I bought for the picture sleeve, turned it over, and listened the flip side for the first time ever. Even though the playback speed might have been a little iffy, the mix was perfect--drums, rhythm guitar perfectly balanced against each other, as well as Zal's guitar and everything else.

I don't know if the entire "What's Up Tiger Lily?" album was remastered (in stereo) back in 2003, but "Pow!" was--it was on the Buddah "Greatest Hits" CD that came out at the time, and while the rhythm track might sound at least somewhat clearer than it did in the Razor & Tie version I had heard in my car, that same weird percussion dropout is still there at the beginning of the song.

I don't know how the whole "Tiger Lily" soundtrack might sound in mono--I kind of like always hearing Zal's over there in the right channel--but I'm starting to think that maybe the reason the Spoonful is considered so lightweight is because the rhythm track is mixed so low in these stereo mixes, making a song like "Pow!" sound almost like a skiffle tune or something.