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. “Cratedigging” is the word for today: we’ve got more than three dozen releases of all stripes, from holiday music new and old (from Peggy Lee to Olivia Rodrigo) to expanded editions of albums by Britney Spears, Bobby Rush and more. Plus, a deep dive on 1976 releases and plenty of vintage R&B!

Olivia Rodrigo, “take me home (4 christmas)” (Interscope) (Apple / Amazon)

Rare is the current pop star who’d even try adding to the Christmas canon. Olivia Rodrigo, who’s had a pretty interesting year, is trying her hand. The accompanying video co-stars Cynthia Nixon of Sex and the City and current Saturday Night Live supporting cast member Ben Marshall. A Target-exclusive 7″ single includes another holiday original on the B-side.

Peggy Lee, A Very Peggy Lee Christmas EP (uDiscover Music) (Apple / Amazon)

Six holiday classics from Peggy Lee, including “Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town” and “The Christmas Waltz.”

Split Enz, Frenzy (Mushroom/UMC) (Apple / Amazon)

In case you missed it…

Britney Spears, Britney (25th Anniversary Edition) (RCA/Legacy) (Apple / Amazon)

The pop icon’s third album kept her hot streak going with writer/producers like The Neptunes (“I’m a Slave 4 U,” “Boys”), Rodney “Darkchild” Jerkins (a remix of second single “Overprotected,” a cover of Joan Jett’s “I Love Rock ‘N’ Roll”) and Max Martin (“Not a Girl, Not Yet a Woman”). This digital deluxe edition features a host of rare B-sides (like “Right Now (Taste the Victory),” a song for a Pepsi commercial), single mixes and a clutch of unreleased tracks. A CD featuring the same track list will be available in 2027.

Madonna, CONFESSIONS II: Instrumentals (Warner) (Apple / Amazon)

Madonna’s latest album from earlier this year, without the vocals.

Bobby Rush, Porcupine Meat (Deluxe Edition) (Craft Recordings) (Apple / Amazon)

Many decades after scoring a Top 40 R&B hit with “Chicken Heads” in 1971, blues singer Bobby Rush was still doing his own thing: an affable, gritty Southern blues style that satisfied on record, with three Grammy nominations to his name since the 21st century began. 2016’s Porcupine Meat, featuring guest appearances by Joe Bonamassa and Keb’ Mo’, finally won him a trophy, his first of three Best Traditional Blues Album Grammys. This new 10th anniversary expansion adds four bonus tracks, including three live radio recordings.

Evanescence, The Open Door (Deluxe Edition) (Craft Recordings) (Apple / Amazon)

While Evanescence’s debut Fallen (2003) yielded some eight million copies sold in America, two Top 10 hits (“Bring Me to Life,” “My Immortal”) and a Grammy Award for Best New Artist, the follow-up took three years to happen, in part because big-voiced lead singer Amy Lee parted ways with all her bandmates. Despite the ups and downs (including a failed relationship that inspired lead single “Call Me When You’re Sober”), The Open Door was a success, topping the Billboard charts and sending “Sober” to the Top 10. Four bonus tracks are appended to this album, including B-sides, outtakes and a demo.

Cracker, Greenland (20th Anniversary Edition) (Cooking Vinyl) (Apple / Amazon)

Alt-rockers Cracker just reissued their seventh album with one bonus track inserted into the running order.

Gallows, Grey Britain (Deluxe Edition) (Warner Music UK/Rhino) (Apple / Amazon)

British hardcore act Gallows were an unlikely addition to the Warner Music roster in 2009 for their sophomore album, a loosely conceptual, acidic work whose biting criticism of post-financial crisis England predicted a lot of the national ugliness that emerged around the time of Brexit less than a decade later. This newly remastered edition features a handful of unreleased demos and some video footage as bonus content.

Peter, Paul & Mary, A Holiday E.P. (Warner/Rhino) (Apple / Amazon)

This newly curated four-track digital EP is taken from 1988’s A Holiday Celebration, a live set with the New York Choral Society also released as a special for PBS.

