Hard to Find Jukebox Classics:The Fifties 31 Amazing Stereo Hits

If you are a doo-wop fan, you must have this collection. All remastered from original 45 rpm singles, in stereo. Where some of the originals were recorded only in mono, a new technique, Digitally Extracted Stereo (DES) was used to record them in stereo for this CD. DES digitally extracts, or filters, various instrumental and vocal elements from the original mono source material and recombines them into a new stereo mix. The result is a completely new listening experience for 17 of the cuts on this CD. You have never heard the original recordings of the number one hits of Bill Haley and the Comets' "Rock Around The Clock", Nelson Riddle's "Lisbon Antigua", Jim Lowe's "Green Door", or Elvis' "Heartbreak Hotel" (and thirteen more) sounding like this. The DES process takes, on average, 30 to 40 hours per song to transfer mono into stereo. The balance of the songs, another 14 tracks, sound just as good since they are remastered from the original stereo recordings. You may be surprised to find that some of the hits you remember never reached the top 10 of the Billboard charts. The Johnny Mathis hit, "Wonderful, Wonderful" only made it to #14. "See You In September" by the Tempos stopped climbing at #23 and Pittsburgh's own, The Skyliners' "Since I Don't Have You" never got past #12 on Billboard (although is did hit #7 in Cash Box and charted at #3 on the R&B charts). This and a lot more information is included in the booklet enclosed with the CD, and on the back cover, too. The music travels through the years 1955 to 1961 and chart numbers 1 to 61. Some songs you will know, while some you may hear for the first time. In any event, this is one CD that needs to be in your library of songs from the 50"s.

Update:It was indeed a privilege and thrill to hear so many songs, recorded upwards of 60 years ago, with no clicks, distortion, hiss, pops, repeats, skips or static! Though fidelity of each recording varied, amount of clarity brought back was amazing.Many true audiophiles state a mono recording remastered to stereo lacks authenticity. Maybe, but when done correctly as in this issue, the feeling of your being there is much more apparent. Kudos!

This is a amazing C.D. just like it says....It's great hearing songs from the 1950's originally recorded in MONO in stereo.I have bought other C.D's with the same technology but have been disappointed but this C.D. is really fabulous.Diana, The wayward wind, The Platters and others really sound like they record in STEREO.It's amazing how they do it.Other songs in true stereo also sound great...

ThiS Brings back Memories back when I wAs a KidIn thE Midd 1950’s when I uSe to excuse my self to go where mE & thE boys uSe too Go hear 👂🏼 music Hang Down by tHe Mill Factory 🏭 cause they hAd a Groove Hip music 50’s Hanging Out Joint at Baskin Robins Ice Cream 🍨 Parlor & then I woke up and remember I was actually really born in the Middle the Midd 1980’s were do I gO waking up in thE 50’s my parents weren’t even born Yet Funny Stuff but Great “F’N” Music 🎶_🎼_🎵

First of all. Excellent sound and real stereo. I'veen heard some songs in stereo in YouTube but the disc sound great in the car and specially in my oppo dvd/Onkyo receiver that I hooked my 3D Vizzio TV (Yes! still working). Also delivers very well in boom bookshelf stereo or whatever You wanted to tried. I have another one with about 8 stereo like La bamba, Problems, Making love. I think I will buy 2 more of the Hard to Find series. You can go wrong.

Good music. No static when playing. Well worth the price. Arrived quickly. I would recommend this CD to a friend.

What a great collection. It really takes you back to a simpler time in our lives. This was a gift and was well received. I highly recommend this mix of some great artists.

Songs from my past - some of which I had forgotten about - others that will be with me forever.

It seems as though in later years, there has been a new stereo technology, digitally extracted stereo (DES), where mono recordings have been translated into true stereo with one channel extracting some the the sounds in pitches, while another channel extacts other sounds in pitches, while the centre channel extracts the remaning sounds in pitches, making these tracks sound like true stereos. Yet it still sounds quite amazing. But I think it is to the expense of some of the sound quality, as the vocals never seem to sound so clear. But maybe, it is not as noticeable with instrumentals turned from mono to stereo. But it is still a damn sight better than the "technology" that was developed in the seventies which was called electronically reprocessed stereo where you had a high tinny treble out of one channel, and a deep thudding bass out the other which just ruined the sound, and slightly later, duophonic stereo where you had the same music coming out of both channels, but a very tiny delay in one channel which again just ruined the sound. But with this new technology, the stereo separation varies according to the sound quality of the recording, or to the contrasting sound pitches within the recording. Here, we get some very surprising first time "true" stereos, such as Bill Haley's Rock Around The Clock, recorded as far back as April 1954, and Elvis Presley's Heartbreak Hotel from early January 1956. Everybody knows these could not have possibly been recorded in stereo. Yet his single version of Jailhouse Rock lierally appears here in true stereo for the first time., which you may notice is in binaural stereo. Among the other few literally true stereos, we very amazingly get Patti Page's 1950 recorded hit which was her version of a Country ballad Tennessee Waltz. But as it was believed to be the first ever recording with a double tracked vocal where both of the voices singing together were by herself, I realized when listening through headphones that all that came out of one channel was her overdubbed second vocal, while the rest came out the other channel, (but with the stereo separation closed in a little), indicating that they must already have had a two track machine. Secondly, The Fleetwods hit Come Softly to me, which appears here in true stereo, appeared on their demos CD Album: I Bekieve - Unplugged 1959-1961 also in true stereo, but minus the overdubbed backing guitar. Finally, I must point out that The Showmen whose US only hit, It Will Stand from 1961 (a bit after the apparent timeline of this fifties set), eventually evolved into an early seventies Soul band Chaiman Of The Board. Norman Johnson (now deceased) who sang lead here eventually became their lead singer, but peculiarly changing his name to General Johnson. But by the mid sixties, one of the original members of The Showmen was replaced by Danny Woods (also now deceased) who was another future member of Chairman Of The Board. But about a third of the tracks here are not in my repertoire.

As a HiFi buff love this collection of hits from the 1950s, albeit all before my time. Sound quality top notch, as is the stereo. Around half are DES Stereo (Digitally Extracted Stereo from HiFi Mono), and hard to tell which were real stereo or DES, the process is that good. Amazing. The songs themselves were a good mix of genres, and hearing such stalwarts as Rock Around The Clock, Diana, Heartbreak Hotel in stereo is a real 'ear-opener'! Thoroughly recommended.

The audio quality is incredible, even more considering the age of the songs. Just one example:"Only you" Tony Williams (The Platters) in STEREO is out of this world. There is not one single song in this record that did not find a new life. One last comment: ERIC RECORD please go on! There are a lot of wonderful old songs out there that you can bring back to life .....in STEREO!Ciao,Franco

Very well faked mostly too, but not all are totally convincing. the soundstage is occasionally a bit unstable and some of the placings a bit odd.As always with this series the sound quality is very good!

Not to be negative... but these tunes are not that hard to find... beyond that minor point they are exceptionally engineered. The stereo versions do not take away from the original mono versions. The stereo ones are different and as good as the originals. The songs represent a good variety but readers should note there is not the same cross-section of artists... out of the 31 cuts Elvis constitutes 2; Platters 3; Ames Brothers 2; Bobby Darin 2; and, Johnny Mathis 3. Don't get me wrong love all three artists tunes, but I would like to have seen (well, heard) more artists.