Sixty years ago today – May 16, 1966 – The Beach Boys released Pet Sounds on Capitol Records. Though the album wasn’t commercially successful upon its original release, it came to be regarded as a high watermark not just for The Beach Boys, but for American popular music itself. The Beach Boys have just celebrated 60 years of Pet Sounds (as well as its timeless songs including “Wouldn’t It Be Nice,” “God Only Knows,” and “Sloop John B”) with a Capitol Tower reunion of Mike Love, Al Jardine, and Bruce Johnston; a…
A Second Disc Interview: Andrew Sandoval on “The Kinks – All Day and All of the Night: The Day-by-Day Story Pt. 1 – 1940-1971”
Here at Second Disc HQ, we’re longtime fans of writer-producer-musician-historian Andrew Sandoval. In addition to his groundbreaking work with The Monkees catalogue – including, most recently, helming the Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones, Ltd. box set and penning the liner notes for the singles collection The As, The Bs, and The Monkees – Andrew has curated reissues from artists including The Everly Brothers, The Band, Love, Bee Gees, Van Morrison, and The Kinks. Andrew’s longtime association with the latter band has led to a new release coming soon from his boutique publishing house,…
A Second Disc Interview: Let’s Revisit Let’s Active with Mitch Easter
“Making records is a really good idea,” Mitch Easter says, partway through a chat with The Second Disc. He’s, of course, absolutely correct, and he would know. The Winston-Salem, North Carolina native founded the seminal Drive-In Studio in 1980, collaborating as a producer and engineer with a host of notable alternative rock acts including R.E.M., Game Theory, Pylon and others; since 2000, he’s run Fidelitorium Recordings in nearby Kernersville. But Easter is more than a whiz behind the boards. In the 1980s, he founded and fronted the jangle-pop group Let’s Active. Their…
A Second Disc Interview: A.J. Croce Brings the Family Songbook to Life Once More
The music business works in mysterious ways. Not long after posting news that recent remixes of Jim Croce’s classic solo albums were getting repackaged into a CD set, The Second Disc was approached with the opportunity to talk to A.J. Croce, the son of the late singer/songwriter, ahead of a tour he’s mounting. Adrian James Croce was eight days shy of turning two when a plane crash claimed the life of his father, then just 30 years old. He has since gone into music himself: hardly a clone of Jim – there’s a…
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A Second Disc Interview: Jason Klamm and Dan Schlissel on ‘Presenting…Dick Davy’
It doesn’t take much for comedy works to pique Jason Klamm‘s interest. As the host of the Comedy on Vinyl podcast and the author of 2023’s We’re Not Worthy: From In Living Color to Mr. Show, How ’90s Sketch TV Changed the Face of Comedy, Klamm is immersed in mirth and laughs for most of his free time. But it was not exactly a laughing matter when he discovered Dick Davy. Davy, a convivial comedian with a soft-spoken Southern drawl, issued two albums on Columbia in the mid-’60s: 1966’s You’re a Long Way from Home, Whitey…
He’s Got a Way: An Interview with John Jackson, Billy Joel’s Archive Director
Even if you think you know everything about the Piano Man, the new documentary Billy Joel: And So It Goes, is sure to shine a light on one of pop/rock’s most enduring singer/songwriters–and not just through the revelations therein. Tucked in every corner of the two-part feature (the second part premieres Friday, July 25 alongside the already-available first on HBO Max) is a trove of rare, unseen or brilliantly restored material from Joel’s formidable career: session outtakes, candid behind-the-scenes video, hard-to-track-down interviews, promotional films and concerts aplenty. If you’ve followed Joel’s career…
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A Second Disc Interview: Timothy J. Smith Forges a New Path with SuperVisible
If you’ve been reading The Second Disc for some time, you know that one of our highlights is The Weekend Stream, our spotlight of catalogue material that makes its way – either first or primarily – to streaming and download services. The TSD team has the shelves to prove our love of CDs or vinyl, but the joy of discovering a lost classic or future favorite from the past is what really drives us, and The Weekend Stream is run in that spirit. And it might not run at all if not…
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Pryor Conviction: An Interview with Dan Schlissel of Stand Up! Records
