Release Round-Up: Week of May 18

Welcome to this week’s Release Round-Up!

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Bruce Springsteen, The Album Collection Vol. 2, 1987-1996 (Columbia/Legacy)  (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)

Bruce Springsteen boxes up the second set of his albums in chronological order, remastered by Bob Ludwig and Toby Scott using the Plangent Process.  The collection is only available on vinyl, although a limited edition CD version is being released in Japan only.  The CD version is now available for pre-order at Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada!  Read more details on the box here.

LPs 1-2: Tunnel of Love (Columbia OC 40999, 1987)
LPs 3-4: Human Touch (Columbia C 53000, 1992)
LP 5: Lucky Town (Columbia C 53001, 1992)
LPs 6-7: In Concert/MTV Plugged (Columbia CK 68730, 1993) **
LP 8: The Ghost of Tom Joad (Columbia C 67484, 1995)
LP 9: Chimes of Freedom (Columbia 4C 44445, 1988)
LP 10: Blood Brothers (Columbia CSK 8879, 1996) *

* previously unreleased on vinyl
** previously unreleased on vinyl in the U.S.

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Paul McCartney, NEW / Chaos and Creation in the Backyard / Wings Greatest / Thrillington (MPL/Capitol)

NEW  (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)
Chaos and Creation in the Backyard  (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)
Wings Greatest  (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)
Thrillington  (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)

While we wait for the next installments of Macca’s lavish Archive Collection, he’s overseeing the reissue on single CD and black and colored vinyl of 2013’s NEW (Macca’s last solo album to date), 2005’s Chaos and Creation in the Backyard, 1978’s Wings Greatest compilation, and 1977’s RAM-inspired Thrillington.  All of the vinyl reissues will include download cards.  Read more here!

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Otis Redding, Dock of the Bay Sessions (Rhino)

CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada
Vinyl: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada

Dock of the Bay Sessions is a new reconstruction of an album that never was, built around the song that became America’s first posthumous chart-topper and Otis Redding’s only No. 1 hit, “(Sittin’ On) The Dock of the Bay.”  Although it will never be definitively known what Redding had planned for his new LP, Dock of the Bay Sessions collects the recordings Redding made during this final period of his life to assemble a might-have-been release.  While the individual tracks comprising this set have been previously released on posthumous albums and various compilations, this marks the first time they have been brought together.  Available on CD, vinyl, and digital platforms.  Read more here.

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Steve Miller Band, Complete Albums Volume 1 (Capitol/UMe) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)

Complete Albums Volume 1 (1968-1976), from Capitol/UMe, presents the Steve Miller Band’s seminal first nine albums remastered on 180-gram vinyl, including the long out-of-print LPs Rock Love and Recall the Beginning…Journey to Eden.  Each album will also be made available individually to general retail, while Universal Music’s webstore UDiscoverMusic.com will offer colored vinyl editions.  Read more here!

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Stephen Bishop, Red Cab to Manhattan: Expanded Edition (Blixa Sounds) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)

Singer-songwriter Stephen Bishop’s 1980 album Red Cab to Manhattan receives a remastered and expanded edition from the new Blixa Sounds label.  Featuring guests like Art Garfunkel, Eric Clapton, Phoebe Snow, and Phil Collins, Red Cab was a quirky, personal statement from the “On and On” soft rock hero.  It gains six bonus tracks here, including an outtake, the single version of “Send a Little Love My Way (Like Always),” and four voice-and-guitar demos.  Bill Inglot and Dave Schultz have remastered.  Read more here!

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Various Artists, Battleground Korea: Songs and Sounds from America’s Forgotten War (Bear Family) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)

Bear Family collects four discs’ worth of songs and sounds (totaling 121 tracks) from the Korean War, complete with a lavish 160-page hardcover book.  Features artists including  Gene Autry, Ernest Tubb, Tex Ritter, Red Foley, John Lee Hooker, Lightnin’ Hopkins, Fats Domino, Lloyd Price, The Louvin Brothers, and Sister Rosetta Tharpe (among others, of course)!  You’ll find the track listing and more information hereWatch for our full review soon!

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Pink Floyd, Pulse (4-LP Vinyl Box Set) (Legacy) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)

Legacy has a deluxe vinyl edition of Pink Floyd’s 1995 live album Pulse.  Each of its four LPs has an individual inner and outer sleeve, and it’s all housed within a sturdy slipcase including a 52-page hardback book.  James Guthrie has newly remastered the album.

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John Wesley Harding, Greatest Other People’s Hits (Omnivore) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)

Omnivore rounds up some intriguing covers from John Wesley Harding (real name: Wesley Stace) including songs by Bruce Springsteen, George Harrison, Madonna, Pete Seeger, and Serge Gainsbourg.  Special guests include The Minus Five, Fastball, and The Boss himself!

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Various Artists, Outlaws and Armadillos: Country’s Roaring ’70s (Legacy) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)

In conjunction with a major exhibit coming to Nashville’s Country Music Hall of Fame, Legacy offers this 2-CD, 36-song collection from the movers and shakers of ’70s country including Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, Johnny Cash, Johnny Paycheck, David Allan Coe, Rodney Crowell, and more!

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Simon and Garfunkel, Parsley, Sage, Rosemary & Thyme (Hybrid Stereo SACD) (Mobile Fidelity)  (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)

Mobile Fidelity has a new hybrid stereo SACD (playable on all CD players) of Simon and Garfunkel’s 1966 classic featuring “Scarborough Fair/Canticle,” “Homeward Bound,” and “The 59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin’ Groovy).”

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Supertramp, Breakfast in America (Hybrid Stereo SACD) (Mobile Fidelity) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)

The Mobile Fidelity label has another hybrid stereo SACD out today: Supertramp’s 1979 Grammy-winning best-seller featuring “The Logical Song” and “Take the Long Way Home.”

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Screamin’ Jay Hawkins, Are YOU One of Jay’s Kids?  The Complete Bizarre Sessions 1990-1994 (Manifesto) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)

Manifesto has a 2-CD, 44-track anthology from the one and only Screamin’ Jay Hawkins, featuring all of the material he cut for the Bizarre label at the dawn of the 1990s including three full albums and previously unreleased tracks.  Bill Inglot and Dave Schultz have remastered, and Chris Morris has provided a new essay for this one-of-a-kind package.  (Note that the U.K. edition is arriving via Edsel/Demon Music Group!)

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Eddie Harris, Listen Here: The Very Best of Eddie Harris (Varese Vintage) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)

In case you missed this one: This new collection from sax man Eddie Harris features 14 selections from his Atlantic years – 13 in their original single mixes (many new to CD) and one album track.  These tracks, from 1965-1975, include “The Shadow of Your Smile,” Harris’ own “Freedom Jazz Dance,” Gene McDaniels’ “Compared to What” with Les McCann, and the hits “Listen Here” and “Is It In.”  Pat Thomas wrote the new liner notes, and Steve Massie remastered!

Joe Marchese
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.

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1 thought on “Release Round-Up: Week of May 18”

  1. Brian Bernardini

    It should be noted that the Screamin’ Jay Hawkins set features the spectacular work of Mike Keneally (Beer For Dolphins/Frank Zappa/Steve Vai/Joe Satriani) throughout.

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