Author Archive / Joe Marchese

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Classic Rock, Pop, Rock, Soundtracks

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Linda McCartney, Paul McCartney, Wings

In Memoriam: Mark Volman (1947-2025)

September 8, 2025 by Joe Marchese | 2 Comments

The Second Disc remembers Mark Volman, 78, co-founder of The Turtles, one half of Flo & Eddie, unforgettable member of Frank Zappa’s Mothers of Invention, author, radio personality, and artists’ rights advocate. With his longtime musical partner Howard Kaylan, Mark lent his soaring vocals to recordings by such artists as T. Rex, Bruce Springsteen, Alice Cooper, and many others. A bright, colorful, and cheery onstage presence, Mark continued to perform with The Turtles following Kaylan’s 2018 retirement, spreading the fun of “Happy Together,” “Elenore,” and “You Baby” with delighted audiences across the…

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Box Sets, CD, Digital Download, Digital Streaming, Vinyl

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Digital Download, Digital Streaming

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Flo and Eddie, Mark Volman, The Turtles

The Weekend Stream: September 6, 2025

September 6, 2025 by Joe Marchese | 4 Comments

Welcome to another edition of The Weekend Stream, The Second Disc’s review of notable catalogue titles (and some new ones, too!) making digital debuts. We’ve got a great concert album making a digital debut as well as live singles from Oasis and Evita star Rachel Zegler! Plus: a whole lotta musicals and a new album from an R&B/jazz legend! The Hooters, Live (Geffen) (Apple / Amazon) Here’s another title arriving courtesy of our friends at SuperVisible Multi Media: the 1994 live album from The Hooters recorded over two dates in Germany plus…

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The Weekend Stream

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Cast Recordings, Classic Rock, Disco/Dance, Pop, R&B/Soul, Rock

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Art in America, Jennifer Lopez, Jonathan Groff, Lady Gaga, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Narada Michael Walden, Oasis, Rachel Zegler, The Hooters

Music Must Change: The Who Expand ‘Who Are You’ with Outtakes, Live Tracks and Remixes

September 2, 2025 by Joe Marchese | 18 Comments

Following such previous super deluxe album box sets as Who’s Next, The Who Sell Out, My Generation, Tommy, and Quadrophenia, the band has just announced that 1978’s Who Are You will receive similarly lavish treatment on October 31. The band’s eighth album, Who Are You was also its final studio LP to feature drummer Keith Moon. The centerpiece of the multi-format release is a 7CD/1Blu-ray set which will offer the following: CD1: The original 1978 album as newly remastered by Jon Astley at Close to the Edge; CD2: Glyn Johns’ original, shelved…

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Box Sets, CD, Digital Download, Digital Streaming, Vinyl

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Harry Nilsson, Jimmy Webb, Joni Mitchell

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The Who

As Tears Go By: Marianne Faithfull’s “Cast Your Fate to the Wind” Collects Her Decca Recordings

August 28, 2025 by Joe Marchese | 2 Comments

Marianne Faithfull Cast Your Fate to the Wind

Marianne Faithfull didn’t have to open her mouth to receive a recording contract. As the story goes, so vividly recounted in the liner notes to the new box set Cast Your Fate to the Wind: The U.K. Decca Recordings, the young woman was so striking in beauty and presence that impresario Andrew Loog Oldham didn’t hesitate to sign her on sight. (Even her name was made for stardom!) But it was just as clear that she was no ordinary pop starlet chasing dreams in Swingin’ London. Faithfull was remarkably clear-eyed, quipping to…

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News, Reviews

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Box Sets, CD

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Classic Rock, Folk, Pop

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Marianne Faithfull

Walk Your Feet in the Sunshine: Cherry Red Collects Jimmy Webb’s 1970s Albums on “A Life in Words and Music”

August 27, 2025 by Joe Marchese | 9 Comments

“Freddy, those songs killed me.” Jimmy Webb once confessed to longtime musical collaborator Fred Mollin that the songs on which he made his name – “Up, Up, and Away,” Didn’t We,” “By the Time I Get to Phoenix,” “Wichita Lineman,” among innumerable other classics – placed him at a personal crossroads. He yearned to be accepted as a singer-songwriter like his contemporaries, but the fact that he began his career writing songs for others (and massive hit songs, at that) made acceptance in that field an uphill battle. Over the years, the…