If you’ll forgive the stupidly obvious lede, Dan Schlissel takes comedy pretty seriously. As the founder of Minneapolis-based Stand Up! Records, he’s carved a considerable niche in the music industry as one of the longest-lasting and most stalwart homes for stand-up comedy on CD, LP and many other formats. Schlissel, a first generation American whose parents came from Israel, first started the indie-rock label -ismist, which provided a crucial stepping stone to an up-and-coming band of masked alt-rockers called Slipknot, who’d become one of nu-metal’s pre-eminent acts in the late ’90s and…
Never Gonna Be the Same: A Conversation with Gary Clark of Danny Wilson
The best known hit of his band begins with “Everything is wonderful / being here is heavenly…” and perhaps no line better sums up the experience of hearing a song by Gary Clark. The Scottish singer/songwriter formed the trio Danny Wilson with his brother Kit and bassist Ged Grimes in the mid-’80s, eventually scoring a hit on both sides of the Atlantic in 1987 and 1988 with the sublime “Mary’s Prayer.” While it’s easy to place Danny Wilson in the same British sophisti-pop continuum that yielded records by the likes of The…
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Oooh, This I Need: Adam Mattera Talks ‘Dearly Beloved: A Prince Songbook’
Last year, The Second Disc had nothing but good things to say about Dearly Beloved: A Prince Songbook, Cherry Red’s triple-disc tribute to the music of Prince. The set told a story of The Artist’s massive impact on pop, rock and soul by way of songs he gave others to record and a galaxy of genre-bending covers. In a year of considerable challenges in Prince fandom, it was a veritable oasis in a desert. Earlier this year, I had the pleasure of speaking with Adam Mattera, the curator and producer of Dearly Beloved. For…
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Blues, Classic Rock, Country, Disco/Dance, Electronic, Funk, Gospel, Jazz, Pop, R&B/Soul, Rap/Hip-Hop, Rock
A Second Disc Interview: Celebrating Marianne Faithfull’s Final EP with Executive Producer Andrew Batt
As part of Saturday’s Record Store Day festivities, Decca will release the final recordings of Marianne Faithfull on vinyl. The four-song EP Burning Moonlight harkens back to the late artist’s very first albums, released in 1965 on the same label: one dedicated to pop music, and the other to folk songs. The title track to Burning Moonlight was issued digitally in the past weeks; tomorrow, “She Moved Through the Fair” will arrive on streaming services. Finally, on June 6, the entire EP will be released digitally. We were thrilled to speak with…
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You Can’t Start a Fire Without a Spark: Arthur Baker on the ‘Born in the U.S.A.’ Dance Remixes
On June 4, 1984, Bruce Springsteen released Born in the U.S.A., his seventh studio album, and kicked his career into an unpredictable new gear. Augmenting his well-loved classic rock style and haunted lyricism with polished production and accessible pop melodies, the Jersey icon struck gold, platinum and diamond with Born in the U.S.A.: it was the best-selling album of 1985 (it was certified 17x platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America in 2022), spun off seven Top 10 singles on the Billboard Hot 100 – an achievement only matched once before by Michael Jackson’s…
A Second Disc Interview: Mixing It Up with John Luongo
John Luongo is a good liar. Well, maybe he’s good at being tongue-in-cheek. “I’m bashful,” he says at the start of our interview back in October. “You’re gonna have to really drag these things outta me, ’cause I’m a little shy!” What follows is about 100 minutes of captivating stories and thoughtful, enthusiastic lessons from one of the most notable names in dance music. The Boston-born DJ and mix engineer made a name for himself transforming dozens of soul and pop tracks for disco 12″ singles in the late ’70s; so creative…
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Master of ‘Dance Masters’: An Interview with Reissue Producer Wayne A. Dickson
Wayne A. Dickson knows a thing or two about timing. The Scottish DJ, manager and compilation producer, perhaps best known for a staggering discography of soul and disco reissues for Cherry Red’s Big Break Records label, recalled a passion for getting a proper collection of 12″ mixes by CHIC and related artists on CD. “It was greenlit something like four times over six years, and then the project manager who’d greenlit it would get let go, and the project would die with it,” Dickson recalled in an interview conducted over the summer….
