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/ Reviews

The Second Disc’s 2018 Record Store Day Must-Haves

April 20, 2018 By The Second Disc 9 Comments

Welcome to our annual rundown of Must-Haves for this year's Record Store Day event!  Once you're through reading, let us know what you're most looking forward to picking up tomorrow at your favorite local independent retailer!  Our list features just a sampling of our favorites from our friends at Legacy Recordings, Varese Sarabande, Rhino Records, Real Gone Music, Demon Music Group, Walt Disney Records, Omnivore Recordings, and more! Joe's kicking things off with five essential picks (in

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Categories: News, Reviews Formats: Vinyl Genre: Classic Rock, Country, Pop, R&B/Soul, Rock, Soundtracks Tags: Belinda Carlisle, Bob Dylan, Bobbie Gentry, Bruce Springsteen, David Bowie, Elton John, Elvis Costello, Eric Clapton, Harry Nilsson, John Lennon, John Williams, Johnny Cash, Johnny Mathis, Led Zeppelin, Lulu, Madonna, Record Store Day, T Rex, Tangerine Dream, The Beau Brummels, The Police, The Rascals

Holiday Gift Guide Review: Elton John, ‘Diamonds’

December 19, 2017 By Mike Duquette 2 Comments

It's not untoward to ask exactly who the intended audience of an Elton John compilation is in 2017. The British piano pop legend has been releasing music for more than 50 years now, and has enjoyed a run of success that began early in the '70s and has yet to entirely let up. And in that time, there have been plenty of collections for fans of all stripes. His very first greatest hits album topped both the U.S. and U.K. charts in 1974 and prompted a sequel only three years later (and a third a

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Categories: Holiday Gift Guide, Reviews Formats: Box Sets, CD Genre: Classic Rock, Pop, Rock, Soundtracks Tags: Elton John

Review: “Saturday Night Fever: The Original Movie Sound Track” [Super Deluxe Box Set]

November 17, 2017 By Joe Marchese 6 Comments

Listen to the ground...there is movement all around... Saturday Night Fever didn't invent disco...but in many ways, it epitomized the genre.  With the December 1977 release of the John Badham-directed drama and its soundtrack album, the onetime underground dance movement which had been rising to the mainstream since at least 1974 became the mainstream.  Disco's alluring blend of the gritty and the glamorous gained a face in the form of John Travolta, whose tough yet tender Tony Manero of Bay

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Categories: Reviews Formats: Blu-Ray, Box Sets, CD, Digital Download, Digital Streaming, Vinyl Genre: Disco/Dance, Pop, R&B/Soul, Soundtracks Tags: David Shire, KC and the Sunshine Band, Kool and the Gang, MFSB, The Bee Gees, The Trammps

Hard-Hitting “Sweet Sweetback” Returns To Vinyl For Stax 60th Campaign

August 3, 2017 By Joe Marchese 1 Comment

Upon its release in 1971, there was nothing quite like Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song.  The low- budget, independently-made film - written, directed, edited, composed by and starring Melvin Van Peebles, and rated X "by an all-white jury" as its tagline proclaimed, ushered in the blaxploitation genre in shocking and often graphic fashion.  Prior to the film's release, the multi-hyphenate Van Peebles realized that the best way to spread the word about his groundbreaking work was via music.  And

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Categories: News, Reviews Formats: Vinyl Genre: R&B/Soul, Soundtracks Tags: Earth Wind and Fire, Melvin Van Peebles

Say Hello to Yesterday: Mark Wynter Anthology Traces Career From Pop Hits to Rare Showtunes

July 11, 2017 By Joe Marchese Leave a Comment

Mark Wynter scored his first hit pop single at the age of seventeen in 1960 with "Image of a Girl" on the Decca label, paving the way for future U.K. smashes like "Venus in Blue Jeans" and "Go Away Little Girl."  By the end of the decade, he had taken his first steps towards an enduring theatrical career with a lead role in the musical Phil the Fluter.  Flash-forward to 2016, and after decades onstage in such diverse musicals as Robert and Elizabeth, Cats, On the Twentieth Century, and Phantom

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Categories: News, Reviews Formats: CD Genre: Cast Recordings, Pop, Popular Standards/Vocal, Soundtracks Tags: Mark Wynter, Tony Hatch

Review: “Singles: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack – Deluxe Edition”

June 19, 2017 By Ted Frank 1 Comment

A Tribute Told in Vignettes... Well, I don't like to reduce us to just being part of the "Seattle Sound." I'd like to think of us as expanding more. Like, we're huge in Europe right now. I mean, we've got records... uh, a big record just broke in Belgium.    -Cliff Poncier, Singles A Cameron Crowe film tends to have a "killer" soundtrack.  Listening to a Crowe soundtrack is an intriguing adventure filled with carefully curated juxtapositions.  In fact, the experience is a lot like the

