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. We’ve got some timely tributes to some recently deceased icons, plus rarities from The Alan Parsons Project and Matt Monro, a host of treasures from 1976, and a very unusual pair of compilations for four disco legends and a beloved San Francisco rock combo.

Dolly Parton, The 1962 Mercury Recordings (Mercury Nashville/UMe) (Apple / Amazon)

A surprising tribute from a label not typically associated with the recently deceased country icon (Parton’s catalogue lies primarily with Sony Music’s Monument, RCA and Columbia labels), this recent digital EP collects both sides of a rarity on the Mercury label – her third-ever single, released when she was only 16 years old – along with a third song from the same session with producer Jerry Kennedy. These three tracks were issued on CD as part of Legacy’s Dolly box set from 2009.

Tim Curry, Read My Lips (Expanded Edition) / Fearless (Expanded Edition) / Simplicity (Expanded Edition) (A&M/UMe) / Remembering Tim Curry (Primary Wave/Ode)

Read My Lips: Apple / Amazon
Fearless: Apple / Amazon
Simplicity: Apple / Amazon
Remembering Tim Curry: Apple / Amazon

Another potentially tragic case of death doing wonders for your back catalogue, UMe has flipped the switch on expanded editions of Tim Curry’s three albums for A&M, including 1979’s Fearless, with the minor hit “I Do the Rock.” (Released between 1978 and 1981 and packed with assorted non-album rarities, these versions were first released on CD in 2017 by the French label Bad Reputation. When Curry died, only a non-bonus edition of Fearless was streaming.) Additionally, Ode has issued a memorial collection, Remembering Tim Curry, that pairs four songs from his intended album for Lou Adler’s label – two of which appear as bonuses on Read My Lips – with five songs he contributed lead vocals to in The Rocky Horror Picture Show. (That intended album, recorded in 1976 after Rocky Horror‘s release, was first released digitally in 2010 under the name …From the Vaults.)

Alan Parsons Project, Gaudi (Sessions) (Cooking Vinyl) (Apple / Amazon)

Seven outtakes, alternates and rough mixes from The Alan Parsons Project’s final canonical album, originally released in 1987, have now been compiled into their own digital title. (The same tracks were included as bonuses on a 2007 CD reissue.) With this release, all of the group’s Arista discography has a “sessions” counterpart, with some extending to box set length.

Solex, Low Kick and Hard Bop (25th Anniversary Edition) (Matador) (Apple / Amazon)

The third and final album for Matador by Dutch sample-pop singer Solex (born Liesbeth Esselink) gets expanded with a dozen bonus tracks, including non-LP tracks and live recordings.

Bee Gees, Bee Gees Blanket the World (uDiscover Music) (Apple / Amazon)

Barry Gibb, the last surviving brother in a beloved musical family that included younger twins Maurice and Robin (his longtime partners in the Bee Gees) and youngest Andy, turned 80 on September 1. To celebrate, Universal Music Group issued a lengthy if somewhat random 39-track collection of the Bee Gees’ greatest, with a few Andy Gibb singles written and produced by the brothers, sprinkled in. (Thanks to reader Mark Cook for pointing this out last week!)

Huey Lewis & The News, Fore! The Good Times (uDiscover Music) (Apple / Amazon)

Similar yet far shorter to the above Bee Gees set is this equally arbitrary collection from Huey Lewis & The News, which is titled like an expanded edition of their 1986 album, but is certainly not that. (Rarities-packed editions were issued in Japan in 2023 – what are their chances of at least getting a digital equivalent?)

Jim Reeves, We Thank Thee (RCA Victor) (Apple / Amazon)

Last week, longtime Reeves estate aids SuperVisible Multi Media backfilled this seminal 1962 gospel offering – one of Gentlemen Jim’s last before his passing two years later. (As anyone who knows the astounding story of Reeves, death did not stop him from continuing to release extremely popular music!)