An Interview with Scott Davies, Rubellan Remasters’ One-Man Band
Scott Davies has learned a lot on the job. Once toiling in the business of IT, music fans now know him as the singular creative force behind Rubellan Remasters – the sole curator, engineer, designer and distributor of a handful of CDs covering respected catalogues by New Wave/alternative acts including Visage, Missing Persons, Divinyls and most recently Oingo Boingo, the alt-rock band led in the ’80s and ’90s by future film composer Danny Elfman. From 2021 to the present Rubellan remastered and expanded every studio entry in Boingo’s I.R.S./MCA discography between 1981…
The Weekend Stream Labor Day Special: Spotlight on WIWS Radio with John and Chrissy Sellards
Welcome to a special edition of The Weekend Stream for the long Labor Day weekend! Longtime readers might have noticed that adorable owl perched comfortably atop The Second Disc. He’s the mascot for WIWS Radio, an online radio station dedicated to ’50s and ’60s classics in authentic AM radio sound. We’d like to introduce you to John and Chrissy Sellards, the couple behind WIWS. John is already well known to Second Disc readers for his design work on most of our Second Disc Records releases. With WIWS, John and Chrissy have created…
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Release Round-Up: Week of May 6
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…
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How Does It Feel to Be Back: An Interview with Jeremy Holiday of Iconoclassic Records
Jeremy Holiday remembers it well: at four years old, he got his first “pop” record, Daryl Hall & John Oates’ 1980 blockbuster Voices. That record set him on an incredible path that readers of The Second Disc will no doubt recognize: the journey to a fruitful career in catalogue music. For nearly 25 years, Holiday maintained an incredible tenure in the major label reissue business, working at BMG’s Buddha and Heritage imprints, surviving a 2005 merger with Sony Music (and BMG’s divestment from the behemoth four years later) and working at Legacy…
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A Second Disc Special Feature: David Lasley and Rosie
The Second Disc is thrilled to welcome Charles Donovan for a very special guest post. In addition to being one of the finest music journalists working today, Charles has curated some of our favorite releases in recent years including Rupert Holmes’ Songs That Sound Like Movies: The Complete Epic Recordings, Pamela Polland’s Pamela Polland/Have You Heard the One About the Gas Station Attendant?, and Maxayn’s Reloaded: The Complete Recordings 1972-1974. Today, Charles brings his knowledge, passion, and enthusiasm to shine a much-deserved light on the life and career of late singer/songwriter David Lasley…
Listen to the Band: Andrew Sandoval Reveals “The Monkees: The Day-by-Day Story” In June
Since its publication in 2005, author Andrew Sandoval’s The Monkees: The Day-by-Day Story has been an indispensable reference tool for fans of Davy, Micky, Peter, and Michael – not to mention one helluva read. But as the years passed, the guide to all things Monkees went out of print, with secondhand copies fetching in the three-figure range. Happily, Sandoval has returned to the book for a completely new edition due this June. We were thrilled to have the chance to speak with the author about the upcoming 2021 presentation. “It’s been 15…
A SECOND DISC INTERVIEW: All I Need In Just A Song – Dave Mason Reflects on 50 Years With “Alone Together Again”
Magic was in the air in 1970 and it certainly reached Los Angeles’ Sunset Sound, where Dave Mason, along with an array of new friends and some of the top session musicians around, recorded Alone Together. Though only 24 years old, Mason had plenty of experience under his belt. The multi-instrumentalist made a name for himself as part of Traffic, penning some of their best crossover material (“Hole in My Shoe,” “Feelin’ Alright?”). He also participated in sessions with The Rolling Stones (playing the Indian instruments on “Street Fighting Man”) and Jimi…
A SECOND DISC EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW: Joni Mitchell’s Co-Producer Patrick Milligan Discusses New “Joni Mitchell Archives, Vol. 1” Box Set
“I was born to take the highway / I was born to chase a dream / Any road at all is my way / Any place is where I’ve been.” So sings a young Joni Mitchell on “Born to Take the Highway,” one of her earliest compositions. The 1965 road song is one of a staggering 29 previously unreleased tracks unearthed for a once-unthinkable project: a deep-dive into her archives. The first installment in the series, Joni Mitchell Archives, Vol. 1: The Early Years (1963-1967), sees her chasing that dream. Out today…
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A SECOND DISC EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW: Marty Scott and Kenneth Womack Discuss “JEM Records Celebrates John Lennon”
It was 40 years ago this year that John Lennon tragically left the world. Yet his legacy remains strong by way of numerous reissues, compilations, books, and films. Moreover, the timeless message of his songs continues to resonate with audiences everywhere and inspire new interpretations by artists of all genres. Tomorrow, October 9, marks what would have been John’s 80th birthday. On that date, the New Jersey-founded indie label JEM Records will commemorate Lennon’s life and music by releasing a new collection, JEM Records Celebrates John Lennon due on CD, digital, and…
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A Second Disc Interview: Chatting with America’s Audio Archivist Jeff Larson as Band Preps “Half Century” Box
Chewing on a piece of grass/Walking down the road/Tell me, how long you gonna stay here, Joe? Happily, the music of America has stayed with us for 50 years. Gerry Beckley, Dewey Bunnell, and Dan Peek met in London where their fathers were stationed with the United States Air Force; their coming together at the dawn of the 1970s has led to 16 studio albums and 47 singles including three U.S. chart-toppers and eleven Top 40 hits. That’s in addition to a Grammy Award, a spot in the Vocal Group Hall of…
A SECOND DISC INTERVIEW! Mike McCartney Talks “McGear” Deluxe Reissue
TSD’s own Sam Stone recently had a chance to speak with the enduring artist behind the U.K.’s Christmas chart-topper of 1968, The Scaffold’s “Lily the Pink,” as well as the top ten smash “Thank U Very Much” and the solo hit “Leave It.” Mike McCartney, a.k.a. Mike McGear just happens to be Paul McCartney’s younger brother, but has a lifetime of his own musical history to share. In this wide-ranging conversation, he offers stories of the making of his classic album McGear, recently reissued by Cherry Red’s Esoteric Recordings on 2CD/DVD and…
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