On July 25, 2024, Billy Joel will play his 150th lifetime show at New York's Madison Square Garden. It will be the 104th show of the first-of-its-kind residency which began in 2014. Remarkably yet unsurprisingly, his final ten shows are already sold out. More remarkably - but just as unsurprisingly to anyone who's followed the singer-songwriter over the past 30 years - he's filled the cavernous arena 100+ times over the past decade without introducing a single new song. (His last two pop
Holiday Gift Guide Review: John Williams, 'Hook (The Ultimate Edition)'
I. Kindest Personal Regards When critics walked out of screening rooms for Steven Spielberg's Hook, they - not inaccurately - saw a film that possessed the childlike whimsy and rollercoaster thrills the director was a sure hand at ever since JAWS scared its way to the top of the all-time box-office charts. And yet, it was hard not to feel a bit overwhelmed by it all. "Hook is a huge party cake of a movie, with too much frosting," David Ansen opined for Newsweek. "After the first delicious bite,
Holiday Gift Guide Review: Bob Dylan, "The Complete Budokan 1978"
We're kicking off our Holiday Gift Guide Review series with a look at Bob Dylan's The Complete Budokan 1978. Long before Madonna, Lady Gaga, and Taylor Swift, Bob Dylan was reinventing himself. The artist who stepped onstage at Tokyo's Budokan arena in 1978 only bore superficial resemblance to the firebrand who was proclaimed a "Judas!" by an irate fan over a decade earlier at Manchester Free Trade Hall. That audience member was famously angry over the then-folkie's decision to plug in and
Weekend Stream Extra: Talking Heads, "Stop Making Sense"
With the news that the theatrical re-release of Talking Heads' Stop Making Sense has exceeded the box office gross of the original film, we've given a listen to the recent release of the movie's soundtrack, now streaming everywhere, as we kick off the Weekend (Stream) early! Earlier this fall, the late Jonathan Demme's film of Talking Heads' Stop Making Sense returned to cinemas from buzzy studio A24 (Everything Everywhere All at Once, Priscilla) in a restored print. Variety has just
Review: Joni Mitchell, "Archives Vol. 3: The Asylum Years (1972-1975)"
Late in 1970, Joni Mitchell took a moment while performing at London's Royal Festival Hall to announce an early retirement from the stage. She relocated to British Columbia, built a modest stone cabin in the somewhat remote area, and let inspiration guide her rather than the machinations of a manager or record executive. While in this self-imposed creative exile, Mitchell began crafting the album that became 1972's For the Roses. It would reach listeners more than a year after the June 1971
Review: Black Sabbath, Alice Cooper, J. Geils Band, Jefferson Starship In Quad
With Rhino having just announced a second batch of Quadio releases, we're taking a look at the first four titles in the relaunched series - all of which are now available on Blu-ray Disc with high-resolution presentations of the original 4.0 quadraphonic and 2.0 stereo mixes. Black Sabbath's 1970 LP Paranoid was a landmark record in the transition from "hard rock" to "heavy metal." Ozzy Osbourne, Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler, and Bill Ward followed up their self-titled debut album of early 1970
Review: Van Morrison, "His Band and the Street Choir," Jaco Pastorius' "Word of Mouth" in Rhino Hi-Fi
Don't want to discuss it/I think it's time for a change... Van Morrison's 1967 debut album for Bert Berns' Bang Records, Blowin' Your Mind, came close to living up to its title with the lovably breezy "Brown-Eyed Girl" nestled alongside more challenging fare such as "T.B. Sheets," and everything in between: pop, folk, Latin, rock-and-roll, blues. But the Northern Irish singer-songwriter truly came into his own with a move to Warner Bros. the following year. The mystical, hypnotically
This Is It: Sepia Salutes Late, Great Rose Marie on "Rose Marie Sings: The Complete Mercury Recordings and More"
The year was 1929. At the age of six, Rose Marie Mazzetta headlined a Warner Bros. Vitaphone short film entitled Baby Rose Marie: The Child Wonder. The star was already a showbiz veteran, having begun performing at the age of three; at five, she was offered a seven-year contract by the NBC radio network. Though Rose Marie would soon drop the "Baby," she would remain a wonder as, simply, "Rose Marie" for the entirety of her extraordinary career which ultimately spanned ten decades until her
Review: WHAM!, "The Singles: Echoes from the Edge of Heaven" (7" Vinyl Box Set)