Sheena Easton, Just Another Broken Heart / You Could Have Been with Me EPs (RT Industries)

Just Another…: Apple / Amazon
You Could…: Apple / Amazon

The two latest discs from Sheena’s singles box set released earlier this year.

Jesus Jones, Real Real Real EP / Right Here, Right Now EP (RT Industries)

Real: Apple / Amazon
Right Here: Apple / Amazon

This year marked the 35th anniversary of British band Jesus Jones’ sophomore album Doubt, so these digital EPs of lead single “Real Real Real” and its follow-up, the unlikely international smash “Right Here, Right Now,” commemorate the achievement, packed with rarities and B-sides.

Skid Row, 40 Seasons: The Best of Skid Row (2026 Remaster) (BMG) (Apple / Amazon)

Just reissued on CD and vinyl, 40 Seasons captured Skid Row’s most recognizable, major-label period with singer Sebastian Bach at the forefront and singles “18 and Life” and “I Remember You” vaulting into the Top 10. The set, first released in 1998, features a handful of unreleased outtakes and remixes from the band’s Atlantic Records discography.

Eddie “Lockjaw” Davis & Shirley Scott, Moodsville, Volume 4 (Remastered 2026) / Coleman Hawkins, At Ease with Coleman Hawkins / Tommy Flanagan Trio, Moodsville, Volume 9 (Remastered 2026) (Craft Recordings)

Davis/Scott: Apple / Amazon
Hawkins: Apple / Amazon
Flanagan: Apple / Amazon

Three more newly remastered volumes of easy-listening jazz from the first year of Prestige imprint Moodsville in 1960.

Eddy Grant, Reparation (Ice) (Apple / Amazon)

The British Guyanese singer, best known for ’80s smash “Electric Avenue,” was a longtime streaming holdout. Now, nearly all his albums are available digitally, with 2006’s Reparation being one of his most recent.

Jimmie Rodgers, Christmas with Jimmie Rodgers (Geffen) (Apple / Amazon)

Not to be confused with the country music legend, Christmas with Jimmie Rodgers is a 1965 release for Dot Records, featuring the voice behind pre-Hot 100 hits like “Honeycomb” and “Kisses Sweeter Than Wine” delivering engaging MOR versions of favorite carols and pop songs (including an unbelievable straight read of “The Chipmunk Song”).

Annihilator, Bag of Tricks (The All Blacks B.V.) (Apple / Amazon)

Metallica, Megadeth, Anthrax and Slayer are considered the “big four” of thrash metal, but in Canada, one of those slots goes to Annihilator – and this collection of unreleased demos and rare live tracks helps prove it.

Chris Bender, Draped (Atlantic) (Apple / Amazon)

Inspired by generations of soulful greats (all the way up to his fellow Bostonians in the groundbreaking boy band New Edition), Chris Bender seemed destined for greatness, cutting this album as the first in a lengthy deal with the EastWest label. (It was his second overall, after one for Epic.) Tragically, his career was cut short only months later when he was shot and killed; he was only 19 years old. Draped is a bittersweet reminder of what could have been a fruitful career.

Blue Magic, The Magic of the Blue (Atco) (Apple / Amazon)

Blue Magic’s second LP The Magic of the Blue offers 10 tracks of sweet and soulful Philly sounds. Ted “Wizard” Mills, Vernon Sawyer, Richard Pratt, Keith Beaton, and Wendell Sawyer teamed with producers Norman Harris and Bobby Eli and the musicians of MFSB Mk. 1 for a varied set featuring such sublime tracks as Eli and Vinnie Barrett’s ballad “Three Ring Circus” and Harris and Allan Felder’s uptempo “Never Get Over You.” The magic of the Blue, indeed!

