Release Round-Up: Week of August 12

August 12, 2016 By Joe Marchese — No Comments

Welcome to this week’s Release Round-Up!

Emerson, Lake & Palmer, The Anthology (BMG) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)

The new 3-CD/DD release of Emerson, Lake & Palmer – The Anthology rounds out this first wave of titles from BMG including reissues of Emerson Lake & Palmer, Tarkus and Pictures at an Exhibition. Produced by Greg Lake, this career-spanning set has 39 tracks from the years 1970 to 1998, the choice of material approved by all three band members. It’s housed in a deluxe casebound book format with Chris Welch’s liner notes and rare photographs. Read more here!

Judy Henske and Jerry Yester, Farewell Aldebaran (Omnivore) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)

The 1969 cult classic by Judy Henske and Jerry Yester, originally released on Frank Zappa’s Straight label, gets an authorized CD release for the very first time via Omnivore Recordings. For the occasion, this genre-bending favorite has been remastered from the original master tapes, with liner notes by Barry Alfonso and five previously unissued demo recordings. A vinyl reissue will be released simultaneously, presenting the original album sequence on multi-colored vinyl. Taking in styles from baroque pop to rock and psychedelia, Farewell Aldebaran is in a class of its own. Watch for Joe’s review soon!

GQ, Standing Ovation: The Story of GQ and the Rhythm Makers (Big Break/Cherry Red) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)

This 2-CD, 31-track, newly-remastered collection definitively chronicles the funky story of GQ from the band’s earliest days as The Rhythm Makers on De-Lite Records to its platinum success for the Arista label. This release includes a deluxe 24-page booklet. Watch for full coverage of this title soon!

Bad Boy Presents The 20th Anniversary Box Set 1994-2014 (Bad Boy/Rhino, 2016) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)

In the late ’90s and early ’00s, East Coast rap was dominated by one label: Bad Boy Entertainment. Now, their first 20 years will be celebrated in a five-disc box set later this summer. Bad Boy Presents The 20th Anniversary Box Set features 80 curated tracks spanning from the label’s first release, Craig Mack’s “Flava in Ya Ear,” up to 2014. Longtime Bad Boy associate and current president Harve Pierre produced the set, and journalist Michael A. Gonzalez provides notes within the 64-page booklet.

The Monkees, Good Times! (Vinyl) (Rhino) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)

The Monkees’ acclaimed new album comes to vinyl in a 180-gram pressing! Note that Barnes and Noble has an exclusive special edition in conjunction with the retailer’s Vinyl Day (Saturday, August 13) boasting a special 7-inch single with bonus tracks “Love is What I Want” and “A Better World.”

Original Off-Broadway Cast Recording, I’m Getting My Act Together and Taking It on the Road (Masterworks Broadway) (Amazon U.S.)

Gretchen Cryer and Nancy Ford’s pop/rock-influenced musical opened June 14, 1978 at New York’s Public Theater and subsequently transferred to Circle in the Square for a total of 1,165 performances, making it one of the most successful Off-Broadway musicals of all time. Librettist-lyricist Cryer also starred as the lead character Heather Jones in the original production. The Drama Desk-nominated musical yielded a Grammy-nominated cast recording which had previously been available only as a limited-edition CD release from the defunct Fynsworth Alley label. This CD-R reissue is due today from Masterworks (with streaming and downloads also available) but note that the label has had trouble in recent months filling the “made on demand” CD-R orders in a timely fashion.

Categories:

Release Round-Up

Formats:

Box Sets, CD, Digital Download, Vinyl

Genres:

Classic Rock, Pop, Rap/Hip-Hop

Tags:

Emerson Lake and Palmer, Gretchen Cryer and Nancy Ford, Jerry Yester, Judy Henske, The Monkees, Various Artists

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.