Welcome to this week’s Release Round-Up!  Second Disc Records is going back to the beach with Ricci Martin, but that’s far from all this week! We’re also taking off with ELO, singing street-corner symphonies with The Four Seasons, and much more!  Plus: new titles from classic artists!

Ricci Martin, Beached: Expanded Edition (Second Disc/Real Gone) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.)

What if key members of The Beach Boys, Chicago, America, and Wings had teamed up to create one of the greatest California rock albums you’ve never heard?  Well, they actually did!   Singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, author and director Ricci Martin, the sixth child of legendary “King of Cool” Dean Martin (and younger brother of Dino, Desi and Billy’s Dean-Paul Martin!), got a little help from his friends to craft 1977’s Epic Records release Beached.   We’re bringing Beached, produced by Carl Wilson at The Beach Boys’ Brother Studios, back in an expanded edition remastered by Vic Anesini and featuring four bonus singles!  Beached features Ricci (who wrote every track on the album!) with Carl Wilson, Dennis Wilson, Billy Hinsche, Jimmy McCulloch, Van Dyke Parks, Gerry Beckley, Peter Cetera and the Chicago horn section, among other guests…need we say more?

Texas Tornados, A Little Bit Is Better Than Nada-Prime Cuts 1990-1996 (2-CD Set) (Amazon U.S. /Amazon U.K.) / Flaco Jiménez, The Complete Arista Recordings (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.) / The 4 Seasons, Sherry & 11 Others (Limited Mono Mini-LP Sleeve Edition) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.) / The 4 Seasons, Big Girls Don’t Cry & 12 Others (Limited Mono Mini-LP Sleeve Edition) (Amazon U.S./ Amazon U.K.)

There’s more from Real Gone this week!  The label celebrates the legacy of the Texas Tornados with a definitive 2-CD compendium as well as a collection from the band’s resident King of Conjunto Music, Flaco Jiménez!  Plus: The Four Seasons’ first two (non-holiday) LPs arrive on CD for the very first time in their original mono mixes, as newly remastered by Bill Inglot!

Marvin Gaye, Volume One: 1961-1965 (Motown/UMe) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. )

This new 7-CD set echoes the recent vinyl box set of the same name, featuring the great Marvin Gaye’s first seven albums in mini-LP replica sleeves.  This set includes The Soulful Moods of Marvin Gaye and That Stubborn Kinda Fellow in mono with the remaining five albums in stereo: When I’m Alone I Cry, Hello Broadway, Together (with Mary Wells), How Sweet It Is to Be Loved by You and A Tribute to the Great Nat “King” Cole.  This is planned as the first of three box sets going through Gaye’s entire Motown discography.  There is no additional content on any disc, and no liner notes in the small clamshell-style box, but there is plenty of Motown magic!

Jeff Lynne’s ELO, Live in Hyde Park (Eagle Rock)

Blu-ray: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.
DVD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.

Jeff Lynne made news yesterday that he’s signed with Columbia Records for a new ELO record; today, Eagle Rock has the comeback concert from 2014 that made headlines ’round the world!  Available on DVD and BD.  Read more here.

The Buckinghams, The Complete Hit Singles (Varese Vintage) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.)

Varese rounds up fifteen single sides from Chicago’s own Buckinghams on this new anthology, including all-time sixties pop classics “Kind of a Drag,” “Don’t You Care,” “Mercy, Mercy, Mercy,” “Hey Baby (They’re Playing Our Song)” and “Susan.”  Watch this space later today for news on how YOU can win a copy!

London Symphony Orchestra and Various Artists, Tommy (Ode) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.)

Pete Townshend, Roger Daltrey, John Entwistle, Rod Stewart, Ringo Starr and Merry Clayton are just a few of the performers on Lou Reizner’s symphonic presentation (104 pieces, 60 choir singers) of The Who’s Tommy.  Ode has the 1972 album back on CD and LP in a new edition.

Plainsong, Reinventing Richard: The Songs of Richard Fariña (Omnivore) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.)

Omnivore tells the story of this compelling new release: “After producer Joe Boyd suggested ‘Reno Nevada’ for Fairport Convention, Iain Matthews became intrigued with the work of Richard Fariña (1933-1966) – songwriter, author, and counterculture icon. Even though his band Plainsong ‘retired’ in 2012, when founders Matthews and Andy Roberts joined with later member Mark Griffiths, and decided to pay tribute to Fariña, there was no doubt the resulting album, Reinventing Richard, should be a Plainsong release.”  So here it is, the latest from Matthews and Plainsong paying tribute to an indelible artist.

Hollywood Vampires, Hollywood Vampires (UMe) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.)

Alice Cooper and a host of his famous friends – among them Joe Perry, Johnny Depp, Dave Grohl, Slash, Zak Starkey, Joe Walsh, Sir Paul McCartney and the late Sir Christopher Lee – pay tribute to friends and fallen comrades with Hollywood Vampires celebrating the rock scene, seventies Hollywood-style.  Songs include Harry Nilsson’s “One/Jump Into the Fire,” The Who’s “My Generation,” T Rex’s “Jeepster,” Macca’s Badfinger hit “Come and Get It,” John Lennon’s “Cold Turkey,” Spirit’s “I Got a Line on You” and more.  Bob Ezrin produced.

John Pizzarelli, Midnight McCartney (Concord) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.)

Paul McCartney himself suggested that the great jazz guitarist and vocalist John Pizzarelli tackle his classic songbook. Pizzarelli took Macca up on the notion, bringing along his wife Jessica Molaskey, dad Bucky PIzzarelli and other esteemed talents to craft this 12-track set featuring jazz reinterpretations of “Silly Love Songs,” “My Love,” “No More Lonely Nights,” “Let ‘Em In,” “Maybe I’m Amazed” and many more solo McCartney and Wings songs.

Ben Folds, So There (New West) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.)

Ben Folds returns with a new studio album.  New York chamber sextet yMusic joins him on eight “chamber-rock” songs, and then it’s off to the (Nashville) Symphony for Folds’ new Concerto for Piano and Orchestra.