Christmas came early in 1965 for fans of The Supremes. In November of that year, Motown released not one, but two albums from the beloved trio of Diana Ross, Mary Wilson and Florence Ballard: The Supremes at the Copa and Merry Christmas. Both of these LPs would not only score on the Billboard charts but become truly sparkling additions to the Supremes' discography. Still perennial favorites, both Copa and Merry Christmas showcase the group's tremendous versatility, vibrancy and dynamism.
One Of A Kind (Love Affair): Big Break Reissues, Expands "Spinners"
When The Spinners left Motown Records after nearly a decade, the vocal group had never scored a Top 10 Pop hit. They'd come this close in 1970 with the irresistible, Stevie Wonder-penned "It's a Shame" (No. 14) - one of many fine tracks recorded for Berry Gordy's empire that, for one reason or another, never crossed The Spinners over to major stardom. That all changed when Thom Bell - the multi-hyphenate musician, producer, songwriter, arranger and conductor - declared that he wished to
This Is The Love (I've Been Waiting For): Ace Releases "More Motown Girls"
Rarely is the sequel ever the equal - but Ace Records has handily disproved that with Love and Affection: More Motown Girls, a recent trawl through the vaults of Hitsville, USA. And not only is this follow-up to 2013's Finders Keepers - Motown Girls the equal of its predecessor, it might be its better. Whereas that volume featured both previously unreleased music and rarities, every one of the 25 tracks on Love and Affection is never-before-heard (save for five songs culled from last year's
Make a List, Make a Wish: Elemental Music Uncovers Live Art Pepper
Art Pepper would have turned 90 on September 1 of this year. Though the great alto saxophonist passed away in 1982, aged just 56, his legacy lives on. Elemental Music has most recently celebrated Pepper's enduring influence on jazz with the new release of Live at Fat Tuesday's by The Art Pepper Quartet. This new five-song set preserves the performances of Pepper (alto sax), Milcho Leviev (piano), George Mraz (bass) and Al Foster (drums) at the New York nightspot on the evening of April 15,
RPM Label Collects Rare British Jazz On "Turtle Records" Box Set
Though jazz may be one of the most quintessentially American art forms, its influence and power naturally spread around the world in various forms. In Great Britain, the popular Dixieland-inspired "trad jazz" (or "traditional jazz") boom - epitomized by artists including The Three Bs: Mr. Acker Bilk, Chris Barber and Kenny Ball - was followed by a period of intense experimentation among jazz musicians concurrent with the rhythm and blues and rock revolutions. Rock and R&B artists, too,
Audio Fidelity Brings "Cruising" with Hiatt, DeVille, Germs to SACD - And YOU CAN WIN!
Director William Friedkin (The Exorcist, The French Connection) was never one to shy away from controversy. And so was the case with his 1980 film Cruising. Al Pacino starred as NYPD Officer Steve Burns, tasked with tracking down a serial killer targeting gay men. Inspired by the novel of the same name by New York Times reporter Gerald Walker, Cruising earned largely negative reviews and protests upon its initial release, criticized both for its depiction of the gay community and for lackluster
THE SECOND DISC'S 2015 HOLIDAY GIFT GUIDE IS HERE!
