The Cryan' Shames – Sugar and Spice – 1966 [DES STEREO]

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Sugar and Spice cover by The Cryan' Shames was recorded on August 25, 1966 and released on Destination Records. It appeared on their debut album of the same name on Columbia records which was released October 17, 1966. Enjoy my DES [Digitally Extracted STEREO] conversion of this great pre-psychedelic hit.

The Cryan' Shames are an American garage rock band from Hinsdale, Illinois, a SW suburb of Chicago. The band was formed by Tom Doody ("Toad"), Gerry Stone ("Stonehenge"), Dave Purple ("Grape") of The Prowlers, Denny Conroy from Possum River, and Jim Fairs from The Roosters, Jim Pilster ("J.C. Hooke", so named because he was born without a left hand and wore a hook), and Bill Hughes. The band's most successful song was this cover of The Searchers' "Sugar and Spice".

"Sugar and Spice" was originally done by British Merseybeat band The Searchers in 1963. It was written by Tony Hatch under the pseudonym Fred Nightingale. It made it to #2 on the UK Singles chart (on Pye Records) but only reached #44 on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart (on Liberty Records).

Having been an 11-year-old living in Chicago at this time, I was inundated with this great track, as it received preferential airplay on local AM Top-40 Stations WLS & WCFL promoting them. Their harmonies were incredible. I’m not sure if there was a stereo mix of this song, since it was recorded before their contract with Columbia. It may have been “electronically rechanneled for stereo” by Columbia for the stereo LP’s release. Please let me know with a comment below.

About the original album:
Sugar and Spice is the 1966 debut album by The Cryan' Shames, originally released on Columbia Records in mono (CL 2589) and in stereo (CS 9389). The album was recorded in two days (August 25 and 26, 1966). The cover photograph was taken at The Sweet Tooth in Pipers Alley, in Chicago's Old Town. a wonderful place I frequented in my teens and early 20's. The back of the album contains six photos of the band in concert. There are four original songs on this record, all written by lead guitarist, Jim Fairs: "We Could Be Happy", "Ben Franklin's Almanac", "July" and "I Wanna Meet You".

About the original mono mix:
I was quite surprised that the vocals were mixed out in front and the drums were mixed fairly far back. The bass on the other hand was mixed way out in front and was obnoxiously boomy, which made it perfect for AM Radio broadcast.

About my DES mix:
I centered the vocals, added a hint of stereo reverb and a brighter EQ. I panned the lead guitar right and gave the rhythm guitar a stereo surround-sound effect. I panned the drums right and had them reverb into the left. I centered the bass but drastically cut it by 50%.

Technical Information:
I used iZotope RX-8 to isolate the Vocals, Guitars, Drums and Bass into 4 separate tracks. Adobe Audition 2020 was used for Dynamic Range recovery, Reverb, Delay, EQ, and final mixdown. Sonic Studio’s Amarra Luxe Sound Processor was used for post EQ and upsampling. NERO 2019 Platinum used to generate the final video.

For more information on spectral editing and sound source separation, visit https://www.monotostereo.info/

Enjoy MONO-to-STEREO conversion of this great debut hit classic by that great garage-rock band from Chicago, IL: The Cryan’ Shames

This video is strictly for entertainment purposes only. No copyright infringement is intended.