Old Masters

Recently I got a few discs in a series that came out in the early years of the Compact Disc that did result in some research into what exactly was available when it came to finding the cleanest recordings of the final mix by artists from the past.

One character who remains controversial for reasons I won't go into here is the former MCA Records employee Steve Hoffman who was a pioneer in the early days of cd for hunting down the actual master tapes to assemble releases from rather the nearest tape box that might be a copy of copy with processing applied to it.
This disc in the opinions of many set the bar upon release for the quality recordings made in mid 1950's could sound and many hadn't heard in the lp era of often so-so sounding compilations.
Bill Haley was one the three big influences on British Rock and Roll responsible for See You Later Alligator and Rock Around The Clock.

 Buddy Holly was a sensation from 1957 through 1960 after his untimely death in late 1959 proving very popular in Great Britain and this remains the best overall sounding compilation of his songs such as Rave On, Well that's Alright, Not Fade Way and It Doesn't Matter Anymore.
Ignored after death in America, revered by britishers, the UK arm of MCA issued many great compilations that covered all his recordings in contrast the the US parent company.
The last two were taped and mixed into stereo.

 Sadly the actual mastertapes to all the Mama's and Papa's hits were burnt to a cinder 11 years ago in a massive fire that I as a moderator at a big music forum wasn't allowed to disclose nor allow to be mentioned on their by "cease and desist" from Universal Records. 
Sorry, the business sucks royally at times but that cat's well out of the bag now so I can say that much.
Thankfully this 1985 compilation was done from them extremely well so we can enjoy Monday Monday, Creeque Alley, California Dreaming and Go Where You Wanna Go they way Lou Adler who produced would of want us to hear them.