Today, we're rounding up five releases from Ace Records, all of which were released within the past few months by the U.K. label. Ace has followed up its 2022 collection dedicated to the oeuvre of composer John Barry, The More Things Change: Film TV, and Studio Work 1968-1972, with a new volume of the film maestro's works. Something's Up! Film, TV, and Studio Work 1964-1967 (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada) hardly plays like a collection of runners-up, however. Barry crafted so
Quadio Spotlight: Bette Midler, "The Divine Miss M" and Bread, "Baby I'm a Want-You"
Way back in Ye Olden Days of 2011, The Second Disc advocated for the release of the original quadraphonic mix of Bette Midler's 1973 debut, The Divine Miss M. Well, lo these many years later, Rhino has granted our wish, and it's been released on Blu-ray as part of the label's still-growing Quadio series of four-channel reissues. In Craig Anderson's stellar remaster, it's happily as good as we remember it! The 4.0 mix by Atlantic Records veteran Tom Dowd, a legendary producer in his own right,
Can't Wait Till Tomorrow: Cherry Red Expands Sheena Easton's 'Do You'
With 1984's A Private Heaven, Sheena Easton successfully followed in the footsteps of Olivia Newton-John in shedding her "girl next door" persona - so much so that future U.S. Second Lady Tipper Gore's Parents Music Resource Center "honored" Sheena's Prince-penned "Sugar Walls" with a slot on its "Filthy Fifteen" list. No wonder Gore and co. were threatened by the success of "Sugar Walls;" A Private Heaven became the singer's most successful album to date. How to follow it up? Enter Nile
In Memoriam: Kris Kristofferson (1936-2024)
On a Sunday mornin' sidewalk/I'm wishin', Lord, that I was stoned/'Cause there's somethin' in a Sunday/That makes a body feel alone... With songs such as "Sunday Mornin' Comin' Down," Kris Kristofferson expanded the vernacular of country music, bringing realism, gritty authenticity, and a literate sensibility - he was an Oxford-schooled Rhodes Scholar - to a genre already known for its unvarnished musical stories of pain and heartbreak. Kristofferson would find himself at the vanguard of
It's a Beautiful Day: Michael Bublé Collects Greatest Hits on "The Best of Bublé"
With nearly one dozen studio albums, three live sets, and numerous EPs, it's surprising that Michael Bublé is now announcing his first physical greatest hits collection. With 75 million records sold and four Billboard No. 1 albums, he's the third best-selling Canadian artist of all time, behind only Celine Dion and Shania Twain. The Best of Bublé arrives tomorrow, September 27, on CD and digital formats from Reprise Records, while 2LP vinyl editions (standard at all stores, clear at his
Needless to Say: Al Stewart's "Past, Present and Future" Goes Deluxe From Esoteric
Al Stewart fans have been rather well-served in recent years. The historically-minded troubadour recently released a new live album with the band The Empty Pockets, preserving a concert set on 2 CDs. Earlier this summer, Al received a volume of Rhino's Now Playing series of vinyl compilations. Last year, TSD teamed up with Real Gone Music for Songs on the Radio: The Complete U.S. Singles 1974-1981, and in 2022, Madfish issued The Admiralty Lights, a massive 50-CD box set featuring (almost)
On the Way Home: CSNY Releases "Live at Fillmore East, 1969"
On the morning of Monday, August 18, 1969, at 3:30 a.m., David Crosby, Stephen Stills, and Graham Nash took the stage at Max Yasgur's farm. The threesome's self-titled debut album had been released in May, peaking at No. 6 on the Billboard 200 and yielding a pair of hit singles, Nash's "Marrakesh Express" and Stills' "Suite: Judy Blue Eyes." But CSN wasn't done yet. On August 16, they'd launched a tour in Chicago with a new bandmate, Neil Young. The Woodstock performance was CSNY's second
In Memoriam: JD Souther (1945-2024)
"We always said our motto was 'we're building to last.' We really spent a lot of time on the songs. The other motto was, 'no filler.' You don't make a single and then put a bunch of filler on an album. You make an album and hope you have a single," JD Souther shared with me earlier this year. The singer-songwriter's extraordinary body of work, one of the cornerstones of the Southern California rock sound, reflected that ethos: "You're Only Lonely." "Faithless Love." "Her Town Too." "Best
Tops of the Pops: Verve Releases New Louis Armstrong Hits Collection
On October 16, A Wonderful World: The Louis Armstrong Musical begins previews at Broadway's Studio 54, starring Tony Award winner James Monroe Iglehart (Aladdin's Genie) as the titular legend. Told from the perspective of his four wives, the musical chronicles the life of one of the most significant and enduring figures in the entirety of American popular music. Today - roughly one month before the show hits New York - Verve and UMe have celebrated Armstrong's legacy with the release of
