Enoch Light's contributions to the world of stereo recording were detailed in an earlier post. For a more complete view of Light and his recordings, there are several excellent web resources, including The Space Age Pop Music Page.
After Light sold his ground-breaking Command Records in 1965 he quickly formed the Project 3 label. There was now less emphasis on exploring the possibilities of stereo -- and there was a distinct change in the type of songs that were being recorded as well. While Command emphasized albums of standards by the likes of Berlin, Gershwin and Porter, Project 3 concentrated on easy listening versions of current pop hits.
Case in point is the version of Paul Simon's Cecilia recorded by Enoch Light & the Light Brigade in 1971. It was issued as a single (b/w Eglantine) and included on the album 4 Channel Dynamite, which was designed to cash in on the shortlived phenomenon of Quadraphonic sound. More on Quadraphonic in a moment, but first here's a link where you can get Cecilia. The MP3 is taken from a stereo 45.
Cecilia
Quadraphonic was an early form of the surround sound that is commonly used today in TV sound systems. But in the 1970s few people were ready to purchase the special equipment and extra pair of speakers that were needed to reproduce four-channel sound.
If you have a few Quadraphonic albums kicking around and are able to hook a turntable up to your surround sound system, you'll be able to hear these LPs in four-channel sound. I tried it a few years ago and it worked fine, but I really wanted to keep my TV and music systems separate.
To finish up -- another selection from 4 Channel Dynamite, taken from YouTube. Light's version of the big band standard Cherokee was also included in another of his albums, Big Band Hits of the 30s and 40s.
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