Retaining timestamps on file import

Help!!

I am presently enrolled in an on-line mixing class. A current assignment is to remix some Peter Gabriel songs located at "www.realworldremixed.com". The individual tracks to these songs are provided as MP3 files in all cases. Some of the songs also have their tracks available as WAV files. Supposedly, both the MP3 and WAV files have embedded timestamps so the tracks can be aligned in time on import into multi-track editors.

When I import either the MP3 or WAV file versions into Sonar 5.2, the tracks show up aligned at time 00:00:00.00 rather than at their intended positions. I have enabled the checkbox in the Sonar global settings dialog to offset imported Broadcast Wave (BWF) files to their timestamps, but this is not having the desired ofsetting effect on the imported MP3 and WAV file tracks.

I have downloaded and tried several MP3-to-WAV converter programs hoping that one of them would be able to parse the embedded timestamps in the MP3 tracks, and convert the MP3 to BWF file format with those timestamps.

Any suggestions?
desperate in Albuquerque