Ace Records has had quite a 2021, from collections spotlighting the songs of Lou Reed and Donovan through this past week's releases from Petula Clark, late producer Norman Whitfield, and the ladies of Motown. Today, we're taking a look at a pair of recent releases from the venerable label. Lincoln Wayne "Chips" Moman (1937-2016) may never have become a household name, but the music he helped create certainly did. A guitarist, producer, songwriter, and engineer, Moman pioneered the sound of
And That's Just What They'll Do: Nancy Sinatra's "Boots" Returns from Light in the Attic
Earlier this year, Light in the Attic launched its Nancy Sinatra Archival Series celebrating the musical legacy of the vocalist behind such classics as "These Boots Are Made For Walkin'," "How Does That Grab You, Darlin'?," "You Only Live Twice," and the duet "Somethin' Stupid" with her famous father. On September 17, the series will continue with a CD, vinyl, digital, and 8-track (!) reissue of Nancy's debut album, 1966's Boots, originally issued on the Reprise label. Boots was, of course,
Everybody's Cryin' Mercy: Cherry Red Collects Twelve Albums from Mose Allison on New Box Set
Over a career spanning more than 50 years, Mississippi-born pianist-singer-songwriter Mose Allison (1927-2016) was one of the most influential figures in jazz and modern blues. The self-described "Middle Class White Boy" inspired such artists as Pete Townshend, Jimi Hendrix, Georgie Fame, Elvis Costello, Ben Sidran, Van Morrison, and Al Kooper. He recorded more than 30 albums as a leader, and now roughly a third of his entire discography has been collected on a splendid new box set from Cherry
In the Mood for a Melody: Legacy Collects Billy Joel's "The Vinyl Collection, Vol. 1" With Seven Albums, Previously Unreleased Concert
When The New York Philharmonic opened music mogul Clive Davis' NYC Homecoming Concert last Saturday evening, the esteemed orchestra energized the crowd with a medley of New York anthems. Nestled among classic melodies by such legendary composers as George Gershwin and Leonard Bernstein was "New York State of Mind" by the pride of Long Island, Billy Joel. His presence in such company was well-deserved: over a 50-year career, Joel has penned enough standards to warrant entry into the pantheon of
Get Back: The Beatles Remix, Expand 'Let It Be'
More than 50 years after its May 1970 release, The Beatles' Let It Be - the Fab Four's final original studio album - remains anything but the last word on the band. While the LP topped the charts in multiple countries including the U.S. and U.K., and included such beloved now-standards as "The Long and Winding Road," "Across the Universe," "Get Back," and the title track, the road to its release was anything but a smooth one. It was previously announced that the story would be chronicled this
Bittersweet Me: R.E.M. Revisits 'New Adventures in Hi-Fi' for 25th Anniversary
Craft Recordings is continuing its ongoing R.E.M. reissue series with a 25th anniversary edition of the Georgia band's tenth studio album New Adventures in Hi-Fi. On October 29, a 2CD/1BD Deluxe Edition will present the newly remastered original album, a disc of B-sides and rarities, and a Blu-ray with numerous features including a 64-minute outdoor projection film (originally shown on buildings across five cities in 1996 to promote the album release), a 30-minute EPK (Electronic Press Kit),
In Memoriam: Charlie Watts (1941-2021)
Earlier this month, Charlie Watts shocked Rolling Stones fans when he announced he was dropping out of the band's upcoming tour following a successful medical procedure. The drummer had not missed a tour since joining the Stones in January 1963 and was the only band member other than Mick Jagger and Keith Richards to appear on every album. "For once, my timing has been a little off," Watts joked at the prospect of missing the tour. Now, it's just been announced that Watts died peacefully in a
Walk This Way: Aerosmith Moves Entire Catalogue to UMG for 50th Anniversary
Yesterday, August 23, Aerosmith announced that it will be bringing its entire recorded music catalogue to Universal Music Group ahead of the 50th anniversary of the band's debut album next year. As UMG already controlled Aerosmith's Geffen Records discography, the deal will unite those 1985-1993 recordings under one roof with the material from their two stints at Columbia Records (1972-1984 and 1997-2006, roughly). Going forward, Universal will spearhead Aerosmith's music and video releases,
Just the Smile: Rory Gallagher's 1971 Solo Debut Expanded as 50th Anniversary Box Set
2020 saw a number of releases from late Irish guitar god Rory Gallagher including a blazing 1977 live set and a career-spanning anthology. Now, the celebration of all things Gallagher continues with a 50th anniversary edition of his 1971 solo debut. On September 3, UMC (in the U.K.) and UMe (in the U.S.) will reissue the eponymous Rory Gallagher as a 4CD/1DVD set containing a new mix of the original album, 30 previously unreleased outtakes and alternates, a six-song BBC Radio John Peel Sunday
Gimme Danger: Cherry Red Collects Iggy and The Stooges' "Raw Power"-Era Rehearsals on New Box Set
Cherry Red has recently released its second volume of archival material from Iggy Pop and The Stooges following 2020's You Think You're Bad, Man? The Road Tapes '73-'74. The new title is Born in a Trailer: The Session and Rehearsal Tapes '72-'73, and it's a 4-CD collection chronicling the band's rehearsal recordings made in London, Michigan, Los Angeles, Detroit, and New York. Author Kris Needs doesn't pull any punches in his liner notes to this box when he describes this period in Stooges
You Make a Grown Man Cry: Rolling Stones Celebrate 40th Anniversary of "Tattoo You" with New Multi-Format Release
The old saying goes that necessity is the mother of invention. And when The Rolling Stones needed a new LP to tour behind but didn't have time to write and record, they invented Tattoo You. The 1981 album was primarily assembled from a decade's worth of outtakes, some essentially finished and some nowhere near so; band members eventually made their way into the studio to complete the latter tracks. The gamble paid off and Tattoo You topped the U.S. Billboard 200 and went to No. 2 on the U.K.
