When New York-born, London-settled vocalist Joy Marshall died in November 1968, her obituaries unsurprisingly concentrated on the salacious aspects of her death, which in retrospect, seemed all but inevitable considering the fast lane in which she lived her life. But today, with decades having passed, one can more fairly evaluate Marshall's career solely on her art. Based on the upcoming release due May 18 from Cherry Red's Turtle imprint of When Sunny Gets Blue: Spring '68 Sessions from The
Review: Frank Sinatra, "Standing Room Only"
Throughout his lifetime, Frank Sinatra grew accustomed to his concerts being Standing Room Only. Now, that's the title of a sensational new box set from UMe and Frank Sinatra Enterprises. This 3-CD book-style release under the Signature Sinatra banner follows the 2016 box World on a String as well as earlier celebrations of the artist's live performances in New York, Vegas, and London. Standing Room Only brings together three complete concerts, two of which have never been previously released
Review: Chicago, "VI Decades Live: This Is What We Do"
This year, Chicago announced a first in their touring history. The band would play their second album, Chicago (or Chicago II), in full, at each concert to mark the group's ongoing 50th anniversary festivities. The celebration has continued via archival releases as well, and following last year's stellar Quadio, Rhino Records has just issued VI Decades Live: This is What We Do, the first-ever box set of live recordings from the band's storied history on four CDs and one DVD. Perhaps
Review: Lou Johnson, "Sweet Southern Soul"
Brooklyn-born vocalist Lou Johnson was one of the most distinctive voices in 1960s soul. Hailing from a musically-inclined family, Johnson honed his vocal instrument in gospel choirs, in college, and with the group The Canjoes before signing to the Big Apple's Big Top label in 1962. At Big Top, his voice made Burt Bacharach and Hal David take notice, and the on-the-rise songwriting and production team was soon presenting him with top-drawer material like "If I Never Get to Love You," "Reach
The Second Disc's 2018 Record Store Day Must-Haves
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
RECORD STORE DAY PREVIEW! Minky Records Uncovers Early '70s Latino Soul from God's Children; Wrecking Crew Featured
"All God's children got rhythm," went a popular standard performed by Judy Garland, Stan Getz, and many others. In the case of the East L.A. group called God's Children, that lyric certainly was true. Music is the Answer: The Complete Collection is the name of their first-ever long-playing release, available tomorrow from Minky Records on CD and this Saturday on limited edition brown vinyl for Record Store Day. This holy grail of Latino soul and Chicano rock presents their released sides plus
Deep Purple Saxophone: Omnivore Collects Nino Tempo's Atlantic Jazz
Nino Tempo is accurately described as a Purveyor of Balladry on Omnivore Recordings' new compilation dedicated to his Atlantic recordings, but that's just one facet of this all-too-underrated artist. Over a long career, Tempo has served as a writer, producer, arranger, singer, and (as on this set) musician. With his sister April Stevens, Tempo enchanted with the breezy "Deep Purple" and shimmering "You'll Be Needing Me Baby," and out-Righteous Brother'ed the Righteous Brothers on "All Strung
"Nigel Lived" Again: Intervention Brings Murray Head's Rock Concept Album to CD and SACD
Few artists have bridged the worlds of rock and theatre as successfully as Murray Head. Singing the music of others, actor-singer Head scored two major hits on both sides of the Atlantic with 1973's "Superstar" from Jesus Christ Superstar and 1984's "One Night in Bangkok" from Chess. Far lesser known, however, is his discography as a singer-songwriter. Head imbued his own compositions with the same vibrant life as those famous songs by Andrew Lloyd Webber, Tim Rice, Bjorn Ulvaeus and Benny
Love Is The Message: Cherry Red Collects MFSB's "Definitive Collection"
MFSB - a.k.a. Mother, Father, Sister, Brother (or a rather more off-color series of four words, depending on whom you ask) - remains one of the all-time great aggregations of studio musicians, right up there with The Funk Brothers, The Wrecking Crew, and The Nashville Cats. The legacy of the Philadelphia International group has just been celebrated by Cherry Red's Robinsongs imprint on a new 2-CD, 32-track anthology entitled The Definitive Collection. The talented, versatile musicians at the
Sounds From Beyond: Cherry Red Collects Psych, Pop, Rock, and the 101 Strings (!) On New Box Set
I Said, She Said, Ah Cid: With this delightfully offbeat release, Cherry Red's Grapefruit label has turned in one of the year's most intriguing releases. Ah cid, or acid, is in the air on this trippy 3-CD jaunt through the vaults of Alshire Records, the California-based budget label best known for the long-running 101 Strings series. As the subtitle - The Exploito Psych World of Alshire Records 1967-1971 - indicates, this set is focused squarely on the brief period in which Al Sherman's
Like Someone in Love: Ace Collects Complete Charlie Rich at RCA
Charlie Rich (1932-1995) finally achieved superstardom when his laid-back readings of "Behind Closed Doors" and "The Most Beautiful Girl" ascended in 1973 to the top spot of the Billboard Country chart and crossed over to Pop - the latter to Number One on that chart, too. Although those songs kicked off a new chapter in the career of the man known by that point as the Silver Fox (for his mane of gray hair and wizened appearance), Rich's repertoire could hardly be defined by their mellow sound.
