Welcome to this week’s Release Round-Up, with some of the most high-profile releases yet for 2016!

The Beach Boys, Pet Sounds 50 (Various Editions) (Capitol/UMe)

4-CD/1-BD Deluxe Edition: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada
2-CD Deluxe Edition (CD 1 + highlights from 4-CD set): Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada
Mono 180-Gram Vinyl Edition: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada
Stereo 180-Gram Vinyl Edition: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada

The Beach Boys’ landmark 1966 album Pet Sounds is turning 50, and Capitol/UMe is celebrating with a variety of releases including a 4-CD/1-BD Deluxe Edition featuring the contents of the previous Pet Sounds Sessions box set (newly remastered) as well as additional studio and live material plus the album and bonus content in high-resolution surround, mono, and stereo – including an all-instrumental mix – on Blu-ray Audio!  Read the full track listing here, and don’t miss Joe’s review!

Paul McCartney, Pure McCartney (Various Editions) (Concord/Hear Music)

4 CD Box: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada
2 CD Set: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada
4 LP Set: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada

Paul tells his own musical story on this new personally-curated, non-chronologically-sequenced collection drawing on his solo and Wings work.  It’s available in 4-CD (67 tracks), 4-LP (41 tracks) and 2-CD (39 tracks) formats, and features material spanning between 1970’s homemade McCartney through 2014’s “Hope for the Future,” featured on the Destiny video game.  You’ll find more details here!

Van Morrison, It’s Too Late to Stop Now…Volumes II, III, IV & DVD (Legacy) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)

Legacy revisits Van Morrison’s seminal 1974 double live album (see below!) with this release of additional material.  The CDs ofVolumes II-IV collect previously unreleased concert recordings from the dates that yielded the original album, while the DVD contains professionally-shot footage from the Rainbow Theatre stand which originally aired on the BBC in the U.K. but has never before been commercially available.  The original It’s Too Late was compiled by Morrison and co-producer Ted Templeman from eight sets of live performances and was famously free of any subsequent studio overdubs.  Volumes II-IV returns to those original performances, first captured on two-inch 16-track analog tapes, as newly remastered by Guy Massey.  None of the tracks on this set are duplicated from the performances on the original album.  Read more here!

Van Morrison, It’s Too Late to Stop Now…Volume I (Legacy)  (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)

Van Morrison’s classic 1974 live double album recorded in Los Angeles, Santa Monica and London gets the remastered treatment, while three CDs of additional material from the concerts is available as a stand-alone release.  (See above!)  Available on CD, DD and vinyl.

Kris Kristofferson, The Complete Monument and Columbia Album Collection (Columbia/Legacy) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)

This 16-CD box set features 11 studio albums and three concerts (two previously unreleased) plus two more discs of bonus tracks from the legendary, prolific singer/songwriter who heralded the “New Nashville” sound as he brought country music into a more contemporary vein. Full info is right here!

John Coltrane, The Atlantic Years in Mono (Atlantic/Rhino) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)

Rhino’s new box set, available on both CD and LP, includes original mono mixes of Trane’s Giant Steps; Bags & Trane (with Milt Jackson); Ole Coltrane; Coltrane Plays The Blues and The Avant Garde (with Don Cherry) plus one disc of outtakes.  All of these remastered albums are housed in replica jackets and a 32-page booklet is also included with new liner notes by Ashley Kahn and photos by Lee Friedlander.  The CD version has 6 CDs; the 6-LP version adds a bonus 7-inch single of the original “My Favorite Things” 45.)

Phil Collins, …But Seriously: Deluxe Edition (Atlantic/Rhino) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)

1989’s …But Seriously found Phil Collins and longtime producer Hugh Padgham adopting a more organic sound as they tackled weighty issues in song, including homelessness, apartheid and other global crises. Eric Clapton, David Crosby, Steve Winwood and bassists Pino Palladino and Leland Sklar were among the guests on this hugely successful LP which spun off four U.S. Top 10 hits (the chart-topping “Another Day in Paradise,” “I Wish It Would Rain Down,” “Something Happened on the Way to Heaven” and “Do You Remember?”).  As has been the case for Collins’ previous reissues in this series, the bonus disc for …But Seriously combines live material with a handful of demo recordings; note that this bonus disc may feature the most previously released demos and B-sides, with four of the seven demos first appearing on singles of that era.  The original album is also available on vinyl.  You’ll find the track listing and more here!

