The new 3-CD, 43-song set of live Todd Rundgren performances from Edsel is entitled For Lack of Honest Work: A Live History 1971-2006, after Todd's song "Honest Work." But all of his joking with the title aside, Rundgren's career has been all honest work - as he's doubtless remained true to himself through various musical incarnations over the past near-50 years. This set, the latest fine Rundgren release from the Edsel label, chronicles all of those "Rundgren variations" as captured between
Not Like Everybody Else: "Kinked!" Kollects Kinks Kovers (And Sessions, Too!)
When it comes to songwriting, Ray Davies is doubtless one well-respected man. Yet, unbelievably, Ace Records' recent Kinked! Kinks Songs and Sessions 1964-1971 marks the first collection to explore in comprehensive fashion the early body of work created by Davies outside of his famous band. Its 26 tracks encompass songs not recorded by The Kinks, or first released by artists other than The Kinks, as well as a handful of contemporary cover versions, sessions featuring The Kinks on backup, and
Some Velvet Morning: Ace Salutes Lee Hazlewood on "Shazam!"
The title of Ace's new entry in its Songwriter Series - Shazam! - doesn't refer to Captain Marvel's magic word or Gomer Pyle's favorite expression. Rather, the new compilation CD is titled after Duane Eddy's (naturally) twangy western gallop "Shazam!" penned by Eddy and maverick producer Lee Hazlewood and released in 1960. (Okay, Duane and Lee likely did take its name from C.C. Beck and Bill Parker's popular comic book superhero!) Shazam! and Other Instrumentals Written by Lee Hazlewood is
Finder Of Lost "Love": Dionne Warwick Releases "Tropical Love" From The Vaults
Dionne Warwick joined Arista Records in 1978, inaugurating a sixteen-year tenure at the label which would see many of her greatest triumphs including the Grammy-winning hits "I'll Never Love This Way Again," "Déjà Vu" and "That's What Friends are For." At Arista, Dionne teamed with Barry Manilow, Luther Vandross, and Barry Gibb; reunited with Burt Bacharach and Hal David; released one Platinum and two Gold albums; and earned her first No. 1 on the Hot 100 in over a decade. Her final album for
Review: Stealers Wheel on Vinyl: "Stealers Wheel" and "Ferguslie Park"
Intervention Records launched in 2015 with a simple mission statement: "To provide archive-quality LPs of music we love," with the goal that "each record we do must be the single definitive, final version of that album, the one real music lovers will seek out." Happily, the label's early releases have all more than lived up to those lofty goals! The first two albums from Gerry Rafferty and Joe Egan's Stealers Wheel might not have been the most expected titles for vinyl reissue in 2016, but
Review: Brett Harris, "Up in the Air"
The Second Disc welcomes back Ted Frank as he takes a sonic journey with one of his favorite albums so far of 2016, Brett Harris' Up in the Air! It may not be a reissue, but Harris' spin on vintage pop sounds make this release a must-listen. Listening to Brett Harris' newest album Up in the Air is an intimate experience. The southern storyteller sings to the listener with a bit of a weathered whisper and appears seasoned beyond his years. While the North Carolina-based singer-songwriter
Still Driving: America Releases "Lost and Found" On Vinyl
Last year, Gerry Beckley and Dewey Bunnell, a.k.a. America, released two significant archival collections bookending their still-thriving career. Archives Vol. 1 presented 15 previously unreleased alternate versions, early mixes, demos, rehearsals and outtakes spanning the halcyon period between America's 1971 debut album America and 1975's Hearts. These, of course, featured Beckley and Bunnell in addition to original member Dan Peek. Lost and Found pressed fast-forward on the band's history
Review: Elvis Presley, "The Album Collection"
I. Playing for Keeps "You don't have to face the music...you don't have to face the crowd...Just go back where you came from," sings a world-weary Elvis Presley on "It's Easy for You," the closing track of his 1977 album Moody Blue. "If you ever tire of the good life, call me in a year or two...I've got no choice, I'll forgive you, 'cause it's easy for you." Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice's musical recrimination not only dated back to the superstar artist's final studio session - at home
Review: Raspberries, "Raspberries" Vinyl Edition
When Eric Carmen and Wally Bryson of Cyrus Eyrie teamed up with Jim Bonfanti and Dave Smalley of The Choir, the result was pop bliss. The Raspberries emerged from the ashes from the two bands, and over the course of four albums - three with the original line-up, and one with just Carmen and Bryson remaining - they came to define power pop. Yet today, some might wonder: Why is the Cleveland, Ohio band so fondly remembered despite only placing one Top 5 single in the U.S. and two more Top 20s?
