Features / The Weekend Stream

Welcome back to another edition of The Weekend Stream, The Second Disc’s review of notable catalogue titles making digital debuts, plus new works from legacy acts and even some personally curated favorites. A Tom Petty classic gets a new mix, Taylor Swift emerges from the toybox and John Williams returns to the film scoring stage in our latest round-up – plus rarities from Foreigner, Jim Reeves, Reba Rambo and a reissue we think you’ll love more than donuts from the good donut shop, eh?

Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers, “American Girl (2026 Mix – Extended Version)” (UMe) (Apple / Amazon)

One of the greatest American rock bands burst onto the scene a half century ago this year, and we’re starting to see some celebratory action taking place. The jewel of Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers’ self-titled debut album, “American Girl,” is now available in a new stereo or spatial audio remix by engineer Ryan Ulyate, featuring the full version of the track beyond the original fade during that epic solo. The digital product also has a new mix of the album’s other well-known track, “Breakdown,” ready for release on June 26 – and announcements for the remix promise an “opening the archives to release some treasures from the white hot ‘70s era of the band,” happening later this year.

Taylor Swift, “I Knew It, I Knew You” (Walt Disney Records) (Apple / Amazon)

Big changes in the playroom: after more than 30 years, the fifth film in Disney and Pixar’s beloved Toy Story series will not have a new song by Randy Newman, but instead singer/songwriter Taylor Swift – arguably the most famous person on the planet. (Fear not: Newman, 82, has returned to compose the score.) “I Knew It, I Knew You,” co-written and produced with longtime songwriting partner Jack Antonoff on their first collaboration since 2024’s The Tortured Poets Department, vaguely harkens back to Swift’s country roots, but also sounds very much like Antonoff’s current work with his band Bleachers, in honoring the story of cowboy doll Jessie (voiced by Joan Cusack), a mainstay of the series since 1999’s Toy Story 2. (Ever the motivated salesperson, Swift has already sold through five limited edition versions of the single – three one-track CDs, each with a different version (standard, acoustic and piano-driven), and two 10″ picture discs, backed by the instrumental.) Expect both single and film to dominate the pop charts and box office reports when Toy Story 5 hits theaters on June 19.

George Michael, “Kissing a Fool” (Columbia/Legacy) (Apple / Amazon)

Touted by the estate as the final of George Michael’s Faith digital EPs (so no flowers for Shep Pettibone’s U.S.-only promo mixes of “Hard Day”), the jazzy ballad “Kissing a Fool” became the album’s sixth Top 5 American hit – rarified territory for the British pop icon. It’s backed by an instrumental version and the slowed-down “A Last Request,” Faith‘s closing track and a third part of the chart-topper “I Want Your Sex.”

John Williams, “listen…” (from Disclosure Day) (Back Lot Music) (Apple / Amazon)

The Maestro is back. Next week sees the release of Steven Spielberg’s new, original sci-fi thriller Disclosure Day, starring Emily Blunt and Josh O’Connor as seemingly ordinary citizens thrown into a chaotic journey involving the release of definitive proof that Earth has been visited by intelligent life. With the film comes a new score by 94-year-old legendary film composer John Williams – their 30th film together after Oscar winners like JAWS, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial and Schindler’s List plus classics like the first four Indiana Jones films, Close Encounters of the Third Kind and Jurassic Park. Opening track “listen…” is haunting, melodic and powerful – a stirring, possibly final curtain for Williams as the most honored musician of the movies. (Check back next week for a Soundtrack Watch column that’ll share details on the ongoing physical pre-orders for the soundtrack, which releases digitally next week.)

Madonna, “Love Sensation” (Warner) (Apple / Amazon)

The third track to be released from next month’s Confessions II – another writing/production collaboration with Stuart Price, who oversaw Confessions on a Dance Floor two decades ago – has an old-school radio edit! Fancy that!

The Who, “Love, Reign O’er Me (Boomerang Remix)” (UMR) (Apple / Amazon)

A new mix of the Quadrophenia stand-out is now digitally available following its placement in a trailer for the fall blockbuster adaptation of Sunrise on the Reaping, a prequel novel to Suzanne Collins’ acclaimed young-adult trilogy The Hunger Games. (Set 24 years before the original novel, the film will feature cameos from Jennifer Lawrence and Josh Hutcherson reprising their roles as the trilogy’s heroes Katniss Everdeen and Peeta Mellark.)

Andy Partridge, Fuzzy Warbles Vol. 5 (Ape House) (Apple / Amazon)

The fifth volume of Andy Partridge’s demo archive in and out of XTC includes versions of some of their best mid-’80s tracks, including “Dear God” and “Earn Enough for Us.”

Foreigner, Soul Doctor EP (Atlantic/Rhino) (Apple / Amazon)

A treat for Foreigner completists: three tracks the group recorded for the 1992 hits compilation The Very Best…and Beyond. “Soul Doctor,” “Prisoner of Love” and “With Heaven on Our Side” found original singer Lou Gramm reuniting with co-founder Mick Jones after sitting out 1991’s Unusual Heat.

