Matt Monro Forum

Most of you might know there was a delay on the release of this album. EMI decided to give a few weeks in between everything else and it was thought there might be too much competition with Valentine's Day products. They are now aiming for the Mother's Day market. The new release date is Monday 1st March.

In my mind it doesn't matter what else is on the market - you either want to buy a Matt Monro album or you don't.

The casual listener or even some non-Matt fans might be tempted a buy this CD for themselves or for someone else............ especially if the CD is advertised on TV etc..........

That's it ...you'd think they'd know these things by now. Get it out there we say, ..never mind about JEDWARD, PIXIE LOTT and LADY BL..DY GA GA.

As I've said previously Robert, if 'The Greatest' is not supported by the true fans, regardless of whether they have the tracks or not, EMI will not be so forthcoming in allowing the more unique products that we have enjoyed over the last five years in particular. At the end of the day the ball is in your court.

Lena & Harry Smith wrote:That's it ...you'd think they'd know these things by now. Get it out there we say, ..never mind about JEDWARD, PIXIE LOTT and LADY BL..DY GA GA.

I just knew that Lena and Harry were out jamming at the local club to Lady Gaga's Poker Face in December; you know, during those times they were busy and not on the forum.

Even worse is a new young American female person (not using singer or artist) named Ke$ha. You may have heard her debut single TikTok where she mentions spending the night with a bottle of Jack. Check out these appealing song titles on her album: Take It Off, Party at Rich Dude's House, Blah Blah Blah, Animal, Hungover, Ki$$ n Tell, Back$tabber. What is happening to music?

She will be all over the airwaves in 2010 and difficult to avoid. As a follower of pop music for over 45 years, I think it's reached a new low.

On to a much better topic: The Greatest Matt Monro. I think it's a good decision to delay it to March. In February, there's the Brits, a ton of releases during half term week, Simon Cowell's remake of the dirge Everybody Hurts, and the meeting of the super-egos that is We Are The World 25.

Hi Paul, jamming to Lady bl....y GA GA not bl...y likely.
It won't be this weekend either, we've got Two 80th Birthday celebrations to attend....more like Bobby Crush and Mrs Mills.

Following Matt Jnr's interview on the Three Counties radio this morning, that unfortunately I missed, Justin Dealey offered one listener a copy of The Greatest to review, and report back on his "Breakfast Show" next Saturday.
Marian.

Its one i own now guys, it really is a solid collection that would make a great starting point for the casual collector to hear Matt at his best. Full marks on the mastering too, sounds awesome . I was wondering too if like the DEAN MARTIN FOREVER COOL cd where they have used brand new instrumentals behind his vocals to give them new life, has anything similar been considered for a Matt release ?

Richard is the expert at anything like that---there is a thread somewhere called "Ask Richard". He has his own section in the "Announcements and Information" heading.

dennyelvis wrote:Its one i own now guys, it really is a solid collection that would make a great starting point for the casual collector to hear Matt at his best. Full marks on the mastering too, sounds awesome . I was wondering too if like the DEAN MARTIN FOREVER COOL cd where they have used brand new instrumentals behind his vocals to give them new life, has anything similar been considered for a Matt release ?

I wouldn't find this appealing. I love the original orchestrations. As I've mentioned before, I would like the swing part of Singin' In The Rain to be removed with a new orchestration with no rhythm. But everything else is fine the way it is.

Yep, i tend to agree Paul, sometimes a track can benefit from a newer orchestration, but Matts are cool as they are .

This is all very well, but it depends if the original multitracks exist and that they were recorded on multitrack in the first place.

Matt's first 4 track session was "When Love Comes along" but even then, the master vocal isn't on the 4 track tape (see special reserve for details). Matt regularly started using 4 track tape from 1963 onwards, however most of the tapes from this period have gone. at a rough guess 85 - 90% of Matt's UK recorded multitracks from 1964 - 1968 have gone with a few more from 1963 surviving. Prior to this It was direct to Mono Or Stereo.

Singing in the rain no longer exists in multitrack form so there is no way (of sufficient quality) to separate Matt's vocal from the stereo or mono mix (Software developers are working on this though - but i'm yet to be impressed by the results).

Why are there so few? Its' a question of archive space. These days EMI have a purpose built archive in Hayes which holds the complete archives - tapes, photos, paperwork, historical artifacts etc. However back in the 60's space was limited and when space was needed they would literally go to the archive pick a shelf and remove all session tapes (leaving only masters) and either dump them or re-use them - multitracks came off worse as they were 1" tape and Mono/Stereo were just 1/4" taking up less space (nevertheless a lot of stereo session tapes are missng too). Rumour has it that many multitracks were dumped in the 70's, (I know that the multi of 'How Do You Do' was still around then as it received it's Stereo mix in 1972 - this tape has now gone) but many had already gone before the 70's began. (The confusion arises as a stock take was made in the early 70's that listed all tapes that no longer survived and marked them as 'Wiped' Followed by the date of the stock take despite the fact that many tapes had been gone for years!).

All of Matt's US recorded Capitol recordings exist in multitrack form (virtually all are master takes, very few alternate takes were kept) and the majority of those from 1969 onwards. (Which is why most of Matt Jnr's duets come from the latter part of Matt's career)

The only recording's I would like to see with new backings are those from his last album "if I Never Sing Another Song" which verge too far into disco for my liking.

Although most exist from 1969 the strangest omission is the 24 track tape for "You Bring Out The Best In Me" and "I Don't Want To Run You Life". All mix downs (including a mix that includes backing vocals not heard in the final version) exist but I have found no trace of the multi.

Richard