Johnny Douglas, The Railway Children: Music from the Motion Picture (Parlophone) (Apple / Amazon)

Edith Nesbit’s beloved story for children about a family forced by circumstances to live near a rail station in early 20th century Britain was adapted multiple times, none more famous than the 1970 film starring Jenny Agutter (reprising her performance from a televised serial adaptation) and directed by Chitty Chitty Bang Bang co-star Lionel Jeffries. Composer/conductor Johnny Douglas (known for his work with RCA’s Living Strings) picked up a BAFTA nomination for his score, heard here.

Maynard Ferguson & Chris Connor, Two’s Company (Parlophone) (Apple / Amazon)

Originally released on the Roulette label in 1961, this LP features Canadian trumpeter Ferguson leading a large-scale ensemble to support jazz singer Connor.

The Flirtations, “Change My Darkness Into Light” (Parlophone) (Apple / Amazon)

This Northern soul vocal trio had a minor Top 40 hit in America with “Nothing But a Heartache” in 1968, recording for the Deram and RCA labels – but this single, cut for Josie Records in 1966, marks the beginning of their career, now available digitally.

Johnny Gimble, Johnny Gimble’s Texas Dance Party (Columbia) (Apple / Amazon)

A Texas-based hero of Western swing whose fiddle can be heard on recordings by Marty Robbins, Willie Nelson and others, Johnny Gimble had one of his first shots as a bandleader on this spirited live album, issued in 1976.

Shawne Jackson, Shawne Jackson (RCA) (Apple / Amazon)

After a Top 10 hit in Canada on the Playboy label with “Just As Bad As You,” singer Shawne Jackson cut this one album for RCA in 1976 with producer Dominic Troiano, ex-guitarist for The James Gang and The Guess Who. Jackson has since had a journeyman career as a vocalist, heard everywhere from Alice Cooper Goes to Hell to the children’s program Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood.

Linda Jones, Your Precious Love (Rhino) (Apple / Amazon)

Linda Jones’ posthumously released 1972 Turbo album officially comes to digital platforms. Though Jones’ life came to a tragic end at the age of 28 after a long battle with diabetes, she left behind a legacy of poignant soul music. This LP includes her rendition of Gerry Goffin and Carole King’s beautiful “I Can’t Make It Alone” from a 1971 Turbo single. The moody “Not on the Outside,” co-written by All Platinum’s Sylvia Robinson and a hit on the label for The Moments, has a “Rainy Night in Georgia”-esque mood accompanying Jones’ declarations of a burning love. Indeed, Jones couldn’t keep it on the outside as she wailed and pled through this soul opus in miniature. Her interpretation of Jerry Butler’s “Your Precious Love,” which lends this LP its title, peaked at No. 15 R&B/No. 74 Pop after Linda’s death.

Omaha Sheriff, Come Hell or Waters High (RCA) (Apple / Amazon)

This short-lived British band is best known for its connections to producer Tony Visconti (who oversaw the sessions and released Come Hell or Waters High on his Good Earth imprint in 1976) and vocalist Chris Birkett, who later had a journeyman musical career – most notably as a co-producer of Sinead O’Connor’s “Nothing Compares 2 U.”

The Rimshots, Down to Earth (Rhino) (Apple / Amazon)

Best known as the funky house band for the All Platinum and Stang labels, the second and final album from The Rimshots, released in 1976, included the minor U.K. hit “7-6-5-4-3-2-1 (Blow Your Whistle).”

The Surprise Sisters, The Surprise Sisters (RCA) (Apple / Amazon)

A quartet of sisters from Australia who’d previously recorded as The Cliffmores, The Surprise Sisters marked another collaboration with producer Tony Visconti and his Good Earth label (reportedly on the endorsement of David Bowie, who caught a performance of theirs). This album, released stateside by RCA in 1976, features a cover of the Andy Fairweather Low composition “La Booga Rooga,” which they took to the U.K. Top 40.