Phil Collins, The Essential Going Back: Deluxe Edition (Atlantic/Rhino)  (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)

No stranger to the music of Motown, Phil Collins released Going Back in 2010 – an album packed with faithful covers of The Four Tops, The Miracles, Stevie Wonder, The Temptations and many more. With the assistance of both original members of Motown backing band The Funk Brothers and some crucial in-studio trickery (following a surgery on Collins’ vertebrae, he was able to drum by taping his sticks to his hands), Going Back became an expansive love letter to The Sound of Young America.  In fact, even Collins may have found Going Back too expansive in retrospect. First released as an 18-track standard album and 25-track deluxe package, The Essential Going Back now pares it back to a tight 14 tracks and couples it with a live bonus disc recorded on his brief summer tour, which made stops at Philadelphia’s Electric Factory, New York’s Roseland Ballroom, a televised concert in London and the Montreux Jazz Festival of 2010.    The newly-abridged 14-track album will also be available on vinyl.

Glen Campbell, For the Good Times (Varese Vintage) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)

Varese Vintage anthologizes a lesser-known period of Glen Campbell’s career: his 1980s recordings for Warner Bros. and Atlantic America.  For the Good Times features sixteen cuts including a pair of songs by Jimmy Webb (“Do What You Gotta Do,” “I Was Too Busy Loving You”) and two previously unreleased tracks: Kris Kristofferson’s title track and Dave Loggins’ “Please Come to Boston.”  Watch for Joe’s review coming soon!

Mitch Ryder and The Detroit Wheels, All-Time Greatest Hits (Varese Vintage) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)

Varese Vintage has 16 prime cuts of Motor City-style blue-eyed soul via Mitch Ryder and The Detroit Wheels! This collection (remastered by Steve Massie) features the original mono single versions of “Devil with a Blue Dress On/Good Golly Miss Molly,” “Sock it to Me, Baby” and “(You’ve Got) Personality/Chantilly Lace” plus other hits like “Jenny Take a Ride” and “Little Latin Lupe Lu.”  In addition, you’ll find three Mitch Ryder solo songs – and every track was produced, arranged and conducted by Second Disc favorite Bob Crewe for his New Voice label!

Jerry Lee Lewis, Rockin’ My Life Away (Varese Vintage) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)

With this new compilation, Varese Vintage looks back to Jerry Lee Lewis’ brief tenure at Elektra Records at the dawn of the 1980s.  With productions by Bones Howe (The 5th Dimension, Tom Waits) and songs by Bob Dylan, Roger Miller and Johnny Cash, Rockin’ My Life Away captures The Killer melding country, rock-and-roll and popular standards in his inimitable fashion.

Gilbert O’Sullivan, The Essential Gilbert O’Sullivan (BMG) (Amazon U.S. TBD / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada TBD)

The quirky “Alone Again, Naturally” troubadour has handpicked the 43 tracks on this 2-CD set including his hits and favorites “Clair,” “Get Down,” “Matrimony,” “Nothing Rhymed,” “Ooh-Wakka-Doo-Wakka-Day” and his new singles “No Way” and “I Guess I’ll Always Love You (2016 Radio Version).” This collection boasts 23 tracks not on O’Sullivan’s last hits compilation from 2012.

Allen Toussaint, American Tunes (Nonesuch)  (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)

The final album by the late, great Allen Toussaint, American Tunes was recorded at two sets of sessions with producer Joe Henry: solo piano at Toussaint’s New Orleans home studio in 2013, and with a rhythm section and guest artists in Los Angeles in 2015.  On his solo performances including “Mardi Gras in New Orleans,” “Hey Little Girl” and “Big Chief,” Toussaint pays tribute to his hero at the keys, New Orleans’ Professor Longhair.  The album also features band arrangements of songs written and/or popularized by Toussaint (“Delores’ Boyfriend,” “Southern Nights”), Duke Ellington (“Come Sunday,” “Rocks in My Bed,” “Lotus Blossom”), Bill Evans (“Waltz for Debby”), Fats Waller (“(I’m) Confessin’ (That I Love You),” “Viper’s Drag”), Paul Simon (title track “American Tune”), and others.  The double-vinyl LP release adds three bonus tracks: renditions of Henry Mancini and Johnny Mercer’s “Moon River” and the Professor Longhair pair “Her Mind is Gone” and “Bald Head.”  Read more here!

Charlie Faye and the Fayettes, Charlie Faye and the Fayettes  (Amazon U.S.)

Austin’s Charlie Faye joins with Betty Soo and Akina Adderley to form Charlie Faye and the Fayettes for this ’60s-inspired girl group romp. With one foot in the past and one in the present, Faye pays tribute to The Shirelles, The Shangri-Las and Phil Spector’s Wall of Sound.  Find out why the great Peter Asher is a fan with this fun, one-of-a-kind release from a talent to watch!