Liza Minnelli turns 66 today, and could rightfully relax, look back and celebrate over six decades in show business. But the daughter of Judy Garland and Vincente Minnelli, who made her first onscreen appearance as a baby in 1949's MGM extravaganza In the Good Old Summertime, has never been one to rest on her considerable laurels. Minnelli is still touring, recording and doing what she does best: entertaining, whether on the big screen (Sex and the City 2), the small screen (Arrested
City In His Head: Todd Rundgren's Utopia Reissues Continue From Edsel
Todd Rundgren’s tenure at Albert Grossman’s Bearsville Records label took him from his days as a singer/songwriter/self-described Runt in 1970 through his cutting-edge avant garde experiments, both solo and with his band Utopia, culminating in 1985’s A Cappella, rejected by the label and eventually released on Warner Bros. instead. The U.K.’s Edsel label has recently completed its catalogue overhaul for Rundgren, including the entirety of his tenures at Bearsville and Warner. The most recent
Natural Woman: Hear Music Unveils Carole King's "Legendary Demos" At Long Last
Some years back, I was attending a performance of Carole King’s Living Room Tour at New York’s theatre-in-the round then known as the Westbury Music Fair, its cozy environs just perfect for King’s intimate show. Midway through the set, a fan shouted to the stage, “Release your demos, Carole!” King smiled knowingly. “Talk to the publisher!” she replied. It clearly wasn’t the first time she had heard the request; indeed, legendary isn’t too strong a word for the original vocal-and-piano tracks
Wear Your Love Like Heaven: New "Essential Donovan" Arriving From Legacy
I’m just mad about Donovan, and while I don’t know whether Donovan’s mad about me, you just might be mad about The Essential Donovan! Though a single-disc compilation of that name arrived from Epic Records and Legacy Recordings in 2004, the 2012 edition does it one (or a few, actually) better. Slated for April 17, the new Essential Donovan coincides with Donovan Leitch’s long-overdue induction next month into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. It features 36 songs on two discs, including every
Carefree Highway: Rhino Offers Rare "Moments" With Gordon Lightfoot
Gordon Lightfoot’s stands at Toronto’s Massey Hall have become a cherished tradition over the past forty years, with the Canadian troubadour having taken the stage more times than any other artist in the Hall’s 117 year history. Last May 25, 2011, Lightfoot performed his 150th concert there, and as he prepares for this year’s stand in November, Rhino Records is reminding fans of his rich legacy there with the April 17 release of Massey Hall Moments - All Live. Why not just plain Live?
Ooh Wah, Ooh Wah, Cool Cool Kitty: Grateful Dead, Ad Libs, Eddie Rabbitt Coming From Real Gone Music
Yee-haw! Real Gone Music has announced its late April/early May slate of releases, and you can count on plenty of country plus helping heapings of R&B, pop and, well, The Grateful Dead! On April 17, the label will release the Complete Hit Singles As and Bs from soul legend Little Willie John as well as a vintage Complete Hit Singles As and Bs collection for “Cowboy” Copas. Then on May 1 comes The Complete Blue Cat Recordings of The Ad Libs, straight from the vaults of Leiber and
A World of Laughter, A World of Tears: The Second Disc Remembers Robert B. Sherman
Sher ·man ·ism (sher'maniz'em) NOUN: The creation of music abundant in optimism and heart, written for kids of all ages. OTHER FORMS: sher man·ist (Noun), sher man·esque (Adjective) Okay, so that’s not really in the dictionary. But then again, neither is “supercalifragilisticexpialidocious,” “fortuosity,” “fantasmagorical” or “gratifaction.” But perhaps they should be. Have any other songwriters broadened the English language as much as Richard M. Sherman and Robert B. Sherman? The
Here They Go Again: The Hollies Reveal BBC "Radio Fun"
2011 was a good year to be a Hollies fan, and it seems that 2012 might follow in its footsteps! Last year, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees saw a plethora of releases on both CD and vinyl from labels like EMI, Sundazed and BGO, reissuing individual albums and offering comprehensive new compilations. This May, a heretofore-unreleased area of the band's history will be rediscovered when EMI issues Radio Fun, a 32-track compilation of some of the classic group's best BBC radio
