Fans of silky-smooth, orchestral soul likely know of The Independents, the Chicago vocal group that launched the careers of producer-songwriters Chuck Jackson (not the R&B singer of "Any Day Now" fame) and Marvin Yancy. Before Jackson and Yancy went on to guide the career of Natalie Cole (whom Yancy also married) and numerous other headliners, they were part of The Independents. Ace Records' Kent imprint has recently reissued the entire Wand Records output - equal parts shimmering and
Lost Era of London Celebrated On Croydon Municipal's "Soho Continental"
Next stop: bohemian London, circa the 1950s and 1960s. That's the itinerary for Croydon Municipal's latest release in conjunction with Cherry Red, Soho Continental. This 25-track collection conjures the period in which Soho was dotted not with chain stores and restaurants but with coffee bars, cocktail spots and trattorias populated by artists of every stripe and ethnicity. As co-compiler Martin Green points out in his liner notes, "this album reflects the international sounds emanating from
The Summer Knows: Varese Collects Snuff Garrett's Movie Music On "50 Guitars Go to the Movies"
Between 1961 and 1973, legendary producer Thomas Lesslie "Snuff" Garrett released over two dozen albums as The 50 Guitars of Tommy Garrett, making an indelible contribution to the "easy listening" instrumental market. The multitalented Garrett was at his most prolific, overseeing the 50 Guitars albums during a period in which he produced a variety of artists including Cher, Gary Lewis and the Playboys, Vicki Lawrence, Vikki Carr, and Jim Nabors. Last year, Varese Vintage reissued The 50
Review: Everclear's First Two Capitol Releases on Audiophile LP from Intervention
Joining its sonically and visually beautiful releases from the likes of Stealers Wheel and Joe Jackson, Intervention Records has recently released deluxe 180-gram audiophile pressings of Everclear's first two proper Capitol albums: Sparkle and Fade (1995) and So Much for the Afterglow (1997). These are the two albums that first put the trio of Art Alexakis (guitar and vocals), Greg Eklund (drums) and Craig Montoya (bass guitar) on the map and made Everclear a major part of the alternative
Cherish The Love: BBR Expands Kool and the Gang's "Emergency"
Over 45 years after their first release, Kool and the Gang remain synonymous with party music and delicious dancefloor grooves, from "Celebration" to "Ladies Night." Big Break Records has recognized the band's legacy with an ongoing series of reissues, of which the recent Emergency is the ninth. Originally released on De-Lite Records late in 1984, Emergency has been expanded by BBR into a deluxe, 2-CD set with a full complement of sixteen bonus tracks! Emergency continued Kool and the
Release Round-Up: Week of July 8
Welcome to this week's Release Round-Up! John Coltrane, The Atlantic Years in Mono (Atlantic/Rhino) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada) Rhino's new box set, available on both CD and LP, includes original mono mixes of Trane's Giant Steps; Bags & Trane (with Milt Jackson); Ole Coltrane; Coltrane Plays The Blues and The Avant Garde (with Don Cherry) plus one disc of outtakes. All of these remastered albums are housed in replica jackets and a 32-page
Try A Little Tenderness: Morello Reissues Four From Marty Robbins
Morello Records, an imprint of Cherry Red Group, is back with its fifth and sixth two-fers drawn from the considerable catalogue of the late country superstar Marty Robbins. Today/Don't Let Me Touch You brings together two Columbia LPs from 1971 and 1977, respectively, while All Around Cowboy/Everything I've Always Wanted has Robbins' 1979 and 1981 albums. Singer-songwriter Marty Robbins spent most of his career, spanning roughly thirty years and over 50 studio albums, at Columbia, departing
Truer Faith: New Order to Update "Singles" Collection
One of the best New Order compilations on the market is getting even better. Warner Music is reissuing the band's Singles in a remastered and updated version, to be released almost 11 years after its first release as a 2CD or 4LP set. The collection, which originally collected the band's A-sides from 1981 to 2005, adds one more track: "I'll Stay with You," from the 2013 collection Lost Sirens, which featured outtakes from 2005's Waiting for the Sirens' Call. (Lost Sirens also featured the
Back To The Nineties: Cherry Red Expands Suggs, Betty Boo To 2 CDs
A recent pair of offerings from Cherry Red Records turns the clock back to the 1990s! Suggs (real name: Graham McPherson) came to fame as the lead singer of ska band Madness before striking out on his own with the 1995 release The Lone Ranger. The album, a No. 14 U.K. hit, has recently been reissued as a 2-CD set with a whopping 23 bonus tracks. The original 11-track album (included in full on Disc One of this release) was largely composed by Suggs with writer/Madness co-founder Mike
"The Rocketeer" Score Blasts Off from Intrada
One of comics' most underrated heroes--and one of the late James Horner's crowning score achievements--is back in flight. Intrada has reissued and expanded the score to the ambitious period superhero flick The Rocketeer. Based on the acclaimed comic by the late Dave Stevens, The Rocketeer is the story of Cliff Secord, a dashing pilot in pre-World War II California who unwittingly discovers a jetpack. He uses it to perform extraordinary and heroic deeds, but it isn't long until forces of good
Cash, Robbins, Jones, Arnold Feature On Ace's "More Country Hits"
Ace Records has recently continued its Golden Age of American Popular Music Series with another volume dedicated to the sounds of country-and-western. More Country Hits follows The Country Hits, released in 2008, and like that volume, presents a collection of country classics that crossed over to the pop side on the Billboard Hot 100. Many familiar names from the first collection show up here, too, including Johnny Horton, Johnny Cash, Faron Young, Ray Price, George Jones, Skeeter Davis, Marty
These (Cowboy) Boots Are Made For Walkin'! Eddy Arnold, Lee Hazlewood, Chet Atkins Sessions OUT TOMORROW!
