When Fanny - a.k.a. June Millington (guitar), Jean Millington (bass), Alice De Buhr (drums), and Nickey Barclay (keyboards) - came to Reprise Records in 1969, the foursome became the first all-female rock band to be signed to a major label. Championed by Richard Perry, Fanny went on record four albums for Reprise, notch two top 40 singles, open for acts including Humble Pie, Jethro Tull, and Slade, and even back Barbra Streisand on a couple of songs. Their catalogue has been well-served over
In Memoriam: Phil Lesh (1940-2024)
And it's just a box of rain/Or a ribbon for your hair/Such a long, long time to be gone/And a short time to be there... With the passing on Friday of Phil Lesh at the age of 84, another chapter of Grateful Dead's long, strange trip has come to a close. A founding member of the Dead, Lesh positioned his bass as a crucial element of the band's sound. Even as his fluid lines complemented the rhythms of Bob Weir's guitar and the thunderous boom of Bill Kreutzmann and Mickey Hart's drums, Lesh
In Memoriam: Jack Jones (1938-2024)
Music was Jack Jones' birthright. The singer's singer - best-known for "Wives and Lovers," "Lollipops and Roses," "The Race Is On," and, yes, the theme to The Love Boat - was born to actors Allan Jones and Irene Hervey in 1938 and grew up in the world of show business, eventually reaching its heights himself. Jones has died at 86 after a battle with leukemia, and while his passing closes another chapter of The Great American Songbook, his extraordinary body of work will continue to
Can You Dig It? Yes, I Can: Chicago's "Live at 55" Features Steve Vai, Robert Randolph, Chris Daughtry, Judith Hill, More
Last November 17 and 18, Chicago celebrated the 55th anniversary of debut album Chicago Transit Authority at Atlantic City's Ovation Hall (within the massive Ocean Casino Resort) with two marathon concerts touching on every facet of the band's long career. Now, the film of those concerts - featuring a number of special guests including Steve Vai, Robert Randolph, and Judith Hill - is coming to a variety of formats almost one year to the day, on November 22, 2024. Mercury Studios will release
A Special One for You: 'Christmas Once More' Offers New Mixes of Carpenters Holiday Classics
Christmas music was a vital part of the Carpenters canon from the very beginning. In 1970, Richard and Karen contributed their own standard to the yuletide canon with "Merry Christmas Darling," the first of three holiday singles released by the brother-and-sister duo. Richard set to music the lyric written by Frank Pooler, choir director at the Carpenters' alma mater of California State University - Long Beach (today the home of the Richard and Karen Carpenter Performing Arts Center), and in
Listen to the Music: Rhino's New Batch of Quadio Titles Includes Doobie Brothers, Jefferson Starship, J. Geils Band, Foghat
Rhino's ongoing series of Quadio four-channel surround releases on Blu-ray Audio Discs has already presented a host of classic albums by the eclectic likes of Joni Mitchell, Bette Midler, Bread, Chicago, Seals and Crofts, Spinners, Randy Newman, and many others. Today, the label announced a new batch with three returning artists (The Doobie Brothers, Jefferson Starship, J. Geils Band) and one band new to Quadio (Foghat). Each of the four discs, currently available exclusively from Rhino.com,
Fairy Tale: Cherry Red, Grapefruit Reissue Rock Cult Classic from Amazing Blondel Predecessor Methuselah
Before founding progressive folk group Amazing Blondel, John Gladwin and Terry Wincott played in various musical units and styles. After honing their skills in beat, blues, R&B, soul, and even California-inspired psychedelic harmony pop, the British duo turned their sights to harder rock and changed their band's name from The Gospel Garden (inspired by both The 5th Dimension's Jimmy Webb-penned opus The Magic Garden and the 1963 recording of the Langston Hughes stage adaptation Black
Review: Frank Zappa, "apostrophe ('): 50th Anniversary Edition"
Strictly commercial? Not quite. Though Frank Zappa earned his first top ten record and first Gold record with apostrophe (') - the same LP that spun off his first single to make the Billboard Hot 100 - it would be difficult to argue that the singer-songwriter-bandleader had dramatically altered his art in an effort to hit the charts. Sure, the material was a bit more focused and the album rather tight at 32 minutes in length. Yeah, the cover artwork, with its instantly recognizable,
Mama, Cradle Me Again: Madfish Collects Laura Nyro Albums, Rarities on New CD Box
Over three years after the release of its 8LP vinyl box set American Dreamer 1967-1978, the Madfish label is returning to the discography of late singer-songwriter Laura Nyro for the December 6 release of Hear My Song: The Collection 1966-1995. Whereas American Dreamer chronicled Nyro's first decade of music, the 19CD Hear My Song is a career-spanning appreciation of the artist who influenced such talents as Elton John, Barry Manilow, Todd Rundgren, Stephen Schwartz, Rickie Lee Jones, Melissa
Ace Round-Up: Label Celebrates John Barry, Jackie DeShannon, Thom Bell, Paul Williams, Holland-Dozier-Holland
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
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