Get Up, Stand Up: Bob Marley and The Wailers' "The Capitol Session '73" Comes to CD, LP, DVD
1973 was a landmark year for Bob Marley. His band, The Wailers, released their sixth studio album in October to critical acclaim and commercial success. Burnin' earned a Gold sales certification in the U.S. and eventually an induction into the Library of Congress' National Recording Registry. The album introduced "Get Up, Stand Up" as well as the future Eric Clapton hit "I Shot the Sheriff." But Marley and The Wailers weren't resting on their laurels around the time of the album's release.
She's a Survivor: Reba McEntire's "Revived, Remixed, Revisited" Box Due in October
Reba McEntire is looking back on her career with a three-disc, three-album retrospective - but with a twist. Revived Remixed Revisited, due on October 8 from MCA Nashville, consists entirely of new and previously unheard versions of her greatest hits for a total of 30 tracks. The first disc, Revived, presents McEntire's songs (including "Can't Even Get the Blues" and "Is There Life Out There") performed with her touring band as they would be heard in concert today with arrangements and
Like a Prayer (Answered): Madonna Signs Career-Spanning Deal with Warner, Announces Deluxe Reissue Series
For years - decades, even - fans have wondered when Madonna's catalogue would get the kind of deluxe treatment befitting her stature as a trailblazer. It now looks like that day is coming soon, as early this morning, the artist and Warner Music Group announced a career-spanning partnership. The new deal between Madonna and WMG (already her home for the first 24 years of her career on the Sire, Maverick, and Warner labels) sees that WMG will represent her entire body of work in both recordings
I'm Leavin': Legacy Collects Elvis' Final Nashville Sessions in Remixed Form on "Back in Nashville"
The annual Elvis Week kicked off at Graceland on Wednesday, August 11 with numerous events, activities, and presentations honoring the King of Rock and Roll. Yesterday, Legacy Recordings announced its major Elvis release for 2021, and it's one that picks up directly from last year's release. Elvis: Back in Nashville, due on November 12, is a sequel project to 2020's From Elvis in Nashville. Like that set, it features a host of new remixes by Matt Ross-Spang to place the focus squarely on
Kick Your Door Down: The Replacements Go Back to the Beginning for Deluxe Box of Debut Album
The Replacements burst onto the scene with 1981's Sorry Ma, Forgot to Take Out the Trash. The Minneapolis band's debut arrived on the city's independent Twin/Tone label, its eighteen punk nuggets (more than half of which were under two minutes in length) imbued with a pop accessibility and reckless, rebellious spirit. Lead singer/songwriter/guitarist Paul Westerberg, drummer Chris Mars, and brothers Bob and Tommy Stinson (on lead guitar and bass, respectively) came close to implosion more than
Put on a Happy Face: Jasmine Reissues, Expands Dick Van Dyke's "Songs I Like"
In an extraordinary showbiz career spanning almost 75 years, perennial song-and-dance man Dick Van Dyke has only recorded three solo albums (in addition to his appearances on best-selling cast albums and soundtracks, that is!). While two of those - 2017's Step Back in Time and 2009's Put on a Happy Face, the latter with his a cappella group The Vantastix - are from recent years, he did record one LP while starring on the 15-time Emmy Award-winning sitcom The Dick Van Dyke Show. 1963's Songs I
You Know How to Love Me: A Closer Look at Phyllis Hyman's "Old Friend: The Deluxe Collection 1976-1998"
UPDATED AUGUST 2021: "Phyllis sat right in my class. I can still see the pigtails." In a 2016 interview with The Second Disc, Thom Bell shared his earliest memories of the late Phyllis Hyman (1949-1995). The songwriter-arranger-conductor-producer would cross paths numerous times over the years with his childhood friend: first via Phyllis' hit recordings of his "Betcha By Golly Wow" and "Loving You - Losing You," and later, his own productions and songs for her. "She was a lonely individual,"
