Greatest Quits: Top Ten Unreleased Quad Albums

[britmarc]

Rod Stewart - Atlantic Crossing. (Quad)

S/T Saturday Night Fever (quad or remixed for 5.1)
Madonna - G.H. 1 plus others in 5.1

Back in England in the mid seventies I had three Eagles albums in quad and several CBS pressed in Holland PIR titles with the gold stickers on the stereo album sleeves... ( I was manager of a record store back then and could get access to some 'white labels'.

 

[fredblue]

Rod Stewart - Atlantic Crossing. (Quad)

S/T Saturday Night Fever (quad or remixed for 5.1)
Madonna - G.H. 1 plus others in 5.1

Back in England in the mid seventies I had three Eagles albums in quad and several CBS pressed in Holland PIR titles with the gold stickers on the stereo album sleeves... ( I was manager of a record store back then and could get access to some 'white labels'.

what were the three Eagles albums?
On The Border, One Of These Nights and something else?

were the Dutch CBS PIR titles Quads unreleased elsewhere and if so which albums were they?

thanks in advance!

 

[britmarc]

I vaguely remember that I had both Q8 and CD4 albums of the Eagles - The Q8's were in either orange or purple plastic. The two you mentioned and an earlier one - But remember that this is 45 years ago or two generations.... My past life in England is a little fuzzy as I have been in Japan since 1984.
The Dutch QLP's included Harold Melvin, O'Jays, and Lou Rawls, plus a couple of others that are lost in my memory. Sorry that I could not be more helpful but when my mother died thousands of singles, hundreds of 12'' disco remixes, and maybe 220+quad titles were lost when the apartment was cleared.

 

[fredblue]

I vaguely remember that I had both Q8 and CD4 albums of the Eagles - The Q8's were in either orange or purple plastic. The two you mentioned and an earlier one - But remember that this is 45 years ago or two generations.... My past life in England is a little fuzzy as I have been in Japan since 1984.
The Dutch QLP's included Harold Melvin, O'Jays, and Lou Rawls, plus a couple of others that are lost in my memory. Sorry that I could not be more helpful but when my mother died thousands of singles, hundreds of 12'' disco remixes, and maybe 220+quad titles were lost when the apartment was cleared.

oh yes i appreciate of course it was a long time ago. thank you for the trip down memory lane, its all good.

i've no idea what album the other Eagles Quad would be.. wonder whether it was on CD-4 or some other format.

a Lou Rawls Quad would be very exciting seeing as one was never released in the U.S.!

very sad you lost your record collection when you lost your Mother, condolences for your loss

 

[humprof]

Stevie Wonder — Talking Book

Catching up on Rick Beato's "What Makes This Song Great" podcast. He seems to have multis, or at least stems, for "Superstition":



(Mark Anderson cites @steelydave talking about Robert Margouleff's unreleased quad mix of "Superstition." Here are the sources: The Atlantic | Pro Sound News.)

 

[Q-Eight]

oh yes i appreciate of course it was a long time ago. thank you for the trip down memory lane, its all good.

i've no idea what album the other Eagles Quad would be.. wonder whether it was on CD-4 or some other format.

a Lou Rawls Quad would be very exciting seeing as one was never released in the U.S.!

very sad you lost your record collection when you lost your Mother, condolences for your loss

There were only TWO Eagles Quad albums: On the Border and One of these Nights. Self Titled Debut and Desperado were announced but unreleased. The other one we got many years later was Hotel California. That would really leave only The Long Run to get the treatment.

If anybody noticed, if what that above advert posted is true, that means that there may also have been THREE Laura Nyro titles given the Quad treatment:
- Eli and the 13th Confession (obviously, confirmed x3)
- Christmas and the Beads of Sweat (mention as being mixed by Jim Reeves)
- Gonna take a Miracle (Identified in the above article)

 

[kfbkfb]

Why would a record company cancel an already mixed Quad version release (poor sales of the Stereo version or what)?


Kirk Bayne

 

[watsontr]

Catching up on Rick Beato's "What Makes This Song Great" podcast. He seems to have multis, or at least stems, for "Superstition":

Really great episode on Superstition. I’d listened to the song closely many times in the past but RB brings out details I wasn’t aware of. Maybe having the multis helps or maybe he just has a better ear. Great song, arrangement and execution

 

[fizzywiggs41]

Schwann had a few others that ran for close to a year as released quads.

Jimi Hendrix -Crash Landing
Black Sabbath -Sabbath Bloody Sabbath
The Beach Boys-Good Vibrations
Foghat-Rock and Roll Outlaws
Foghat-Energised
Carly Simon -Another Passenger
Leo Sayer-Another Year

Also Baker Bigsby stated he mixed
3 Stevie Wonder Quads:

-Fulfillingness First Finale
-Talking Book
-Innervisions


2 Hawkwind Quads ;....(.listed on United Artists Catalogue)
-Space Ritual
-In Search Of Space

From Columbia/CBS Records :
Jeff Beck w/Jan Hammer Group -Live
Lou Rawls-Unmistakenly Lou



****

 

[fizzywiggs41]

Additionally Warner Brothers announced 3 Quad mixes early on in the CD-4 debuts that never occured.

