Features / Holiday Gift Guide

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Cast Recordings, Classic Rock, Classical/Opera, Country, Folk, Holiday, Jazz, Pop, Popular Standards/Vocal, R&B/Soul, Rock, Soundtracks

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Holiday Gift Guide Review: Bob Dylan, “The Complete Budokan 1978”

November 20, 2023 by Joe Marchese | 8 Comments

We’re kicking off our Holiday Gift Guide Review series with a look at Bob Dylan’s The Complete Budokan 1978. Long before Madonna, Lady Gaga, and Taylor Swift, Bob Dylan was reinventing himself. The artist who stepped onstage at Tokyo’s Budokan arena in 1978 only bore superficial resemblance to the firebrand who was proclaimed a “Judas!” by an irate fan over a decade earlier at Manchester Free Trade Hall. That audience member was famously angry over the then-folkie’s decision to plug in and go electric; what would he have thought of this “new”…

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Classic Rock

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Bob Dylan

Holiday Gift Guide Review: Vince Guaraldi, ‘A Charlie Brown Christmas (Super Deluxe Edition)’

December 23, 2022 by Mike Duquette | 4 Comments

If you’ve followed catalogue releases for long enough, you know some titles just do so well that you don’t necessarily have to go out of your way to get people – especially new fans – to buy a new version of a classic album. Buyers – especially vinyl buyers – will always come of age and need copies of Rumours or Dark Side of the Moon in their libraries. It’s this sort of thinking – perhaps a rebellion against the commercialism of reissue practices – that often gets us most interested not…

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Formats:

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

Genres:

Holiday, Jazz, Soundtracks

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Vince Guaraldi

Holiday Gift Guide Review: David Bowie, “Divine Symmetry: An Alternative Journey Through ‘Hunky Dory'”

December 22, 2022 by Joe Marchese | 1 Comment

MAGNIFICENT OUTRAGE. The phrase is emblazoned on the slipcase of David Bowie’s new box set Divine Symmetry (An Alternative Journey Through ‘Hunky Dory’). It was derived from an ad – reprinted as the first image in the 100-page tome housing the set’s four CDs and one Blu-ray Disc – which noted, “That’s what they’re saying about David Bowie.” Happily, no one would accuse this latest Bowie archival dig of being an outrage, though magnificent comes closer. Much like its 2019 predecessor Conversation Piece shed considerable light on the 1968-1969 David Bowie/Space Oddity…

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Formats:

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

Genres:

Classic Rock, Pop, Rock

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David Bowie

Holiday Gift Guide Update: Emerson, Lake and Palmer, Marianne Faithfull, International Pop Overthrow, and Maureen Taylor Sings Michael Colby

December 16, 2022 by Joe Marchese | 3 Comments

The Second Disc is always updating our Holiday Gift Guide with items large and small that just might make the perfect stocking stuffer or present under the tree. In recent days, we’ve added entries for four very different releases that are all worth seeking out. Emerson, Lake, and Palmer, Singles (BMG) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada) This handsome new vinyl box collects a dozen seven-inch, two-sided singles culled from Emerson, Lake, and Palmer’s U.K. and international discographies. Why release a bunch of edited versions from one of the world’s…

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Emerson Lake and Palmer, Marianne Faithfull, Maureen Taylor, Michael Colby

Formats:

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

Genres:

Cast Recordings, Classic Rock, Pop, Popular Standards/Vocal, Rock

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Edsel Holiday Round-Up: Del Shannon, The Box Tops, Donna Summer

December 15, 2022 by Joe Marchese | 5 Comments

Today, we’re taking a look at three recent releases from Demon Music Group’s Edsel and Driven by the Music imprints! From the 1961 release of his first-ever single “Runaway,” a chart-topper on both sides of the Atlantic, to the time of his death in 1990, Del Shannon was rock-and-roll royalty. Demon Music Group’s Edsel label has been giving Shannon some long-overdue attention lately with a reissue of his final album, the posthumously-released Rock On! and with the announcement of an exhaustive 12-CD box set, Stranger in Town: A Del Shannon Compendium, due…

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Holiday Gift Guide, News

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Genres:

Disco/Dance, Pop, R&B/Soul

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Del Shannon, Donna Summer, The Box Tops

Holiday Gift Guide Review: The Beach Boys, “Sail on Sailor: 1972”

December 13, 2022 by Joe Marchese | 5 Comments

I need a whole lot of sunshine to keep my sundial advancing… Who were The Beach Boys? Hawthorne, California’s favorite sons might have been asking themselves that very question in 1972. Their creative leader was withdrawing further into himself and musical tastes were changing: where did that leave them? This period of adjustment was first chronicled on last year’s superlative Feel Flows: The Sunflower and Surf’s Up Sessions 1969-1971 box set. The story begun on that collection continues on the new Sail on Sailor: 1972. Adorned with a striking cover, it’s been…

