In defence of RPM ,back in 1994 many of these recordings fans had never heard before so for me at least not knowing much about the technical side of things I was more than happy to have them whatever quality ,so will always be thankful to RPM for it at the time and the support they gave to Petula's recordings in those days This of course led the way years later to more money being spent with the superb "It had to be you " Jasmine release .
Very rare, though I suspect they de-noised them excessively for this release. It was hearing some of the tracks sounding better on an Empress CD that prompted me to attempt my own re-issue, which resulted in this It Had To Be You - The Complete Early Singles
@mister_tmg Sad to hear. Are the 78s in question particularly rare? I bought a Bill Haley CD once that had an awful transfer of a couple of 78s but it was forgiven because at the time the source used was the best known copy of that particular 78. (Fortunately a later compilation was able to obtain a cleaner copy and also used updated digital remastering to clean it up.) In the case of this CD obviously the key is to see if there are any other releases (vinyl or CD) or these 78s and compare the sound.