Release Round-Up: Week of January 20

January 20, 2017 By Joe Marchese — No Comments

Welcome to this week’s Release Round-Up!

Grateful Dead, The Grateful Dead: 50th Anniversary Deluxe Edition (Rhino)

2-CD (Original Album and Bonus Disc): Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.
Picture Disc (Original Album Only): Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.

The Grateful Dead: 50th Anniversary Deluxe Edition presents the original 1967 album on Disc 1 and an unreleased concert from July 29, 1966 in Vancouver, Canada on Disc 2. The first disc has been remastered from the original tapes by David Glasser and restored via Plangent Processes (a tape transfer technique which has been used on other Dead projects). The second disc has been mastered by Jeffrey Norman. Exact packaging has not been revealed, but the reissue will feature new liner notes by Jesse Jarnow. Also being released on the same day is 12-inch picture disc LP limited to 10,000 copies featuring the remastered version of the original album. These releases kick off a series for the Dead which will see similar reissues for every one of the band’s studio albums tied in to the 50th anniversary of each album – which should take the series through 2039 (!). Read more here!

Various Artists, Wayfaring Strangers: Ladies from the Canyon (Numero Group) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)

Numero Group revisits its acclaimed 2006 compilation on vinyl. This set features 13 folk-rock-flavored tracks “culled from beyond the crop of critic-revisionist darlings Linda Perhacs, Judee Sill, or Vashti Bunyan,” drawing instead on “unlikely heroines who sang beneath the infrastructure of the music business.”

Muhammad Ali in “The Greatest”: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack (Varese) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)

Varese Vintage has a newly-expanded edition of the original soundtrack by Michael Masser (“Saving All My Love for You,” “It’s My Turn,” “Touch Me in the Morning”) to 1977’s Muhammad Ali biopic The Greatest, starring the legend himself. The Greatest introduced Masser and Linda Creed’s “The Greatest Love of All” by George Benson, later famously covered by Whitney Houston, and also features Benson’s performance of Masser and Gerry Goffin’s “I Always Knew I Had It in Me.” Varese adds four bonus tracks – the 1964 single of “Stand by Me” performed by Ali (Cassius Clay) b/w “I Am the Greatest,” plus Benson’s single version of “Greatest Love of All” and Masser and Mandrill’s single version of “Ali Bombaye (Zaire Chant).” A. Scott Galloway provides a new essay. Chas Ferry and Daren Chadwick have remastered. Watch this space Monday for a chance to WIN a copy!

Randy Newman, A Few Words in Defense of Our Country/Putin vinyl (Nonesuch)

Vladmir Putin’s been in the news lately, and Randy Newman is hardly one to let that go unnoticed! “Goddamn, I’m the Putin man!” Newman’s timely slice of musical satire (previously available only in digital form) is paired with “A Few Words in Defense of Our Country,” his scathing tune written in January 2007 as a response to a State of the Union address by then-President George W. Bush. This special 7-inch single, timed for Inauguration Day, is available today from the Nonesuch store.

Categories:

News

Formats:

CD, Vinyl

Genres:

Classic Rock, Pop, Soundtracks

Tags:

George Benson, Grateful Dead, Muhammad Ali, Randy Newman, 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.