This section comprises fourteen pages of Dylan mono albums, divided up as shown below, including two multi-year lists by release date. There are also now five pages of Dylan mono 7" singles and EPs. They do not contain rarities or obscurities and are not eligible for the Searching For A Gem list. Nevertheless, their interest value or rarity means they're worth listing here - as far as I know some are not included on any other Internet site.
These pages are still incomplete. If you have any entries to add to the list or additions/corrections to
existing entries, please let me know!
Please note I cannot value your Dylan rarities -
see the Mission page for reasons why. Contact the
dealers on my Trading page for assistance!
Revised 07 January, 2024.
Original Mono Releases of Regular Albums
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 Blonde On Blonde (1966) |
 Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits (1967) |
 John Wesley Harding (1968) |
 The Original Mono Recordings (2010) |
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 Bob Dylan In Concert: Brandeis University 1963 (2011) |
The pages above list releases of regular Bob Dylan LPs that were separately engineered to create a mix specially for mono (then the most popular format). The last Bob Dylan album to have a separate mono mix has been for many years thought to be Blonde On Blonde, but it is now known that John Wesley Harding had a unique mono mix also. Later mono LPs (up to 1970) were just reductions to mono from the regular stereo mix (left and right channels combined to make a mono channel), and are listed in the "Reductions from Stereo" section below. Mono LPs, singles and EPs with rare tracks (e.g. mono versions with significant differences from the mono album tracks, such as different mixes, edits or fades) are listed in the main chronological Rarities pages. Note that some countries like the USA and UK have so many variations amongst 1960s Dylan albums that it is impossible for every combination to be listed on the mono and stereo album pages!
Because of limitations of 1960s stereo record players, stereo LP tracks had
to be considerably mixed down to stop the stylus jumping, and the bass especially
had to be greatly reduced. This means the original 1980s stereo CDs created from the 1960s stereo
LP mixes sound unsatisfactory today. Also, the stereo separation on early Dylan
albums was deliberately exaggerated and sounds very artificial to today's ears
(although this has been addressed in the remastered albums on hybrid SA-CD and
SA-CD from 2003 onwards). That's why, until Columbia got
around to reissuing the mono mixes on CD in remastered form, serious Dylan
collectors valued the original mono LPs so highly. Several mono LPs were reissued on 180 gm vinyl by specialist US record label Sundazed
with authorisation from Columbia, and these editions are listed on the
individual album pages, and new 180 gm vinyl versions were released by
Columbia/Legacy in original sleeves as the 9LP version of The Original Mono
Recordings in Dec 2010.
Thanks to David Burgess for the UK catalogue numbers - all my mono LPs were stolen when my Manchester flat was burgled in May 1968!
Re US and Canadian mono and stereo vinyl releases, Robert Kornovich says "I was recently looking through my collection of Dylan records from the 1960s, specifically US and Canadian pressings, and noticed that the front sleeve slicks are exactly the same for the stereo and mono pressings. It appears that when pasting on a stereo cover slick, they made sure that the stereo markings at the very top are visible on the front by wrapping the excess at the bottom of the slick around to the back of the cover. For the mono album they pasted the slick so that the very top with the stereo markings wraps around to the other side of the cover and is eventually covered up when the back slick is pasted on.
I had a few mono copies of Freewheelin' and Highway 61 Revisited that are in rather poor shape, so I peeled the slicks off of the back to confirm that the stereo markings are there, wrapped around to the other side. Some of my better mono copies have the stereo markings slightly visible through the back slick. This appears to be the case for all albums prior to Blonde On Blonde, and was no longer the case for any pressings done after the early 1970s."
Now the first eight mono albums (omitting 1967's mono release of Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits) have been released on CD by Columbia/Legacy in a boxed set on 19 Oct 2010 and on vinyl on 21 Dec 2010, the original vinyl mono albums have ceased to be rarities, as have individual mono mixed album tracks released as singles with significant differences from the stereo album versions.
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They're not really mono releases of a regular album, but these three 2015 Record Store Day releases are in mono, and reproduce the original 1968 Emidisc UK 14 track Basement Tape test pressing LP, reportedly the source of the songs made available to UK groups such as Manfred Mann (The Mighty Quinn), The Brian Auger Trinity/Julie Driscoll (This Wheel's On Fire), Fairport Convention (Million Dollar Bash), etc., see 1968. These releases have been added here. |
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Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab Mono Releases
 Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab UDSACD 2177 (USA) - front picture from Music Direct web-site |
Super Audio CD (SA-CD) is a high definition read-only optical disc format for audio storage, introduced in 1999. It was developed jointly by Sony and Philips Electronics, and was intended to be the successor to the Compact Disc (CD) format. The SA-CD format offers more audio channels (e.g. surround sound), a higher bit rate, and longer playing time than a conventional CD. SA-CDs are designed to be played on an SA-CD player; however, a hybrid SA-CD contains a Red Book Compact Disc Digital Audio (CDDA) layer which can be played on a standard CD player. In Oct 2016 there was a simultaneous release on hybrid SA-CD and vinyl from the US audiophile company Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab of seven Dylan mono albums excluding Blonde On Blonde. Because Highway 16 Revisited is "2182" and John Wesley Harding is "2183", it would appear there was never any intention to release a mono hybrid SA-CD release of Blonde On Blonde. There were no Columbia SA-CD releases of mono albums. |
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 Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab UDSACD 2178 (USA) - front picture from Music Direct web-site |
 Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab UDSACD 2179 (USA) - front of card sleeve, scan by André Wilbers |
 Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab UDSACD 2180 (USA) - front picture from Music Direct web-site |
 Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab UDSACD 2181 (USA) - front picture from Music Direct web-site |
 Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab UDSACD 2182 (USA) - front picture from Music Direct web-site |
 Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab UDSACD 2183 (USA) - front picture from Music Direct web-site |
Mono Releases of Regular Albums (Reductions from Stereo)
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These three regular mono albums did not have a unique mono mix, but were created by combining the two stereo channels from the stereo mix. They were not included with The Original Mono Recordings in 2010. These albums are still rarities!
Mono Compilation Albums
The compilation pages of Dylan-only compilations exclude the US release of Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits, listed as a regular album above. The compilation pages of Various Artist compilations include albums with one or more Dylan tracks. The Best Of The Original Mono Recordings (2010) is on the same web page as The Original Mono Recordings.
Mono 7" Singles and EPs
 Mono 7" Singles & EPs 1962-64 |
 Mono 7" Singles & EPs 1965 |
 Mono 7" Singles & EPs 1966-68 |
 Mono 7" Singles & EPs 1969 |
 Mono 7" Singles & EPs 1970-76 |
These five pages list mono 7" singles and EPs released worldwide up to 1976. 1965 and 1969 have a large number of mono singles releases, so have their own pages. Those mono singles released from albums available only in stereo are all mono reductions of stereo tracks. There is also a page of 7" single sleeves - the value of a Dylan 7" single to a serious collector is considerably enhanced if it is in the correct sleeve for its time period, and not in a plain or incorrect sleeve! Mono singles re-released in the 1970s in the Columbia "Hall of Fame" series are listed here: Columbia "Hall of Fame" Singles.
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The rights to material from all quoted contributors remain
with them. Copyright of all included artwork remains with the various record
companies and artists.
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