WHAM! The dance-pop duo's name immediately called to mind the fantastical, onomatopoeic pop art exclamations that would appear on the '60s Batman television show. George Michael and Andrew Ridgeley had everything going for them: good looks, great voices, and a knack for pure pop songcraft. In a mere handful of years, WHAM! launched nearly a dozen singles into the Top 10 of the U.K. singles chart. - a lucky seven entries. Their first album was entitled Fantastic; it was. The second was Make It
Review: Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons, "Working Our Way Back to You: The Ultimate Collection"
I Can't Give You Anything But Love On Monday, June 26, Frankie Valli walked down the aisle in Las Vegas with his longtime girlfriend Jackie Jacobs. This October, he'll take the stage at the city's Westgate Resort and Casino to begin a yearlong residency at the hotel, during which time he'll turn 90 years young. For more than 60 of those years, the artist born Francesco Stephen Castelluccio in Newark, New Jersey has been the lead vocalist of The Four Seasons, the group he co-founded on a
Review: Little Feat, "Sailin' Shoes" and "Dixie Chicken" Deluxe Editions
Little Feat was no ordinary rock-and-roll band. The seeds of the California group were planted when singer-songwriter Lowell George, then playing in Frank Zappa's Mothers of Invention, met keyboardist Bill Payne, who had unsuccessfully auditioned for the famously tough Zappa. The pair hit it off and teamed with former Mothers bassist Roy Estrada and drummer Richard Hayward, late of George's old band The Factory, to form Little Feat. The story remains unclear as to exactly what prompted George
Review: Kenny Rogers, "Life Is Like a Song"
In the booklet to his new posthumous release Life Is Like a Song, the late Kenny Rogers is quoted: "Music is the greatest memory-maker you'll ever encounter. A song can lock you right into a memory for a lifetime." Rogers' own music, whether "The Gambler," "Through the Years," "Lady," "She Believes in Me," "You Decorated My Life," or "Islands in the Stream," certainly proves that adage. The Texas-born singer, who passed away in 2020 at the age of 81, blurred the lines between country and pop
Made For These Times: The Beach Boys' "Pet Sounds" Arrives in Dolby Atmos, Mixed by Giles Martin
When The Beach Boys' Pet Sounds, the band's eleventh studio album, first was released in May 1966, response in the U.S. was surprisingly tepid. Though both "Sloop John B" and "Wouldn't It Be Nice" soared to the top ten of the Billboard Hot 100, Capitol Records was unsure how to promote the album which represented an artistic zenith, and the beginning of a new era, for The Beach Boys. It peaked at No. 10 on the Billboard 200 and was the group's first album since 1963 to miss a Gold
Review: Bob Dylan, "Fragments - 'Time Out of Mind' Sessions (1996-1997): The Bootleg Series Vol. 17"
The Oxford dictionary describes the phrase time out of mind as "a time in the past that was so long ago that people have no knowledge or memory of it." What was Bob Dylan getting at when he lifted the phrase for his 1997 Grammy Award-winning album? Critics and fans alike immediately seized on the notion of the record as some kind of dark farewell from an artist in the September of his years. Indeed, the album was filled with musings on lost love, mortality, hopelessness, and despair. But
Back on the Morning Train: Cherry Pop Reissues, Expands Sheena Easton's Debut "Take My Time"
Sheena Easton's debut album was called Take My Time, but truth to tell, the Scottish singer didn't need to take much time to leave international audiences spellbound. Now, the original version of that 1981 album - it had been retitled as Sheena Easton for the North American market, resequenced and sans two tracks - has returned in a splendid CD/DVD Deluxe Edition from Cherry Red's Cherry Pop imprint. Long before reality television was de rigeur, the teenaged Sheena captivated U.K. audiences
Review: Elvis Presley, "Elvis on Tour"
When Elvis on Tour hit the big screen in 1972, Elvis Presley was no longer the frequent cinema fixture of the 1960s, when he would crank out two or even three motion pictures a year. His last movie appearance was the 1970 documentary Elvis: That's the Way It Is, chronicling the Elvis Summer Festival of 1970 at Las Vegas' International Hotel. Elvis on Tour painted with an even larger canvas. Though it had originally been mooted as a new showcase of Presley's Vegas performances, the concept
Review: Burt Bacharach and Elvis Costello, "The Songs of Bacharach and Costello"
And so this had to be/painted from memory... The news broke on the morning of February 9, 2023 that Burt Bacharach had died at the age of 94. That evening, his longtime friend and musical partner Elvis Costello opened a 10-evening residency at New York's Gramercy Theatre which ultimately saw him perform 239 unique songs from every far-flung corner of his wide-ranging catalogue. The residency became a grand tribute to Bacharach. The pre-show music piping throughout the theatre each night
