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PF: Dark Side of the Moon. Four on vinyl and two on CD.
Several recordings have been released over and over in a variety of formats and special editions (<I>Kind of Blue</I> is but one example). Which recording do you have the most versions of?
If I buy a new version, I toss the old one. For example, when I bought remastered HDCD versions of my beloved Grateful Dead CDs, I sold or got rid of the old ones. Ditto for special edition remastered versions of Eat A Peach, Live At Fillmore Eas, Who's Next, and Live At Leeds. I didn't hang on to the older versions.
Bach solo cello suites. Six and a half versions, I believe: two by Pablo Casals, one by Janos Starker (SACD), one by Yo-Yo Ma, three of the suites played by Andres Segovia on guitar and two other complete sets on guitar. All great except one of the Casals versions has been over processed to remove noise from the 1927 recording.
For me that would be the Beach Boys' Pet Sounds. I have the 1990 CD (“Trombone Dixie” isn’t on other versions), a DCC Gold disc, the four disc box set, several LPs, including my dating me original 1966 copy and a rare true stereo LP version from Germany. My favorite is the DVD-Audio of Pet Sounds which includes a remarkably mixed 96kHz/24-bit PCM surround version. My collection also includes a DVD of a live performance of Pet Sounds Live in London by Brian Wilson and his band. A year ago, we had the pleasure of attending a live performance of Pet Sounds at UCLA’s Royce Hall by Brian Wilson and his band. I know there is also a 40th anniversary CD + DVD of the Beach Boys making this album. It is on my want list. Let the music flow.
As classical music makes up 99% of my collection it's multiple different performances of the same work, not multiple recordings/remasterings of the same performance on my shelves. I know someone who has 13 different masterings of Dark Side of the Moon, only two of which he listens to. Can't see the point of that. Wheras I'm happy listening to Wanda Landowska's take on a Bach keyboard work on Tuesday, Isolda Algrim's on Friday, and maybe Glenn Gould's on Monday. ..or maybe even all three in one listening. If I encounter a release of a particular performance, say one of Joni Mitchell's muffled CD re-masterings, that's inferior, I sell it. Why keep inferior recordings of anything? I don't get it!
Dark Side of the Moon was one of my favorite LPs so when I finally bought a CD player one of my first discs was the MFSL gold disc version. Although I never really listen to it anymore (tastes change I guess), when it came out on SACD I decided to buy that too just to see. What a disapointment. That remix lacks the energy of the MFSL version. So three, which is not so much, and yes, I also have at least three of Kind of Blue, but doesn't everybody?