The Second Disc

Are you thinking you should take a chance on Ace Records’ supremely soulful duo of releases from The Apollas and Eddie Holland?  If so…you’re absolutely right!  For The Apollas’ Absolutely Right: The Complete Tiger, Loma and Warner Bros. Recordings (Kent CDKEND 365, 2012) and Holland’s It Moves Me: The Complete Recordings 1958-1964 (Ace CDTOP2 1331, 2012) both belong on the shelf of any serious fan of classic soul and R&B.

If you haven’t heard of The Apollas, you’re forgiven.  This Bay Area girl trio didn’t see much chart action, but the 25 mid-sixties tracks compiled here by Alec Palao (including five unreleased titles) prove that their output was first class.  Top tier talents like Nickolas Ashford and Valerie Simpson, Jeff Barry and Ellie Greenwich, Artie Butler, Barry White, Jimmy Wisner, Billy Vera, Dick Glasser and H.B. Barnum were behind these recordings.  With a pedigree like that, it’s hard to believe that these sides have languished for so long.  The music on Absolutely Right! sounds better than ever, and should raise more than a few eyebrows.

Like so many African-American artists of the era, and indeed, still today, the members of The Apollas began their vocal careers in church.  The Apollas then honed their sound working nightclub engagements and teen nights at Disneyland, and even added a soulful touch to the recordings of their early patron, Frankie “Jezebel” Laine!  The gospel background of lead singer Leola Jiles always shines through, adding an extra layer of passion to unlikely material like Don Everly’s “Who Would Want Me Now.”  Just as delicious is the Ellie Greenwich/Jeff Barry composition “He Ain’t No Angel” and the smoldering “You’ll Always Have Me” from the pen of Nickolas Ashford and Valerie Simpson.  Nearly one-third of the collection’s cuts were written by that famed duo, sometimes with their frequent collaborator Josephine Armstead.  The songs of the trio were previously celebrated by Ace with The Real Thing: The Songs of Ashford, Simpson and Armstead (CDKEND 318) on which The Apollas’ “Mr. Creator” (“Won’t you hear my prayer?”) appears.  Every color of the Ashford and Simpson palette is employed, from the storming “You’re Absolutely Right” to the eminently danceable “I Just Can’t Get Enough of You.”  Hit the jump for more on The Apollas, plus Eddie Holland, too! Read the rest of this entry »

Legendary prog-rock supergroup Emerson, Lake & Palmer have signed a new deal with Razor & Tie Records to distribute their catalogue, kicking things off with a new compilation.

One of the early supergroups in rock history, comprised of keyboardist Keith Emerson of The Nice, King Crimson bassist Greg Lake on guitar and vocals and drummer Greg Palmer of Atomic Rooster, ELP were a defining force in progressive rock music, melding traditional rock statements with jazz and classically-inspired arrangements, quoting composers from Bach and Copland to Prokofiev and Mussorgsky.

Though they were never major presences on the charts (save the U.K. No. 2 hit “Fanfare for the Common Man”), their works enjoy constant rotation on classic rock radio, notably “Karn Evil 9: 1st Impression (Part 2),” featuring the iconic opening line that gives this post (as well as a 1974 live album) its name. ELP broke up in 1979, after which Emerson and Lake toured with former Rainbow drummer Cozy Powell in the 1980s; the band reunited from 1991 to 1998 and played a one-off anniversary concert in 2010.

In addition to a new, 14-track compilation, The Best of Emerson, Lake & Palmer: Come and See the Show, which is available today, the label announced remastered, expanded releases of the band’s first six albums (studio albums Emerson, Lake & Palmer (1970), Tarkus (1971), Trilogy (1972) and Brain Salad Surgery (1973) and live albums Pictures at an Exhibition (1971) and Welcome Back My Friends to the Show That Never Ends…Ladies and Gentlemen, Emerson, Lake & Palmer (1974)) as due this year.

It will not be the first reissue campaign for the band; Rhino remastered and expanded several of the band’s albums in the 1990s, as did Shout! Factory with different bonus material in the last five years.

Hit the jump to check out the new compilation (“currently unavailable” on Amazon) and keep it here for ELP reissue news as it’s reported!

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UPDATE (2/21): A representative from Legacy has confirmed that this title is currently “on hold.” Stay tuned for more information as it develops.

