Welcome to this week's Release Round-Up, featuring a selection of titles arriving everywhere today.
The Clash, Combat Rock + The People's Hall: Special Edition (Columbia/Legacy)
2CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada
3LP: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada
Ranking Roger 7": Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada
Legacy Recordings will release a 2CD or 3LP expansion of The Clash's Combat Rock for its 40th anniversary. The album comes with a bonus disc of 12 rare and unreleased tracks curated by the band's surviving members. The People's Hall - the bonus set on this new expansion, comprising a bonus CD or three sides of two bonus LPs - is named for the squatted rehearsal/recording space that parts of Combat Rock were recorded at in Frestonia, a portion of London that, at the time, attempted to secede from the U.K. to form an independent republic. In addition to three original B-sides and outtakes from Rat Patrol, the set will include unreleased cuts like an alternate take of "Know Your Rights," the instrumental "He Who Dares or is Tired" and an alternate mix of a track by visual artist Futura 2000, a key collaborator with the group in the Combat Rock era. Finally, a digital EP, out now and to be released on limited 7", features previously unreleased mixes of "Rock the Casbah" and album track "Red Angel Dragnet" powered by toasting vocals by the late Ranking Roger of The (English) Beat. Read more here.
The Police, Around the World (Restored & Expanded) (Mercury Studios/Cherrytree)
DVD/CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada
BD/CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada
DVD/LP: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada
Four decades after its original release, The Police's first video album is back in print. The Police Around the World, a travelogue/live chronicle showcasing Sting, Stewart Copeland, and Andy Summers on their ascent to the mantle of biggest band in the world, gets its first release on DVD and Blu-ray today. In addition to restored audio and video, the discs will include full performance footage of four songs as bonus material, as well as an accompanying disc of previously unreleased live audio from the same concerts. The Police Around the World will be available in three different formats. The Blu-ray or DVD sets are housed in a digipak with an accompanying CD of 11 live songs. A vinyl version, pressed on blue or silver wax depending on country of origin and featuring two less tracks than the CD, will come only with the film on DVD. Read more here!
Nancy Sinatra and Lee Hazlewood, Nancy and Lee [Expanded Edition] (Light in the Attic)
All Formats: Nancy's Bootique
CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada
Black Vinyl: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada
Gold Vinyl: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada
"Coke Bottle" Clear Vinyl (limited to 500 units): Rough Trade U.K.
"Lady Bird Opaque" Yellow Vinyl: Collectors' Choice Music
"Gold Hi-Melt with Red" Vinyl (limited to 500 units): Vinyl Me, Please
Cassette: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada
An expanded edition of Nancy Sinatra's first duet album with Lee Hazlewood, 1968's Nancy and Lee, arrives as part of Light in the Attic's ongoing Nancy Sinatra Archival Series in various formats. Featuring "Summer Wine," "Some Velvet Morning," "Jackson," and "Lady Bird," LITA's Nancy and Lee adds two bonus cuts. The CD's 28-page booklet (20 pages in the LP) features an interview between Nancy and Hunter Lea, a timeline by Andrew Trager, and photos from her archive. Audio has been remastered by John Baldwin from the original analog tapes. The releases are due today, May 20, directly from the label, with Amazon pre-orders anticipated to ship for a June 3 release date. Read more here.
John Coltrane, My Favorite Things: 60th Anniversary Deluxe Edition (Atlantic/Rhino)
2CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada
2LP: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada
Rhino is reissuing John Coltrane's 1961 classic My Favorite Things in a new, remastered edition to (slightly belatedly) mark its 60th anniversary as well as Jazz Appreciation Month. While the 2CD or 2LP set will feature no bonus tracks, it will notably feature the album in both its original stereo and mono mixes. (Tapes of the latter were recently rediscovered after many years of presuming it to be lost.) The package will also include new liner notes by critic Ben Ratliff and photos from the Atlantic archive. Read more here.
Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers with Thelonious Monk: Deluxe Edition (Atlantic/Rhino)
2CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada
2LP: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada
On May 14 and 15, 1957, piano great Thelonious Monk joined drummer Art Blakey and his loose musical collective known as the Jazz Messengers to record an album for Atlantic Records. The resulting LP, Monk's lone appearance on the label, remains a high point in both artists' discographies. Blakey and Monk were joined by Johnny Griffin on tenor saxophone, Bill Hardman on trumpet, and bassist Spanky DeBrest for the session which featured such Monk compositions as "In Walked Bud," "Blue Monk," and "Rhythm-a-Ning." (Monk penned all of the album save one song co-written with Coleman Hawkins, and one track written by Griffin.) Rhino's expanded edition for Jazz Appreciation Month, available on 2 LPs or 2 CDs, features the original album supplemented by six session outtakes. Ashley Kahn has authored the new liner notes.
Kenny Rogers, All in for the Gambler: All-Star Concert Celebration [CD/DVD] (Blackbird) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)
This television special, recorded at Nashville's Bridgestone Arena on October 25, 2017, comes to a CD/DVD combo package today. All In for the Gambler presents eighteen highlights from the event, with slightly different track listings for CD and DVD. Both presentations feature the climactic performance of Rogers with Dolly Parton in which they duetted on "You Can't Make Old Friends" and "Islands in the Stream" as well as Dolly serenading him with an appropriate "I Will Always Love You." Other performers including Lionel Richie, Linda Davis, Chris Stapleton, Lady A, The Oak Ridge Boys, and Idina Menzel, all performing Rogers' greatest hits. Read more here.
The Hollywood Stars, Sound City (Liberation Hall) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)
The Hollywood Stars' lost 1976 album comes to vinyl for the first time. During the 1970s, the power-pop glitter/glam rockers (originally brought together by Sunset Strip svengali Kim Fowley) shared the bill with the likes of The Kinks, Ramones, The New York Dolls, and Iggy Pop. Meanwhile, future stars like Van Halen, Quiet Riot, The Knack, and Journey all opened for The Stars at one time or another. But over the years, The Hollywood Stars didn't receive the attention of their contemporaries. Their Columbia debut was left unreleased until 2013, while an Arista title from 1977 failed to resonate despite its strong material. This once-lost, ten-song album was recorded in 1976 at the legendary Sound City Recording Studios and first released on CD in 2019. Liberation Hall's issue marks its debut on vinyl.
Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Dirt Does Dylan (MRI) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)
The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band offers their spin on such Dylan classics as "I Shall Be Released" (featuring Larkin Poe), "The Times They Are A-Changin'" (with Rosanne Cash, Steve Earle, Jason Isbell, and The War & Treaty), "Forever Young," "Quinn the Eskimo (The Mighty Quinn)," and "Girl from the North Country" on this new set. The CD and digital versions are out today with the vinyl LP to follow in August.
Mavis Staples and Levon Helm, Carry Me Home (Anti-) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)
Eleven years ago, Mavis Staples joined Levon Helm in Woodstock at one of the late Band drummer's Midnight Rambles. This album, due today on CD and digital and June 17, on vinyl, preserves that joint appearance and includes their renditions of "The Weight," "Gotta Serve Somebody," "I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel to Be Free," and more.
Van Morrison, What's It Gonna Take? (Exile/Virgin) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)
Van Morrison releases his 43rd studio album today. What's It Gonna Take? continues in the vein of last year's Latest Record Project Vol. 1 with the prolific singer-songwriter's bilious, seemingly conspiracy-embracing lyrics about the present day and the world's COVID response set to lithe R&B grooves. Available today in CD, LP, and digital formats.
Maurice Kerr says
Why do the companies that specialise in rereleases continue to ignore the Mercury albums of the great Jerry Butler. Apart from his two Philadelphia recorded sets, which have been reissued on cd at least twice, the rest of his Mercury catalogue remains unreleased.
And Motown’s Originals have only had some of their albums reissued on cd. A box set of their entire output for Motown would be welcomed by many.