Keep a Close Watch: Ace Salutes "The Orchestrations of Robert Kirby" with Nick Drake, Richard and Linda Thompson, Iain Matthews
The subject of a new collection from Ace Records isn't exactly a household name. But if you didn't know the name of Robert Kirby before, you certainly will after a listen to When the Day is Done: The Orchestrations of Robert Kirby. The titular orchestrator is best known for his lush adornment of Nick Drake's records, conjuring up a pastoral England that couldn't be more removed from the swingin' era that preceded it. A brief track from Drake opens this collection before it cedes to an
Review: Isaac Hayes, "Hot Buttered Soul," "Shaft" and "Black Moses" Reissues
As a songwriter, producer, arranger, and session pianist, Isaac Hayes was a key architect in creating the sound of Memphis-based Stax Records. But few could have foreseen his dramatic ascendance to superstardom - a rise that began with his 1969 solo album Hot Buttered Soul. Now, that seminal record has returned to vinyl along with 1971's pair of Shaft and Black Moses from Craft Recordings. All three of these landmark LPs have been given the deluxe treatment in both packaging and
Review: Chris Hillman, "The Asylum Years"
Chris Hillman is surely one of rock's largely unsung heroes. A veteran of groups including The Byrds, The Flying Burrito Brothers, The Desert Rose Band, and supergroup The Souther-Hillman-Furay Band, Hillman last year released the acclaimed album Bidin' My Time - only his seventh solo album. Produced by Tom Petty (one of the late superstar's last projects) with one foot in the past and another in the present, the LP reaffirmed the artist's deserved place in the pantheon. Now, Omnivore
Review: Sonny Rollins, "Way Out West: Deluxe Edition"
The musical power of Sonny Rollins' Way Out West may have been eclipsed by its most famous component - that famous William Claxton cover photo, depicting the nattily-attired saxophonist in a ten-gallon hat, with holster, gun belt, and yes, saxophone. All joking aside, the New York-born Rollins was way out west, having recorded the LP on his first trip to California. The cover was shot in the Mojave Desert, which could have stood in for the setting of any of the cowboy films he loved as child.