When the singer’s gone, let the song go on…

How lucky we are that Arthur Garfunkel is still very much with us. Jimmy Webb wrote those words for the unlikely rock star, a former architecture student endowed with a purity of tone and the ability to pierce the heart. Garfunkel, of course, was the yin to Paul Simon’s yang, the Tom to his Jerry. And so, he once again bookends his old friend with a new anthology coming from Columbia Records and Legacy Recordings. Art Garfunkel: The Singer serves as a welcome companion to the recently-released Paul Simon: Songwriter.

Set for release on April 10 from Columbia Records and Legacy Recordings, Art Garfunkel’s The Singer is the first ever 2-CD career-spanning anthology for Garfunkel. Its forty tracks have been personally selected by the artist, beginning with 1964’s Simon and Garfunkel debut Wednesday Morning, 3 AM and going right up to his most recent studio set, 2007’s Some Enchanted Evening. Twelve original studio tracks from the legendary duo have been chosen for inclusion, as well as three live tracks and two “reunion” cuts: the hit singles “My Little Town” and “What a Wonderful World,” on which Garfunkel was joined not only by Simon but by James Taylor. Like the Paul Simon collection, this isn’t a standard “greatest hits” but rather a chronicle of the artist’s personal journey in music.

The Forest Hills-born Garfunkel, who turned 70 on November 5, met his future partner Paul Simon in the halls of P.S. 164 in the sixth grade, with both young men cast in a school production of Alice in Wonderland. They soon bonded over a mutual love of music, with Garfunkel citing Nat “King” Cole as just one early influence. (Garfunkel would come full circle, recording an entire album of American standards in 2007.) Beginning in 1956, Simon and Garfunkel locally performed as “Tom and Jerry,” modeling themselves on the Everly Brothers, with whom they would later collaborate. Though he and Simon briefly split in the early 1960s, with Garfunkel pursuing his continuing education at New York’s Columbia University, they reunited for Wednesday Morning 3 AM, a low-key collection of folk songs, including a number of originals penned by the precociously talented Simon. It was lost in the shuffle of the British Invasion, however, and Simon retreated to England while Garfunkel resumed his studies. When Columbia Records decided to reissue Wednesday Morning’s “The Sound of Silence” with electric overdubs in September 1965, Simon and Garfunkel were presented with ample reason to reform: the song was climbing its way to No. 1, hitting that coveted spot on New Year’s Day, 1966. Their second album, Sounds of Silence, was recorded in December 1965 during that heady time when “Silence” was making waves in the music industry. The rest is history.

Hit the jump to explore The Singer, plus a pre-order link and full track listing with album discography!

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What do you do?  No one else can dance like you!  So what’s all the fuss?  There ain’t nobody that spies like us! 

It’s not often that we get the opportunity to write about Paul McCartney, forever fab, and Art of Noise, pioneering British synth-pop duo, in the same sentence.  But Salvo Records and ZTT are giving us just that chance with this week’s U.K. release of The Art of the 12-Inch, Volume Two.  Okay, it’s not that much of a stretch, as Art of Noise’s Anne Dudley contributed synthesizer to McCartney’s 1984 Give My Regards to Broad Street soundtrack album, and was later enlisted to write arrangements for his 1986 Press to Play.  And it was on that latter album where Dudley’s Art of Noise mates got involved.  McCartney wrote the title song to John Landis’ 1986 comedy Spies Like Us and planned to include it on Press to Play.  Macca’s interest in synthesizers, electronic sounds and avant-pop was nothing new; he would introduce many of those sounds into his McCartney II solo album and continue to explore that realm as late as 2008’s Electric Arguments, his third collaboration as “The Fireman” with the artist known as Youth (a.k.a. Martin Glover).

Ian Peel, curator of the new Salvo set, recalled, “McCartney called in the Art of Noise to remix the track [‘Spies Like Us’] in the summer of 1985.  It was a mad, cut-and-paste retake that turned the song – McCartney’s last U.S. Top Ten hit – into a left-field electronic collage.”  (Peel knows of what he speaks, as author of The Unknown Paul McCartney, a 2001 account of the musician’s more outré experiments.)  Paul and Linda McCartney joined Dudley, JJ Jeczalik and Gary Langan for what sounded like “a very experimental session,” in Peel’s recollection.  The 12-inch vinyl mix was released in November 1985 but has so far eluded any of McCartney’s archival projects.  McCartney gave his consent to the track to make its CD debut on the second volume of Salvo’s The Art of the 12-Inch, but then the plot thickened!

Hit the jump to continue! Read the rest of this entry »

Diana Ross, Diana Ross: Deluxe Edition (Hip-o Select/Motown)

The latest set from Select is a heavy-duty expansion of Miss Ross’ 1976 album, which featured “Theme from ‘Mahogany’ (Do You Know Where You’re Going To?)” and “Love Hangover,” two classic singles from a classic career. Alternate mixes, rare singles and early versions abound on this set.