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Categories: Reviews Formats: CD, Digital Download, Digital Streaming, Vinyl Genre: Rock, Soundtracks Tags: Cameron Crowe, Chris Cornell, Paul Westerberg, Various Artists

Review: “Unsung Sherman Brothers: Song Scores from Three That Got Away”

November 1, 2016 By Joe Marchese Leave a Comment

How often does one get the opportunity to hear a never-before-released score from one of the most beloved songwriting teams of all time?  How about three unreleased scores, then?  And what if one of those scores featured seven never-before-heard performances from Sammy Davis, Jr.?  Indeed, such opportunities are rare...making Kritzerland's new release of Unsung Sherman Brothers all the more special.  This delectable and tuneful collection premieres rare demo recordings of three unproduced scores

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Categories: Reviews Formats: CD Genre: Soundtracks Tags: Sammy Davis Jr., The Sherman Brothers

Good Grief! Varese Premieres “A Boy Named Charlie Brown” On CD

July 2, 2015 By Joe Marchese 5 Comments

When Charles Schulz, director-producer Lee Mendelson and co-producer Bill Melendez announced they were bringing Charlie Brown, Snoopy, and the Peanuts gang to the big screen for the very first time, anticipation was naturally high.  A Boy Named Charlie Brown was well-received upon its December 1969 theatrical debut, going on to do good business and receiving credit for breaking the Disney monopoly on feature-length animation.  Today, it's still remembered as the best of the four Peanuts animated

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Categories: Reviews Formats: CD Genre: Soundtracks Tags: Chet Baker, Henry Mancini, Rod McKuen

Review: “The Sound of Music: 50th Anniversary Edition”

March 10, 2015 By Joe Marchese 1 Comment

In the days when The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Peter and Gordon, The Zombies, The Animals and The Kinks were vying for chart supremacy, there was another British Invasion going on. And it was virtually a single-handed one. The invader in question was a winsome soprano named Julie Andrews, who was a perfect nanny not once but twice on the silver screen. Andrews’ performance as Mary Poppins saw her headlining the No. 1 album in the United States in March 1965 (emerging triumphant over Beatles

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Categories: Reviews Formats: CD Genre: Soundtracks Tags: Julie Andrews, Rodgers and Hammerstein

Review: Judy Garland, “Swan Songs, First Flights: Her First and Last Recordings”

February 10, 2015 By Joe Marchese 15 Comments

"Forget your troubles, come on, get happy!" exhorts the song by Harold Arlen and Ted Koehler. Ruth Etting, "America's Sweetheart of Song," introduced the anthem in 1930 as the finale of Broadway's short-lived The Nine Fifteen Revue. But as soon as a svelte Judy Garland performed the song against a painted backdrop of white clouds on a pink sky for 1950's MGM musical Summer Stock, "Get Happy" belonged to no one else. After all, Koehler's lyrics could have been written for Garland, epitomizing her

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Categories: Reviews Formats: Box Sets, CD Genre: Popular Standards/Vocal, Soundtracks Tags: Judy Garland

Friday Feature: Roy Budd’s “Phantom of the Opera” Score Premieres For Classic Film

August 8, 2014 By Joe Marchese Leave a Comment

Welcome to the return of the Friday Feature, in which we turn the Second Disc spotlight onto classic film soundtracks and their various releases!  Today, the Friday Feature is the 1925 Universal horror classic The Phantom of the Opera, and the rarely-heard score is by the late Roy Budd!  Cue Mr. Budd's music of the night... When author Gaston Leroux introduced Le Fantôme de l'Opéra as a serialized novel in the pages of newspaper Le Gaulois in 1909, it was hardly likely that the former

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Categories: News, Reviews Formats: CD, DVD Genre: Soundtracks Tags: Roy Budd

Shaken, Not Stirred: Ace Mines “The Secret Agent Songbook” With “Come Spy with Us”

July 2, 2014 By Joe Marchese Leave a Comment

For many, the sound of John Barry epitomizes the sound of the spy thriller. It’s no surprise – with 12 James Bond films under his belt, the late, great British composer imbued his melodies with the right amount of adventure, humor, tension, sophistication, and well, sex. It’s fitting that Barry opens Ace Records’ superlatively entertaining new anthology Come Spy with Me: The Secret Agent Songbook, collecting 25 samples of swinging music from spies and secret agents (and even a handful of