Look Out, Ol' Frankie's Back: Sinatra's Final Solo Album Gets Remixed and Expanded for 40th Anniversary
Start spreading the news! Frank Sinatra may have taken John Kander and Fred Ebb's timeless "(Theme From) New York, New York" to the charts, but the Chairman of the Board also had a soft spot for the City of Angels. In 1984, he teamed with the legendary Quincy Jones, fresh off a little 1982 album called Thriller, to craft what would become the final solo studio album of Sinatra's extraordinary career. On October 25, Frank Sinatra Enterprises and UMe will reissue L.A. Is My Lady in a remixed
Review: Faces, "Faces at the BBC: Complete BBC Concert and Session Recordings 1970-1973"
Between the summer of 1969 and the fall of 1975, a joyful noise emerged whenever Faces took the stage. Ronnie Lane (bass), Kenney Jones (drums), and Ian McLagan (keyboards) had emerged from the ashes of pop's Small Faces, while Rod Stewart (vocals) and Ronnie Wood (guitar) were blues-rock veterans of the first iteration of The Jeff Beck Group in which Wood played bass. When they came together, they created a sound unlike either of those earlier groups: rough-and-tumble, raw, ramshackle,
Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers' 'Long After Dark' Gets Lucky on New Deluxe Edition
Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers' fifth studio album is getting a deluxe makeover. On October 18, Geffen/UMe will revisit 1982's oft-overlooked Long After Dark, originally released on Backstreet Records, in various formats including 1LP, 2LP, and 2CD+Blu-ray. Petty was joined by Mike Campbell (lead guitar), Benmont Tench (keyboards), Stan Lynch (drums), and new recruit Howie Epstein (bass/backing vocals) as well as co-producer Jimmy Iovine for Long After Dark. The third and final of Petty's
Review: John Lennon, "Mind Games: The Ultimate Collection"
It's been quite a while since the last John Lennon "Ultimate" box set. Imagine arrived in 2018, followed by Plastic Ono Band in 2021; the multi-disc solo anthology Gimme Some Truth: The Ultimate Mixes was released in between, in 2020. Anticipation justly ran high for this year's Mind Games: The Ultimate Collection, a 6CD/2BD set exploring every aspect of the solo Beatle's 1974 fourth album. (The politically-charged Some Time in New York City, a hybrid live/studio LP from John and Yoko, has
Touch My Heart: Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum Expands "From Where I Stand: The Black Experience in Country Music" Box Set
Back in 1998, The Country Music Foundation teamed with Warner Bros. Records to release From Where I Stand: The Black Experience in Country Music. The 3-CD box set was divided into three thematic discs - The Stringband Era, The Soul Country Years, and Forward with Pride - which reflected on the immense contributions of African-Americans to country music in 60 songs. Today, the spotlight shines even more brightly on the black experience in the genre, in no small part due to the release earlier
The Best Gift: Barbra Streisand's Two Christmas Albums Arrive on Vinyl in October
Barbra Streisand entered London's Olympic Sound Studios in June 1966 while reprising her role of Fanny Brice in the West End premiere of Funny Girl to begin work on what would become her very first Christmas album. Four songs arranged by Ray Ellis and produced by Ettore Strata were cut at the session including "Silent Night" and the Gounod setting of "Ave Maria." A mere two weeks following her July 14 final performance, she was onstage back in the U.S. for the first of four summer concert
In Memoriam: Peter Marshall (1926-2024)
Peter Marshall celebrated the new millennium with the release of his album Boy Singer. The album was the first full-length recording in over thirty years from the longtime Master of The Hollywood Squares, but not the last. Over the course of an extraordinary career spanning nine decades, Marshall made his mark in every arena of show business. Peter passed away yesterday at the age of 98, epitomizing a long life, well-lived. TV buffs, of course, remember Peter's multiple Emmy Award-winning
The Right to Sing: Cherry Red's Lemon Imprint Collects John Miles' "The Albums 1983-93"
Singer-songwriter John Miles' 1976 hit "Music," the opening track of his Decca debut album Rebel, immediately became the artist's calling card. The Alan Parsons-produced single went to the top five on the U.K. Singles Chart, also reaching the top ten in various European countries, and cracking the Billboard Hot 100 in the United States. The epic prog ballad won Miles an Ivor Novello Award, and launched Miles into the stratosphere. Two well-received albums with producer Rupert Holmes followed,
