Harry Belafonte - Jamaica Farewell Banana Boat Day O

Hard-to-find stereo mixes.

From what I know, this was actually recorded as a 3 or 4 track recording, however, it was mixed down to mono for the first issues. The multi channel may have been recorded by a different studio, like Warner Bros, much like Elvis Presley. The biggest problem is that while a large number of 50's recordings are multi-track, remixing from the multi-track tape has another hurdle. Artists from that era did not sign "wide range" contracts for the release of their recordings. Meaning, that if the album was mixed to mono, the recording contract was tied to that master recording. Re-mixing the multi-channel to make a stereo master recording would require RCA to sign a new record contract with the artist. Thus, we could not issue the CD in stereo even if it was possible, at least in 1990. Sometimes, the multi-channel tape is owned by a recording engineer, the artist, or another record label. Multi-track tapes sometimes get erased. In this case, I know that it does exist but that we did not have "permission" to issue the stereo mix in 1990.

As time passes on, artists age, and most parties involved in the recording are not worried about copyrights or contracts anymore. Thus there are many songs from the 40's, 50's and 60's that ARE finally issued for the first time in Stereo on the CD issue. (Yes, there are stereo recordings with the advent of tape in the 1940's)

 I've heard this in panned stereo with the backup singers on the left and Harry Belafonte on the right. This was used for the intro scene of a movie in the 1990's, which contained a panned stereo mix. So the tape still exists, where and how to issue it is the challenge.