Various Artists, ZTT: The Art of the 12″: Volume Two (ZTT/Salvo)

A double-disc set of rare and unreleased dance mixes of vinyl classics, with a few rarities thrown in for good measure – and, as our post later today will explain, at least one Beatle!

Simple Minds, Simple Minds x5 (EMI)

The first five Simple Minds LPs – all pre-The Breakfast Club – expanded with vintage B-sides and remixes.

Gilbert O’Sullivan, Back to Front: Expanded Edition (Union Square Music/Salvo)

Gilbert’s 1972 sophomore album plus three bonus tracks, including hit single “Alone Again (Naturally).”

André Cymone, André Cymone / Surviving in the ’80s: Expanded Editions (Funky Town Grooves)

Blood, Sweat & Tears, In Concert / Phil Everly, Star Spangled Springer / Mel Brooks, Greatest Hits (Wounded Bird)

Some great LPs, all rare or new to CD, coming from Wounded Bird.

Various Artists, Complete Pop Instrumental Hits of the Sixties, Vol. 2: 1961 (Complete ’60s/Eric)

A three-disc set of every instrumental song that ever charted in 1961. The second in a volume of a series we’ve covered before.

Various Artists, David Merrick Presents Hits from His Broadway Hits (RCA Victor/Masterworks Broadway)

Ann-Margret joins John Gary and the Merrill Staton Voices in this vintage tribute to the legendary impresario behind such musicals as Hello, Dolly! and Gypsy.

Raindrops might be falling on your head, but there’s one thing I know: the March slate of releases from Real Gone Music will assuredly keep those blues at bay!  Featuring both returning favorites from the old Collectors’ Choice label as well as artists and recordings new to the Real Gone family, there’s something for everyone!  Joining B.J. Thomas’ The Complete Scepter Singles on March 27 will be Frankie Avalon’s Muscle Beach Party: The United Artists Sessions, The Tubes’ Young & Rich/Now, Rick Springfield’s Beginnings . . ., David Axelrod’s Messiah, Wishbone Ash’s Live Dates II and Clint Eastwood’s Rawhide’s Clint Eastwood Sings Cowboy Favorites.

Billy Joe Thomas was born in Oklahoma in 1942, but his family moved to Texas when he was just a couple weeks of age.  And it was in Texas where the young musician made a name for himself first as a member of The Triumphs and then under the tutelage of Huey P. Meaux.  The Meaux empire included such future stars as Ronnie Milsap, Doug Sahm, Johnny Winter, Barbara Lynn and Freddy Fender, and an A&R man by the name of Steve Tyrell.  When B.J. Thomas’ 1964 single of Hank Williams’ “I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry” on the small Pacemaker label began to attract national attention, Meaux turned the single over to Florence Greenberg’s Scepter Records.  Thomas and Scepter began a long and fruitful association and as of 1967, all of Thomas’ records began appearing exclusively on Scepter.  Steve Tyrell, too, would join Scepter and participate in the success of the label’s premier recordings by Dionne Warwick and the team of Burt Bacharach and Hal David, who, in turn, would give B.J. Thomas his No. 1 pop breakthrough with 1969’s Academy Award-winning “Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head.”  Various compilations of Thomas’ Scepter catalogue have proliferated, most notably Ace’s 2003 The Scepter Hits and More.  Gordon Anderson’s Collectors’ Choice label brought a number of Thomas’ Scepter LPs to CD for the very first time, and now Real Gone’s 44-track anthology The Complete Scepter Singles is the first to offer A- and B-sides of every one of Thomas’ Scepter singles, including his 19 hits. Many of the B-sides never appeared on an album, and these rare tracks are making their long overdue CD debuts. DJ/journalist Mike Ragogna penned the notes, which feature quotes from Thomas.

Predating Thomas’ career by a few years is that of Frankie Avalon, beach party king.  The recordings made by Avalon for the Chancellor label have been compiled numerous times in the past, but his United Artists recordings have languished in virtual obscurity.  That’s about to change with the release of Muscle Beach Party: The United Artists Sessions.  Offering 20 stereo tracks recorded in 1964 and 1965, the new compact disc offers the entire album Muscle Beach Party and Other Movie Songs, a tie-in to director William Asher’s 1964 film starring Frankie and Annette Funicello, for which The Beach Boys’ Brian Wilson composed songs with Roger Christian and Gary Usher.  (Annette released a competing Muscle Beach Party album on the Disneyland label!)  Avalon also tackles songs from other famous films, including Henry Mancini and Johnny Mercer’s “Moon River” and “Days of Wine and Roses.”  Appended to the original LP are rare singles plus tracks from the soundtrack of I’ll Take Sweden, a 1965 Bob Hope comedy in which he co-starred. The set features notes by Tom Pickles as well as photographs.