Richard Edward Arnold - better known as Eddy Arnold - proved throughout an eight-decade career that he could sing anything. The countrypolitan crooner scored 147 U.S. chart hits between 1945 and 2008, sold over 85 million records, and earned inductions into the Country Music Hall of Fame and The Grand Ole Opry. Yet, in 1970, the superstar known as "The Tennessee Plowboy" found himself at a crossroads. That year, he released two remarkable albums ending one chapter in his career and beginning
Masterworks Announces Summer Slate with Kroffts' "Poupees," "Alice" and "Getting My Act Together"
Masterworks Broadway has announced a new slate of three titles in the Sony imprint's ongoing CD-R/DD initiative restoring classic cast recordings to print. This trio hails from the RCA Victor and Columbia catalogues, with two titles new to the digital domain. Sid and Marty Krofft are beloved creators of a pantheon of children's television classics including H.R. Pufnstuf, Land of the Lost and Sigmund and the Sea Monsters, the latter of which has recently been revived as a brand-new program
Too Hot! Big Break Collects Heatwave On "Always and Forever"
Heatwave was a band like no other. American vocalists Johnnie Wilder Jr. and his brother Keith Wilder joined with British singer-songwriter-keyboardist Rod Temperton, Swiss bassist Mario Mantese, Czechoslovak drummer Ernest "Bilbo" Berger, and Jamaican guitarist Eric Johns to form this truly international cadre of first-class R&B purveyors. Thanks to a string of hits including "Boogie Nights," "Always and Forever" and "The Groove Line," the seductive grooves of Heatwave ruled both the
Nothing Has Been Proved: Cherry Red to Expand Dusty Springfield's "Reputation"
In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Dusty Springfield rightfully regained her reputation as one of the best British soul singers of her generation, with the help of some famous collaborators. The fruits of that labor, 1990's Reputation, is being expanded by Cherry Red Records this summer. While Dusty had dominated part of the '60s with a unique brand of soul-pop on tracks like "I Only Want to Be with You," "You Don't Have to Say You Love Me" and the Burt Bacharach-Hal David-penned "Wishin' and
It's Her Life: Light in the Attic Releases Betty Davis' Mythic "Columbia Years" with Miles, Masekela and More
Light in the Attic's penchant for incredible finds continues with the release of landmark, unheard sessions by singer Betty Davis with a galaxy of music stars backing her up. The bulk of The Columbia Years 1968-1969 stems from a session the incomparable singer recorded at Columbia Records' 52nd Street Studios on May 14 and 20, 1969. Guiding the sessions as producers was Miles Davis, who'd married the former Betty Mabry a year before, along with his longtime collaborator Teo Macero. Her
Surfin' Is The Only Life: Omnivore Collects The Beach Boys' Earliest Recordings, Unreleased Tracks
Before Pet Sounds, before SMiLE, heck, before "Surfin' USA," The Beach Boys were a scrappy family band with little but big dreams and tight harmonies. Things happened quickly for brothers Brian, Carl and Dennis Wilson, their cousin Mike Love and friend Al Jardine; in September 1961, the quintet first captured their voices together, and by the following May, they had signed a seven-year contract with major Capitol Records. In the few months in between, The Beach Boys recorded nine songs
Magic's in the Air: SoulMusic, Cherry Red Reissue Brook Benton, Esther Phillips Albums
Two late legends of soul - Brook Benton and Esther Phillips - have recently been feted on a pair of reissues from SoulMusic Records and Cherry Red. By the time Brook Benton signed with Atlantic Records' Cotillion imprint in 1968, he had already enjoyed an illustrious career at labels including OKeh, Epic, RCA, Mercury and Reprise. The move to Atlantic paid off when his recording of Tony Joe White's "Rainy Night in Georgia" not only reached No. 1 but became a signature song for the vocalist.
