From: ebm@corvair.almaden.ibm.com (Eli Messinger)
Newsgroups: rec.music.misc
Subject: Re: First true stereo recordings?
Date: 31 Aug 92 22:20:18 GMT
Organization: Jay Maynard Fan Club

Tim Klein...

> I've come into possession of a curious record, copyright 1963.  It's
> published by Command Records, and claims to be a revolutionary 
> recording.
> 
> As far as I can tell, this magical technique consists of nothing more
> than panning some of the tracks into the center of the stereo mix, so
> that some of the instruments come out of both speakers, while others are
> panned entirely to one side or the other.
> 
> So here's my question:  Was this 1963 record really a breakthrough?

Not at all.

Many record companies were marketing this pan-pot produced music under
various names.  Probably the most famous was the RCA line of "Stereo Action"
records, with "the music that moves before your very eyes."  Several of RCA's
instrumentalists and arrangers recorded albums of this sort (e.g., Bernie
Green's "Futura").

Hi-fi and to a lesser extent, stereo, were all the rage in the late 50's,
with lots of titles purporting to bring you previously untold fidelity.
Other discs on RCA that were part of the boom include Dick Schory's
"Supercussion", Sir Julian's "Thirteen Fingers of Sir Julian", the Three Suns
"Fever and Smoke", most of Esquivel's titles (e.g., "Infinity in Sound",
"Exploring New Sounds in Hi-Fi", "Other Worlds, Other Sounds"), most of Marty
Gold's titles (e.g., "Wired For Sound", "Skin Tight", "Sticks and Bones"),
Harry Breuer's "Mallet Magic", and so on.

Other lables, like Command, had their share of hi-fi and pan-pot stereo
outings, including Terry Snyder's "Persuasive Percussion" (which, strangely
enough, has been turning up on budget priced cassettes at local Payless
stores) and a bunch of releases from Enoch Light (e.g., "Provocative
Percussion").

Among the earlier of the big stereo hit records, were probably Martin Denny's
releases on Liberty.  There's a bit of mystery surrounding the stereo issue
of his first LP ("Exotica"), since it appears to have been issued several
years after the mono version.  The mono came out in '56, but the stereo seems
to have been issued in '59.  Denny's second album, however, was issued in both
mono and stereo in '57.  Liberty issued other stereo albums in the 50's,
including Al Anthony's "Swingin' Hi Fi".

The Mercury label also produced a number of late 50's stereo discs, often
featuring house composer/arranger David Carroll.  His titles include
"Repercussion", "Galaxy", "Contrasts", and "Let's dance again!"

Besides these experiments in phonics, there was also a lot of experimentation
with sound affects, tapping into the Kennedy/NASA space-age.  Notable titles
include Frank Comstock's "Project: Comstock" on Warner Brothers, Ferrante and
Teicher's "Blast Off", "Soundblast" and "Heavenly Sounds in Hi-Fi", Jimmie
Haskall's "Count Down" (a particularly rare and excellent example of the
genre).  There was also a good deal of early Moog music made by the likes of
Perrey and Kingsley (responsible, under the name of Hot Butter, for the hit
"Popcorn"), and music-with-oscillators by Marty Gold and others.

Ooops, strayed from the point, didn't I?  So, to answer your original question,
the record you have contains the requisite late-50s/early-60s hype about
stereo, but is far from the first commercial (or even commercially successful)
stereo LP issue.
--
   "Missing a kick / at the ice box door / It closed anyway." --Jack Kerouac
       CSNET: ebm@almaden.ibm.com / UUNET: ...!uunet!almaden.ibm.com!ebm