Welcome to another edition of The Weekend Stream, The Second Disc's review of notable catalogue titles (and some new ones, too!) making digital debuts. We've got the goods from everywhere this week: the Jersey shore, Philadelphia, Manhattan, jolly old England and a spooky, nondescript European countryside!
Bruce Springsteen, "Lonely Night in the Park" (Columbia/Legacy) (Apple / Amazon)
If you're still digesting Tracks II or are prepping for the inevitable Nebraska revival brought on by this fall's biopic Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere, spare a moment for the impending 50th anniversary of The Boss' mainstream breakthrough Born to Run (which takes place next Monday, the 25th) with this newly-released outtake from the album sessions. Sirius' E Street Radio first played a rough version of the track for the album's 30th anniversary in 2005 - but this more polished version underlines the story that it was a strong contender to make Springsteen's third album.
The Hooters, Out of Body (Geffen) (Apple / Amazon)
A pop/rock pride of Philadelphia, The Hooters built a strong discography of albums for Columbia in the mid-to-late '80s, blending rock, pop, folk and even a little ska. Perhaps best known for the sublime "And We Danced" (or even contributing mightily to Cyndi Lauper's debut She's So Unusual - Lauper and co-founder Rob Hyman penned the smash "Time After Time"), their tunes, including "All You Zombies," "Day by Day," "Satellite," "500 Miles" and more are favorites around Second Disc HQ. So it's exciting to report that - with the help of SuperVisible Multi Media - the group is working to get both their mid-'90s releases, issued by MCA Records, out to digital channels for the first time. 1993's Out of Body is a slight variation on the classic Hooters formula, thanks in part to the addition of singer/violinist Mindy Jostyn and a shake-up in the producer's chair (longtime collaborator Rick Chertoff was out, and Joe Hardy - an engineer for ZZ Top, Steve Earle and the Jeff Healey Band - was in, cutting most of the record in a few weeks at Memphis' Ardent Studios). But it's still got the magic you'd expect, thanks to favorites like live staples "Twenty Five Hours a Day" and "Boys Will Be Boys" (the latter co-written and essentially a duet with the unmistakable Lauper) as well as "Private Emotion," an unlikely minor hit for Ricky Martin during his English-language breakthrough in the early '00s.
Danny Elfman, Dark Universe (Back Lot Music) (Apple / Amazon)
Though Universal Pictures' attempts to turn their famous stable of movie monsters into a Marvel Cinematic Universe-style cauldron of content was a resounding dud, the charms of Dracula, Frankenstein's monster, The Wolf Man, The Mummy, The Creature from the Black Lagoon and more are hard to deny. (Case in point: the cult favorite podcast Are You Afraid of the Dark Universe, which imagined and even staged more than two dozen films in the proposed series.) Universal's new Orlando theme park Epic Universe opened this year with a series of themed rides devoted to the Monsters under the revived Dark Universe banner - and film composer Danny Elfman, who wrote a fanfare for the filmic Universe back in 2017, returned to create new themes now available in a soundtrack sold on vinyl in the parks but now available for all to stream or download.
Phil Collins, "Sussudio (Demo)" (Atlantic/Rhino) (Apple / Amazon)
Credit to the folks in Phil Collins' camp who are making the tracks exclusive to the vinyl-only No Jacket Required (Fully Tailored) available digitally as well. Here's another: the original demo of the album's first of four singles, all of which reached the Top 10 in the U.K. (with "Sussudio" and "One More Night" even reaching No. 1).
Talking Heads, Live WCOZ '77 (Sire/Rhino) (Apple / Amazon)
Originally excerpted on the first side of The Name of This Band is Talking Heads in 1982 and released in full for Record Store Day 2024, this 1977 radio performance - featuring versions of "Psycho Killer," "Take Me to the River" and others - is now available to listen to somewhere other than a record player.
Oasis, "Little by Little" (Live from London, 2 August '25) / "Bring It On Down" (Live from Edinburgh, 9 August '25) (Big Brother)
"Little by Little": Apple / Amazon
"Bring It On Down": Apple / Amazon
The Oasis reunion tour has continued to defy the odds - even Noel Gallagher has had positive things to say - and as they gear up for the North American leg (kicking off in Toronto tomorrow), they've released two more recordings from recent shows.
Nat "King" Cole, International L-O-V-E (Capitol/UMe) (Apple / Amazon)
Conventional wisdom would dictate that a classic song spelling out a word in the English language would be tough to translate. Not for this Nat "King" Cole classic! The 1964 song by Bert Kaempfert and Milt Gabler was converted to multiple languages upon release, and all are being rolled up into one digital EP.
