Release Round-Up: Week of March 3

Welcome to the Release Round-Up for the week of March 3!

The Staple Singers, Freedom Highway Complete: Recorded Live at Chicago’s New Nazareth Church (Epic/Legacy)

CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.
LP: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.

The Staple Singers’ 1965 LP celebrating that year’s historic civil rights marches from Montgomery to Selma, Alabama is generously expanded to complete form on Legacy’s new reissue available on both CD and vinyl. Watch for a review here soon!

The J. Geils Band, Bloodshot (Vinyl Edition) (Real Gone Music) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.)

The J. Geils Band’s third album – and first to go Top Ten – gets a limited edition red vinyl reissue with replica labels and artwork!

Foghat, Live (Vinyl Edition) (Real Gone Music) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.)

Foghat’s best-selling, double-platinum live album from 1977 returns to vinyl in this 180-gram limited edition release reproducing the original die-cut jacket and cardboard, full-color inner “Eurosleeve.”

Boz Scaggs, Boz Scaggs [Original 1969 Version + Remixed 1977 Version] (Edsel, 2015) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. )

The debut album of blue-eyed soul man Boz Scaggs – featuring the Muscle Shoals crew and guitarist Duane Allman – is presented in both its incarnations: the original 1969 mix and the 1977 remix created in the wake of Scaggs’ commercial breakthrough. This edition also features a new interview with the album’s producer, Rolling Stone founder Jann Wenner.

Booker T and the MG’s reissue series (Edsel)

Hip Hug Her…Plus + Doin’ Our Thing: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.
Green Onions + Soul Dressing…Plus: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.
And Now! + In the Christmas Spirit: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.

Edsel has the six vintage albums recorded between 1962 and 1968 by legendary Stax band Booker T. and the MG’s available as three two-fers, with non-LP singles added where appropriate.

Various Artists, Hung on You: More from the Gerry Goffin and Carole King Songbook (Ace) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.)

Ace happily returns for another dip into the deep songbook of Goffin and King, this time with artists including The Righteous Brothers (title track “Hung on You”), Dusty Springfield (“Hi-De-Ho (That Old Sweet Roll)),” Freddie Scott (“Where Does Love Go”), Tony Orlando (“Am I the Guy?”) and many more.

Carole King, A Beautiful Collection (Legacy U.K.) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.)

And that’s not all this week from Carole King. Sony’s U.K. Legacy division offers a 15-track primer of King the solo artist, timed to coincide with the West End opening of her smash hit musical Beautiful. The show’s songs including “It’s Too Late,” “You’ve Got a Friend” and “I Feel the Earth Move” are here with other Ode-era classics such as “Only Love is Real” and “Jazzman.”

Les McCann, Invitation to Openness (Omnivore) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.)

Omnivore revisits a soul-jazz classic with this expanded reissue of pianist Les McCann’s 1972 Atlantic album. Invitation features one continuous 26-minute improvisation featuring Yusuf Lateef, Cornell Dupree, Bernard Purdie, and Alphonse Mouzon. This reissue adds new liner notes by Peter Relic based on interviews with the album’s key personnel including producer Joel Dorn before his death, and boasts one bonus track – a live version of McCann favorite “Compared to What?” with Buddy Guy on guitar, from Germany circa 1975.

Jerry Lee Lewis, Who’s Gonna Play This Old Piano…(Think About It Darlin’)/Sometimes a Memory Ain’t Enough (BGO) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.)

BGO reissues two country albums from The Killer as originally released on Mercury in 1972 and 1973, both of which made the U.S. Country Top 10.

Be sure to visit our new Release Calendar for up-to-the-minute release information!

Joe Marchese

JOE MARCHESE (Editor) joined The Second Disc shortly after its launch in early 2010, and has since penned daily news and reviews about classic music of all genres. In 2015, Joe formed the Second Disc Records label. Celebrating the great songwriters, producers and artists who created the sound of American popular song, Second Disc Records, in conjunction with Real Gone Music, has released newly-curated collections produced by Joe from iconic artists such as Johnny Mathis, Bobby Darin, Laura Nyro, Melissa Manchester, Chet Atkins, and many others. He has contributed liner notes to reissues from a diverse array of artists, among them Nat "King" Cole, Paul Williams, Lesley Gore, Dusty Springfield, B.J. Thomas, The 5th Dimension, Burt Bacharach, The Mamas and the Papas, Carpenters, Perry Como, Rod McKuen, Doris Day, Jackie DeShannon, and Andy Williams, and has compiled releases for talents including Robert Goulet and Keith Allison of Paul Revere and the Raiders. Over the past two decades, Joe has also worked in a variety of capacities on and off Broadway as well as at some of the premier theatres in the U.S., including Lincoln Center Theater, George Street Playhouse, Paper Mill Playhouse, Long Wharf Theatre, and the York Theatre Company. He has felt privileged to work on productions alongside artists such as the late Jack Klugman, Eli Wallach, Arthur Laurents, Betty Comden and Adolph Green. In 2009, Joe began contributing theatre and music reviews to the print publication The Sondheim Review, and in 2012, he joined the staff of The Digital Bits as a regular contributor writing about film and television on DVD and Blu-ray. Joe currently resides in the suburbs of New York City.