Van Morrison -Hard Nose The Highway *
Ry Cooder- (title unknown)
Neil Young -Long May You Run*

*these are the suspected titles , as Warner stated their latest 1973 releases

Also on RCA :

John Denver - (title unknown)
David Bowie - David Live (mixed in 4channel at the Record Plant NYC by EDDIE KRAMER)




****

 

[fizzywiggs41]

Probably old news, but noticed this on the inner sleeve of a columbia record, some unreleased quads.
Laura Nyro, Dylan (came out on sacd?), Big Sur Folk Festival.

Very cool quad release article ,@vinylguy4.
Never saw that one before fwiw.


I wonder what NEW Janis Joplin quad album they were thinking of , as Pearl is previously mentioned.

 

[J. PUPSTER]

Why would a record company cancel an already mixed Quad version release (poor sales of the Stereo version or what)?


Kirk Bayne

That's what Elliot Scheiner wonders about his- in the can Steely Dans

 

[fizzywiggs41]

Really great episode on Superstition. I’d listened to the song closely many times in the past but RB brings out details I wasn’t aware of. Maybe having the multis helps or maybe he just has a better ear. Great song, arrangement and execution

FWIW there is an interview with Baker Bigsby from "redbullmusicacademy.com" where he discusses the 3 Stevie Wonder albums he mixed in Quadraphonic .

 

[humprof]

That's what Elliot Scheiner wonders about his- in the can Steely Dans

Well, one of them (Pretzel Logic) was more or less in the can, anyway. I think the others were planned but never executed.

 

[kfbkfb]

Maybe they could be convinced to license the 4.0 to 5.1 mixes to a 3rd party Streaming/Download service, minimal cost (no packaging/shipping/promotion), mostly profit from the mixes.


Kirk Bayne

 

[steelydave]

Additionally Warner Brothers announced 3 Quad mixes early on in the CD-4 debuts that never occured.

Van Morrison -Hard Nose The Highway *
Ry Cooder- (title unknown)
Neil Young -Long May You Run*

*these are the suspected titles , as Warner stated their latest 1973 releases

Also on RCA :

John Denver - (title unknown)
David Bowie - David Live (mixed in 4channel at the Record Plant NYC by EDDIE KRAMER)

I think it's important, just in the name of historical accuracy, to make a distinction between "announced" titles, and mixes that were mentioned by engineers or producers in trade publications like Billboard etc.

In this case those Warner titles come from just such a source, the Morrison and Cooder information is from an interview snippet with Ted Templeman, and the Morrison title could've just as easily been St. Dominic's Preview (or even Tupelo Honey) as WB was mixing things in quad from at least 1971, if not earlier.

Similarly with Neil Young, the info about an upcoming quad release came from a sales rep that said they wanted to get his "latest album" out in quad. At that point (late 1973) it was Tonight's the Night, but that was shelved and replaced with Time Fades Away. In any event I don't think either of them were mixed in quad.

 

[Q-Eight]

I wonder what NEW Janis Joplin quad album they were thinking of , as Pearl is previously mentioned.

Most logical choice would've been Her "Greatest Hits" album. That would've pulled tracks from "Pearl", "Cosmic Blues" and "Cheap Thrills". OR, maybe it was "Cheap Thrills" in it's entirety since we know it was mixed anyway!

 

[steelydave]

Larry Keyes, Tim Geelan and Don Puluse (all guys with strong quad pedigrees) were the credited engineers on the Janis Joplin posthumous live album In Concert, which was released in 1972. Wouldn't surprise me if it was this one, given that and also that it would've been a "new" release right at the dawn of Columbia's quad program.

 

[MidiMagic]

Why would a record company cancel an already mixed Quad version release (poor sales of the Stereo version or what)?

Kirk Bayne

Each record company made the decision to discontinue ALL quadraphonic products at the same time. They stopped all production and removed all products from the shelves due to one management decision. Upper management and boards were sick of the whole thing. They were losing money on quad.

The reasons they discontinued quadraphonics were:

- Many record stores were putting quad records into a special "quadraphonic" bin instead of with the other albums by the same performer.

- Lack of a single standard - People who had the "wrong" system didn't buy the records.

- Sales did not meet expectations. Q4 recorder sales exceeded all expectations. but all other quad records and equipment had sales far below the Q4 sales. Later they found out those Q4 units were going into home studios, not quad systems.

- The country went into a recession.

- In 1977, Dolby Surround blew everything else out of the water.

 

[par4ken]

Each record company made the decision to discontinue ALL quadraphonic products at the same time. They stopped all production and removed all products from the shelves due to one management decision. Upper management and boards were sick of the whole thing. They were losing money on quad.

The reasons they discontinued quadraphonics were:

- Many record stores were putting quad records into a special "quadraphonic" bin instead of with the other albums by the same performer.

- Lack of a single standard - People who had the "wrong" system didn't buy the records.

- Sales did not meet expectations. Q4 recorder sales exceeded all expectations. but all other quad records and equipment had sales far below the Q4 sales. Later they found out those Q4 units were going into home studios, not quad systems.

- The country went into a recession.

- In 1977, Dolby Surround blew everything else out of the water.

Strongly disagree with the last statement!!!!!!