We wouldn't want you to be left out in the cold for Cyber Monday, so we're proud to present our annual Holiday Gift Guide featuring nearly 75 essential selections for the music enthusiast in your life! We've filled the guide with box sets (such as the popular Bob Dylan title to your left!), archival releases and holiday music favorites. So Just click here to access this year's picks! You'll notice that the Gift Guide is in the same easy-to-use format as our Release Calendar, so you can
Release Round-Up: Week of November 27
To our U.S. readers, today is the day of shopping known as Black Friday - but happily, the diverse slate of releases due in stores today should lift your spirits - no matter where you're located! Love, Reel to Real: Expanded Edition (High Moon Records) (Amazon U.S.) High Moon Records has the premiere reissue of Arthur Lee and Love's 1974 album Reel to Real as a newly-expanded Deluxe Edition boasting a color, 32-page booklet. A vinyl edition will follow early next year. Read more
Say, Say, Say! The Second Disc's Essential RSD Black Friday 2015 Release Guide
From all of us here at Second Disc HQ to all of you, we hope you're enjoying a wonderful Thanksgiving in the company of family and friends. Of course, from this day which conjures nostalgic and warm feelings comes a celebration of a different kind with this year's annual Black Friday - the day for consumers to start off the holiday shopping season on a mad, frenetic note. But 2015 is just in the latest year in which numerous retailers in the U.S. have made headlines by blackening Thursday, or
Review: Frank Sinatra, "A Voice on Air: 1935-1955"
Columbia Records and Legacy Recordings' new box set Frank Sinatra: A Voice on Air (88875 09971 2) begins, appropriately enough, with the jarring sound of an old-time radio tuning in. The shrill noise quickly segues to the first of nearly 100 performances on four CDs - 19-year old Frank Sinatra, one-fourth of The Hoboken Four, singing the perky "S-H-I-N-E" on WHN Radio's The Major Bowes Amateur Hour. Here, then, is the future Chairman of the Board - before he sang for swingin' lovers, before he
Tried, Tested and Found True: Big Break Expands Two By Ashford and Simpson
Big Break Records has recently continued its definitive reissue series chronicling Nickolas Ashford and Valerie Simpson' Warner Bros. years with the expanded releases of 1977's So So Satisfied and 1980's A Musical Affair. This pair follows previous titles in the series including Come As You Are, Send It and Is It Still Good to Ya and Stay Free. (Gimme Something Real and I Wanna Be Selfish arrive in January!) Though So So Satisfied found Ashford and Simpson still on the cusp of the greater
A Culture Factory Christmas: Label Reissues Beach Boys, James Brown, "Charlie Brown" and...Wookiees!
The Culture Factory label, which reissues classic albums in limited edition mini-LP replica sleeves, has a trio of Christmas titles due this Friday likely to make spirits bright. The label has already released Vince Guaraldi's oft-reissued soundtrack to A Charlie Brown Christmas as an exclusive release for retailer FYE. It's joined this week by straight reissues (no bonus material) of The Beach Boys' Christmas Album and James Brown's Soulful Christmas at general retail, as well as an
Something Bad On Her Mind: Rare and Unreleased Timi Yuro Arrives From Cherry Red
There was only one Timi Yuro. The late, Chicago-born Italian-American vocalist was signed to Liberty Records as a teenager, bringing jazz and R&B influences into her emotional, heart-on-its-sleeve blue-eyed soul style. After having spent the first portion of her career at Liberty, Yuro departed the label in 1963. She was dubbed The Amazing Timi Yuro by Mercury Records for her Quincy Jones-produced LP debut there in 1964, but Mercury never followed it up with another long-player, opting
Do You Know What I Mean: Lee Michaels Celebrated On New Box Set, Anthology
The enigmatic Lee Michaels is back. No, the cult favorite singer-songwriter who once graced the rosters of A&M and Columbia Records hasn't recorded a new album; he's been happily retired from the music business since the early 1980s. But Michaels has given his blessing to a definitive new compact disc box set collecting all seven of his A&M albums originally released between 1967 and 1973 as well as a new single-disc anthology drawing on the same period. Manifesto Records' The
Release Round-Up: Week of November 20
Welcome to this week's Release Round-Up which continues this autumn's tradition of having each week packed with box sets from heavy hitters - in this case, The Rolling Stones, The Velvet Underground, The Who, Queen, Grateful Dead, Frank Sinatra, and they're still not all! Plus: CD and vinyl reissues, anthologies, and much more! The Beach Boys, Beach Boys' Party: Uncovered and Unplugged (Capitol) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.) The first disc of this 2-CD, 81-track set features the
Go Crazy: Varese Collects "The Very Best of Paul Davis"
With hits like "Cool Night," "I Go Crazy" and "'65 Love Affair," Paul Davis established himself as one of the most appealing singer-songwriters of the late 1970s and early 1980s. Yet the Mississippi native all but walked away from his solo career at the height of his fame, returning to his roots as a behind-the-scenes songwriter and making cameo appearances on others' hit records. Before his untimely death in 2008 at the age of 60, Davis notched fourteen Hot 100 hits and eight Top 40s. Many
