False advertising from ITV

ITV50 Album
ITV50 Album

Well, this is a conundrum and no mistake. Whether it's a genuine mistake by the record company or the worst example yet of dumbing down for profit, I cannot say.

I bought the ITV 50 Album this afternoon and I can say, quite categorically, that the so called "ATV Opening March", really called "Sound & Vision", is the 1990s cover version recorded specially for the "Great British Experience" CDs of a few years ago. It is categorically not the Wally Stott/Jack Parnell 1955 ATV version.

The real oddity is that the nineties cover was in stereo and they seem to have actually turned this into mono to put it here!

What is even more odd is that the (poor, minimal) cover notes list it as the 1955 Pye version, although they spell it as 'Pie'.

But why say it's the 1955 if it's not? I wonder if there was a genuine research mistake (how depressingly typical) or if it is an attempt as passing off a later version as "the original".

The 1955 version starts with drum roll and includes before the last verse the three chords against which the ATV symbol forms.

This cover version has neither.

If they chose the new one for stereo use I would understand it - but why turn a stereo recording into mono?

Error, fraud, or mere ignorance? Bad research, rights issues, problems locating the original, or what? Very odd. To credit Coates as performer rather than composer suggests ignorance lies at the heart of this. He was well dead when this version was recorded.

The CDs as a whole are a bizarre mixture of originals and covers, with no indication which is which. The listings and (utterly minimal) notes rather add to my feeling that this is another item rushed out with minimal research for what is deemed by the producers to be a less discriminating audience.

Add a Comment

About the Author

MediaBlog

MediaBlog

Feeds

This Article

Email Newsletter

Get all our updates in your inbox - every time there's news to tell. Just enter your email address and select "Subscribe". Or if you no longer want to receive our mailings, enter your email and select "Unsubscribe"

Small Print

Opinions expressed in these posts are those of the author and not necessarily those of the Transdiffusion Broadcasting System in general.

These posts and their multimedia are copyright. Some rights are reserved under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 licence.

The Index

From Twitter

RT @Mumbler3: RIP Emyr Daniel,Welsh newsreader and eventually HTV MD. Also did the Brian Cant voiceover on Tredwt, the Welsh language ve ...

Posted on 10 February at 19:43

@george570 Okay! We'll need a rough idea of numbers, though. And will people expect nibbles?

Posted on 10 February at 19:02

RT @TheMediaTweets: Spare a thought for @Daybreak's easily-confused viewers... http://t.co/IhhhFIzS

Posted on 10 February at 17:04

Follow us on Twitter ⇒

Archiving Project

Find out more about our new archiving project and how you can help from the comfort of your own computer

Read more and join in ⇒

Transdiffusion Navigation

February 2012

Transdiffusion Broadcasting System

This web page lives at: http://www.transdiffusion.org/blog/2005/10/false_advertising_from_itv