Welcome to this week’s Release Round-Up!

Melissa Manchester, Through the Eyes of Love: The Complete Arista 7″ Singles (Second Disc/Real Gone)  (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)

The timeless songs of Melissa Manchester are collected on a new, comprehensive anthology from Second Disc Records and Real Gone Music. Through the Eyes of Love: The Complete Arista 7″ Singles brings together 43 songs and 157 minutes of beautiful music on two CDs, including such all-time hits and classics as “Midnight Blue,” “Come in from the Rain,” “Don’t Cry Out Loud,” “You Should Hear How She Talks About You” (in both its single and extended versions!), and “Theme from Ice Castles (Through the Eyes of Love).”  With every one of Melissa’s Arista 45s featured in their original single mixes/edits as originally heard on the radio, Through the Eyes of Love is a journey through the music of this ever-inspiring artist and singer-songwriter.  Read the full track listing here!  And there’s more from Melissa below!

Duane Eddy, Guitar Star: The Complete RCA Singles As and Bs (Real Gone Music)  (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)

Guitar Star: The Complete RCA Singles A’s and B’s collects all 22 single sides the guitar-slinging virtuoso of twang recorded for RCA Victor in the early to mid-1960s on one CD!  This new compilation has been remastered from the original tapes by Vic Anesini and compared to the original 45s to ensure fidelity to the original sound.  The booklet contains liner notes by Ed Osborne, featuring exclusive quotes from Duane Eddy himself.

DJ Jazzy Jeff and The Fresh Prince, He’s the DJ, I’m the Rapper: Expanded Edition (Real Gone Music) (Amazon U.S./ Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)

DJ Jazzy Jeff and The Fresh Prince’s second album, He’s the DJ, I’m the Rapper was the duo’s breakout hit and is also recognized as the first major double album in hip-hop history.  Released on March 29, 1988, it would go to #4 on the Billboard 200 and be certified 3x Platinum, making it one of the first crossover successes in the rap genre. Real Gone’s new 2-CD set restores the album to its full, original length on CD for the first time.  Additionally, eleven bonus tracks have been added, including two versions of “Parents Just Don’t Understand,” two of “Nightmare on My Street” and four of “Brand New Funk,” the third single from the album.  Three versions of “Girls Ain’t Nothing But Trouble” have also been appended, as the song was re-released on a single in remixed form to tie in with the album.  The CD has been remastered by Sean Brennan at Battery Studios.

Neil Young, Hitchhiker (Reprise) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)

Neil Young dips into his fabled archives for a wholly unreleased album.  Hitchhiker was recorded by Young and co-producer David Briggs in one session on August 11, 1976 in Malibu, California.  During the solo session, Young performed ten songs, the majority of which subsequently appeared in various forms on albums throughout the years: “Pocahontas,” “Powderfinger,” and “Ride My Llama” on Rust Never Sleeps; “Captain Kennedy” on Hawks and Doves; “Campaigner” on Decade; “Human Highway” on Comes a Time; “The Old Country Waltz” on American Stars ‘n Bars; and the title track on Le Noise.  Two tracks from the Hitchhiker session, “Hawaii” and “Give Me Strength” have remained unreleased until now.  Available on CD, vinyl and digital formats.

Bash and Pop, Friday Night is Killing Me [Expanded Edition] (Omnivore) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon Canada  / Amazon U.K. )

From the ashes of The Replacements came Bash & Pop: Tommy Stinson (switching from bass to guitar), Replacements drummer Steve Foley, his brother Kevin on bass and second guitarist Steve Brantseg. Produced by Don Smith of Cracker and Keith Richards fame and featuring Mike Campbell and Benmont Tench of Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers, Friday Night is Killing Me was their first and only album for Sire Records.  Omnivore’s edition of the 1993 classic adds a bonus disc of 18 mostly unreleased and generally rare recordings. (Two B-sides make their CD debut, and “Making Me Sick” from the soundtrack to Kevin Smith’s Clerks is included, alongside a trove of demos and alternate versions heard here for the first time.) Bob Mehr, author of the definitive Replacements tome Trouble Boys, provides liner notes.

Godley & Creme, Body of Work 1978-1988 (Caroline) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)

Caroline International has a 5CD box set detailing what Kevin Godley and Lol Creme did as a duo after leaving 10cc in 1976. The artier half of the band, the duo nonetheless scored two U.K. Top 10 hits in the 1980s with “Under Your Thumb” and “Wedding Bells.” Body of Work 1978-1988 features, in full, each of the band’s six albums in that decade (L (1978), Freeze Frame (1979), Ismism (1981), Birds of Prey (1983), The History Mix Vol. 1 (1985, presented in its expanded “Plus” form as issued by Edsel in 2004) and Goodbye Blue Sky (1988)), plus a disc of 12 non-LP B-sides.  Read more here!  Available today in the U.K., and next Friday in the U.S.!

Ornette Coleman, Ornette at 12/Crisis! (Real Gone Music) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)

Real Gone Music brings to CD two rare albums from the great jazz alto saxophonist and free jazz pioneer Ornette Coleman: 1969’s Ornette at 12 and 1972’s Crisis, Both of these titles were originally released on the Impulse! label.  Real Gone’s new CD two-fer has been remastered by Mike Milchner at SonicVision, and contains a booklet featuring the original gatefold album art and liner notes by Howard Mandel, author of the book Miles, Ornette, Cecil: Jazz Beyond Jazz.

Hanson, Middle of Everywhere: The Greatest Hits (3CG Records) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon Canada / Amazon U.K.)

Middle Of Everywhere – The Greatest Hits features 26 tracks from Hanson’s six main studio albums across two discs.  Get all of the details, including the track listing, right here!

Gregg Allman, Southern Blood [Various Formats] (Rounder) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)

The late, great Gregg Allman’s final recordings are presented on Southern Blood, his first studio album since 2011’s Low Country Blues. This final testament from an artist who shaped the sound of southern rock was produced by Don Was and recorded in the legendary Muscle Shoals, where his brother Duane Allman famously enhanced the recordings of so many artists passing through. Channeling the spirit that informed his solo works like Laid Back, Allman brought his distinctive style to songs written by friends and favorite artists including Jackson Browne, Willie Dixon, Jerry Garcia & Robert Hunter, Lowell George and Spooner Oldham & Dan Penn.  A Deluxe Edition CD/DVD comes with two live bonus tracks, as well as the Back to the Swamp: The Making of Southern Blood documentary. Available on CD, CD/DVD, vinyl, and digital formats.

Melissa Manchester, The Fellas (Long Run)  (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)

Today, Melissa Manchester delivers her newest studio album.  The Fellas is a belated sequel to the singer-songwriter’s classic album Tribute, on which she paid homage to great female vocalists who inspired her.  The Fellas focuses, then, on the great men of American popular song including Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett, Nat “King” Cole, Mel Torme, and others.  Melissa’s pal Barry Manilow even joins her on a duet of “For Me and My Gal.”  It’s the perfect bookend to Second Disc Records and Real Gone Music’s release of Through the Eyes of Love: The Complete Arista 7″ Singles!