The Doors, Live At Bakersfield, August 21, 1970 / Strange Days (A Work in Progress) (Elektra/Rhino)
Bakersfield: Apple / Amazon
Strange Days: Apple / Amazon
Another Doors drop from the band's 1970 tour (preserved on their Bright Midnight label) has made it to digital music storefronts. So, too, has a collection of rough mixes of the group's sophomore album, previously only available on vinyl for Record Store Day earlier this year.
Ronan Keating, Lovin' Each Day EP (Polydor/UMC) (Apple / Amazon)
Another digital single backfilled for the 25th anniversary of Irish singer Ronan Keating's debut, this U.K. No. 2 (which, like "Life is a Rollercoaster," was penned by Gregg Alexander of New Radicals and Rick Nowels) was added to a reissue of the album back in 2001 as well as 2002 sophomore album Destination, which was almost entirely penned by the pair.
Dead Outlaw: Original Broadway Cast Recording (Audible/Yellow Sound Label) (Apple / Amazon)
Dead Outlaw is rising from the grave! Although David Yazbek, Erik Della Penna, and Itamar Moses' offbeat, seven-time-Tony Award-nominated musical closed on Broadway earlier this year, its Original Broadway Cast Recording has finally arrived in full from Audible and Yellow Sound Label in both standard and Dolby Atmos versions. This vivid recording, produced by Dean Sharenow and Yazbek, preserves the performances of Tony nominees Andrew Durand, Jeb Brown, and Julia Knitel, as well as Eddie Cooper, Dashiell Eaves, Ken Marks, Trent Saunders, and Thom Sesma, with Della Penna as part of the rip-roaring band. Just try getting "Dead" out of your head now...!
Merry Something to You: Rhino Announces Record Store Day Black Friday Slate with Devo, Joni Mitchell, Alice Cooper, The Doors, Grateful Dead, Randy Newman, More
Release Round-Up: Week of October 3
The Weekend Stream: September 20, 2025
Connie Francis " Rarities 1957-1959 " , "Rarities 1960 " , " Rarities 1961-1962 " , " The Singles 1955-1957 " , " The Singles 1958-1959 " and " Singles 1960-1961"is now on spotify.
This one, I'll point out, we didn't see any press release or alerts on until this morning! It'll be in next week's column, for sure.
There are the 2025 Remastered Beatles Anthology reissues that hit streaming this weekend (Vols 1-3) along with the new 2025 Free As A Bird Remix.
Ray Charles 1974 classic "Come Live with Me" from Tangerine also hit streaming.
Anne Murray's two late 70's Country/Soft Pop Lps, "New Kind Of Feeling" & "Let's Keep It That Way" were both expanded and reissued on streaming, too.
Of course Craft Records returned with two new Jazz offerings; Kenny Burrell's "Kenny Burrell" and Frank Wess's Lp, "Wheelin' And Dealin'" with John Coltrane and Paul Quinichette.
I'm curiuus if the Springsteen outtake is actually from the sessions and not something he went back into the finish recently (not a fan of "finishing" outtakes from decades earlier - just leave them be and issue them as-is.)
The Beatles Anthology was covered extensively in a full article on Thursday, and the Ray Charles album was addressed in our Friday Release Round-Up. Always happy to see more Anne Murray in the digital domain; thanks for sharing.
Would love to purchase Elfman's Dark Universe on CD if anyone with any ability to make that sort of thing happen is reading this comment.
What Joe and I WOULDN'T do to get more theme park music out there, especially from Universal, who have never done dedicated park albums outside of one for Islands of Adventure in 1999 (which was solely originals and didn't feature arrangements of pre-existing themes like Jurassic Park, Spider-Man or Popeye - the music for The Cat in the Hat goes hard, though). Bizarre that they haven't put this out on CD, which is easier to put in a suitcase and less susceptible to the Florida heat.
Natalie Cole’s ‘A Matter Of Fact’ has been remastered and digitised ahead of what looks like a digital reissue of its parent album, 1989’s ‘Good To Be Back’.
What about the Goo Goo Dolls' new Warner digital-only EP "Summer Anthem" with 7 new songs?? Heard about it on Brendan Snyder's YouTube channel, of all places...heard bits of them, and are good...in the vein of "Let Love In"...no its not punky Replacements-esque but still good...