Eddy Grant, Love in Exile (Ice) (Apple / Amazon)

Another Eddy Grant album has made it to streaming! 1980’s Love in Exile (released in the States as My Turn to Love You) finds the Guyanese icon getting closer to the mix of electronics and reggae that powered his signature “Electric Avenue” a few years later. (Thanks to reader Tom Riise for the tip!)

Sheena Easton, Modern Girl EP (RT Industries) (Apple / Amazon)

The Scottish singer’s debut single, presented with the same remixes and alternates as on The Singles 1980-1987 box set just a few months ago. Could this box fill some more digital gaps in the future? We’ll have to keep watch! (Thanks to Tom Riise for this heads-up, too.)

Richard Supa, Life Lines (Epic) (Apple / Amazon)

The very definition of a journeyman rocker, Richard Supa’s Life Lines arrived in 1976 after more than half a decade of near-misses for the Long Island native. He’d fronted the group Man for one album on Columbia in 1969, and bummed around the Paramount roster for two albums afterward. The ballad-driven Life Lines, somewhere between country and rock, wasn’t a success, and Supa next recorded an LP for Polydor. That disc, 1978’s Tall Tales, finally gave him a first taste of success: its standout track, “Chip Away the Stone,” became a concert favorite for Aerosmith, and Supa would occasionally co-write the odd song with frontman Steven Tyler, including the singles “Amazing” and “Pink.” He’s also worked extensively using music in addiction treatment programs.

Barry De Vorzon, Nadia’s Theme (The Young and the Restless) (Arista) (Apple / Amazon)

The titular piano-driven composition of this 1976 album – recognizable to generations of kids who were home sick from school since the ’70s – has as interesting a history as its composer! New York City native Barry De Vorzon was a veteran of the music business, co-founding the Valiant label (which gave The Association their break) and even having a Top 40 hit for them with his doo-wop group The Tamerlanes (“I Wonder What She’s Doing Tonight”). Pivoting to film and television scoring, he collaborated with Perry Botkin, Jr. on the score to Stanley Kramer’s 1971 adaptation of Bless the Beasts and Children. (The title tune was Oscar-nominated, and became a decent-sized hit for the Carpenters as the B-side to “Superstar.”) It was on soundtrack cue “Cotton’s Dream” that those descending piano notes were first heard; on this album for Arista, it picked up its other title, “Nadia’s Theme,” when ABC’s summer Olympics coverage used the same cue to score highlights of Romanian gymnast Nadia Comăneci. But it’s probably best known as the theme tune to the still-running CBS soap opera The Young & The Restless, and so appears on this album with both titles in a new, Grammy-winning arrangement, along with “Bless the Beasts,” pop fare like Barry Manilow’s “I Write the Songs” and Eric Carmen’s “All by Myself,” and another popular De Vorzon’s TV theme, S.W.A.T. (De Vorzon, bless him, is still alive at 92!)

Force of Nature, Unemployment Blues (Philadelphia International Records) (Apple / Amazon)

A heavy-duty soul-funk act – there’s 10 members pictured on the back of their second album, though none are named – Force of Nature were, according to their sales copy, named by Kenny Gamble to symbolize their power. Indeed, the group had spent a few years entrenched in the Philadelphia R&B scene, signing to Thom Bell’s Tommy imprint for their 1974 debut and moving to the big leagues, Philadelphia International Records, for this LP two years later.

Melody Federer & Burt Bacharach, “Blanket Capes” (Melody Place) (Apple / Amazon)

Back in 2019, Burt Bacharach shared the song “Blanket Capes” in concert. The maestro co-wrote the touching anthem with singer-songwriter Melody Federer, with whom he had collaborated on the single “Bridges.” Now, Federer and another Bacharach collaborator, producer Daniel Tashian (Blue Umbrella), have brought “Blanket Capes” into the studio at last – at a time when its uplift and positivity are more needed than ever. The “Blanket Capes” single features both a fully-produced rendition and a stripped-down acoustic one, and you can’t go wrong with either version. Hopefully Tashian will release his final pair of collaborations with late legend Bacharach soon, too!

