Following a series of deluxe reissues and a career-spanning box set, Edsel is once again turning to the catalogue of Belinda Carlisle.  A new 29-CD box set has just been announced which collects the songs and edits released in the U.S. and U.K. across her entire solo recording career for IRS, Virgin, Chrysalis and up to the new song from her UMe Icon entry.  Belinda Carlisle: The CD Singles 1986-2014 is due to be released on August 21, 2015.

The California-born Carlisle rose to fame as the lead singer of the iconic New Wave girl group The Go-Go's, whose 1981 debut Beauty and the Beat, on the IRS label, spent six weeks atop the Billboard 200.  The album was produced by Richard Gottehrer who knew a thing or two about girl groups, having written The Angels' immortal 1963 hit "My Boyfriend's Back."  The Go-Go's retained the sass but updated the sound of the classic sixties girl groups, and further distinguished themselves by writing and performing all of the music on Beauty and the Beat including the smash single "We Got the Beat."

Two more albums followed, but not long after 1984's Talk Show, the Go-Go's called it a day, torn apart by personal turmoil and tension between bandmates.  When The Go-Go's disbanded in the spring of 1985, Carlisle seized the opportunity to go solo, scoring a No. 3 U.S. hit with "Mad About You," again on the IRS label.  Carlisle turned to a number of talented collaborators to select the material for her first solo effort, simply titled Belinda.  Some songs were written by Charlotte Caffey of the Go-Go's, and Susanna Hoffs of another groundbreaking group of eighties girls, The Bangles, co-wrote "I Need a Disguise."  Fleetwood Mac's Lindsey Buckingham was one of the writers behind "Since You've Gone," and Carlisle herself shared writing credits on "Gotta Get to You."  Covers of Split Enz ("Stuff and Nonsense") and Freda Payne ("Band of Gold") rounded out the album which peaked at No. 13 in the United States.

1987 was Heaven on Earth for Belinda Carlisle when the album of that name - also a No. 13 U.S. chart hit - yielded the international chart-topping song that's still the artist's signature: "Heaven is a Place on Earth."  The bubbly, effervescent power pop nugget written by Rick Nowels and Ellen Shipley was joined on the LP by songs from Diane Warren (U.S. No. 2 hit "I Get Weak"), Jack Bruce (a cover of "I Feel Free" that sounds incongruous on paper) and the returning Charlotte Caffey.  Another Nowels and Shipley song, "Circle in the Sand," provided Carlisle with a No. 7 U.S./No. 4 U.K. pop success.  Released in the U.S. on MCA and in the U.K. via Virgin, Heaven on Earth was the first of Carlisle's four essential Virgin albums.

1989's Runaway Horses was the belated follow-up, an album graced by the presence of not just Canadian rocker Bryan Adams, but bona fide legend and Carlisle fan George Harrison.  It was rewarded with a Top 5 placement in the U.K. but without a hit single success domestically, the album didn't score in America.  Nowels and Shipley's "Leave a Light On," with its indelible Harrison slide guitar solo, peaked at No. 11, and the second single "Summer Rain" from the team of Robbie Seidman and Maria Vidal got no higher than No. 30.  A Go-Go's reunion in 1990 was a well-received diversion for Carlisle, and was a predecessor to 1991's Live Your Life Be Free, a return to the sixties-inspired sound from both the Go-Go's and her IRS album.  Though it didn't chart in the U.S., Live Your Life earned Carlisle her final U.S. hit single to date (Nowels and Shipley's "Do You Feel Like I Feel") and hit the Top 10 overseas.

The Best of Belinda Volume One was issued to tremendous European success in 1992, and renamed Her Greatest Hits stateside.  The next year, Carlisle issued her final Virgin LP.  Real again was met with great success in Europe.  It was her fifth consecutive album to go Top 10 in the U.K., and preceded another Go-Go's go-round.

Carlisle soon moved to Europe and to a new label.  1996's A Woman and A Man on Chrysalis featured the top 10 U.K. hits "Always Breaking My Heart" and "In Too Deep."  Since then, Belinda took time to raise a family and has performed and recorded sporadically.  Her next studio album came in 2007:  Voila which features French-language pop standards.  In 2010, she wrote a frank memoir.  Her next song for the U.S. market was "Sun," included on the Sony Icon volume devoted to her solo career in 2013.

This new box set features the released songs and edits from her albums on the first 27 discs.  The track selection seems to indicate that they are attempting to replicate the tracks which appeared on the US and UK version of each single as they originally appeared.  This appears to have lead to some duplication of tracks from disc to disc.  The 28th disc brings together two songs exclusive to compilations, including "Sun."  The 29th disc is a bonus disc and likely the most exciting part of the box.  In addition to other various edits of songs, "In My Wildest Dreams," Belinda's contribution to the soundtrack of the 1987 movie Mannequin, will finally make its CD debut.  The masters to the song were thought to be lost but they have been located so that this much-requested track can be heard again.

Belinda Carlisle's solo catalogue and has been well-mined by Edsel in the last few years.  Belinda Carlisle: The CD Singles 1986-2014 is another way to experience her solo career and does feature a new-to-CD track.  If you would like to take another look, we've got the full track listing and Amazon links below.   (The U.S. link will be added as soon as it is available.  In the meantime, Amazon U.K. will ship worldwide!)  And only for U.K. residents, the set is available from Belinda's official webstore where there are 500 copies featuring a signed card from Belinda.

