Welcome to The (New) Second Disc - or, as we prefer, The Second Disc: Remastered!

On January 11, 2010, The Second Disc published its first post: a look back from Mike Duquette at the best reissues of 2009, featuring titles from Elvis Costello, The Beatles and Michael Jackson. The same day, our first true news item was posted, about Legacy Recordings’ acquisition of the Jimi Hendrix catalogue. On January 31 came our first review, of Whitney Houston: The Deluxe Anniversary Edition. On April 3, 2010, Joe Marchese joined The Second Disc with a review of David Bowie’s Deram Records debut, and a news article about The Essential Carole King, in case you were wondering.

Since those early days, The Second Disc has published around 3,600 articles, or roughly two articles per day for those five years. We’ve recently welcomed a new contributor, Ted Frank, and look forward to adding more new voices in the weeks to come. Though we’ve changed quite a bit since 2010, as has the music world we cover day in and day out, our goals are the same as they were on Day One as detailed in our “The Second Disc Explained” post:

They say the music industry is dying. In the past decade, as digital downloads, shrinking record stores and a bumper crop of flavor-of-the-month artists invaded the public consciousness, some would quickly agree: the music biz is dead, long live the music biz.

But this attitude ignores the one ace that major labels have tucked away in their sleeves: their back catalogues. You can debate the merits of contemporary music as much as you want, but the sounds of the past will continue to shine between generations. In 2009 alone, current events led audiences back to the works of Michael Jackson and The Beatles, and sales were considerably mighty – a simple reminder that some music will always stand the test of time.

We promised that “if it’s reissued, remastered or expanded, you’ll find it here.” Having covered more than 500 titles each year, we still stand by that pledge. Whether you want to read about classic rock, popular vocals, vintage jazz, disco, Broadway cast recordings, or film soundtracks, you’ll find them all here. We hope you enjoy and explore the all-new Second Disc designed by the genius firm, the amazing Metaglyphics. We’re most happy to introduce a Release Calendar among our new features. As it will be updated on a daily basis, it will allow us to cover even more catalogue music titles than before. We also hope you’ll enjoy our updated search menus, which will allow you to access our entire archive of news, reviews and features with a mere click! Please bear with us, too, as we complete the process of re-tagging all of our past posts so they will be accessible to you on the new Second Disc!

Of course, we’re most proud of our latest, and most significant, project. On March 10, we will mark the launch of Second Disc Records. Joe Marchese of The Second Disc has teamed with the musical gurus at Real Gone Music to bring remastered and expanded reissues to life on compact disc. As an imprint of Real Gone, the Second Disc Records label inaugurates its catalogue with Johnny Mathis’ Life is a Song Worth Singing: The Complete Thom Bell Sessions and Bob Crewe’s The Complete Elektra Recordings. We truly hope you will check these titles out; both feature previously unreleased and/or new-to-CD music, while the booklets contain the same style of in-depth writing you’ve come to expect here. And those two releases are just the tip of the iceberg as to what we have planned for 2015 and beyond.

So, thank you for joining us on this ride, and especially on our newest and most exciting venture yet with Second Disc Records. We can’t wait to hear what you think of the new site, and we couldn’t do it without you. As we said back on that first day, five years ago:

Now go and cue up your favorite songs and read on – you never know what you might rediscover!

- Joe Marchese, January 14, 2015