Matt Monro, “Thanks (Live on The Morecambe & Wise Show – 1971)” (BBC/Aviator-Management) (Apple / Amazon)

The Matt Monro estate has been celebrating the late vocalist’s remarkable legacy on such digital releases as The Legendary Manila Concert, released earlier this year on all streaming services. Now, they’ve unveiled his previously unreleased performance of Bill Martin and Phil Coulter’s “Thanks (to the Lord)” (first recorded by the U.K.’s J. Vincent Edwards and later covered by Waylon Jennings and, to successful effect, by U.S. country legend Bill Anderson) in a live performance from January 1971 on the BBC’s long-running Morecambe and Wise Show. Restoration specialist extraordinaire Richard Moore has taken the original mono television recording, separated it, and gorgeously remixed it into stereo in the mold of one of Matt’s studio recordings. His stellar remix has done wonders not only for Monro’s vocal but for Peter Knight’s orchestration. This beautiful recording – don’t miss the video from Eric and Ernie’s legendary series! – is prelude to the release later this month of Monro’s Gala Performances 1982 featuring the orchestras of Ron Goodwin and Billy May. We can’t wait for that one, either, so watch this space for more info on it!

Bill Callery, Bill Callery (Columbia) (Apple / Amazon)

Not long after the success of Red Headed Stranger, Willie Nelson was granted his own imprint on Columbia Records. Lone Star didn’t have many artists, but Bill Callery was one of them, having penned “Hands on the Wheel,” Stranger‘s penultimate track. Callery’s only major-label work – he cut several more independently in the 21st century, having changed his spelling to Will Callery – is considerably more ornate than Nelson’s work, as the catchy single “The First Showboat” indicates.

Milton Carroll, Blue Skies (Columbia) (Apple / Amazon)

Another Lone Star signee (who’d previously cut an LP for RCA in 1972), Milton Carroll’s Blue Skies puts an appealing baritone and an ace band in full spotlight, playing, as Carroll’s own liner notes describe, “an accumulation of love songs…some good old Rock and Roll tunes, some Boogie tunes, and Blues.”

Russell Morris, Russell Morris II (RCA Victor) (Apple / Amazon)

Released in his native Australia as Turn It On, this Australian rocker/songwriter (best-known for the local chart-topper “The Real Thing”) delivers a fine selection of prog rock down under on this 1976 album.

PASSINGS

Jon Small (1947-2026) may not have been a household name, but to legions of Billy Joel fans, the Piano Man’s fellow Long Islander and lifelong friend has an astounding history intertwining through each others’ careers. An aspiring drummer, Small kept time in The Hassles, the garage-rock band a teenage Joel fronted on two albums for United Artists. The pair broke off in 1970 to create Atilla, a long-haired organ/drum duo whose 1970 album for Epic (featuring an indelible cover image of both men posing with long hair, animal pelts, and ancient combat attire while standing in a frozen meat locker) has been long disowned by Joel. That could have easily been it for both the partnership and the friendship: Joel began an affair with Small’s wife, Elizabeth Weber, who became Joel’s first wife and manager. Yet Small still occasionally went to bat for his bandmate: when a depressed Joel attempted suicide in 1970 by drinking a bottle of furniture polish, it was Small who rushed him to the hospital. (The incident was later dramatized in “Tomorrow is Today,” off Joel’s solo debut Cold Spring Harbor (1971).)

Astoundingly, the ever-loyal Joel kept tabs on Small as he transitioned from music to visual media. Small would become a director for Billy’s music videos and concert specials, including the memorable clips to “Tell Her About It,” a 1984 clip for “Piano Man,” and sensational sets at Yankee Stadium in 1990 and Shea Stadium in 2008. Small also helmed and even produced videos for others, including Run-DMC’s memorable “Walk This Way” and “It’s Tricky,” as well as shorts for Lisa Lisa & Cult Jam, Reba McEntire, Roger Troutman, The Highwaymen, Anita Baker and even Garth Brooks’ cult-favorite alter-ego Chris Gaines. Joel’s tribute to Small, who died of cancer last week, is a deservedly emotional read about one of his closest friends.