My Eyes Have Seen: Odetta, The Weavers, Joan Baez, More Featured on Vinyl Me, Please's "Anthology: The Story of Vanguard"
A vanguard is, by definition, a position at the forefront of new ideas or developments. And in the fertile musical stomping ground of the early 1960s, some of the newest, most avant-garde ideas were being espoused on the Vanguard Records label. Yet these so-called radical, even "dangerous" thoughts were being espoused in forms so traditional, they might have seemed as old as time. Vanguard was formed in 1950 by Maynard and Seymour Solomon as a classical label and later moved into jazz. The
Harvest for the World: Demon Music Group Spotlight on Average White Band, The Rubettes, and Barry Blue
Today, we're taking a look at three recent releases from Demon Music Group! On their 1974 Atlantic debut and breakthrough LP AWB, Average White Band proclaimed that they had "Work to Do." The group's confident stab at The Isley Brothers' 1972 funk classic closed the first side of AWB; now, it's one of ten tracks comprising the enjoyable new vinyl collection Cover to Cover, Soul to Soul out on Demon Records. Cover to Cover, Soul to Soul offers a bounty of AWB's most soulful tracks - not
Are You That Somebody: Blackground Records Catalogue, Against All Odds, Coming Back Into Print
It's the reissue announcement a generation wanted but nobody expected - and it's honestly hard to parse how to feel about it: Blackground Records will release its long out-of-print catalogue, including albums by the late R&B singer Aaliyah. Record producer Barry Hankerson started Blackground in the '90s as a vehicle to score his niece, Aaliyah Haughton, a record deal. After years of being turned down, Jive Records signed the 15-year-old singer, and debut Age Ain't Nothing But a Number
Happy To Be Here: Ellen Foley Returns with "Fighting Words"
Ellen Foley is back with a vengeance. The singer-actress who shared the microphone with Meat Loaf on Bat Out of Hell's immortal "Paradise by the Dashboard Light" has one of the smallest yet choicest discographies in rock: just three albums between 1979 and 1983 on which she was joined by such collaborators as Ian Hunter, Mick Ronson, Vini Poncia, and The Clash's Mick Jones, Paul Simonon, Topper Headon, and Joe Strummer; and a 2013 "comeback" LP. But Foley was hardly ever away. She flourished
Sing a Happy Song: Omnivore Brings Nine Buck Owens Albums to CD, First Three Out Tomorrow
Hello happiness, goodbye loneliness! Over the past dozen years, Omnivore Recordings celebrated Buck Owens on a variety of releases, from a multi-volume series dedicated to the Bakersfield country hero's complete Capitol singles to rare live material, a Buck Sings Eagles EP, a Christmas collection, and even a coloring book. Now, Omnivore is answering fans' wishes and returning nine of his classic Capitol albums to print for the first-time ever on standalone CD. The series, to roll out in three
Just Between You and Me: Cherry Red's HNE Imprint Collects Lou Gramm's Atlantic Solo Albums
As original lead vocalist of Foreigner, Lou Gramm was the memorable, full-throated voice on such indelible hits as "Cold as Ice," "Feels Like the First Time," "Hot Blooded," "Urgent," "Waiting for a Girl Like You," and "I Want to Know What Love Is." But tensions with his main creative partner in the band, Mick Jones, had percolated throughout the 1980s, and in 1987 Gramm struck out on his own with the solo LP appropriately entitled Ready or Not. Gramm was indeed ready; he left Foreigner in
I Love The Winter Weather: Tony Bennett's "Snowfall" Is Remixed for October Release
Today, Tony Bennett turns 95. The artist - for whom the designation "legendary" isn't mere hyperbole - is scheduled to take the stage tonight at Radio City Music Hall with his friend and collaborator Lady Gaga for the first of two shows billed as One Last Time. Bennett is currently battling Alzheimer's, and tickets for the pair of concerts sold out in moments. An album (date TBA) with Gaga is forthcoming, but in the meantime, Legacy Recordings and Columbia Records have announced a new reissue
- « Previous Page
- 1
- …
- 41
- 42
- 43
- 44
- 45
- …
- 289
- Next Page »