At the same time Frankie Avalon was enjoying his days at the beach, a young actor named Clint Eastwood was starring in the television western Rawhide (1959-1965).  A talented composer himself, Eastwood has always taken his music as seriously as his acting, and in 1963, he recorded the LP   Rawhide’s Clint Eastwood Sings Cowboy Favorites.  Although Collectors’ Choice Music already released the album on CD in 2010, Real Gone is resuscitating it for a first-time return to vinyl for a 180-gram pressing.  That CD is returning to print, too, from Real Gone.  Like the first time around, both sides of Eastwood’s 1962 single “Rowdy” b/w “Cowboy Wedding Song” will be included on the CD version.

Hit the jump for Wishbone Ash, The Tubes, David Axelrod, and track listings with discographical annotation for every title! Read the rest of this entry »

What’s it all about, Cilla?

Though “Alfie” and “Anyone Who Had a Heart” are very much the property of Ms. Dionne Warwick in the United States, Liverpool’s Cilla Black can fairly stake claim to them across the pond.  Born Priscilla Maria Veronica White, the protégé of Brian Epstein and close Beatle pal scored a string of beloved hit singles at the height of Swinging London, though her profile has long remained under the radar in America.  Well, not if The Second Disc has anything to say about it!  In anticipation of the 50^th anniversary of Cilla’s show business debut in 2013, EMI U.K. will release Completely Cilla: 1963-1973, a whopping 5-CD/1-DVD box set, on April 23.  Featuring 139 recordings all produced by Sir George Martin, Completely Cilla will introduce twelve tracks to CD, and will also premiere long-unseen BBC footage of the singer covering the period of 1968 to 1977.  The tracks are presented, for the first time, in chronological session order.

During her 15-year tenure at Parlophone/EMI, Cilla Black scored nineteen Top 40 singles (including two Number Ones in 1964), released ten studio albums and became Britain’s biggest-selling female artist of the 1960s, which is no small feat when one considers Black’s contemporaries.  Black’s “Anyone Who Had a Heart” is, according to BBC Radio 2, the U.K.’s biggest-selling single by a female artist in the 1960s.  Completely Cilla is a particular boon for collectors, as Black’s catalogue (including the seven George Martin-helmed albums) was remastered in 2009 for a digital-only initiative.  Hit the jump to explore Completely Cilla and the career of Cilla Black OBE! Read the rest of this entry »

Everyone’s going to feel a little Irish on St. Patrick’s Day, but this year catalogue enthusiasts have a title to give them a little edge in terms of the country’s music: The Essential Clannad, a double-disc set from Irish folk band Clannad.

A family-based quintet, ormed in Gaoth Dobhair, County Donegal (their name is shortened from “An Clann as Dobhair,” or “the family from ‘Dore”) Clannad remain unique in that they are one of the most successful, natively Irish bands in Europe, often singing in native Irish. Such was the case with “Theme from Harry’s Game,” a Top 5 U.K. hit from a 1982 miniseries about The Troubles. U2 used the recording to open every one of their concerts from the War to The Joshua Tree tours, and Bono would sing on the Top 20 hit “In a Lifetime” in 1985. In fact, many unique voices were drawn to collaborate with the group, including Bruce Hornsby and former Journey frontman Steve Perry.

But the band had been active many years before, releasing their first albums in the mid-1970s. From 1979 to 1980, singer/harpist Máire Ní Bhraonáin’s younger sister, Eithne, was bought into the band as a vocalist; years later, she would have success under a different name – Enya.

In the mid-2000s, after years of inactivity, the band returned to performing and will come back this year in a big way, with a new album and tour in the fall and a special concert to be broadcast on PBS for St. Patrick’s Day. A few weeks before, on March 6, this new 30-song compilation will hit stores for your listening pleasure. Check out the track list for the set after the jump.

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Smash!  Boom!  Bang! 

The ace compilation experts at, well, Ace Records are offering up plenty of Smash, Boom and Bang (both in impact and in label name!) for your buck with their diverse slate of February releases.  You’ll find top-drawer pop, rock and soul for connoisseurs and beginners alike among the label’s latest.  Perhaps the most unexpected is the new entry in the label’s long-running Songwriters and Producers series.  Smash Boom Bang!  The Songs and Productions of Feldman-Goldstein-Gotteher (Ace CDCHD 1317) turns the spotlight on those three named gentlemen who supplied hits for The Strangeloves, The McCoys and The Angels, not to mention the young Ronnie James Dio.

