Welcome to this week’s Release Round-Up!

Johnny Mathis, I Love My Lady (Second Disc Records/Real Gone Music) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada Link TBD)

Johnny Mathis’ legendary lost 1981 collaboration with CHIC receives its first-ever standalone release from Second Disc Records and Real Gone Music!  For the occasion, I Love My Lady has been outfitted with brand-new artwork and a deluxe 24-page booklet featuring an introduction from Nile Rodgers and interviews with Johnny and CHIC’s Alfa Anderson and Fonzi Thornton.  It’s the ultimate tribute to a soulful, rhythmic, and club-ready album unlike any other in Mathis’ remarkable discography.  Read more here!

Linda Ronstadt, Live in Hollywood (Rhino)

CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada Link TBD
LP: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada

The first-ever live album from Linda Ronstadt, Live in Hollywood, features twelve tracks (three previously released) from the singer’s April 24, 1980 performance for HBO.  While the entire concert isn’t featured here, the material is a choice cross-section of her biggest hits including “It’s So Easy,” “Just One Look,” “You’re No Good,” “Desperado,” and “Blue Bayou,” as well as selections from her new wave-inspired Mad Love, which had just been released in February 1980.  Her interpretations of “I Can’t Let Go,” “How Do I Make You,” and “Hurt So Bad” all reached the top ten.  Songwriter pals like Warren Zevon (“Poor, Poor Pitiful Me”), Don Henley and Glenn Frey (“Desperado”), Lowell George (“Willin'”), and J.D. Souther (“Faithless Love”) were all represented.  Available on CD, LP, and digital.  Read more here!

Phil Collins, Serious Hits…Live! (Atlantic/Rhino) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)

Serious Hits… Live! is considered one of the most successful live albums ever released.  Since its release in 1990, it has been certified 4x Platinum (over 4 million copies sold).  Culled from stadium and arena shows from his Seriously, Live! World Tour, the album finds Collins performing many of his biggest hits, from “Against All Odds (Take A Look At Me Now)” and “You Can’t Hurry Love” to “Another Day In Paradise” and “Easy Lover” featuring Philip Bailey.

Phil Collins, A Hot Night in Paris (Atlantic/Rhino) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)

Phil Collins’ live album A Hot Night In Paris features instrumental performances of songs from across Collins’ solo discography, as well as select tracks from his time in Genesis.  Credited to The Phil Collins Big Band and featuring Collins on drums, the album also includes covers of Miles Davis’s “Milestones” and The Average White Band’s “Pick Up the Pieces.”  The latter features George Duke on keyboards.  The remastered album will be available on CD February 1 from Atlantic/Rhino.  Read more about both live titles here!

Ron Wood and Ronnie Lane, Mahoney’s Last Stand: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack [Green Vinyl] (Real Gone Music)  (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)

Mahoney’s Last Stand was Ron Wood and Ronnie Lane’s soundtrack to the film of the same name.  Though the film and its soundtrack were produced in 1972, neither production saw the light of day until 1976.  The film was a flop but the star power of the soundtrack have afforded it a cult following in the decades since.  The sessions were produced by Glyn Johns and feature Pete Townshend on guitar and electronics, plus session bassist/ex-Blind Faith member Ric Grech, fellow Faces Ian MacLagan and Kenney Jones, as well as Rolling Stones friends Ian Stewart, Bobby Keys, and Jim Price.  While this missing piece in Wood and Lane’s careers has appeared a few times on CD over the years, Real Gone’s version marks its first-ever U.S. vinyl reissue.  The title will be limited to 700 copies and will be pressed on green vinyl.

Timothy Leary, Tune In, Turn On, Drop Out: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack (Real Gone Music) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)

In 1967, counterculture icon Timothy Leary, his partner Rosemary, and his fellow adventurer Ralph Metzner created a film called Tune In, Turn On, Drop Out.  The film presumably documents an LSD trip undertaken by Metzner, although the film rarely, if ever, showed in theaters so the jury’s out on the content.  Nevertheless, Mercury Records released a soundtrack, also entitled Tune In, Turn On, Drop Out. Not to be confused with the spoken word album of the same name that arrived on the ESP-Disk label in 1966, the Mercury title features groovy, “East-meets-West” accompaniment with a blend of guitar, the Indian tabla and veena, as well as sound effects and musique concrete elements.  Real Gone’s version of the far-out album will be pressed on “kaleidoscope” red, blue, and green vinyl and is limited to 1,600 copies.  Read more about both soundtracks here!

Waiting – The Van Duren Story: Official Documentary Soundtrack (Omnivore) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)

Memphis power pop cult hero and Big Star contemporary Van Duren is the subject of the new documentary Waiting, and Omnivore has the companion CD soundtrack!  Featuring Van Duren favorites and previously unreleased tracks (including one recorded live at Ardent Studios in 1981 and one with Big Star’s Jody Stephens from 1975), the soundtrack boasts new liner notes from the artist.  All tracks are original masters (no re-recordings).  Look for Waiting – The Van Duren Story today on vinyl and digital (February 8 in the U.K.), and March 29 on CD.