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Formats:

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

Genres:

Classic Rock, Pop

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The Beach Boys

Holiday Gift Guide Review: Joni Mitchell, “The Asylum Albums (1972-1975)”

December 2, 2022 by Joe Marchese | 2 Comments

2022 has been Joni Mitchell’s year. Following a triumphant surprise appearance in July at the Newport Folk Festival, the singer-songwriter announced a return 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. More recently, she attended her first-ever Broadway musical, Cameron Crowe and Tom Kitt’s Almost Famous – and made her Broadway debut with the same show, which features her “Both Sides Now” in a…

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Classic Rock, Jazz, Pop

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Joni Mitchell

THE SECOND DISC’S 2022 HOLIDAY GIFT GUIDE IS HERE!

November 28, 2022 by The Second Disc | No Comments

Cyber Monday is upon us today, which means one thing at Second Disc HQ: it’s time to launch our annual Holiday Gift Guide, featuring (more than) a few of our favorite things for the music enthusiast in your life. Sure, we might not have included raindrops on roses or whiskers on kittens, but we’ve filled the guide with more than 50 essential selections: sprawling box sets as well as releases from favorite artists that just might make great stocking stuffers. So just click here or visit the handy tab, above, to access…

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Formats:

Books, Box Sets, CD, Vinyl

Genres:

Cast Recordings, Classic Rock, Country, Disco/Dance, Holiday, Jazz, Pop, Popular Standards/Vocal, R&B/Soul, Rock, Soundtracks

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Review: The Beatles, “Revolver” (2022)

October 28, 2022 by Joe Marchese | 14 Comments

I took a ride, I didn’t know what I would find there… George Harrison’s snarling takedown of the “Taxman” opened The Beatles’ Revolver with a powerful sting. The so-called Quiet Beatle took on the first-person role with the relish of (and a musical nod to) a Batman villain. Though 1965’s folk-rock-influenced Rubber Soul had seen the Fab Four’s songwriting grow by leaps and bounds, Revolver matched the songwriting strides with revelatory studio processes including ADT (Artificial Double Tracking), tape loops, close miking, varispeed and reversed tapes, and non-traditional instrumentation including sitar, tamboura,…

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Formats:

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

Genres:

Classic Rock, Pop

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George Harrison, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, The Beatles

Journey Through the Past: Neil Young Expands “Harvest” For 50th Anniversary

October 17, 2022 by Joe Marchese | 9 Comments

Neil Young’s fourth studio album, 1972’s Harvest, was a landmark for the artist. His first and only No. 1 album in the U.S. and U.K. to date, it spun off his only U.S. No. 1 single to date with the ballad “Heart of Gold,” and became the best-selling album in the U.S. of 1972 – only to remain the best-selling album in Young’s ever-growing catalogue. The 2015 Grammy Hall of Fame inductee has received numerous reissues including a 2002 DVD-Audio presentation and a 2009 remaster as part of Young’s Archives series. Now,…

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Holiday Gift Guide, News

Formats:

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

Genres:

Classic Rock

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Neil Young

Release Round-Up: Week of May 6

May 6, 2022 by The Second Disc | 2 Comments

Welcome to this week’s Release Round-Up, featuring a selection of the new titles out today including a very special pair from Second Disc Records and Real Gone Music! Melissa Manchester, Live ’77 (Second Disc Records/Real Gone Music) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada / Real Gone Music) Second Disc Records and Real Gone Music proudly present the premiere release of Melissa Manchester’s Live ’77, recorded by Arista Records in October 1977 at Gainesville, Florida’s Great Southern Music Hall but unreleased until now! The 21 songs on Live ’77 – the singer-songwriter’s very first live album – include Manchester’s hits…

Holiday Gift Guide Spotlight: Belinda Carlisle, “Live Your Life Be Free: 30th Anniversary Edition”

December 23, 2021 by Joe Marchese | No Comments

Following a well-received Go-Go’s reunion in 1990, Belinda Carlisle returned to the studio to record her fourth studio album, Live Your Life Be Free. Likely the jaunt with her old bandmates inspired her, as the 1991 LP returned the singer to the sixties-inspired, girl-group milieu. Although Live Your Life failed to chart in the U.S., it hit the top ten in the U.K. and yielded four charting singles including the brisk and lusty “Do You Feel Like I Feel” which remains Carlisle’s final U.S. hit to date. Now, Live Your Life Be…

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Formats:

Box Sets, Vinyl

Genres:

Pop

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Belinda Carlisle

Holiday Gift Guide Review: The Doors, “L.A. Woman: 50th Anniversary Edition”

December 21, 2021 by Joe Marchese | 3 Comments

“Well, I’ve been down so goddamn long that it looks like up to me…” Jim Morrison knew of what he spoke. When The Doors entered Sunset Sound in November 1970 to record what would become their sixth studio album, L.A. Woman, the quartet was ready for a reboot. In September, Morrison had been convicted on profanity and indecent exposure charges related to a March 1969 concert in Miami. With an appeal in place, he was free on bail. But some radio stations had banned The Doors, and even concert bookings had taken…

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Classic Rock

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The Doors

Holiday Gift Guide Review: Elvis Presley, “Back in Nashville”

December 15, 2021 by Joe Marchese | 3 Comments

When Elvis Presley entered RCA’s famed Nashville Studio B in June 1970, expectations were high. His last major recording sessions – not counting those for the Universal film Change of Habit – had taken place at Memphis’ American Sound Studio with producer Chips Moman, resulting in the acclaimed From Elvis in Memphis LP. Could he follow up that career triumph? Many would argue that he did. Rather than strictly repeat the formula, he and producer Felton Jarvis crafted the concept album Elvis Country and its almost-as-successful follow-up album of leftovers, Love Letters…

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Formats:

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

Genres:

Classic Rock, Country, Pop

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Elvis Presley

Holiday Gift Guide Review: Jimmie Vaughan, “The Jimmie Vaughan Story”

December 13, 2021 by Joe Marchese | No Comments

Blues guitarist par excellence Jimmie Vaughan turned 70 earlier this year, and The Last Music Company wasn’t about to let the milestone go unnoticed. The label has released the appropriately-titled box set The Jimmie Vaughan Story, boasting 5 CDs and over six hours of music chronicling Vaughan’s career up to the present day. The collection is available in two formats: a large-scale box which adds a 12-inch LP of Jimmie’s 2001 album Do You Get the Blues?, two 45 RPM vinyl singles, a catalogue of the artist’s classic car collection, and an…

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Formats:

Jimmie Vaughan, Stevie Ray Vaughan

Genres:

Blues, Rock

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Holiday Gift Guide Review: Joni Mitchell, “Joni Mitchell Archives Vol. 2: The Reprise Years (1968-1971)”

December 6, 2021 by Joe Marchese | 6 Comments

Last evening in Washington, DC, Joni Mitchell joined the 44th class of Kennedy Center Honorees alongside Bette Midler, Berry Gordy, Lorne Michaels, and Justino Diaz. The singer-songwriter who has blurred the lines of folk, pop, rock, and jazz was celebrated by friends and admirers including Brandi Carlile, Herbie Hancock, Ellie Goulding, Norah Jones, Brittany Howard, Dan Levy, and Cameron Crowe. President Joe Biden, also in attendance, had earlier summed up the thoughts of many when he proclaimed, “Your words and melodies touch the deepest parts of our soul.” Mitchell has been probing…

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James Taylor, Joni Mitchell

Formats:

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

Genres:

Classic Rock, Folk, Pop

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Holiday Gift Guide Review: Billy Joel, “The Vinyl Collection, Vol. 1”

November 29, 2021 by Joe Marchese | 16 Comments

Billy Joel The Vinyl Collection Vol 1 Cover

By his own account, Billy Joel stumbled into the singing part of the singer-songwriter equation. He explained of his 1971 debut Cold Spring Harbor, “I wrote this album not as a singer-songwriter, but as a songwriter. I was thinking of other people doing the material on this album. But the advice I got from people in the music business was, ‘Well, if you want people to hear your songs, make an album. And then you go out on the road and you do shows and you promote your album. I thought, ‘This…

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Formats:

Box Sets, Vinyl

Genres:

Classic Rock, Pop

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Billy Joel

THE SECOND DISC’S 2021 HOLIDAY GIFT GUIDE IS HERE!

November 29, 2021 by The Second Disc | No Comments

Cyber Monday is upon us once again, which means one thing at Second Disc HQ: it’s time to launch our annual Holiday Gift Guide, featuring a few of our favorite things for the music enthusiast in your life. Sure, we might not have included raindrops on roses or whiskers on kittens, but we’ve filled the guide with more than 50 essential selections: box sets (such as the Fab set to your right!) as well as archival releases and even new CDs from favorite artists that just might make great stocking stuffers. So…

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Genres:

Classic Rock, Country, Disco/Dance, Holiday, Jazz, Pop, Popular Standards/Vocal, R&B/Soul, Rock, Soundtracks

