I’m in Tokyo, and my assistant has just read me your wonderful commentary on Regina.

Women are most often more determined than men, and prepared to do a lot more heavy lifting. I’ve been blessed to have worked with some of the best; Chrissie Hynde, k.d. lang, Tina Weymouth, and of course Madonna.

When Goldie first brought Regina to my attention, I flipped out. Not everyone felt that way, but if you believe, you’ve got to fight for it. Protecting artists, as you put it, is very important. Their careers are a lot more fragile and often shorter than ours. One of the most important things we can do for our artists, and that goes for both sexes, is to buy them as much time as possible.

The biggest and the best artists often find it a long and rocky road to success. EMI could not get Capitol to release The Beatles, which is why so many of the early recordings came out on Vee-Jay and Tollie. After Vee-Jay blew it by not paying royalties, and after the success of "Love Me Do" and "Please Please Me", Capitol once again rejected The Beatles, which is why "She Loves You" was released on Swan.

Time, along with protection are both so important to an artist’s career.

Best regards,

Seymour Stein

I am a big fan of your column and your blogs about what used to be called the music industry are mostly spot-on. However as the engineer and compilation producer for the Beach Boys I have to take issue with your critique of the group’s "Warmth of the Sun" CD.

First of all this is a rather difft. compilation CD containing songs that many people know well but that weren’t chart hits. Songs like "All Summer Long" , "Sail On Sailor" and "Surfs Up" to name a few. The intent is to expose some of the 2.5 million who bought the previous compilation "Sounds of Summer" to a deeper part of the band’s catalog. And maybe that will lead them to such overlooked albums as Friends and Sunflower and Surfs Up. Besides 14,000 in the first week aint too bad, and summer hasn’t even started yet.

As for Pet Sounds, yes it has been released in every format known to man including a Grammy nominated four CD box set that traces the making of what is considered by many to be the greatest pop album of all time. And it has been released on regular CD three times, four if you count the 1999 version that was redone to correct serious problems with the mastering that EMI did without the group’s permission, but each reissue has been done to improve the sonic quality and that includes the recent 40th anniversary edition which has imo the best sounding version of the original mono mix ever put on CD.

I know there are some dedicated fans who buy each new version of the album because they must "have them all" but I assure you that is a very very small audience. Its the new fans who weren’t even zygotes when Pet Sounds was released that we are trying to reach and we want anyone who buys the album to have the absolute best sound and package possible for their $12.00 (?).

There are a lot of CDs out there that are in desperate need of a sonic makeover, but the sales figures don’t justify the expense to the "record" labels. Luckily Pet Sounds sells well enough year after year that we have been able to remix it in stereo and 5.1 and improve the mastering as the technology gets better.

When Pet Sounds stops selling , that’s when you should start worrying.

Mark Linett