Dusty Springfield – A Girl Called Dusty

I found an Australian stereo press in an Australian mono sleeve. Side A is scintillating sound. Side B is like it was cut off a small transistor radio with a mic stationed 1 metre away. How did this ever get out??

My version is very sonically poor - lo fi. Is it just the Australian version that sounds thin and lacking bass?

A great collection of R&B, doo-wop, pop, blue-eyed soul songs bridging the gap between early 60s girl groups" & US R&B/soul music by the greatest female mezzo-soprano pop vocalist to come out of the British beat boom (well… of all time?) paving the way for other greats like Joss Stone, Amy Winehouse & Adele.
Introducing the sensational Mary Isobel Catherine Bernadette O'Brien.

This mono pressing sounds fantastic. I am confident that the UK mono pressings are the best sounding versions of this album. This particular transitional pressing is unique in that Philips was switching over different labels and must have have been using up the last of the previous style labels. Will have to investigate further. If anyone has any knowledge of this strange version, please enlighten us.

Were these pressed in Germany? Label s appear to indicate this. Had a number of copies and all suffer from sibilance on vocals. Shame as top notch otherwise.

This edition is clearly mastered at 44.1khz according to a frequency review and so is likely to have used an existing 16 bit/44.1khz CD master which is disappointing: the record cannot sound any better than whatever CD is has been mastered from.

If anyone can confirm which CD master has been used as the basis of this release it would be helpful.

There is also a Philips stereo version of this LP, cat no SBL 7594 / 840 636 BY - both sets of numbers are on the back cover and labels. Could be pressed up in mainland Europe but cover appears to be printed in England. Date of issue unknown but has "first published 1964" on label.