Although the surnames of Bob, Jerry and Richard didn’t have the easy ring of “Mann and Weil” or “Goffin and King,” they travelled the same New York streets.  Encouraged early on by Snuff Garrett and Wes Farrell, the F-G-G team hustled songs to a wide variety of artists across genre lines.  If you don’t know the names of Messrs. Feldman, Goldstein and Gotteher, you’ll undoubtedly know “My Boyfriend’s Back,” “Hang On, Sloopy” and “I Want Candy,” and you just might be surprised to find that all three songs were the work (either in songwriting, production or both) of the same team.  Smash Boom Bang takes its name from three prominent labels, the last of which was founded by Bert Berns.  As Berns’ tragically short-lived career has already been anthologized by Ace, this collection makes the perfect companion to those earlier two volumes.

Producers Rob Finnis and Mick Patrick have curated the set to include the most famous recordings by the team, but there are expectedly delicious rarities blended in, as well, including Dion DiMucci’s demo of “Swingin’ Street,” a F-G-G song with a barroom sing-along feel.  Even “My Boyfriend’s Back” and “Hang On, Sloopy” appear in their original, unedited versions, adding value for the collector.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, there are plenty of choice “sixties girls” sounds.  Patty Lace and the Petticoats’ “Girl, Don’t Trust That Boy” is a quintessential, if largely unknown, girl group record from 1964, but it’s no surprise that the team had mastered the girl group genre, having written “My Boyfriend’s Back” the previous year.  The story behind that masterwork is still one shrouded in mystery, but Finnis goes a long way in explaining the brouhaha in his copious notes.    When The Angels fell out with F-G-G, they attempted to replicate the group’s sound on a variety of records such as The Pin-Ups’ delightful “Lookin’ for Boys,” though their mileage varied.  One standout track is Debra Swisher’s 1965 take on The Beach Boys’ “You’re So Good to Me,” with Swisher’s recording tougher than the original.  Her piercing lead vocals lend the song an entirely new dimension.  The track was arranged by one “Bassett Hand,” proving that the F-G-G team couldn’t resist a good pun!  F-G-G tried to combine the best of both worlds with The Powderpuffs’ rather humorous “You Can’t Take My Boyfriend’s Woody” (“It don’t look like much, but when he pops that clutch/You’ll think you’re in reverse!”) slyly aping the early Beach Boys style.

We continue with this hitmaking trio, plus lots more – including track listings and order links for Smash Boom Bang, Mod Jazz Forever and The London American Label 1957 – after the jump! Read the rest of this entry »

Music was in both the bloodline and the spirit of Whitney Elizabeth Houston (1963-2012).  The native of Newark, New Jersey called Cissy Houston of The Sweet Inspirations her mom, while Dionne Warwick and Dee Dee Warwick were her beloved cousins.  Her godmother was none other than Aretha Franklin.  Following in her mother’s footsteps, she began performing at Newark’s New Hope Baptist Church, singing in the gospel choir as a featured soloist, and began to make inroads in the music business as a background vocalist, again echoing the path of some of her most famous relatives.  When Clive Davis saw the young, beautiful and effervescent Houston performing in New York City, he sensed that great things were in store.  The mogul appeared alongside the singer for her debut on television’s The Merv Griffin Show in 1983; she was off and running.

Over a career spanning nearly thirty years, Whitney Houston proved that there was nothing vocally she couldn’t do.  Though an undisputed legend of pop, soul and R&B, she was at equally home on the dance floor, could do justice to Rodgers and Hammerstein (Cinderella) and Stephen Schwartz (the Academy Award-winning “When You Believe” from The Prince of Egypt), and even dabbled in hip-hop.  2006’s “Family First” teamed Houston with Dionne and Cissy, and the key presence of family and faith was a source of strength in her often-troubled life.  One can only hope that Houston also found solace in the number of young individuals whose styles she influenced and whose careers she inspired.

Even as our thoughts reside with Whitney Houston’s family at this difficult time, Mike and I have chosen to remember the great singer in the best way we know how: through a tour of her music.  Though Houston wasn’t a prolific artist, the magnitude of her accomplishments looms large.  Put simply and at risk of cliché, we will always love you, Whitney Houston.

We start our guide to Whitney’s discography with 1985′s Whitney Houston after the jump! Read the rest of this entry »