All Summer Long (Mono & Stereo Remasters) [Original recording remastered]

The Beach Boys | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (October 9, 2012)
• Original Release Date: 1964
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Original recording remastered
• Label: Capitol
• ASIN: B008LA7RFM
• In-Print Editions: Audio CD  |  MP3 Music
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #19,763 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

2012 digital remaster of this classic 1964 studio album from the beloved '60s Pop band featuring both the mono and stereo mix of the album. Digitally remastered by Mark Linett.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Pluses & Minuses October 14, 2012

By BrownFingersDibbity

Format:Audio CD

All Summer Long is one of the best of the early Beach Boys albums. Very few of their albums were 100% good, and during this period that can be blamed largely on the ridiculous contract they were under, a contract that required 10 albums in 3 years. Under that kind of pressure it is a wonder that this album (and the even better follow-ups - Today and Summer Days) was as good as it is. But even though there is obvious filler on this album, the filler actually seems purposeful. And it's pleasant. And it's over quickly. And the great songs (the title track, I Get Around, Hushabye, Wendy, Girls on the Beach, Don't Back Down) are among the best the group ever did.
The big positive for this release is that it finally presents for the first time on CD Brian Wilson's original mono mix for the album (the way I first heard it back in 1964). Previous releases used the stereo mix albeit with I Get Around, Our Favorite Recording Sessions, and the title track in mono. Here you get first the mono album, followed by the album in mostly the original stereo (more on that below). The mono mix is clearly superior with much more oomph and great balance, whereas certain instruments in the stereo mix often stick out sounding tacked onto everything else (which they probably were, plus only the stereo has Mike Love's infamous cough during the organ break of Wendy). One great difference with the mono is the ending of Don't Back Down in which the instruments continue playing (they suddenly stop on the stereo) and the fade-out is about 12 seconds longer. Best of all, as with the previous two-fer packages, the disc has been remastered using the HDCD (24 bit) system without limiting or compression, so while the sound quality is not better than the more recently available version, it also is not worse.
The stereo version contains the original 1964 stereo mixes except on three songs. The title track's stereo mix was done more recently and was first heard on the 2006 compilation "The Warmth of the Sun." The stereo mix for I Get Around is listed in the liner notes as a "stereo extraction mix." I am not totally sure what this means but I am guessing the original multitrack tape for the song is lost, and thus someone used modern computer tools to isolate and separate instruments and voices on the original mono mix and thus create a stereo mix from that. This has been done on some songs on the other 2012 reissues (including Help Me Rhonda and Good Vibrations) as well. The results frankly are not impressive, and at any rate you cannot go wrong with the original mono mix. In the stereo portion of the album, Our Favorite Recordings Sessions is again presented in mono. These 3 songs did not receive stereo mixes in 1964 and the original stereo vinyl album had these three in Duophonic aka fake stereo.
One major complaint I must make on this is the lack of liner notes. No essays, no photos, no recording dates, no comments on the remastering process (other than that it is HDCD), no explanations as to what is a stereo extraction mix. Just a list of songs with songwriting credits, and a bit of information as to who produced the mixes. Also there is plenty of room on this CD for bonus tracks.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Another very fine Beach Boys album November 8, 2012

By steve_manassas

Format:Audio CD|Amazon Verified Purchase

ALL SUMMER LONG, The Beach Boys' sixth Capitol album, was released in the summer of 1964, at the height of Beatlemania. It is an excellent set with classics such as "I Get Around" (the group's first #1 single), the title track, "Wendy," "The Girls On The Beach," "Don't Back Down," and more. Originally issued on CD as a "two-fer" (Little Deuce Coupe / All Summer Long) in 1990, then reissued as an individual (mostly) stereo CD in 1994, and then reissued again as a "two-fer" in both 1997 (Canadian import) and in the USA (remastered) in 2001, this new version contains both the original mono and stereo mixes of the album. "I Get Around" appears in stereo for the first time, while the title track (which appeared in mono on the previous CD issues) is the stereo mix from the 2007 compilation The Warmth of the Sun. The novelty track "Our Favorite Recording Sessions" is in mono twice, but since that was mostly a spoken-word track, it would not have made sense to make a stereo mix. This CD is worth owning for the mono and stereo mixes, but keep the "two-fer," if you have it, for the bonus tracks.

HISTORICAL NOTE: Save for The Beach Boys Christmas Album and Beach Boys Concert, this was the last Beach Boys album to be issued in true stereo until 1968's Friends. Brian Wilson preferred mono, and refused to provide Capitol with stereo mixes from this point forward.

6 of 8 people found the following review helpful

2.0 out of 5 stars A remastering step backwards... October 14, 2012

By Profanius

Format:Audio CD

After listening to this CD track by track and comparing it to the 2001 version, I have to say the remastering on this new one is truly not as good, unfortunately. My system decodes the HDCD processing (which is present on both editions), so I'm theoretically getting the full listening experience. The mono recordings (only tracks one and two on the original version, as the rest of the album was originally presented in stereo) sound more present, clear and punchy on the older, 2001 CD; they sound less focused and generally weak on the newer version of this CD. Perhaps the tapes have deteriorated too much at this point for them to yield decent results, as the same engineer worked on both versions of these and it's unlikely his fault.

On the other hand, the two new tracks presented in 'stereo' are a slight improvement over the mono presentation. I say 'stereo' because the engineers did what they could, using a process they're calling digital extraction, with the tapes they had to work with. Not great, but an improvement nonetheless. The artwork, using a mini-LP Japanese format, is actually very nice.

I also A/B'd Smiley Smile and Summer Days/Summer Nights, and these were more worthy of being purchased. See their reviews here if you're interested, hope this helps!