How can you tell if a recording is in mono?

Hi Dkidknow,
As much as it takes some getting used to,this is the way alot of recordings where made in the early to mid sixties when engineers where fooling around with their relatively new 'stereo' process.Listen to the Look of Love on the famous 'Casino Royal'. Dusty way right with the piano, and percussion to the left.Just strange. I assure you that Love Supreme is recorded that way. Alot of Rudy Van Geller engineered stuff is left/right.I also not surprised that the mono made it lose its sparkle. It is a stereo recording

Montejay is correct, a lot of stereo recordings in this era were mixed with hard panning. Rock music from the early era of stereo is notorious for this stuff, the reason I generally prefer mono recordings from this era.

I suspect some of the sparkle your speaking of is air around images, stereo is often more spacious/airy sounding than mono with it's more tightly bunched images. You also lose a lot playing stereo recordings in mono, artificial mono produces strange effects.

Mono recordings present the same sound from both channels, there is no separation of voices and instruments, it is all unified in the presentation. If you are getting Trane in one channel and drums from the right with piano in the middle, that is stereo. You might have a small soundstage on this recording, but it is definitely a stereo mix.