I'm Sticking with You: The Velvet Underground's Moe Tucker Gets Career-Spanning Anthology
She may have been a self-described “schlep from Levittown,” but Maureen “Moe” Tucker of The Velvet Underground always beat to the sound of her own drum. Tucker shed her suburban roots when she joined with Lou Reed, John Cale and Sterling Morrison in The Velvet Underground, replacing drummer Angus MacLise. (His tenure was a brief few months.) It’s fair to say that The Velvets changed the sound of rock and roll forever, breaking long-held lyrical taboos and musically drawing from both
Details Revealed For George Harrison Film "Material World" Deluxe Edition, CD To Feature Unreleased Recordings
UPDATE 3/5/12: Our friends at MusicTAP are reporting a May 1 release date for the American video premiere of Living in the Material World on both DVD and Blu-Ray. Watch this space for details on whether the American editions will mirror the contents of the British releases, as described below! ORIGINAL POST (10/5/11): DVR Alert! Martin Scorsese’s documentary Living in the Material World premieres on American television tonight on HBO, proving that – at least for tonight – it’s not TV; it’s
Review: Mark Lindsay, "The Complete Columbia Singles"
There'll be joy and there'll be laughter/Something big is what I'm after now... As frontman, songwriter and saxophonist of Paul Revere and the Raiders, Mark Lindsay had experienced his fair share of joy and laughter, but as 1969 rolled around, the band behind such garage-pop anthems as "Kicks," "Just like Me" and "Hungry" was beginning to fracture. Jack Gold, head of A&R at Columbia Records, however, saw something big in Mark Lindsay's future. According to the singer, Gold had stumbled on
The Knack (And How to Get It): Omnivore Offers Knack EP, Rare Buck Owens Coloring Book For Record Store Day
We’re less than two months away from Record Store Day, and with that means the promise of major limited edition releases from many of the labels you read about each day here at The Second Disc. Los Angeles’ Omnivore Recordings, one of our favorite new labels of 2011, is leading the pack with its announcement of two unique titles to be made available on April 21 for Record Store Day. The more unusual of the two is, believe it or not, a coloring book! Yes, Omnivore is offering a 2,500-copy
Listen, Whitey! Incendiary New Compilation Features Bob Dylan's Rare "George Jackson" and Much More
In her 1989 autobiography And a Voice to Sing With, Joan Baez recalled once asking Bob Dylan what was the difference between them. It was simple, he replied: she thought she could change things, and he knew that no one could. But one could argue that music did indeed, change things. Youth were politically engaged as never before, and awareness was raised of many crucial issues still debated today. Author Pat Thomas recalls “those turbulent years (approximately 1967 to 1974) when revolutionaries
Wes Montgomery's Lost Recordings Discovered On "Indiana Avenue"
Though Wes Montgomery died in 1968 aged just 45, the Indiana-born jazz guitarist made such an impression that his body of work has influenced an entire generation of guitar players, from George Benson to Pat Metheny, Jimi Hendrix and everyone in between. In a period of roughly ten years, Montgomery had three distinct periods at different labels: Riverside (1959-1964), Verve (1964-1966) and A&M (1967-1968), the latter two under the aegis of producer Creed Taylor. Maverick producer Taylor
Un homme et une Femme: Classic Francis Lai Score Reissued, Plus Billy May, Maurice Chevalier and More
Johnny Mathis, Robert Goulet and Engelbert Humperdinck sang it. Ella Fitzgerald sang it. Claudine Longet even sang it in its original French! The song was “A Man and a Woman,” or “Un Homme et une Femme,” from the 1966 film of the same name. The Francis Lai composition was a favorite of pop singers and jazz musicians alike, and was quite ubiquitous; as Kritzerland’s Bruce Kimmel asks, “Is there a person anywhere in the world who was around in the 1960s and 1970s who could not instantly
In Memoriam: Hey, Hey, It's Davy Jones!