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Holiday Gift Guide Review: Shania Twain, ‘The Woman in Me (Diamond Edition)’

December 23, 2020 by Mike Duquette | 3 Comments

If there’s one good thing we can pull from 2020’s reissue slate, it’s diversity. The end of the year’s biggest box sets focused less on the typical classic-rock heavy-hitters and more on genres, eras and artists that typically don’t get the red carpet treatment. It’s a trend that would surely be nice to continue. The new “Diamond Edition” of Shania Twain’s The Woman in Me (Mercury Nashville/UMe B0032601-02) checks off all three of those boxes, yet it’s initially an odd sell. After all, isn’t it Twain’s next album, 1997’s juggernaut Come On…

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Formats:

Box Sets, CD

Genres:

Country

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Shania Twain

Holiday Gift Guide Review: Lou Reed, “New York” [Deluxe Edition]

December 1, 2020 by Joe Marchese | No Comments

“I’ll take Manhattan in a garbage bag with Latin written on it that says “It’s hard to give a shit these days…” Indeed, Lou Reed always gave off the vibe of someone who didn’t give a shit – and moreover, someone who didn’t take any shit. But beneath that hip veneer was an artist who cared deeply, and had the talents to express himself and his keenly-felt beliefs in song. He was ready for a new start in 1988 when he began recording his first album for Sire Records after his second…

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Formats:

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

Genres:

Rock

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Lou Reed

THE SECOND DISC’S 2020 HOLIDAY GIFT GUIDE IS HERE!

November 30, 2020 by The Second Disc | 7 Comments

Another Cyber Monday is here, which means one thing at Second Disc HQ: it’s time to launch our annual Holiday Gift Guide, featuring a few of our favorite things for the music enthusiast in your life. Sure, we might not have included raindrops on roses or whiskers on kittens, but we’ve filled the guide with more than 50 essential selections: box sets (such as the amazing Elton John title to your right!) as well as archival releases and Christmas music favorites that just might make great stocking stuffers. So just click here…

Categories:

Holiday Gift Guide, News

Formats:

Genres:

Cast Recordings, Classic Rock, Country, Disco/Dance, Folk, Holiday, Jazz, Pop, Popular Standards/Vocal, R&B/Soul, Rock

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Holiday Gift Guide Reviews: A Rhino Round-Up with Bad Company, Rush, Van Halen, Hootie, STP and The Notorious B.I.G.

December 23, 2019 by The Second Disc | 2 Comments

Many of this year’s finest box sets came courtesy of the Rhino label. Here, Joe and Randy take a look at a few more of our favorites! First up are Randy’s three picks… First up is Rhino’s 25th anniversary 3-CD/1-LP Super Deluxe Edition of Stone Temple Pilots’ Purple. Initially hitting shelves on June 7, 1994, the band’s sophomore album would debut atop the Billboard 200 and stay there for three weeks, eventually becoming the group’s second best-selling album after their debut effort, Core, from 1992. The STP line-up of Scott Weiland (lead…

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Holiday Gift Guide, News, Reviews

Formats:

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

Genres:

Classic Rock, Pop, Rap/Hip-Hop, Rock

Tags:

Bad Company, Hootie and The Blowfish, Rush, Stone Temple Pilots, The Notorious B.I.G., Van Halen

Holiday Gift Guide Review: Nat King Cole, “Hittin’ the Ramp: The Early Years (1936-1943)”

December 20, 2019 by Joe Marchese | No Comments

The first voice you hear on Resonance Records’ exhilarating new box set Nat King Cole – Hittin’ the Ramp: The Early Years (1936-1943) isn’t that of the famous artist. Rather, it’s his older brother and bassist Eddie Cole warbling teenaged Nat’s sprightly composition “Honey Hush.” Nat, of course, is the one tickling the ivories with confidence, grace, and an already sure sense of swing. Although he hadn’t yet formed his famous trio (and the lineup here credited as “Eddie Cole’s Solid Swingers” is larger with piano, bass, drums, alto sax, and tenor…

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Jazz, Popular Standards/Vocal

Formats:

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

Genres:

Tags:

Nat King Cole

Holiday Gift Guide Review: Mariah Carey, “Merry Christmas: Deluxe Anniversary Edition”

December 19, 2019 by Randy Fairman | 1 Comment

Sitting atop the Billboard Hot 100 this week is a song which took a quarter-century to reach that peak: Mariah Carey’s “All I Want For Christmas Is You.” The song achieved a couple of milestones with that ranking: it now holds the record for the longest time between a song’s debut and its reaching the top of the charts, and it’s the first Christmas song to reach the peak in 60 years since The Chipmunks did it in 1959. Before this new milestone for Carey’s tune, the song and the album of…

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