From: jjmckay@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu (Jim McKay)
Subject: Re: Polydor's Elton John GH Volume II
Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana
Date: Thu, 28 Jan 1993 15:15:28 GMT

korins@pop.cis.yale.edu (Russ Korins) writes:

>Is it just my particular CD, or does the Polydor Elton John Greatest Hits
>Volume Two have especially poor sound quality?

>--------------
>Russ Korins, PO Box 520 Yale Station, New Haven CT 06520-0520
>korins@pop.cis.yale.edu

Polydor implies that is supposed to sound better with their "from the 
original British Masters" comment on the long box.  I've never encounterred
a Polydor EJ CD sounding *worse* than the MCA version, although, I haven't
compared them all, including Hits II.  I've forwarded your post to the 
Elton John Mail Group (including about 70 members), elton-john@uiuc.edu.

According to my preferences:

The Polydor "Empty Sky" and "Elton John" are better than the MCA version as
there is less hiss and better clarity.  Polydor's "Tumbleweed Connection" 
still has the anomaly of the MCA CD; that anomaly is the left and right 
speakers are switched from the original DJM and Uni LPs.  I've written 
to PolyGram and "ICE Newsletter" to complain three weeks ago.  
Still no response.  The MSFL version of "Tumbleweed" is correct and 
speaker/channel-wise it matches the original DJM and Uni versions.
If you can afford it, buy the MSFL "Tumbleweed".  But "Empty Sky" and "Elton
John" on Polydor.  MSFL's "Tumblweed" has the best artwork.  Obviously,
Polydor's "Empty Sky" and "EJ" have better artwork than MCA's, unless you 
own a rare first release of MCA's "EJ" CD which has OK artwork and lyrics.

Soundwise, "Madman Across The Water", "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road", 
and "Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy" are about identical.
In terms of artwork, Polydor's "Madman" and "Capt. Fantastic" have the
best artwork.  In fact, Polydor's and (some early rare MCA) version of
artwork is better than MSFL's.  Assuming you received artwork with
your MCA "Yellow Brick", it's debateable which is better.  Of course, 
Polydor and MSFL's come on one disk.  Polydor's "Capt. Fantastic" restores
some of the original artwork but is still missing quite a bit, contary
to what their long box claims.  If you already own MCA CDs of these and
want better artwork for these three albums, I suggest that you go to a used
record store and buy the original LPs which *truly* have the best artworki, 
rather than buy new Polydor CDs.  I noticed little, if any, improvement 
in MSFL's "Yellow Brick" sound over the Polydor and MCA versions.  I've 
seen MSFL's "Madman" booklet but have not listened to the CD.

My three disppointments in the Polydor re-release of Elton's albums are:
1.) They did not correct the speaker switch on "Tumbleweed"; 2.) Did not 
include the full artwork for "Captain Fantastic" (They could have released
a special limited edition box with all the artwork.); and 3.)  did not 
release additional tracks from the 11/28/74 NYC concert on "Here & There", 
including two tracks released in the U.K. as a 12" single with John Lennon.
(The third track *is* included on "Rare Masters".)   Polydor owns the
rights to these tracks and could have released them.