Born to Love You: Freddie Mercury's Solo Singles Collected on New Set
A new Freddie Mercury anthology will be released this fall, chronicling the late Queen singer's solo tracks on two CDs and 13 vinyl singles. Messenger of the Gods: The Singles features 25 tracks recorded by Mercury and released between 1973 and 1993--several of which were never released in America, or released widely on CD. Among the set's rarer treasures is Mercury's first "solo" single, credited to Larry Lurex in 1973. The single, featuring covers of Phil Spector's "I Can Hear Music"
Do You Like The Rain? Cherry Red Revisits Kerr and McKuen's "The Sea, The Earth, The Sky"
When singer-songwriter-poet Rod McKuen teamed with composer-arranger-conductor Anita Kerr for the 1967 album The Sea, neither had any inkling that the record's success would lead to an entire series of albums under the San Sebastian Strings moniker through 1975. The oft-imitated, never-duplicated, platinum-selling The Sea epitomized the now-moribund genre of "mood music," offering spoken word and music in a relaxing, spellbinding mélange. Cherry Red's él imprint has recently reissued the box
The Three Fates: BMG Prepares Emerson, Lake and Palmer Reissues, New Anthology
A new round of reissues dedicated to progressive titans Emerson, Lake and Palmer are on the way from the BMG label beginning this July and continuing through 2016 and 2017. This new campaign promises to encompass not only ELP's nine studio albums but also the band's live recordings and compilations. The reissues will arrive in a variety of formats including CD (with new liner notes by Chris Welch drawing on 2016 interviews with Greg Lake and the late Keith Emerson); standard, mastered for
We Dig Anita and Ahmad! Cherry Red's él Label Collects Kerr and Jamal
Cherry Red's él imprint has previously celebrated the legendary career of Anita Kerr with various album reissues, and now the label is putting the spotlight on her prolific work in the studio supporting a host of music's most famous artists. We Dig Anita: The Oohs and Aahs of the Nashville Sound brings together 33 tracks from this multi-talented pioneer of the lush country-pop Nashville Sound - an accomplished singer, musician, arranger, producer and composer. All of the tracks on We Dig
It's Her Party: Ace Reissues Lesley Gore's "Boys, Boys, Boys"
The teenaged Lesley Gore sure knew about boys. Among the titles in her era-defining catalogue include "Wonder Boy," "Yeh, Yeh, Yeh (That Boy of Mine)," "Boys," "Sometimes I Wish I Were a Boy," and, of course, "That's the Way Boys Are." The latter opened the teen queen's 1964 album Boys, Boys, Boys - a loose concept album of a sort dedicated to the precocious, talented singer's most-visited theme of young love. The late artist's third LP, it's recently been reissued by Ace Records in a
So Happy Together: The Turtles Prepare "Complete Albums" and "All the Singles"
The Turtles once staged a fictional Battle of the Bands on a remarkable 1968 LP, but were a real such battle to occur, the group founded by Howard Kaylan, Mark Volman, Al Nichol, Jim Tucker, Chuck Portz and Don Murray would surely come out on top. For more than 50 years, The Turtles have provided an unparalleled pop soundtrack via such infectious hits as "Happy Together," "You Baby," "She'd Rather Be with Me," "Let Me Be," "It Ain't Me Babe" and "Elenore." But those classics are only part of
In The Midnight Hour: Real Gone August Slate Includes Wilson Pickett, The B-52's, Dusty Springfield, Diamond Rio, More
With summer nearly upon us, we're all beginning to make plans for the next few months. Real Gone is doing the same, having just revealed what its releases are going to be for middle of summer in August! The first item on the list is the first of an eventual three-volume collection chronicling Wilson Pickett's tenure at Atlantic Records. Pickett released a total of 66 single sides at the label and The Complete Atlantic Singles Vol. 1 collects the first 22 of these. When Pickett moved to
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