One of my favorite albums by The Who — The Who Sell Out — recently received a sweet sonic upgrade and I’m quite pleased.
The last time there was a run of upgrades on this album it was a big deal. Around 2005 Classic Records had put out some sweet 200 gram editions of the early who albums in Mono and Stereo (the Mono versions are quite collectible in their own right these days!).
That version of The Who Sell Out replicated the rare poster that only came with the original UK editions and generally I was very happy with that (especially as finding UK versions of the Mono mix are difficult to find here in the US and expensive if you can find one — right now there are exactly zero copies available on Discogs!). In 2015 Universal issued their own 180-gram edition of the Stereo mix which was quite nice if simple in its presentation (it did include the poster however!).
Still, the newly expanded two-LP vinyl edition is quite welcome.
Getting into the nitty gritty: the new pressing sounds much better than the 2015 version (which sounded better than my original US Decca vinyl). The balance feels better on this new version, and the sense of openness is significant. It also somehow doesn’t feel quite so extreme in the stereo panning. The bass sounds richer, the vocals rounder, the cymbals more airy and guitars full bodied. The thick black 180-gram vinyl is well centered and quiet so the music just pops nicely. Kudos to mastering engineer Miles Showell!
“Sunrise,” one of my all time favorite Pete Townshend songs is positively glorious, the multi-tracked acoustic guitars chiming hauntingly.
The production values are more nuanced and curious on this deluxe edition of The Who Sell Out: each label on the four sides presents a different variation on the Track Records label. The reproduction of the original poster is also a bit fancier than the 2015 version, reproduced on semi gloss paper instead of flat stock — the new one looks sharper and more detailed. Each LP in the set comes in a sleeve with copious liner notes giving track-by-track details on the songs and what went into making them.
The bonus disc is something of a revelation as well. While many of these tracks have appeared on various compilation albums (both on vinyl and CD on earlier expanded editions of The Who Sell Out and Odds & Sods). Some of my favorites here are the super fast version of “Summertime Blues” and the should-have-been single “Glittering Girl.” Once lost gems like “Early Morning Cold Taxi” shine nicely on this set.
Going back to that opening question in the headline, I think this new version of The Who Sell Out is a no brainer to pick up if you are a fan of the band and this album. It certainly sounds better than my original US Decca pressing and the production improvements over the 2015 version make this worth adding to your collection.
It’s taken me all these years to finally find “the” record that made me appreciate Peggy Lee as an artist. Perhaps I was traumatized as a young kid seeing her attempt to cover The Beatles’ “Maxwell’s Silver Hammer” on The Ed Sullivan Show. Or perhaps it was just that I heard a number of lackluster late period albums and performances on the easy listening pop stations my parents sometimes played. It didn’t quite feel like my cuppa tea.
I recently heard some recordings of hers from the 1940s that were good, all compiled on a handy two CD compilation of radio transcription performances put out by Omnivore Recordings. As good as Something Wonderful was, it wasn’t quite enough for me to make the big leap of “genuine interest” to a point where I might want to add Ms. Lee’s music into to my collection.
More recently still, I came across one of her albums from 1957 called Dream Street which I had heard from some fans was a great listen. A thrift shop find and in very nice condition for its age, I took a risk on the two dollar price tag and was very surprised — it was great!
This was a whole other side of Peggy Lee I was hearing — there was nothing painfully saccharine or bland here. On Dream Street she found the fine balance between the mainstream pop voicing and a more swinging, soulful and (frankly, at times) Billie Holiday-inspired delivery and that sort of blue feeling Sinatra was able to pull off on some of his Capitol albums. She even sounds more akin to Sarah Vaughan at times. It helps that the orchestra/band swings madly at times (Lou Levy on Piano). Clearly she found her zone on this album.
Now, many months ago, the good folks at Universal Music had announced a reissue of another Peggy Lee album which was originally on Decca Records: Black Coffee. Depending on what you read it was either her first album for the label or her first concept album. Originally released as a 10-inch, eight-song LP in 1954, it was expanded a couple of years later with additional songs recorded in a different studio and with different musicians to take advantage of the then-still-new longer playing 12-inch vinyl format.
Whatever it was, it was the pre-cursor to Dream Streets and fans on line have told me that it was in the same league. Joni Mitchell has called Black Coffee one of her favorites (she recorded a song from it on her 2000 album Both Sides Now).
They were right: it is a fine album! This reissue of Black Coffee certainly sounds better than most mid-50s Decca Records pressings would. Given that most of Decca’s records from that period were not vinyl at all, but styrene, a hard and inflexible plastic that was not only prone to easy wear but also tended to sound a bit harder-edged.
Of course at the end of the day what really matters here is the music and on Black Coffee Peggy Lee delivers a cool calm collected vibe in the vein of June Christy, Chris Connors and other respected pop-crossover jazz singers of the period. For me, while not quite as intimate sounding (production wise, at least) as Christy’s contemporary collection Something Cool — also issued in 1954 as a 10-inch and then expanded in 1955 — this one still has many great performances including a great take on Gershwin’s “It Ain’t Necessarily So” and “You’re My Thrill” (the song that Joni recorded, by the way). Of course, the title track is a classic.
Black Coffee is another fine reissue from the Acoustic Sounds team at Universal Music, delivering high quality reissues that look and sound better than the originals with high quality mastering off original tapes, deluxe expanded gatefold design and restored high quality cover artwork. What more can you ask for? Grab a copy while you can!
Easy Groove Enzycaster - vinyl records prewash cleaner 