Bob & Doug McKenzie, Great White North (44 3/4 Anniversary) (Anthem/UMe) (Apple / Amazon)

Good surprise, eh? Hapless Canadian brothers Bob and Doug McKenzie became unlikely pop cultural phenomena when comedians Rick Moranis and Dave Thomas created the dimwitted duo for sketch comedy series SCTV. The hilarious hosers unexpectedly hit it big with both the U.S. Top 20 single “Take Off” (featuring Rush’s Geddy Lee) and the 1983 cult comedy film Strange Brew. Following a recent physical package that combined both of Bob and Doug’s albums (1981’s The Great White North and the soundtrack to Strange Brew) as well as the film itself on Blu-ray, there’s now a digital edition that offers the albums along with the package’s sole bonus track: an instrumental version of the pair’s cockeyed rendition of “The Twelve Days of Christmas.”

Jim Reeves, Talkin’ to Your Heart (Expanded Edition) (RCA/Legacy) (Apple / Amazon)

Gentleman Jim’s 1961 album Talkin’ to Your Heart was a rarity in that it had no major hits on the country charts, with the arguable exception of B-side “Why Do I Love You (Melody of Love),” one of many tracks that inexplicably resonated on Billboard‘s country survey for more than a decade after Reeves’ tragic death in a plane crash. (It backed “Nobody’s Fool,” a dressed-up outtake on 1970’s Jim Reeves Writes You a Record, assembled some six years after Reeves died.) Four non-albm sides complement this new expanded edition, which, like all of Reeves’ catalogue, is digitally tended to by SuperVisible Multi Media.

Velvet Elvis, What in the World (Expanded Edition) (Hit a Note) (Apple / Amazon)

Also coming from SuperVisible is another gem from Kentucky rockers Velvet Elvis; this time, it’s their full-length debut What in the World, which turns 40 this year. Three of the tracks were later re-recorded for the group’s self-titled and final album, a major-label effort for Enigma, released two years later.

Reba Rambo, On the Folk Side of Gospel (Legacy) (Apple / Amazon)

Out of print for years, 1968’s On the Folk Side of Gospel is the debut album from Grammy and Dove-winning gospel singer Reba Rambo. Then known as a teenage vocalist in family gospel group The Rambos, this LP, cut for the Heart Warming Records label, was a bold fusion of spiritual music and the contemporary folk style that had gripped the pop charts throughout the ’60s – a globally accessible combination that put her at the forefront of Christian music.

Tony Rice, Tony Rice (Remastered 2026) (Rounder/Craft Recordings) (Apple / Amazon)

A celebrated bluegrass guitarist who collaborated with J.D. South, Jerry Garcia, David Grisman, Ricky Skaggs and Béla Fleck during his lifetime, Tony Rice’s self-titled third album (his last for awhile, before a prolific stint fronting his own group, the Tony Rice Unit) has been remastered by Craft Recordings, shepherd of the Rounder Records catalogue.

Sonora Ponceña, Musical Conquest (Remastered 2026) (Fania/Craft Recordings) (Apple / Amazon)

Founded by Quique Lucca in Puerto Rico in 1954, La Sonora Ponceña is still going strong as a salsa band (now headed by Quique’s son Papo Lucca) and were the darlings of the Inca label even before they released Conquista Musical in 1976 – which has been remastered by current owner Fania a half century later.

PASSINGS

Joe wrote a touching tribute to Peabo Bryson on Wednesday, who is sadly one of four legends of R&B we lost this week…

The musical fertility that coursed through Tuskegee, Alabama was certainly a part of bassist Ronald LaPread, who joined five of his classmates at Tuskegee University to form the Commodores. The group was part of a bold new wave of talent on Motown Records (most well outside the nucleus of Detroit), and “Pread” was a driver of some of their funkiest works, like early hits “Machine Gun,” “Slippery When Wet” and, of course, the pop-funk classic “Brick House.” But the richness of LaPread’s work wasn’t confined to uptempo numbers: as singer/keyboardist/saxophonist Lionel Richie found his voice as a world-class balladeer, it’s hard to imagine a number like “Easy” without that descending bass figure that ushers in a steady rhythm ahead of the second verse. (Richie and LaPread wrote two enduring Commodores cuts together: “Fancy Dancer” and “Zoom,” the latter of which Richie shared in tribute of his late band member and friend.)

The youngest of the nine siblings who played in family band The Sylvers at various times, Foster Sylvers was not yet a member when his solo single “Misdemeanor” (written by older brother and future SOLAR Records production mainstay Leon Sylvers III) became a Top 10 R&B and Top 40 pop hit in 1973. This primed the pump for the family act to get a piece of the action, most notably the 1976 chart-topper “Boogie Fever.” Though Foster had his share of difficulties later in life, serving prison time for a sex offense committed in the ’90s, The Sylvers’ music remains resonant with several generations of R&B enthusiasts.

A lion in the pantheon of Philadelphia International Records, Dexter Wansel boasted an impressive resume as a producer, arranger or songwriter, collaborating with the likes of Lou Rawls, The Jacksons, Patti LaBelle and Teddy Pendergrass (arranging and co-producing his acclaimed “Love T.K.O.”). But he was also present as a solo performer for the label, too, writing, arranging and singing on the 1976 space-funk masterpiece Life on Mars. It spawned a Top 10 dance hit in the title track, and the track “Theme from The Planets,” an oft-sampled classic. Wansel’s musical legacy lives on in his son Andrew, one half of the journeyman hip-hop production duo Pop & Oak (with Warren Felder).