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Categories: News, Reviews Genre: Soundtracks Tags: Nancy Sinatra, Shirley Bassey, Smokey Robinson, The Supremes, The Ventures, The Walker Brothers, Vikki Carr

The Entertainer: Marvin Hamlisch’s “D.A.R.Y.L.” Premieres on CD, Features Teddy Pendergrass and Nile Rodgers

June 23, 2014 By Joe Marchese Leave a Comment

It's appropriate that Marvin Hamlisch's only children's book was titled Marvin Makes Music, for making music was indeed what the man did - music for Broadway, music for television, music for the concert hall, music for the silver screen. In any genre, Marvin made music overflowing with melody, wit and heart, and his populist approach earned him the nickname "the people's composer." Hamlisch's film career began in 1968 with the score to the cult film The Swimmer and ended with his

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Categories: News, Reviews Genre: Soundtracks Tags: Marvin Hamlisch, Teddy Pendergrass

Henry Mancini’s “Who Is Killing The Great Chefs of Europe?” Inaugurates New Vintage Soundtrack Series From Varese

May 7, 2014 By Joe Marchese Leave a Comment

The 1978 film Who is Killing the Great Chefs of Europe? billed itself as "a delicious mystery."  Naturally, a delicious mystery would require a delicious score.  To accompany the film's recipe of drama, suspense, comedy and action, director Ted Kotcheff turned to "top chef" Henry Mancini.  No stranger to all of those genres and more, composer-arranger-conductor Mancini crafted a score that became one of the film's most memorable assets.  The long out-of-print soundtrack album, originally

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Categories: News, Reviews Genre: Soundtracks

Donna Summer and John Barry Go “Deep” On New Hot Shot Reissue

March 19, 2014 By Joe Marchese Leave a Comment

Everything about The Deep was big.  Jaws author Peter Benchley was guaranteed over half a million dollars by impresario Peter Guber for film rights to his unpublished follow-up in a deal which seemed justified when The Deep finally arrived and quickly became a bestseller.   For his big screen-ready underwater adventure, Guber had a big budget, big locations for shooting, and a big partner in Neil Bogart's Casablanca Records.  Bogart wasn't known for doing anything small, and as the inaugural

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Categories: News, Reviews Genre: Soundtracks Tags: Donna Summer, John Barry

Ray Charles, Glen Campbell, Chet Baker, Peggy Lee Featured On Soundtrack Bumper Crop From Varese

March 12, 2014 By Joe Marchese Leave a Comment

Varese Vintage is going any which way they can with an exciting trio of soundtrack releases from the library of Snuff Garrett’s Viva Records label.  Garrett, of course, was the producer behind major hits from Gary Lewis and the Playboys (“This Diamond Ring”), Cher (“Gypsys, Tramps and Thieves”) and future “Mama” Vicki Lawrence (“The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia”).  At Viva, he oversaw an eclectic array of releases from artists like the Midnight String Quartet, Alan O’Day, Ray Price and

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Categories: News, Reviews Formats: CD Genre: Soundtracks Tags: Chet Baker, Glen Campbell, Peggy Lee, Porter Wagoner, Ray Charles, Ray Price

Review: “The Muppet Movie: Original Soundtrack Recording”

August 15, 2013 By Mike Duquette 4 Comments

I'm a pretty sensitive person, but there are few things that trigger my emotions easier than The Muppets. Searching through Muppet clips yields almost a 100% guarantee on being moved to tears; just finding the link to this ciip from the 1990 special The Muppets Celebrate Jim Henson made me start tearing up, and my last trip to Walt Disney World began with me leaving the plane to Orlando, choking back my emotions over a screening of 2011's The Muppets. (For the record, this is the scene that made

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Categories: Reviews Formats: CD Genre: Soundtracks Tags: Paul Williams, The Muppets

Darlene Love, Nino Tempo, The Sweet Inspirations Feature On Jeff Barry’s “The Idolmaker” Soundtrack

July 22, 2013 By Joe Marchese Leave a Comment

Perhaps the time just wasn’t right for The Idolmaker.  Director Taylor Hackford (An Officer and a Gentleman, Ray) made his feature-length motion picture debut with the 1980 film based on the life of Philadelphia impresario Bob Marcucci, enlisting Ray Sharkey to play the fictionalized manager Vincent Vacari.  In reality, Marcucci had discovered Frankie Avalon and Fabian; in the film, the teen idols were Tommy Dee (Paul Land) and Caesare (Peter Gallagher).  The United Artists picture received some

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Categories: News, Reviews Formats: CD Genre: Soundtracks Tags: Darlene Love, Jeff Barry, Nino and April, The Sweet Inspirations