See Those Girls: Ace Celebrates The Paris Sisters On New Anthology
The story of Albeth, Priscilla and Sherrell Paris - a.k.a. The Paris Sisters - has always been inextricably intertwined with that of Phil Spector. After all, the producer had one of his earliest hits in 1961 with "I Love How You Love Me," written by Barry Mann and Larry Kolber and sung in soft, demure fashion by Priscilla with her sisters on sweet backgrounds. But The Paris Sisters' career encompassed far more than just that Top 5 hit. Their story is filled with other names as illustrious as
Reviews: A Real Gone Trio From The Mamas and the Papas, King Curtis and Nat "King" Cole
Real Gone Music has had some of its most expansive collections released this winter. Today, Randy takes a look at three of them, from The Mamas and the Papas, King Curtis, and Nat "King" Cole! "You gotta go where you wanna go, do what you wanna do, with whoever you want to do it with..." From their very first single, 1966's "Go Where You Wanna Go," The Mamas and the Papas spread their singular brand of California sunshine. The group's songs espoused the
Review: Emitt Rhodes, "Rainbow Ends"
A new Emitt Rhodes album. That's right, say it again - a new Emitt Rhodes album. With the release of Rainbow Ends, Omnivore Recordings has delivered on what has long been thought an impossibility. The cult tunesmith and multi-instrumentalist earned his stripes as a member of The Palace Guard and then the harmony-soaked LA band The Merry-Go-Round ("You're a Very Lovely Woman," "Live") before recording four beautiful solo albums for A&M and ABC/Dunhill. His last full-length LP, Farewell
Review: JD Souther, "Black Rose" and "Home By Dawn" Expanded Editions
Omnivore Recordings continues to mine one of the great underrated catalogues in contemporary pop-rock with two more titles from singer-songwriter JD Souther. Black Rose (1976) has been joined on compact disc by Home by Dawn (1984) with both titles splendidly remastered and featuring previously unreleased bonus tracks. These definitive reissues aren't to be missed. The wide-ranging Black Rose, originally released on Asylum Records, remains Souther's most diverse and expansive musical
Review: The Monkees, "Classic Album Collection" and "The Cereal Box Singles"
2016 marks the 50th anniversary of the first time Micky Dolenz, Davy Jones, Michael Nesmith and Peter Tork first hit TV screens and record sleeves as The Monkees, and indeed, it's shaping up to be an auspicious year. In advance of the restored Blu-ray premiere of The Monkees' television show, new album Good Times! and a tour featuring Dolenz and Tork, Rhino has released The Monkees 50: Classic Album Collection, a 10-disc box set collecting the original version of every one of the band's Colgems
Feelin' Groovy: Now Sounds Collects Harpers Bizarre's "Complete Singles"
Now Sounds is back with its first release of 2016, and with it, the label is spreading some California sunshine. Harpers Bizarre's The Complete Singles Collection 1965-1970 compiles all 26 sides issued on 45 RPM singles by Warner Bros. Records, including tracks from the group's early incarnation as The Tikis and numerous mono mixes never before available on CD. The resulting release, which follows Now Sounds' reissues of Harpers' Feelin' Groovy and Anything Goes albums, is a refreshing journey
Popsicles, Icicles and More: Ace Collects The Best of The Murmaids
Ace Records has recently made quite a splash with the first-ever comprehensive compendium from one-hit wonder girl group The Murmaids. But as the collection so accurately titled A Few of the Things We Love reveals, the girls had more to offer than just "Popsicles and Icicles." This collection is pure girl group manna! That nostalgic composition by the young David Gates, pre-"Make It with You" and "Baby I'm a-Want You" fame, of course kicks off this 21-track anthology comprising The
Review: Alan Price, "Savaloy Dip: Words and Music by Alan Price"
In a career spanning more than 50 years, Alan Price has just about done it all. The founding member of The Animals (and creator of the indelible organ parts on tracks like "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood" and "House of the Rising Sun") followed his tenure in that band by refining his craft as a top-flight singer-songwriter and broadening his artistic horizons by scoring films and stage musicals. So perhaps it shouldn't be a surprise that one of the prolific Price's projects fell through the