Colour My World: Chicago's 1971 Set at the Kennedy Center to Be Released
Does anybody really know what time it is? On September 27, it's time for Rhino to excavate a vintage Chicago concert from the vaults. Chicago at the John. F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Washington D.C. (9/16/1971) arrives on 3 CDs, 4 LPs, and digital formats, preserving the band's show in the U.S. capital. The concert was recorded just eight days after the opening of the Kennedy Center. Every track on this set is previously unreleased with the exception of "Goodbye," which
Run for Home: Lindisfarne's "Mercury Years" Collected on Box from Cherry Red, Lemon
With a sound melding harmony vocals to soaring folk-rock, Newcastle upon Tyne band Lindisfarne released three studio albums - including the 1972 breakthrough Fog on the Tyne, which spent 56 weeks on the U.K. Albums Chart - before splintering. Two-fifths of the band carried on with new members for a pair of albums in 1973-74, but by '75, the group had called it a day. Then, in 1978, they were back. The album was cheekily entitled Back and Fourth, referring to the fact that the originals had
Review: Rhino's Sounds of the Summer Series - Randy Newman, Chicago, Daryl Hall and John Oates, Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons, Al Stewart, Utopia
Over the past month, Rhino has been releasing numerous titles as part of its Sounds of the Summer initiative, for a total of over two dozen vinyl releases hitting brick-and-mortar stores. These titles encompass various reissues as well as new entries in the label's ongoing Now Playing series of compilations. As of now, these LPs are all exclusive to independent record stores and Barnes & Noble locations. We've given a spin to a few of these titles! How to distill the discography of one
Turn Back Time: Cher Collects Hits on "Forever," Adds Rarities to Digital Edition
On October 19, Cher will be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. One month later, on November 19, Cher releases the first volume of her long-awaited autobiography. The Memoir: Part One will be preceded on September 20 by the superstar's latest hits anthology - her first in nearly two decades. Forever, featuring 21 newly remastered songs curated by the artist, arrives from Warner Records on 1 CD or 2 LPs (pressed on crystal-clear vinyl). On the same date, the Forever: Fan Edition
Must Have Been the Roses: Newest Grateful Dead Box Set Covers April 1978, from "Drums" to "Space"
1978: The Grateful Dead was between Terrapin Station and Shakedown Street, and re-setting the rules onstage. The group's 1978 spring tour introduced "Drums" and "Space" as regular live features, and found Jerry Garcia, Phil Lesh, Bob Weir, Bill Kreutzmann, Mickey Hart, and Keith and Donna Jean Godchaux in re-energized, post-hiatus form. Yesterday, Rhino and the band announced the release of Friend of the Devils: April 1978, a massive 19CD box containing eight previously unreleased concerts from
Do You Want to Dance? Rhino Continues Quadio Series with Bette Midler, Bread, Duke Ellington, Graham Central Station
Rhino's Quadio series continues to grow with a new quartet of Blu-ray Audio releases that are sure to excite devotees of the four-channel surround format. This time, vintage quad mixes from Bette Midler, Bread, Duke Ellington, and Graham Central Station are returning to print for the first time in decades. All Blu-rays also include the original stereo mixes in high-resolution. Few debuts packed the power of Bette Midler's The Divine Miss M. The singer, who'd appeared on Broadway in Fiddler
A New Day: Varese Brings Randy Newman's "Pleasantville" to Vinyl
Writer-director Gary Ross' 1998 fantasy Pleasantville transported modern-day high school students and twin siblings David (Tobey Maguire) and Jennifer (Reese Witherspoon) into the 1950s sitcom of the same name, where the pair proves to be the catalyst for the fictional community's shift from buttoned-up black-and-white to provocative color. To compose the score to his high-concept film, Ross turned to a master of both satire and Americana: acclaimed singer-songwriter Randy Newman. His richly
Review: Joni Mitchell, "The Asylum Albums 1972-1975" in Quadio
The Joni Mitchell renaissance continues. Following a triumphant surprise appearance in July 2022 at the Newport Folk Festival, the singer-songwriter returned to the stage for a full-length Joni Jam in June 2023 at Washington's Gorge Amphitheatre; tickets were quickly snapped up by ardent fans who had waited roughly two decades to see Mitchell in concert once again. The evening was a transcendent one, a taste of which was supplied to the public when Mitchell and her band of friends performed