Holy Mackerel! Hanky Panky Collects Early Paul Williams on Two New LPs
He might have been born a someday man, but Paul Williams has proven himself to be a forever artist. A modern-day renaissance man, the Nebraska native tried his luck as an actor, a songwriter, and a singer from his earliest days in Los Angeles. A brief three-month stint peddling his tunes at The Turtles' home of White Whale Records ended in disappointment when Williams was shown the door. But he didn't have to wait long for a new opportunity. A friend played his songs for Herb Alpert and
Review: Frank Zappa, "Waka/Wazoo"
Finally, a Zappa album that's safe for the whole family! Frank Zappa's pair of 1972 releases, Waka/Jawaka and The Grand Wazoo, stand as two of the most impressive and unusual in his sprawling catalogue. Forced to abandon live performing as a result of a crazed "fan" charging the stage and heaving him into an orchestra pit, the composer-bandleader spent nearly a year recovering from injuries to his face, head, ribs, arm, and leg. A wheelchair and a leg brace couldn't stop Zappa's prodigious
Review: The Monkees, "Headquarters: Super Deluxe Edition"
It didn't take long for The Monkees to realize that they'd experienced a level of success far beyond their wildest dreams. Far from being mere actors on a television show portraying a band, they'd been thrust in front of capacity crowds in stadiums, arenas, and large auditoriums - a de facto band that, in reality, wasn't yet calling the shots on their own careers and music. That changed when Michael Nesmith, Micky Dolenz, Davy Jones, and Peter Tork demanded creative freedom from impresario Don
Holiday Gift Guide Review: David Bowie, "Divine Symmetry: An Alternative Journey Through 'Hunky Dory'"
MAGNIFICENT OUTRAGE. The phrase is emblazoned on the slipcase of David Bowie's new box set Divine Symmetry (An Alternative Journey Through 'Hunky Dory'). It was derived from an ad - reprinted as the first image in the 100-page tome housing the set's four CDs and one Blu-ray Disc - which noted, "That's what they're saying about David Bowie." Happily, no one would accuse this latest Bowie archival dig of being an outrage, though magnificent comes closer. Much like its 2019 predecessor
Holiday Gift Guide Review: The Beach Boys, "Sail on Sailor: 1972"
I need a whole lot of sunshine to keep my sundial advancing... Who were The Beach Boys? Hawthorne, California's favorite sons might have been asking themselves that very question in 1972. Their creative leader was withdrawing further into himself and musical tastes were changing: where did that leave them? This period of adjustment was first chronicled on last year's superlative Feel Flows: The Sunflower and Surf's Up Sessions 1969-1971 box set. The story begun on that collection
What a Surprise: Neil Sedaka Reissues His Four Elektra Albums on New 2-CD Set
Sedaka's Back was no understatement. Neil Sedaka's 1974 LP - in actuality, a compilation of tracks from his previous three albums issued only in the U.K. - yielded a No. 1 Pop and AC hit with the sparkling "Laughter in the Rain," earning the artist his first chart-topper since 1962. It also spun off another No. 1 AC with "The Immigrant," and a top ten AC/top thirty Pop hit with "That's When the Music Takes Me." That wasn't all; the album also contained the future standards "Solitaire" and
Holiday Gift Guide Review: Joni Mitchell, "The Asylum Albums (1972-1975)"
2022 has been Joni Mitchell's year. Following a triumphant surprise appearance in July at the Newport Folk Festival, the singer-songwriter announced a return to the stage for a full-length Joni Jam in June 2023 at Washington's Gorge Amphitheatre; tickets were quickly snapped up by ardent fans who had waited roughly two decades to see Mitchell in concert once again. More recently, she attended her first-ever Broadway musical, Cameron Crowe and Tom Kitt's Almost Famous - and made her Broadway
Holiday Gift Guide Review: Michael Jackson, 'Thriller 40'
We are more than 35 years into the practice of record labels utilizing compact discs to sell a venerated artist's catalogue while also telling a story through the format's expanded capacity and clarion sound capabilities. The one-two punch of Bob Dylan's Biograph (1985) and Eric Clapton's Crossroads (1988) helped legitimize the idea of the CD box set and put both artists' bodies of work in sharper focus at a time when both of them were, should we say, not as relevant to the cultural
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