Review: Big Star, “Nothing Can Hurt Me: Original Soundtrack”

July 3, 2013 By Joe Marchese Leave a Comment

The feature-length documentary Big Star: Nothing Can Hurt Me opens today at New York’s IFC Center and on Friday at Los Angeles’ Nuart Theatre.  In conjunction with its release, Omnivore Recordings has recently unveiled a soundtrack album collecting 21 previously unissued songs from the legendary Memphis band. Rare is the cult band that actually lives up to its legend.  Yet, with each listen - time after time, year after year - Big Star not only meets the hype, but surpasses it.  Chances are, if

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Categories: News, Reviews Genre: Soundtracks Tags: Big Star

Review: Judy Garland, “Creations 1929-1962: Songs She Introduced”

May 13, 2013 By Joe Marchese 2 Comments

In the first two lines of the introductory essay that accompanies JSP Records’ new box set Judy Garland – Creations 1929-1962: Songs She Introduced, the box’s compiler Lawrence Schulman sets forth its raison d'être: “That Judy Garland (1922-1969) was one of the most talented singers and actresses of her generation is known.  That she introduced close to a hundred songs to the Great American Songbook is not.”  Thanks to this 4-CD, 94-song collection, that secret shouldn’t be a secret any longer. 

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Categories: Reviews Formats: Box Sets, CD Genre: Popular Standards/Vocal, Soundtracks Tags: Judy Garland

Review: John Williams, “Jurassic Park: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack – 20th Anniversary Edition”

April 5, 2013 By Mike Duquette Leave a Comment

Really, it's almost pointless to speculate why John Williams never received an Oscar nomination for his score to Steven Spielberg's Jurassic Park (1993). The composer's CV features several of the most iconic scores in the history of movies with synchronized sound. Five of his projects - an adaptation of the music to the Broadway musical Fiddler on the Roof and four originals (JAWS (1975), Star Wars (1977), E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982) and Schindler's List (1993)) have won gold statuettes,

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Categories: Reviews Genre: Soundtracks

Review: John Williams, “Hook: Expanded Original Motion Picture Soundtrack”

April 2, 2012 By Mike Duquette Leave a Comment

After more than three years of planning, preparing and waiting, audiences finally have a chance to enjoy an expanded edition of John Williams' score to Steven Spielberg's 1991 cult classic Hook (La-La Land Records LLLCD 1211). The world had been "getting by," so to speak, with the Epic label's original 75-minute CD presentation - a generous offering, to be sure, but one that only sort of did the score justice. While critics remain divided to indifferent on the celluloid continuation of James M.

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Categories: Reviews Genre: Soundtracks

Review: “Godspell: 40th Anniversary Celebration”

September 8, 2011 By Joe Marchese Leave a Comment

When Hair ushered in the Age of Aquarius on April 29, 1968, it heralded the arrival of the rock revolution on Broadway.  The New York Times' influential critic Clive Barnes didn't mince his words, declaring that the musical was a "long-term joust against Broadway's world of Sigmund Romberg [the composer of such operettas as The Student Prince]" and more importantly, "the first Broadway musical in some time to have the authentic voice of today rather than the day before yesterday."  And while the

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Categories: News, Reviews Genre: Cast Recordings, Soundtracks

Review: John Barry, “The Black Hole: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack”

September 6, 2011 By Joe Marchese Leave a Comment

When John Barry won two 1967 Academy Awards for his work on Born Free, the trophies were a vindication.  Over the initial objections of his director, Barry envisioned his score to reflect a "Disneyesque kind of movie, lovely family entertainment" and fought for the dramatic integrity of that sound.  Twelve years later, Barry actually got his chance to score a Walt Disney Productions motion picture.  One of many science-fiction epics produced in the wake of Star Wars, Disney's The Black Hole was

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Categories: News, Reviews Formats: CD Genre: Soundtracks Tags: John Barry

Review: Two By Richard Rodgers, “On Your Toes” (1952) and “Carousel” (1955)

June 17, 2011 By Joe Marchese Leave a Comment

June is busting out all over, and so is the music of Richard Rodgers. Then again, the work of the composer (1902-1979) is always busting out all over. Even in 2010, Rodgers had the third most-covered song of the year, according to ASCAP. The song was "My Funny Valentine," with lyrics by Lorenz Hart, and it was written in 1937, proving that Richard Rodgers' music is, indeed, timeless.  Masterworks Broadway, drawing from Sony Music Entertainment's Columbia and RCA Victor vaults, has been a leading

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Categories: Reviews Genre: Cast Recordings, Soundtracks Tags: Richard Rodgers

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