The Second Disc

Not much developing on this story yet, but Wall Street Journal music critic Jim Fusilli posted this on his Twitter feed earlier today: “In October, Rhino to release Ravi Shankar-George Harrison boxed set.” There was a link along with the tweet, but it just linked to a documentary about chants of India on YouTube, for which Harrison was interviewed.

UPDATE (2:51 P.M.): This article has some more info. Collaborations, as it’s called, looks to collate three Shankar records produced by Harrison – Shankar Family and Friends (1974), Ravi Shankar’s Music Festival from India (1976) and Chants of India (1997) – as well as a live DVD comprised of a rare performance at London’s Royal Albert Hall in 1974. Look for it from Dark Horse/Rhino on October 19.

Hit the jump to see the track lists for the original records.

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There’s nothing harder, as a reissue fan, than realizing that sometimes stuff just falls through the cracks and might have a tough time coming back up.

How many times have we all bought a compilation, expanded reissue or box set only to find that a few tracks were regrettably missing from the checklist? Few feelings are worse; you don’t want to hope for another reissue because that would be wasteful. You can just hope and hope that they’ll come out in some way, shape or form – and with any luck, they will.

A perfect example of this might be Cyndi Lauper, one of the most underrated female vocalists of the 1980s. You can see and hear her over-the-top but rather talented style in a lot of current female pop acts if you look hard enough (sure, Lady Gaga or Katy Perry might get the Madonna comparison a lot, but Madge had neither Lauper’s vocal range nor kooky fashion sense).

With that in mind, it’s odd to consider how little of her catalogue has been mined past the basic compilation approach. Legacy reissued She’s So Unusual some years ago with a bunch of live, vinyl-only bonus tracks. But Lauper was a staple in the mid-’80s, when dance remixes were perhaps at their most creative. Why the reissue of Unusual failed to include any of those mixes is beyond the comprehension of this catalogue correspondent. As Lauper’s career wore on, none of her ’80s records (True Colors (1986) and A Night to Remember (1989)) had the impact of her solo debut, so it’s hard to imagine those getting an expansion anytime soon.

So what’s the next step? A compilation probably makes sense, although you’re more likely to see such clearinghouse sets in Japan (such as Lauper’s own The Best Remixes in 1989). Still, Reissue Theory is all about the hope that some of the catalogue gatekeepers will make such a decision to free B-sides, remixes and rarities from obscurity. So in honor of that idea, here’s a look at some of Cyndi Lauper’s best single tracks, worthy for release on CD someday. Have fun (you know you wanna) after the jump.

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As I write this, Steven Spielberg is currently at work on his next film, an adaptation of the World War I-themed British play War Horse, due for a release a year from now. This means that, before long, composer John Williams will begin to write his 26th score for a Spielberg picture. The duo have been an almost immortal force in the film business for nearly 40 years, from their first collaboration, 1973′s The Sugarland Express, to next Christmas’ The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn, for which Williams is in the final stages of writing.

One could almost argue that each man made the other’s career more fruitful. When they first met, Williams, then 42, was just starting to become known as a serious composer, having scored many light, jazzy films and television shows in the 1950s and 1960s. He had won an Oscar for adapting the music to the Fiddler on the Roof film in 1971, and would become associated with the disaster movie craze starting with The Poseidon Adventure in 1972. Spielberg, meanwhile, was a 28-year-old wunderkind who’d secured steady television direction at Universal, including an iconic episode of the Rod Serling series Night Gallery, the first regular episode of Columbo and the fantastic television movie Duel (1971). Their partnership established Williams as the biggest name in blockbuster composition, earning him three of the five Oscars he’s won and turning him into an in-demand composer for George Lucas, Oliver Stone and others. (He is tied with mentor Alfred Newman for the most amount of Oscar nominations in history, with 45.) Spielberg, meanwhile, has become known as a master storyteller with a keen eye for the popular and the emotional. Critics may snub him for playing too perfectly with an audience’s emotions on film, but his ability to move the public on such a massive scale is what makes him such a formidable and influential artist.

To celebrate the fruitful collaboration of both men, we present a two-part Back Tracks looking at the many releases of Williams for Spielberg films. Join us after the jump for a look at Spielberg-Williams through 1993, and come back tomorrow for the second part of the series dealing from the late ’90s to the present.

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And Legacy’s Essential train just keeps on rolling along. Upgrades to Essential 3.0 have been announced for two popular volumes in the long-running series, The Essential “Weird Al” Yankovic and The Essential Barry Manilow. The new editions will expand the 2-CD releases with a third disc containing 6 and 7 tracks, respectively. While none of the tracks on the third discs appear to be rare, Essential 3.0 titles are usually priced very similarly to the original 2-CD sets (retailing for approximately $25, they can often be found as inexpensive as $15) and therefore a terrific bargain for fans who didn’t already buy the first release.

The tracks on Al’s Disc 3 encompass 20 years of the musical humorist’s career, from his 1983 debut (“Ricky”) to his second-to-last studio album, 2003’s Poodle Hat (“Wanna Be Ur Lovr” and “Genius in France”). Manilow’s 8 tracks are likewise eclectic. The heartfelt “All the Time” and showstopping “Sweet Heaven” were notable omissions from the original set, so they’re particularly welcome. Legacy has seen fit to include the too-little-known early gem “I Am Your Child” while Manilow’s latter-day patriotic anthem “Let Freedom Ring” might sit oddly in this collection. Fans will be happy to know that 1982’s hit Four Seasons cover “Let’s Hang On” is included, but the same year’s charting “Oh, Julie!” still isn’t making a long-awaited appearance on CD. In its original form, The Essential Barry Manilow was notable for including some rare and new-to-CD mixes; it’s disappointing that Disc 3 doesn’t appear to be following suit.

Even in 2-disc form, The Essentials remain the best one-stop shopping for both the Yankovic and Manilow catalogues. In 3-disc form, the deal is even sweeter for those who haven’t bitten yet.  You can pre-order The Essential “Weird Al” Yankovic 3.0, due on August 31, here and The Essential Barry Manilow 3.0, set for October 12 release, here.

You know the routine: click on the jump for full track listings and complete discographical information for all 3 discs of both releases! Read the rest of this entry »