False advertising from ITV
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.