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News, Reviews

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Box Sets, CD

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Classic Rock, Pop

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Review: Nick Drake, “The Making of ‘Five Leaves Left'”

August 25, 2025 by Joe Marchese | 5 Comments

Nick Drake’s legacy is primarily built around just three albums, originally released between 1969 and 1972. Before 1974 was out, the British singer-songwriter was gone at the age of 26. Over the years, esteem for his small discography has only grown. Partly, this is because the mystique has remained; the Drake estate has only sporadically gone back to the well of unreleased material. Their cautious and curated approach has yielded a new reward with a box set dedicated to his 1969 debut. The Making of ‘Five Leaves Left,’ available on 4 LPs…

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Reviews

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Box Sets, CD, Digital Download, Digital Streaming, Vinyl

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Classic Rock, Folk

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Nick Drake

They Will Dare: The Replacements’ ‘Let It Be’ is Their Latest Deluxe Reissue

August 20, 2025 by Joe Marchese | 6 Comments

Rhino’s series of deluxe Replacements reissues is continuing on October 24 with 3CD and 4LP expanded editions of the Minneapolis band’s seminal 1984 Twin/Tone album cheekily titled Let It Be. Let It Be takes a different format than the previous reissues of Tim, Sorry Ma, Forgot to Take Out the Trash, Pleased to Meet Me, and Dead Man’s Pop (an alternative presentation of Don’t Tell a Soul), all of which included both vinyl and CD in one package. This time, the formats are split into individual releases. Both the CD and LP packages…

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Paul Westerberg, Peter Buck, The Replacements

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Box Sets, CD, Digital Download, Digital Streaming, Vinyl

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Rock

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John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s New Live Box Set Showcases ‘Sometime in New York City’ and Elsewhere

August 14, 2025 by Joe Marchese | 27 Comments

One of the most incendiary periods of John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s life together is about to be re-explored in a new 9CD/3Blu-ray box set coming on October 10 (one day after what would have been Lennon’s 85th birthday) from Capitol Records/UMe. Power to the People features 123 tracks (90 of which are previously unreleased) to tell the full story of Lennon and Ono’s political activism, spanning the prolific period between 1969’s anthem “Give Peace a Chance” and 1972’s controversial live album Sometime in New York City as well as that year’s…

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Frank Zappa, George Harrison, John Lennon, Phil Ochs, Yoko Ono

United: Ace Compiles Songs of Gamble and Huff on “Love Train” Collection

August 13, 2025 by Joe Marchese | 7 Comments

Ace Records is currently celebrating its 50th anniversary with special releases as well as concerts and a pop-up shop in London. Over the course of those decades, the label has established a number of long-running series including their Songwriters and Producers lines. A recent release in the Songwriters series celebrates two of the all-time greats in both categories: Philadelphia’s Kenneth Gamble and Leon Huff. Love Train: The Gamble and Huff Songbook brings together 24 songs from the Philadelphia International Records duo who also formed two thirds of Mighty Three Publishing along with…

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News, Reviews

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R&B/Soul

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Dusty Springfield, Elvis Presley, Gamble and Huff, Gladys Knight and the Pips, Harold Melvin and The Blue Notes, Jean Carn, Jerry Butler, Lou Rawls, Mary Wells, The Intruders, The O'Jays, The Supremes, Wilson Pickett

A SECOND DISC EXCLUSIVE! “Play On: A Raspberries Tribute” Welcomes Rick Springfield, Lou Gramm, Marshall Crenshaw, John Waite, More

August 11, 2025 by Joe Marchese | 9 Comments

Today would have been Eric Carmen’s 76th birthday. To mark the occasion, we’re thrilled to be first to break the news about an upcoming collection we know you’re not going to want to miss! The Raspberries blazed briefly but brightly. When Eric Carmen and Wally Bryson of Cyrus Eyrie teamed up with Jim Bonfanti and Dave Smalley of The Choir, the result was pure bliss. The Raspberries emerged from the ashes from the two bands, and over the course of four albums originally released between 1972 and 1974 – three with the…

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Cherie Currie, Fernando Perdomo, John Waite, Karla DeVito, Kasim Sulton, Ken Sharp, Lou Gramm, Marshall Crenshaw, Raspberries, Rick Springfield, Shoes, The Lemon Twigs, Tori Holub

Sunshine All The Time: Omnivore’s “Something There: Remembering Jeffrey Foskett” Is OUT NOW!

