Welcome to The Weekend Stream, a relaxing review of notable digital-only catalogue titles. There may be no CD or vinyl, but there's plenty of great new/old music to float you into the weekend. Today, some Marvin Gaye classics get rediscovered and one of rock's greatest drummers turns his band's classics into a global party - plus rare tracks from Ariana Grande, Doris Day and another collection of rare ZTT remixes!
Marvin Gaye, Let's Get It On (Deluxe Edition) / You're the Man (Expanded Edition) / The Originals, The Very Best of The Originals (Motown/UMe)
Let's Get It On: iTunes / Amazon
You're the Man: iTunes / Amazon
The Originals: iTunes / Amazon
As detailed earlier this month, Marvin Gaye's seminal 1973 album gets a new digital deluxe edition for its 50th anniversary, augmenting previously released outtakes with a host of unheard material. In assembling this new expansion and other archival Gaye titles over the years, some bonus tracks have shifted to new digital homes from where they were on previous physical editions. Thus, this week also sees the release of two more digital album treasures. You're the Man, a 2019 configuration of a shelved Gaye album from 1972, now features three bonus tracks including a previously issued demo of Let's Get It On track "Distant Lover." And a 1999 compilation of hits for Motown act The Originals - which debuted their original version of Gaye's "Just to Keep You Satisfied" that featured on the physical Let's Get It On deluxe edition in a "single mix," not only features that mix but a dazzling long version of "If I Ever Lose This Heaven," an improbable rejected song penned by Leon Ware and Pam Sawyer that found new life when it closed Quincy Jones' Body Heat in 1974 (with Ware and Minnie Riperton on vocals). Now that's a soul bonanza for your Saturday!
Stewart Copeland & Ricky Kej, Police Beyond Borders (Shelter/BMG) (iTunes / Amazon)
Building on this year's album and tour Police Deranged for Orchestra, featuring Copeland's own orchestral arrangements and deconstructions of The Police's biggest hits and fan favorites, Police Beyond Borders finds Copeland creating a new spin on that set with Ricky Kej, the Indian composer with whom he released the Grammy-winning Divine Tides in 2021. Recorded in Bangalore with a cast of musicians from Africa, Japan, China England, Canada and the U.S. (our country's contributor is System of a Down frontman Serj Tankian!) the duo commandeer new international versions of "Roxanne," "Message in a Bottle," "Every Breath You Take" and others - a nice nod to the group's burgeoning popularity across the non-Western world.
Ariana Grande, Yours Truly (Tenth Anniversary Edition) (Republic) (iTunes / Amazon)
Breaking away from a promising acting career on the Nickelodeon series Victorious, Ariana Grande was a natural on her debut album Yours Truly, mixing multi-octave pop belting and classic soul/hip-hop style production. Lead single "The Way," a collaboration with her then-boyfriend, the late Mac Miller, became her first of 20 (and counting!) Top 10 pop hits in America, including seven No. 1s. Fans will see her on the big screen next year in her first starring role: Glinda, the "Popular" Witch of Oz, in a two-part adaptation of the hit Broadway musical Wicked. To celebrate a decade of her debut album, she's reissued it with seven bonus tracks - most of them live rarities.
Doris Day, The Complete Columbia Singles Volume 3 (Columbia/Legacy) (iTunes / Amazon)
This third volume in this series of super-sized singles collections brings Doris Day into the 1950s with more than 40 sides including the top 20 hits "Hoop-Dee-Do" (No. 17), "I Didn't Slip, I Wasn't Pushed, I Fell" (No. 19), and Frank Loesser's Guys and Dolls showstopper "A Bushel and a Peck" (No. 16). Other highlights include the ravishing G&D ballad "I've Never Been in Love Before," Irving Berlin's "The Best Thing for You" from Call Me Madam, jazz standard "Orange Colored Sky" with The Page Cavanaugh Trio, duets with polka king/accordionist Frankie Yankovic and Doris' Lullaby of Broadway co-star Gene Nelson, and a quartet of standards with Harry James' Orchestra. Whether singing novelty tunes, Broadway classics, or jazz favorites, the singer captivates with her pure tone, elegant phrasing, and fidelity to the song.
Nasty Rox, Inc., 9th Wonder (ZTT) (iTunes / Amazon)
Already the subject of a few entries in ZTT's Definition Series celebrating the label's 40th anniversary with digital debuts and drops, this is a suite of rare and little-released remixes of Nasty Rox, Inc.'s "9th Wonder," the lead track off their sole album Ca$h.
St. Lucia, Utopia (Deluxe) (Nettwerk) (iTunes / Amazon)
For more than a decade, dance-pop outfit St. Lucia (built around the nucleus of South African singer/songwriter Jean-Philip Grobler and his wife, keyboardist Patti Beranek) has put out underrated yet irresistibly catchy albums full of shimmering synths and larger-than-life rhythms. In April 2022, they released an EP, Utopia, which was expanded into their fourth album that October; now, it's been digitally expanded to feature a completed version of "Two Moons" - a track the group has been tinkering with since the project started - as well as a live version of nearly the entire album recorded on the closing nights of their Utopia Tour last November at Brooklyn Steel in Brooklyn, NY.
Bob George says
missing new Madonna single - Drowned World. Please credit or thank me this time!
Julian says
Absolutely. I'm loving the Madonna reissues. She is showing others how is should be done (or her record label is. Either way... excellent).
Streaming platforms should have the entire back catalogues of their artists released like this. Even Michael Jackson..... despite everything.
Oh, if only Pet Shop Boys and other great British acts could do this.....