Carol Townes and Fifth Avenue, Carol Townes and Fifth Avenue (RCA) (Apple / Amazon)

One of the few releases on RCA’s soul-forward Sixth Avenue imprint, 1976’s Carol Townes and Fifth Avenue is a session player’s paradise, produced by Lou Courtney (a singer-turned-producer and collaborator to Dennis Lambert who briefly joined The 5th Dimension during their short tenure on Motown) and featuring instrumental contributions from first-call New York musicians like keyboardist Leon Pendarvis, guitarists David Spinozza and Steve Khan and drummers Steve Gadd and Steve Jordan. Vocalist Carol Lynn Townes later contributed to the soundtracks of Breakin’ and its famously-titled sequel Breakin’ 2: Electric Boogaloo.

Mark Tschanz, Blue Dog (Warner Music UK) (Apple / Amazon)

The sole album by an avant-garde Swiss guitarist, issued in 1995.

Deena Webster, Deena Webster is Tuesday’s Child (Parlophone) (Apple / Amazon)

An appealing 1968 one-album wonder of gentle folk from a little-known British singer, featuring takes on the Bee Gees (“New York Mining Disaster, 1941”), Bob Dylan (“Just Like Tom Thumb’s Blues”), Donovan (“Colours”) and more.

Wood Brass & Steel, Wood Brass & Steel (Rhino) (Apple / Amazon)

Another player’s paradise, the funky Turbo Records release Wood Brass & Steel (1976) features a group of Connecticut musicians with stunning contributions in and around the annals of music history. Guitarist Skip McDonald and bassist Doug Wimbish would later be employed by Turbo founder Sylvia Robinson as the house band for her new hip-hop label Sugar Hill – that’s them famously replaying CHIC’s “Good Times” as the bedrock of the Sugar Hill Gang’s “Rapper’s Delight” – and Wimbish has been a member of Living Colour since 1992.

Retta Young, Young & Restless (Rhino) (Apple / Amazon)

Another cratedigger R&B classic from the All Platinum label. Young, who had a minor hit with non-album single “(Sending Out An) S.O.S.,” is here produced by Al Goodman of The Moments/Ray, Goodman & Brown; the pair later married and stayed together until Goodman’s passing in 2010.

PASSINGS

A tireless musician who recorded with the Belleville Three and Cybotron as well as working solo under names like Model 500 and Infiniti, Juan Atkins is, simply put, one of the originators of a groundbreaking style of dance music known as Detroit techno. His daughter Milan has a powerful remembrance of her dad in Resident Advisor.

Marty Erlichman‘s bona fides as a talent manager were already in place when he went to the Bon Soir nightclub in New York’s Greenwich Village in 1961 to cheer on a pal, stand-up comic Phil Leeds. He’d guided Irish troupe The Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem to success, thanks in part to a serendipitous performance on The Ed Sullivan Show that was extended when another guest failed to show. But the aspiring 19-year-old actor he saw that night, making her bones as a nightclub singer because she hadn’t booked any stage gigs, changed his life forever, as he changed hers. Barbra Streisand soon left her manager for Erlichman’s representation, famously signing nothing and working off a handshake. His work behind-the-scenes – still ongoing at the time of his passing at 97 years old – secured Streisand an incredible career as an actor, singer, director and all-around star performer with stunning control over her decades-long tenure at Columbia Records and an impressive film and theatre career that helped net her prestigious EGOT status – only the second person to win an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony award after Richard Rodgers. If people who need people are the luckiest people in the world – as a wise woman once sang – then Marty was one of the luckiest, indeed.

An irreplaceable cornerstone of British music history, drummer Clem Cattini started out with acts like Johnny Kidd & The Pirates (“Shakin’ All Over”) and The Tornados (whose “Telstar” made them the first U.K. band to top the U.S. charts) but soon moved to session work, where he played on a stunning amount of recordings by acts like The Kinks, Dusty Springfield, Tom Jones, the Bee Gees, The Yardbirds, Lou Reed, Cliff Richard, Paul McCartney and others. (The amount of U.K. No. 1s he played on is past 40, averaged by The Guardian as about four a year from 1960 to 2005.) An impressive man of rhythm whose contributions will be remembered by us and many others.