Welcome to The Weekend Stream, a relaxing weekly review of notable digital-only catalogue titles. There may be no CD or vinyl, but there's plenty of great new/old music to usher you into the weekend. De La Soul's digital debuts make headlines, plus favorites from Donna Summer, Adam Schlesinger, lo-fi disco soul, '80s dance-rock, a brilliant new pop track and an actress returning to sing a song she crooned in a cartoon!
De La Soul, 3 Feet High and Rising / De La Soul is Dead / Buhloone Mindstate / Stakes is High / Art Official Intelligence: Mosaic Thump / AOI: Bionix (A.O.I./Chrysalis)
3 Feet: iTunes / Amazon
Dead: iTunes / Amazon
Buhloone: iTunes / Amazon
Stakes: iTunes / Amazon
Mosaic: iTunes / Amazon
Bionix: iTunes / Amazon
It's hard to overstate, in light of the lengths it took for De La Soul's catalogue to make it to digital platforms - and the recent passing of one of its founders, Tsdrugoy The Dove - how nice it is to hear these in a more prolific fashion. Queue them up for yourself or someone discovering for the first time.
Donna Summer, She Works Hard for the Money (Deluxe Edition) (Mercury/UMe) (iTunes / Amazon)
The late disco queen's biggest success in the '80s had an interesting backstory: after a contentious split with Casablanca Records and a move to the Geffen label, Casablanca's owner PolyGram exercised an option for one more album out of Summer. The result: an upbeat collaboration with Michael Omartian that gave her a Top 5 smash with the dancefloor-ready title track. It and the other single ("Unconditional Love," a collaboration with youth reggae group Musical Youth) make up the bonus content of this 40th anniversary edition; each track is included in their original 12" and instrumental versions.
Ivy, Apartment Life (25th Anniversary Edition) (Bar None) (iTunes / Amazon)
The ornate, beloved sophomore album by indie pop group Ivy (featuring singer Dominique Durand and multi-instrumentalists Andy Chase and the late, great Fountains of Wayne co-founder Adam Schlesinger) is back for its quarter-century mark, boasting two rare tracks from Japanese pressings.
The Bongos, Numbers with Wings (Remixed Versions) (RCA) (iTunes / Amazon)
Darlings of the early '80s indie pop/rock scene in New Jersey, The Bongos made good after celebrated debut Drums Along the Hudson got them a deal with RCA and a respectable MTV hit in "Numbers with Wings." That single and follow-up "Barbarella" were remixed for 12" club play, and are now available digitally.
Leon Everette, If I Keep On Going Crazy / Hurricane / Leon Everette / Doin' What I Feel / Best of Leon Everette (Expanded Edition) (RCA/Legacy)
Crazy: iTunes / Amazon
Hurricane: iTunes / Amazon
Leon Everette: iTunes / Amazon
Doin': iTunes / Amazon
Best of: iTunes / Amazon
While serving with the Navy in Vietnam, South Carolina-born Leon Everette won a singing contest and was inspired to pursue music when he got out. A decade later, he'd recorded four albums for RCA and notched eight Top 10 country hits, including the man-versus-nature yarn "Hurricane." All four of those releases have been digitally delivered, and a 1985 best-of collection has now been doubled in length with other tracks from those albums.
Sponge, Plowed (Work/Epic) (iTunes / Amazon)
A hard-to-escape rock radio hit at the tail end of the post-grunge wave, fans of Detroit's own Sponge (still fronted by founding vocalist Vinnie Dombrowski) can hear "Plowed" alongside two non-LP B-sides.
Mike & Bill, Somebody's Gotta Go (Sho Ain't Me) (Arista/Legacy) (iTunes / Amazon)
Little is known about the duo of Mike Felder and Bill Daniels, who somehow parlayed a pair of catchy, lo-fi disco singles in 1975 and 1976 from an indie label called Moving Up to national distribution through Arista. "Somebody's Gotta Go (Sho Ain't Me)," follow-up "Things Won't Be This Bad Always," and instrumentals of each make up this newly-created EP.
Leland x MUNA, Bad At Letting Go (Good Pop) (iTunes / Amazon)
A journeyman songwriter who's worked with Selena Gomez, Troye Sivan and RuPaul along with several TV projects, Leland has a neat new single with a killer melody, airy production and some terrific vocal contributions from Katie Gavin of MUNA, one of the best indie-pop acts out there right now.
Amy Irving, Why Don't You Do Right? (Queen of the Castle) (iTunes / Amazon)
Known for a myriad of stage and screen roles - most notably the sympathetic Sue Snell in Carrie, a teenage psychic in The Fury and the wife of Barbra Streisand in Yentl - Amy Irving will release Born in a Trunk in April. The album features 10 covers inspired by her life and career and features guest vocals from Willie Nelson. The lead single: blues standard "Why Don't You Do Right?" - famously sung by Irving in character as the cartoon vixen Jessica Rabbit in the live-action/animated blockbuster Who Framed Roger Rabbit.
The Weekend Stream: September 9, 2023
And If I Know You: Mondo Brings 'That Thing You Do!' to Vinyl
Though I’ll support De La Soul with a stream or two, it must be said if you want to hear these tracks AS THEY WERE ORIGINALLY RELEASED, with all original samples intact, get the old CDs.
Rob – can you recommend which specific release to purchase? ie. the year / label / configuration (1CD or 2CD)?... all I have is the original cassette and I'd love to know what would be the best upgrade.
David
Legacy is finally making Leon Everette's 1980's RCA recordings available domestically. Leon was ignored for most of the CD era until 2017 when the U.K. Cherry Red/Morello label released a 2-CD set containing all of his original RCA albums..
From 1979 to 1986 Leon was a consistent voice heard on country radio accruing ten top 15 hits during those years. In 1980 "Over" released on the independent Orlando label became his first top ten record. RCA signed him late that year and also picked up some of his Orlando master recordings (including "Over") that were re-issued on the RCA imprint.
Leon's first two RCA albums each contained 10 tracks but during his tenure in the early 1980's the RCA Nashville division adopted a policy of releasing 6 song "mini-albums" for some of their newer or secondary tier acts. The Morello CD release included his third LP, "Leon Everette" a 1983 mini-album although those six songs were listed as "Bonus Tracks" on that set. In an unusual move the RCA cassette version of that album programmed all six songs on side A and included an interview with Leon on side B. That interview was not included on the Morello CD or the new 6 track download release.
Leon's late 1983 Doin' What I Feel six track mini-LP was issued in two different versions. The A side remained unchanged but all three B side tracks were replaced by new songs Leon recorded with a different producer for the 1984 re-release. Just as on the Morello CD the new download album expanded to include all 9 songs from both editions.
The digital Best Of Leon Everette (Expanded Edition) appends 9 more tracks to the original 9 track 1985 U.S. vinyl release. Four of the added tracks are Orlando singles, four are RCA singles plus one RCA LP track. This one nicely covers all of his Orlando and RCA single hits. A 1987 Leon Everette Greatest Hits vinyl album released on RCA in Germany included all but two of the tracks on this new download..
Some of Leon's pre-RCA recordings for the Orlando label were re-released as RCA B sides but were not included on the Morello CD set or the new downloads. Two B sides presumably recorded for RCA, "Misery" & "Knocking On Her Door" were also overlooked. Too bad Legacy did not add these as bonus tracks. But it's good to have most of Leon's great music unlocked from the vault and finally available digitally.