August 6, 2025 by Joe Marchese | 2 Comments

Jeffrey Foskett surely embodied the California Dream. The San Jose native his dues gigging around the Golden State with such early bands as Reverie and The Pranks. A knock on Brian Wilson’s door in 1976 led to a long friendship with the Beach Boy, while Wilson’s cousin Mike Love became a Foskett fan three years later upon hearing Reverie live in a Santa Barbara bar. Love brought Foskett into the Beach Boys fold – first in The Endless Summer Beach Band, then in the Beach Boys themselves. Gifted with an ethereal falsetto,…

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America, Brian Wilson, Christopher Cross, Gerry Beckley, Henry Kapono, Jeff Larson, Jeffrey Foskett, Los Straitjackets, Mike Love, Papa Doo Run Run, Robert Lamm, The Beach Boys

Only the Beginning: Rhino Expands ‘Chicago IX’ to Represent Their First Decade

August 5, 2025 by Joe Marchese | 14 Comments

Chicago IX, originally released in time for the Christmas shopping season in 1975, was the band’s first greatest hits album. Originally released on the Columbia label in both stereo and quadraphonic formats, the collection brought together 11 songs spanning 1969’s Chicago Transit Authority through 1974’s Chicago VII. On August 8, Rhino will revisit Chicago IX: Chicago’s Greatest Hits in a gold-hued edition to mark its 50th anniversary. It’s been expanded from 11 to 21 songs, and its purview has been expanded, too: it now goes all the way through 1980’s Chicago XIV,…

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Chicago

Can’t Afford No Shoes: Frank Zappa’s “One Size Fits All” Gets Expanded for 50th

July 31, 2025 by Joe Marchese | 2 Comments

Following last year’s deluxe expansion of 1974’s Apostrophe (‘) and the recent restoration of the same year’s concert film Cheaper Than Cheep, Frank Zappa’s archival team is turning the page to 1975 and expansively revisiting One Size Fits All in time for its 50th anniversary. The guitarist-songwriter-bandleader-producer’s twentieth album (and fourteenth with The Mothers of Invention), it featured the by-then-familiar lineup of keyboardist George Duke, drummer Chester Thompson, percussionist Ruth Underwood, bassist Tom Fowler, and saxophonist Napoleon Murphy Brock. One Size Fits All continued their jazz-rooted satirical explorations, and reached No. 26…

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Classic Rock, Everything Else, Rock

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Frank Zappa, George Duke

Review: Frank Zappa, “Cheaper Than Cheep”

July 29, 2025 by Joe Marchese | 3 Comments

The latest archival release from the Frank Zappa camp may be called Cheaper Than Cheep, but rest assured, this concert program is actually an embarrassment of audiovisual riches. Available in a variety of formats including 2CD+Blu-ray, 3LP, and 2CD/3LP/1BD configurations, Cheaper Than Cheep preserves a long-lost concert recorded on June 21, 1974 at a rehearsal studio on Sunset Blvd. in Hollywood in the wake of the Mothers of Inventions’ tenth anniversary tour. Zappa was joined by a Mothers line-up including Chester Thompson (drums), George Duke (keyboards, vocals), Jeff Simmons (guitar, vocals), Napoleon…

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Reviews

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Classic Rock, Rock, Soundtracks

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Frank Zappa

Night Flight: Led Zeppelin’s “Live EP” Celebrates 50 Years of “Physical Graffiti”

July 24, 2025 by Joe Marchese | 8 Comments

Led Zeppelin’s Physical Graffiti, originally released in February 1975, arrived almost two years after the band’s last album, Houses of the Holy. Unsurprisingly, it was Zeppelin’s most sprawling effort to date. The double-LP set showcased every side of Robert Plant, Jimmy Page, John Paul Jones, and John Bonham’s increasingly varied repertoire. It turned 50 earlier this year, and now Rhino is marking the occasion with a new Live EP due on 180-gram 12″ vinyl, CD, and digital/streaming services on September 12. On the same date, the label will reissue 2015’s Deluxe Edition on…