One Less Egg To Fry: Raven Collects Four 5th Dimension Albums On Two CDs
Earlier this year, the Raven label collected The 5th Dimension's first four albums, all originally released on Soul City between 1967 and 1969, as a 2-CD set. Now, Raven is happily continuing the story of Marilyn McCoo, Billy Davis Jr., Florence LaRue, Lamont McLemore and Ron Townson with a second collection of four albums on two CDs. 4 Classic Albums: Portrait/Love's Lines, Angles and Rhymes/Individually and Collectively/Living Together, Growing Together has the group's four Bell Records
Esoteric Offers Up Live Barclay James Harvest, Rarities From Tea and Symphony, Third World War
With a trio of recent releases, Cherry Red Group's Esoteric Recordings imprint continues to dig through the archives to reissue some of the most intriguing offerings from the prog-rock era and beyond. John Lees founded Barclay James Harvest in 1966 with Les Holroyd, Mel Pritchard and Stuart "Wooly" Wolstenholme. After one single for EMI's Parlophone imprint in 1968, the progressive four-piece was moved over to the Harvest imprint. Barclay James Harvest remained on Harvest for four LPs, but
In Memoriam: P.F. Sloan (1945-2015)
Take a moment to consider a number of the songs written or co-written by Philip "P.F." Sloan: "Secret Agent Man," "Eve of Destruction," "Let Me Be," "Where Were You When I Needed You," "You Baby," "A Must to Avoid," "Another Day, Another Heartache." Yet the songwriter, who died on November 15 at the age of 70, may be best known for the bittersweet, elegiac ode penned by his colleague and admirer, Jimmy Webb. "I have been seeking P.F. Sloan," Webb's song begins. "But no one knows where he has
Release Round-Up: Week of November 13
It may be Friday the 13th, but today's choice releases are hardly scary, with box sets, archival releases, new music from veteran artists, and much, much more! Aretha Franklin, The Atlantic Albums Collection (Atlantic/Rhino) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.) This 19-CD box set brings together 16 of the Queen of Soul's Atlantic albums as previously released on CD including the deluxe 2-CD Live at Fillmore East, the 2-CD Rare & Unreleased Recordings From The Golden Reign Of The Queen Of
Graceful: Legacy Premieres Lost Recordings By Jeff Buckley On "You and I"
The countdown to 2016 has already begun! Legacy Recordings is one of the first out of the gate with big news for the New Year! On March 11, 2016, the label will release You and I, the very first studio recordings made by the late Jeff Buckley (1966-1997) for Columbia Records. This new compilation will be available on CD, DD, and LP. The recordings on this new 10-track collection (primarily recorded in Steve Addabbo's Shelter Island Sound studio in February 1993) were discovered during the
Hurt So Bad: 7a Records Rescues "The First Bobby Hart Solo Album" With Expanded CD Reissue
The 7a Records label made a big splash earlier this year with its first-ever release. The MGM Singles Collection brought together Micky Dolenz's rare MGM Records sides in a lavishly designed and annotated presentation that was a fan and collector's dream. Now, we're thrilled to report that the Monkees specialists at 7a are turning their attention to another key figure in Monkees lore with the first-ever CD release on December 7 of 1980's aptly-titled The First Bobby Hart Solo Album. There
More Than "Lies": Sundazed Collects The Knickerbockers' "Challenge Recordings" On New Box Set
"Eighty tracks from a band with exactly one hit single?" That's the question Sundazed Records is posing of its soon-to-be-released box set from The Knickerbockers. The hitmakers behind the British Invasion-esque "Lies" will be celebrated by Sundazed with the 4-CD, 80-track box The Challenge Recordings. It's due in stores this Friday, November 13. The Top 20 hit "Lies" - and seminal inclusion in the original Nuggets - is just one of the tracks on this collection. Brothers Beau and John
Jump To The Beat! BBR Reissues Dancefloor Classics By Stacy Lattisaw, Karen Young
With a quartet of recent releases, Big Break Records continues to deliver to the highest standard in deluxe, remastered and generously expanded editions of R&B classics. Today, we turn the spotlight on two of those titles, from Stacy Lattisaw and Karen Young! Stacy Lattisaw was just 12 - yes, 12! - years old when she made her major label debut on Atlantic Records' Cotillion imprint with Young and in Love. One of the final projects produced by Van McCoy before his untimely death, the
WE HAVE OUR WINNERS! CHARLIE RICH "25 ALL-TIME GREATEST HITS" GIVEAWAY!
CONGRATULATIONS! The following 15 entrants have won a copy of Varese Vintage's brand-new Charlie Rich anthology, 25 All-Time Greatest Hits, on CD! If you entered our contest via Facebook and your name is on the list below, please drop us a line at theseconddisc-at-gmail-dot-com or a Private Message on Facebook with your name and mailing address! If you entered via email, you don't have to do anything - your CD will be in the mail soon! Watch this space soon for more exciting
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