Release Round-Up: Week of July 22

July 22, 2016 By Joe Marchese — No Comments

Welcome to this week’s Release Round-Up!

Dio, A Decade of Dio 1983-1993 (Rhino) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)

A Decade of Dio 1983-1993 collects all six studio albums released by Warner Bros. and Reprise in the first decade of the band Dio’s soaring career. Formed by Ronnie James Dio and drummer Vinny Appice after their split from Black Sabbath in 1982, the group first gained prominence with the title track of debut Holy Diver, a staple of MTV and a recurring metal cult classic. Decade features new remasters of all this material (the latter two albums receiving their first digital remaster) on six CDs with new box artwork by Marc Sasso, who designed several covers and tributes for Dio. A vinyl version, to be released October 4, comes with a bonus 7″ single collecting two more studio tracks: an early version of Sacred Heart‘s “Evil Eyes” as heard on the “Holy Diver” single, and “Time to Burn,” the sole studio track from the live mini-album Intermission in 1986. Contains Holy Diver, The Last in Line, Sacred Heart, Dream Evil, Lock Up the Wolves and Strange Highways. Read more here!

Bobby Darin, The Bobby Darin Story vinyl (Friday Music) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)

The late, great Bobby Darin (a favorite around these parts!) narrates his own story on this 1961 Atco LP featuring his greatest hits to that point including “Splish Splash,” “Dream Lover,” “Beyond the Sea,” “Artificial Flowers” and more! Friday Music has a remastered 180-gram vinyl edition to mark the album’s 55th anniversary, and has restored its original white cover! (Subsequent issues have featured the cover in black.)

Tucky Buzzard, The Complete Tucky Buzzard (Edsel) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)

Edsel dives into Bill Wyman’s Production Archive for this new 5-CD box set! The Complete Tucky Buzzard collects all five albums (originally released between 1971 and 1973 on the Hispavox, Capitol and Purple Records labels) from guitarist Terry Taylor, organist Nicky Graham, bassist Dave Brown, vocalist Jimmy Henderson and drummer Paul Francis (later replaced by Chris Johnson). Wyman oversaw these blues-rock classics at Olympic Studios and Chateau D’Herouville, with Capitol debut Tucky Buzzard engineered by Glyn Johns. Edsel’s compact, clamshell box set includes every album remastered by Phil Kinrade in a mini-LP replica sleeve, plus a 32-page color booklet with a comprehensive essay by Alan Robinson drawing on interviews with the band, and full credits and discography for each album!

Velvet Crush, Pre-Teen Symphonies (Omnivore) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)

Omnivore collects 16 recordings from Rhode Island band Velvet Crush (best-known for 1994’s Teenage Symphonies to God) originally released only on the band’s Action Musik label: eight demos (including one for the single “Hold Me Up”) and eight live tracks recorded in 1994 at Chicago’s Cabaret Metro. Pre-Teen Symphonies paints a vivid portrait of the band’s development leading up to the Mitch Easter-produced classic.

The Allman Brothers Band, vinyl reissues (Mercury/UMe)

Today’s the day for vinyl reissues of The Allman Brothers Band’s legendary catalogue including The Allman Brothers Band (1970), Idlewild South (1970), Live at Ludlow Garage 1970 (1990), At Fillmore East (1971), Eat a Peach (1972), Win, Lose or Draw (1975), Wipe the Windows – Check the Oil – Dollar Gas (1975) and Enlightened Rogues (1979).

Perry Como, The Best of British/Where You’re Concerned/Perry Como/So It Goes (BGO) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)

BGO reissues four new-to-CD albums from the great Perry Como dating from 1977, 1980 and 1983 as one 2-CD set. The Best of British was recorded in London in 1977 and was released in the U.K. and Canada, while Where You’re Concerned was its U.S. counterpart. This edition presents all of British plus the unique tracks from Concerned. It then continues with the self-titled Perry Como (1980) including beautiful renditions of songs by Stephen Sondheim and Cy Coleman, and So It Goes (1983) with songs by Sondheim, Francis Lai and others.

Categories:

Release Round-Up

Formats:

Box Sets, CD, Digital Download, Vinyl

Genres:

Classic Rock, Popular Standards/Vocal, Rock

Tags:

Bill Wyman, Bobby Darin, Dio, Perry Como, The Allman Brothers Band, Tucky Buzzard, Velvet Crush

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 and beyond, Second Disc Records, in conjunction with labels including Real Gone Music and Cherry Red Records, has released newly-curated collections produced and annotated by Joe from iconic artists such as Dionne Warwick, Diana Ross and The Supremes, Smokey Robinson and The Miracles, The Spinners, Johnny Mathis, Bobby Darin, Meat Loaf, Laura Nyro, Melissa Manchester, Liza Minnelli, Darlene Love, Al Stewart, Michael Nesmith, and many others.

Joe has written liner notes, produced, or contributed to over 200 reissues from a diverse array of artists, among them America, JD Souther, Nat "King" Cole, Paul Williams, Lesley Gore, Dusty Springfield, BJ Thomas, The 5th Dimension, Burt Bacharach, The Mamas and the Papas, Carpenters, Perry Como, Rod McKuen, Doris Day, Jackie DeShannon, Petula Clark, Robert Goulet, and Andy Williams.

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.