Welcome to this week’s Release Round-Up!

Dionne Warwick, Odds and Ends: Scepter Records Rarities (Real Gone Music) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)

From 1962 to 1971, Dionne Warwick, working primarily with songwriters/producers Burt Bacharach and Hal David, notched over twenty Top 40 hits on the Scepter label and garnered two Grammy Awards.  Yet while there have been numerous reissues of Warwick’s work at Scepter, some material has been overlooked.  This new collection rectifies that!  All 27 tracks on this compilation are new to U.S. CD, including 11 previously unreleased tracks.  You’ll find alternate versions of some of Dionne’s classics, rare foreign language versions, never-before-heard studio mixes of previously released “live” tracks, stereo premieres of mono singles, and more.  I’ve written the liner notes based on a new interview with Dionne, and Ted Carfrae has remastered from the original tapes!  Get the full track listing here!

Denny Doherty, Of All the Things: The Complete ABC/Dunhill Masters (Real Gone Music) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)

Of All the Things: The Complete ABC/Dunhill Masters brings “Papa” Denny Doherty’s 1971 country-rock cult classic Watcha Gonna Do to CD in the U.S. for the very first time, and adds six bonus tracks, four of which are previously unreleased – including two remarkable finds, “Sail the Waterway” and “Giles of the River,” from the pens of Walter Becker and Donald Fagen, a.k.a. Steely Dan!  This remastered package features my liner notes  with quotes from many of Doherty’s friends, family and collaborators including “Mama” Michelle Phillips, Eagles producer Bill Szymczyk, co-writer/musician “Phast” Eddy Fischer, and more!  Read all about it here!

Melissa Manchester, Harold Faltermeyer & various, Thief of Hearts: Original Soundtrack (Varese Vintage) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)

Varese Vintage returns the long out-of-print soundtrack to the 1984 thriller Thief of Hearts to CD in a newly remastered and expanded edition!  In addition to the title track by Melissa Manchester and the original score by Harold Faltermeyer, the album also includes songs from E.G. Daily, Annabella Lewin of Bow Wow Wow, Darwun, and Beth Anderson & Joe “Bean” Esposito.  I’ve penned the new liner notes!  Bonus tracks include the rare 12-inch dance mix of Manchester’s “Thief of Hearts” and the single and remixed versions of Daily’s “Love in the Shadows.”  Don’t miss out on your chance to WIN one of 20 copies of Thief of Hearts right here!  Don’t miss out on this special contest – open via email and Facebook!

Big Star, Live at Lafayette’s Music Room (Omnivore)

CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada
2LP: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada

Live At Lafayette’s Music Room showcases Big Star kicking off 1973 at the acclaimed Memphis venue. Co-founder Chris Bell had recently departed the group, leaving singer/guitarist Alex Chilton, bassist Andy Hummel and drummer Jody Stephens to continue as a trio. While the group would not yet commit to recording a follow-up to 1972’s #1 Record until fall of the next year, this show at Lafayette’s features tracks from both #1 Record and the album that would become 1974’s Radio City.  This set was first released in 2009 as part of the Keep an Eye on the Sky box set, but Omnivore’s reissue has been newly remastered and also includes a downloadable radio interview with Chilton and Hummel conducted in summer 1972; plus new liner notes by Bud Scoppa.  Available on CD, digital, and on vinyl for the first time.  Read more here!

Diana Ross, Diamond Diana: The Legacy Collection (Motown/UMe) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)

Diamond Diana: The Legacy Collection is a 15-track non-chronological trip through Miss Ross’ unprecedented career. Focusing primarily on her solo years, the set does feature one track with The Supremes (“You Can’t Hurry Love,” one of a stunning dozen American No. 1 hits the group logged in their career) amid an offering of her greatest singles from the ’70s, ’80s and beyond. Highlights include five of her six No. 1 singles (“Ain’t No Mountain High Enough,” “Touch Me In The Morning,” “Love Hangover,” “Upside Down” and “Endless Love,” her Oscar-nominated duet with Lionel Richie); some all-time dance favorites, including “The Boss” and “I’m Coming Out” (from her touchstone diana, written and produced by Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards of CHIC); and latter day tracks covering her time at RCA (a Top 10 cover of “Why Do Fools Fall In Love”), her return to Motown (the 1995 No. 1 dance hit “Take Me Higher”) and her most recent album of new recordings, 2006’s I Love You (“More Today Than Yesterday”).  A new remix of “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough” is the set’s lone unreleased track.  [This collection was released in November 2017 as a digital edition and shortly thereafter as a Home Shopping Network exclusive.  It’s now available to general retail on CD.]  Read more here!

Petula Clark, Living for Today (BMG) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)

The legendary Petula Clark’s 2016 album From Now On gets its first U.S. release with two new tracks on the heels of Petula’s acclaimed American tour!  Living for Today premieres both the upbeat title song penned by Petula and Grant Sturiale, and the infectious “The Rainbow,” the first collaboration between Petula and “Downtown” hitmaker Tony Hatch in recent years!

Leonard Bernstein, Conducts “West Side Story” (Deutsche Grammophon) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada TBD)

The late maestro’s own 1984 recording of his masterwork West Side Story, with Jose Carreras, Marilyn Horne, Kiri Te Kanawa, Kurt Ollmann, and others, is re-reissued in a hardcover-book style package with the original recording on CD plus The Making Of documentary on DVD.

The Main Ingredient, Brotherly Love: The RCA Anthology (SoulMusic/Cherry Red) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)

This new 2-CD, 41-track collection provides a thorough retrospective of the “Everybody Plays the Fool” vocal group, including all of their charting RCA singles plus album tracks and rarities.  Watch for a full review soon!

The Remains, Live 1969 (Sundazed) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)

Sundazed brings a  lost 1969 set from The Remains at the Boston Tea Party to CD and vinyl.  Features “Hang On Sloopy,” “Like a Rolling Stone,” “Johnny B. Goode,” their own “Why Do I Cry,” and more!

The Rising Storm, Calm Before… (Sundazed) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)

The members of The Rising Storm were still in high school when they recorded this privately-pressed mono album release capturing their R&B-flavored brand of garage rock.  Sundazed brings this impossibly rare slice of the 1960s to CD and back to vinyl.  Features a cover of The Remains’ “Don’t Look Back” as well as “In the Midnight Hour,” “Baby, Please Don’t Go,” “A Message to Pretty,” and more.