Review: JD Souther, "John David Souther (Expanded Edition)"
In 2007, a new song from the Eagles blazed onto the radio airwaves, climbing to a Top 10 AC/Top 25 Country berth on the Billboard charts. But the infectious, breezy "How Long," with its classic Eagles sound, wasn't new at all. The song was written by JD Souther and included on his 1972 Asylum Records debut John David Souther. When the Eagles included it on Long Road Out of Eden, the band's first studio album since 1979, it rekindled the creative relationship with Souther, an "honorary Eagle"
Review: Roy Orbison, "The MGM Years 1965-1973"
The Big O is back with a big box set. The MGM Years 1965-1973, recently arrived from Roy's Boys, LLC and Universal Music Enterprises, chronicles over the course of 13 CDs (or 14 LPs) the least well-known period of the late vocal titan's career. Orbison joined MGM Records riding the crest of the "Oh, Pretty Woman" wave; the composition which he wrote with Bill Dees was a U.S. and U.K. chart-topper at the height of the British Invasion in 1964 for Fred Foster's Monument Records. Enticed by
Sister Golden Hair Surprise: America Opens Its "Archives" On New Release
The vaults are open! The legacy of the enduring band America has received a long-overdue celebration with the recent release on compact disc and digital download of Archives Vol. 1. Featuring the versatile, original trio of Gerry Beckley, Dewey Bunnell and the late Dan Peek (as well as the talented musicians and producers who contributed mightily to the band's earliest albums), Archives is a 15-track, non-chronological collection of previously unreleased alternate versions, early mixes, demos,
Review: "International Pop Overthrow: Volume 18"
We're welcoming back Ted Frank to The Second Disc for a look at the latest offering - Volume 18 - from the fine folks at International Pop Overthrow! Producer/curator David Bash, graphic designer Steve Stanley and their team have created another instant classic with their latest and greatest collection of the best, most diverse and most delicious pop music circa 2015! In the year that saw the Numero Group's superb Ork Records Collection, Omnivore Recordings' immediately indispensible Power
Along Comes "1966": Ace Anthology Features The Supremes, The Who, Velvet Underground, Bowie, More
Was 1966 the greatest year ever in popular music? The case could certainly be made for its significance - and Jon Savage has done just that in his new book 1966: The Year the Decade Exploded. Savage's book looks at the events and culture of the year in twelve essays, each one built around one 45 RPM record. Naturally, such a book deserves a soundtrack, and Ace Records has seen to it that it receives one with the companion volume of the same name. Jon Savage's 1966: The Year the Decade
Real Gone Celebrates Christmas With The Soulful Strings, John Gary, Four Seasons
Real Gone Music is this year's source for classic Christmas reissues - including two from our own Second Disc Records imprint! Here, we're taking a look at three more titles from the label's Christmas feast! At first glance, The Soulful Strings might appear to be just another of those ubiquitous sixties instrumental studio outfits, delivering MOR versions of the day's popular hits. Yet, a closer look at Cadet Records' Soulful Strings - and most of its brethren, truth be told - reveals some
Review: "The Classic Christmas Album" Series 2015
Since 2011, Sony's Legacy Recordings has offered a crop of ideal stocking stuffers with the Classic Christmas Album series. This year's quartet of releases has a decidedly more modern bent, featuring artists associated with the '70s (Earth, Wind & Fire), '80s (a various artists compilation), '90s (Sarah McLachlan) and 2000s (Celtic Thunder). Three of these titles are actually expanded editions of previously released albums. Earth, Wind and Fire's Classic Christmas entry reprises last
Something Bad On Her Mind: Rare and Unreleased Timi Yuro Arrives From Cherry Red
There was only one Timi Yuro. The late, Chicago-born Italian-American vocalist was signed to Liberty Records as a teenager, bringing jazz and R&B influences into her emotional, heart-on-its-sleeve blue-eyed soul style. After having spent the first portion of her career at Liberty, Yuro departed the label in 1963. She was dubbed The Amazing Timi Yuro by Mercury Records for her Quincy Jones-produced LP debut there in 1964, but Mercury never followed it up with another long-player, opting
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