Belinda Carlisle: The CD Singles 1986-2014 (Edsel (UK), 2015) (Amazon U.S. TBD / Amazon U.K.)

CD 1

1. Mad About You - Single mix
2. Mad About You - Extended mix
3. Mad About You - Instrumental mix
4. I Never Wanted A Rich Man

CD 2

1. I Feel The Magic
2. From The Heart
3. Gotta Get To You

CD 3

1. Band Of Gold [featuring Freda Payne] - Single mix
2. Band Of Gold [featuring Freda Payne] - Extended mix
3. Band Of Gold [featuring Freda Payne] - Dub mix
4. From The Heart

CD 4

1. Heaven Is A Place On Earth - Single mix
2. Heaven Is A Place On Earth - Album version
3. Heaven Is A Place On Earth - Heavenly version
4. Heaven Is A Place On Earth - Down to Earth dub
5. Heaven Is A Place On Earth - A cappella (The Voice)
6. We Can Change

CD 5

1. I Get Weak - 7" version
2. I Get Weak - Album version
3. I Get Weak - 12" version
4. I Get Weak - Instrumental
5. I Get Weak US - 7″ mix
6. Should I Let You In

CD 6

1. Circle In The Sand 7" version
2. Circle In The Sand - Seaside mood groove mix
3. Circle In The Sand - Beach party mix
4. Circle In The Sand - Sandblast Multi-mix

CD 7

1. I Feel Free - 7" version
2. I Feel Free - Extended version
3. I Feel Free - Dub

CD 8

1. World Without You - 7" remix
2. World Without You - Extended worldwide mix
3. World Without You - Panavision mix
4. Nobody Owns Me

CD 9

1. Love Never Dies - Single version
2. Love Never Dies - Full length version
3. I Feel Free - Live
4. Circle In The Sand - Live
5. Heaven Is A Place On Earth - Live

CD 10

1. Leave A Light On - 7" version
2. Leave A Light On - Extended mix
3. Shades Of Michelangelo

CD 11

1. La Luna - 7" version
2. La Luna - Album version
3. La Luna - Extended dance mix
4. La Luna - 12" Dub mix
5. La Luna - A Capella
6. Whatever It Takes
7. Leave A Light On - Kamikazee single mix

CD 12

1. Runaway Horses - Single version
2. Runaway Horses - Album version
3. Heaven Is A Place On Earth - Live
4. Circle In The Sand - Beach party Mix

CD 13

1. Vision Of You - 7" version
2. Leave A Light On - Kamikazee mix
3. I Feel Free - 12" extended mix

CD 14

1. (We Want) The Same Thing - Summer remix
2. (We Want) The Same Thing - Extended summer remix
3. Shades Of Michelangelo
4. Circle In The Sand - Sandblast multimix

CD 15

1. Summer Rain - 7" edit
2. Summer Rain - Album version
3. Summer Rain - Extended version
4. Summer Rain - Dub mix
5. Summer Rain - Justin Strauss radio edit
6. Leave A Light On - Kamikazee mix

CD 16

1. Vision Of You - Remix '91
2. Vision Of You - Original 7" version
3. Heaven Is A Place On Earth [live]

CD 17

1. Live Your Life Be Free - Single version
2. Live Your Life Be Free - LP version
3. Live Your Life Be Free - Club mix
4. Loneliness Game

CD 18

1. Do You Feel Like I Feel - Single version
2. Do You Feel Like I Feel - Album version
3. Do You Feel Like I Feel - Dance mix
4. World Of Love
5. Live Your Life Be Free - Dance instrumental

CD 19

1. Half The World
2. Only A Dream
3. Live Your Life Be Free - Original intro version
4. Vision Of You - Remix '91
5. Circle In The Sand
6. Love Never Dies

CD 20

1. Little Black Book
2. Little Black Book - Little Black mix
3. Little Black Book - Belinda's in the house mix
4. The Air You Breathe
5. Only A Dream

CD 21

1. Big Scary Animal
2. Windows Of The World
3. Change - 8 track demo
4. Too Much Water - 8 track demo

CD 22

1. Lay Down Your Arms - Single edit
2. Tell Me
3. Wrap My Arms - 8 track demo
4. Here Comes My Baby - 8 track demo

CD 23

1. In Too Deep
2. I See No Ships
3. Jealous Guy
4. (We Want) The Same Thing - Summer remix

CD 24

1. Always Breaking My Heart
2. Love Walks In
3. Ballad Of Lucy Jordan
4. Heaven Is A Place On Earth
5. Circle In The Sand
6. I Get Weak

CD 25

1. Love In The Key Of C
2. Kneel At Your Feet
3. In Too Deep - Live acoustic
4. Circle In The Sand - Live acoustic
5. Too Much Water - Demo
6. Whatcha Doin' To Me - Demo
7. Don't Cry - Demo

CD 26

1. California
2. Leave A Light On - Live
3. Live Your Life Be Free - Live
4. Heaven Is A Place On Earth - Live
5. Big Scary Animal - Live
6. I Get Weak - Live
7. In Too Deep - Live

CD 27

1. All God's Children - Edit
2. All God's Children -Full version
3. Runaway Horses
4. Only A Dream

CD 28

1. Sun - Edit
2. Sun - Original version
3. Goodbye Just Go

CD 29

1. Live Your Life Be Free - Macmillan Mix
2. Do You Feel Like I Feel - Macmillan Mix
3. A Prayer For Everyone - Edit
4. I Still Love Him - Edit
5. In My Wildest Dreams