UPDATE 2/29/12: Today at The Second Disc, we join music fans all over the world in mourning the loss of Davy Jones, who died this morning at the age of 66. The worlds of music, stage and screen all lost an icon with the passing of the actor, singer, comedian and beloved Monkee. Davy brought a little of the British Invasion to the California band, as well as lot of talent, sweetness, heart and chutzpah. New York DJ Cousin Brucie Morrow took the airwaves on Sirius/XM satellite radio early
Good Lovin': Felix Cavaliere Teams with Todd Rundgren, Laura Nyro, Leslie West, Dino Danelli On Bearsville Reissue
The union of singer/songwriter Felix Cavaliere and producer Todd Rundgren might have seemed like a marriage made in heaven, with Cavaliere having specialized in blue-eyed soul with The Rascals, and the wunderkind Rundgren no slouch in that field, either. But in fact, it was more like a shotgun wedding. You can hear for yourself, as Cavaliere’s Rundgren-produced, self-titled 1974 album for Bearsville Records has just been coupled with its follow-up, Destiny (1975) on a stellar new two-for-one
The Road to Utopia: M. Frog and Roger Powell of Rundgren's Classic Band, Reissued
Bearsville is back! Even as Edsel Records has been tackling Todd Rundgren's catalogue, both solo and with Utopia, the enterprising label hasn’t stopped there. This month has brought two releases related to the Rundgren mystique but still capable of standing on their own considerable merits. Roger Powell may be the most well-known of Utopia’s keyboard/synthesizer players, but he was actually preceded in the band by Jean Yves “M. Frog” Labat. Both Labat and Powell recorded solo albums at
Review: Pink Floyd, "The Wall: Immersion Box Set"
By the way, which one’s Pink? A record executive poses that wry musical question of Pink Floyd in “Have a Cigar,” a brief, humorous respite on the band’s elegiac 1975 album Wish You Were Here. The ever-ambitious group would actually answer that wry question with The Wall, 1979’s sprawling double album. The psychedelic Dark Side of the Moon and reflective Wish You Were Here both invited listeners to create their own stories in service of the albums’ impressionistic concepts, largely dealing
Review: Carole King, "The Carole King Collection: Simple Things, Welcome Home, Touch the Sky, and Pearls"
Carole King was ready for a fresh start in 1977. She had recently split from manager/producer Lou Adler’s Ode Records, the label with which she had signed back in 1968 as the lead singer of The City. It was, of course, at Ode where King triumphed with Tapestry, and over the years introduced a parade of memorable songs like “It’s Too Late,” “So Far Away,” You’ve Got a Friend,” “Sweet Seasons,” “Been to Canaan” and “Jazzman.” Yet the four albums recorded by King at Capitol between 1977 and 1980
Eat It: Humble Pie Reissues Coming Soon From Lemon
There's plenty of buzz over here about Universal U.K.'s upcoming Small Faces remasters, but another project of Small Faces frontman Steve Marriott is also getting some reissue love. Marriott left the Small Faces in late 1968 to join Peter Frampton, Greg Ridley and Jerry Shirley in Humble Pie, free of the pop expectations of his former band. Signed to Andrew Loog Oldham's Immediate label, also home to the Small Faces, Humble Pie launched its career with 1969's As Safe as Yesterday Is. For its
Weekend Wround-Up - The Diva Edition: Midler, Streisand Releases Coming Soon
Welcome to today’s Weekend Wround-Up: The Diva Edition! Nobody – no, nobody! – is going to rain on Barbra Streisand’s parade. Columbia Records, the singer’s home since 1963, has announced that Streisand will remain with the label that guided her to stardom. Speculation had arisen some months back that the singer might decamp for a new artistic residence, but those rumors have now officially been set to rest. "From the day [legendary Columbia President] Goddard Lieberson signed me almost 50
Review: Tony Bennett, "Isn't It Romantic?"
Isn’t it romantic? The titular phrase from a song by Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart could apply to much of Tony Bennett’s musical career, now in roughly its 65th year. It’s also the title of a new compilation aimed at the casual Bennett fan from Concord Music Group. Isn’t It Romantic? (CRE-33463-02) repackages 15 prime cuts from the singer’s work at his own short-lived Improv label, with a smattering of tracks from a Fantasy Records LP thrown in for good measure. Though Bennett’s artistic
From Motown to the Bay Area! The Apollas' "Absolutely Right!" and Eddie Holland's "It Moves Me: The Complete Recordings 1958-1964" Available Now
Are you thinking you should take a chance on Ace Records’ supremely soulful duo of releases from The Apollas and Eddie Holland? If so…you’re absolutely right! For The Apollas’ Absolutely Right: The Complete Tiger, Loma and Warner Bros. Recordings (Kent CDKEND 365, 2012) and Holland’s It Moves Me: The Complete Recordings 1958-1964 (Ace CDTOP2 1331, 2012) both belong on the shelf of any serious fan of classic soul and R&B. If you haven’t heard of The Apollas, you’re forgiven. This Bay Area
Groovy Kind of Reissue: Bear Family Expands Early Mindbenders Album
By the time Eric, Rick, Wayne, Bob was released by Wayne Fontana and the Mindbenders in 1965, the band was essentially a defunct unit. Wayne Fontana (the former Glyn Geoffrey Ellis) had dreamed of solo stardom from the start, and he wasn’t shy about those aspirations. Eric Stewart, later of Hotlegs and 10cc, recalled in 1994 that Fontana “just walked off stage [during an October 1965 show] one night. I remember he said, ‘It’s all yours.’ And we actually carried on and did the regular show
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