Who, What, When, Where, Why: Rupert Holmes' "Songs That Sound Like Movies" OUT TODAY from Cherry Red [UPDATED]
There are songs that sound like movies/There are themes that fill the screen/There are lines I say that sound as if they're written/There are looks I wear the theatre should have seen... With those words, Rupert Holmes welcomed listeners into his singular musical world - one in which the only limits were those of the singer-songwriter's boundless imagination. In other words, there were no limits to Holmes' finely crafted, elaborately realized pop dramas. His 1974 Epic Records debut,
Love In Action: Todd Rundgren's "All Sides of the Roxy" Presents Complete, Star-Studded 1978 Concert
For his first live album, the 1978 double-LP Back to the Bars, singer/songwriter/sonic auteur Todd Rundgren returned to his roots with a collection of lean, tight, intimate performances recorded in the clubs of New York, Los Angeles, and Cleveland. This was Rundgren at his most accessible, playing his most universally beloved songs over his first decade of music-making, with a band including Utopia veterans Mark "Moogy" Klingman, John Siegler, and Willie Wilcox, plus his old friends from
Review: Nina Simone, "Mood Indigo: The Complete Bethlehem Singles"
Listeners experiencing 2018 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee Nina Simone's debut recordings for the first time might be taken aback at the ferocity and determination which mark these fourteen sides, compiled for the first time in complete form on CD as Mood Indigo: The Complete Bethlehem Singles (BMG 538320282). Those qualities distinguished this remarkable artist throughout a long and fiery career, but were thrillingly present at her very first sessions. Pianist-singer Simone began her
Review: Fleetwood Mac, 'Fleetwood Mac: Deluxe Edition'
Take away all the artifice and ephemera of the new deluxe edition of Fleetwood Mac's 1975 self-titled album (Reprise R2 559454) and you're still left with an intriguing and endlessly challenging question: how? How did a British blues band with only fleeting chart success in their home country metamorphose into one of the greatest rock bands of the 20th century's back half, architects of 18 Top 40 hits and eight platinum or multiplatinum records? And how did they do so with their ninth lineup? As
Hold It! Intervention Gives Deluxe, Artist-Approved Treatment to Marshall Crenshaw's "Field Day"
Fans of Marshall Crenshaw are bound to have a Field Day with Intervention Records' recent vinyl reissue of the pop hero's sophomore album. This delightful release in the label's Artist-Approved Series has spruced up the original LP with a bonus 12-inch EP of additional content and new artwork, both of which have been given the thumbs-up by the artist. Producer Steve Lillywhite harnessed the power of Crenshaw (guitar/vocals), his brother Robert (drums/vocals), and Chris Donato (bass/vocals)
It Takes Two to Tango: Analog Spark Reissues Two Todd Rundgren Classics on SACD
Since the dawn of the CD era, Todd Rundgren's classic Bearsville LPs have appeared and re-appeared with regularity - yet they had never appeared in the physical format for which they're most ideally suited: high-resolution audio. Thanks to Analog Spark, that's all changed. The label has just released hybrid stereo SACDs of the singer-songwriter-producer's third and fourth Bearsville LPs - the career-defining Something/Anything (1973) and its daring successor, A Wizard, A True Star (1974).
Run Out Groove Round-Up: The Dream Syndicate, The Stooges, Secret Machines and Morphine
Today, we're taking a look at four recent titles pressed for audiophile-level vinyl excellence by the Run Out Groove label! Run Out Groove embraces the Paisley Underground with the vinyl premiere of The Dream Syndicate's The Complete Live at Raji's. Recorded on January 31, 1988 (not 1989, as indicated on the original CD release of the truncated album), the set captured the underground heroes prior to the release of their Ghost Stories album - and a year prior to their breakup. But the
Review: The Monkees, "More of The Monkees: Super Deluxe Edition"
January is barely over yet, but 2018 is already shaping up to be another banner year for The Monkees. Davy, Peter, Michael, and Micky have just met The Archies in a zany time-travelling comic book adventure, and fans have had the perfect soundtrack: the new, 3-CD/1-45 RPM single super deluxe box set edition of sophomore album More of The Monkees (Rhino Handmade R2 560125) - in time to mark 51 years since the LP was first released, in January 1967. This sixth installment of the long-running
For Your Love: Herman's Hermits, Yardbirds, Hollies Featured on "The Graham Gouldman Songbook"
Ace's latest addition to its Songwriter Series, Listen People: The Graham Gouldman Songbook 1964-2005, appropriately enough begins with a track written by Gouldman, "That's How (It's Gonna Stay)." But the track is also significant in that it was performed by Gouldman, as well - as part of his early group The Mockingbirds. Throughout his career, he's worn many hats - as a songwriter, as a band member, as a solo artist - and all of them are touched upon on this fine celebration of a largely
This Time, Baby: BBR Reissues, Expands Jackie Moore's Philly Disco Classic "I'm On My Way"
By the time Jackie Moore recorded the album entitled I'm On My Way, she certainly was. After early singles on the Shout and Wand labels, the Florida-born R&B vocalist had scored a success on the larger Atlantic Records with "Precious, Precious." The single, produced by southern soul veteran (and her cousin) Dave Crawford and co-written by the singer and producer, made it to No. 12 on the R&B chart and No. 30 Pop, and established Moore as a chart presence. Working with Crawford and his
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