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CD, Digital Download, Digital Streaming, Vinyl

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Classic Rock

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Led Zeppelin

The Music Never Stopped: Grateful Dead’s “Blues for Allah” Is Expanded for 50th Anniversary

July 22, 2025 by Joe Marchese | 1 Comment

Grateful Dead’s 50th anniversary reissue program is truckin’ on with the September 12 reissue of the band’s Blues for Allah, originally released on September 1, 1975. A deluxe, expanded 3CD edition will arrive alongside a digital version and a 1LP remaster of the original album available in black vinyl, picture disc, and Dead.net-exclusive colored vinyl pressings. In addition, a Blu-ray will premiere surround, Dolby Atmos, stereo, and instrumental mixes by the prolific Steven Wilson. Blues for Allah came on the heels of the Dead’s self-imposed (and ultimately) brief hiatus which began in…

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Blu-Ray Audio, CD, Digital Download, Digital Streaming, Vinyl

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Classic Rock

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Grateful Dead

Turning to Gold: Ronnie Wood Looks Back on “Fearless: The Anthology,” Features Rod Stewart, Faces, Rolling Stones

July 21, 2025 by Joe Marchese | 11 Comments

Ronnie Wood is celebrating 60+ years in music with a new anthology, comprising solo tracks as well as key cuts from his time playing with the illustrious likes of The Rolling Stones, Rod Stewart, and Jeff Beck as well as his earliest recordings with The Birds and The Creation. Fearless: The Anthology 1965-2025 is due from BMG on September 26 in 2CD and 2LP formats, with 38 tracks on the CD set including four all-new recordings exclusive to this collection. Fearless kicks off with a pair of recordings from the Middlesex native’s…

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Faces, Rod Stewart, Ronnie Wood, The Birds, The Creation, The Rolling Stones

The Right Thing to Do: Rhino’s New Quadio Batch Features Carly Simon, Bread, Judy Collins, The New Seekers

July 18, 2025 by Joe Marchese | 9 Comments

We recently filled you in on Elektra’s 75th anniversary vinyl campaign which sees a variety of titles arriving this month. Now, the celebration is continuing with four new Quadio releases on Blu-ray Audio, all greatest-hits collections drawn from the Elektra catalogue. These four-channel surround titles from Carly Simon, Bread, Judy Collins, and The New Seekers are all available now, exclusively from Rhino.com. Every one of these titles boasts both the original quadraphonic mix with a high-resolution 192 kHz/24-bit stereo mix, both sourced from the original analog four-track quad master tapes. 1972’s Colors…

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Formats:

Blu-Ray Audio

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Classic Rock, Folk, Pop

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Bread, Carly Simon, Judy Collins, The New Seekers

A Walk in the Sky: Cherry Red, Grapefruit Collect Flower Pot Men’s Psych-Pop on “Midsummer Dreaming”

July 16, 2025 by Joe Marchese | No Comments

Three years ago, Cherry Red’s Grapefruit imprint saluted the career of singer and songwriter John Carter (“Beach Baby,” “Little Bit o’ Soul,” “Can’t You Hear My Heartbeat,” “Winchester Cathedral”) on the 4CD set My World Fell Down: The John Carter Story. Now, the label is turning to one of Carter’s studio outfits, The Flower Pot Men, for the comprehensive, new 3CD collection Midsummer Dreaming: An Anthology 1967-1970. Naturally, the set opens with “Let’s Go to San Francisco,” the Summer of Love homage written and produced by Carter and Ken Lewis which went…

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Pop

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John Carter, Ken Lewis, The Flower Pot Men, Tony Burrows

Jump to the Beat: Edsel Reissues “Disco Ladies” and “Disco Boogie” Collections

July 14, 2025 by Joe Marchese | 2 Comments

Late in 2023, Demon Music Group revived its Disco Discharge series on the Edsel label. Two recent 2CD volumes, Disco Ladies and Disco Boogie, continue presenting the series in a deluxe, oversized seven-inch format. These titles, chockablock with disco deep cuts and hits alike, were originally issued on the Harmless label in 2009 and 2010, respectively, and have been tweaked (likely due to licensing restrictions) for this go-round. Disco Ladies offers a cross-section of the many women with varied styles who ruled the dancefloor. As original compiler/annotator Alan Jones notes in his…

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Disco/Dance, Funk, R&B/Soul

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A Taste of Honey, Alisha, Cheryl Lynn, Deniece Williams, Glenn Jones, Harold Melvin and The Blue Notes, Melba Moore, Nona Hendryx, Silver Convention, Sister Sledge, Skyy, Teena Marie, Toto, Various Artists

Never Get Old: David Bowie’s Final Albums Boxed on “I Can’t Give Everything Away”

July 9, 2025 by Joe Marchese | 7 Comments

David Bowie I Can't Give Everything Away

After a period of nearly four years, David Bowie’s series of “Eras” box sets is returning with a new, final volume. I Can’t Give Everything Away (2002-2016) arrives on September 12 from ISO Records and Parlophone, concluding the career-spanning chronicle of the shape-shifting superstar. The new 13-CD or 18-LP box picks up where 2021’s Brilliant Adventure (1992-2001) left off, capturing the final years of an artist who never stopped innovating. The set contains new pressings of: Heathen (2002); Reality (2003); A Reality Tour (recorded 2003, released 2010); The Next Day (2013); The…

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David Bowie

Review: Robin Trower, “For Earth Below: 50th Anniversary Edition”

July 3, 2025 by Joe Marchese | 4 Comments

1975’s For Earth Below proved a turning point for Robin Trower. The ex-Procol Harum guitarist’s third solo set, it introduced drummer Bill Lordan to Trower’s power trio which also included singer-bassist James Dewar. Building on the success of its predecessor, Bridge of Sighs, the album became Trower’s most successful in the United States and solidified his place in the guitar-hero pantheon. Now, Chrysalis Records has revisited the blues-rock classic in a new 4CD mediabook edition, mirroring the format of last year’s reissue of Bridge of Sighs. (It’s also available in digital and…

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Release Round-Up

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Box Sets, CD, Digital Download, Digital Streaming, Vinyl

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Classic Rock

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Robin Trower

Baby I’m-A Want You: Elektra Celebrates 75 Years with Monthlong Initiative

July 2, 2025 by Joe Marchese | 6 Comments

Jac Holzman was still in college when he and pal Paul Rickolt each chipped in three hundred bucks to start a record company. That label, Elektra Records – so named for Greek mythology’s daughter of Atlas and Pleione, but with the “c” swapped out for a “k” – inaugurated its catalogue with the simply-titled New Songs, an album of poetry settings by composer-pianist John Gruen. Elektra soon shifted its emphasis to folk music, growing its discography with recordings by Theodore Bikel, Josh White, Judy Collins, Oscar Brand, and Tom Paxton before branching…

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CD, Vinyl

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Classic Rock, Folk, Jazz, Pop, R&B/Soul, Rock

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Anita Baker, Bob Dylan, Bread, Grover Washington Jr., Keith Sweat, Love, Nanci Griffith, Public Image Ltd., Sisters of Mercy, Superdrag, Television, The Afghan Whigs, The Cars, The Doors, The Stooges, , Tim Buckley

Hey! Ho! Let’s Go! Rhino Boxes Ramones Albums in Atmos on “1-2-3-4!”

June 27, 2025 by Joe Marchese | 6 Comments

Gabba gabba hey! Today, Rhino has unveiled a new box set bringing Ramones into a new frontier: that of immersive audio. 1!2!3!4! The Ramones Atmos Collection brings Queens’ favorite band into the realm of Dolby Atmos with new immersive mixes of their first four albums on Blu-ray Audio: 1976’s Ramones; 1977’s Leave Home and Rocket to Russia; and 1978’s Road to Ruin. Limited to just 2,000 copies, this set is available exclusively at Rhino.com and Warner Music’s international storefronts. The four-disc set features new Atmos remixes from original producer Craig Leon (Ramones)…

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Blu-Ray Audio, Box Sets

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