Tonight, Linda Ronstadt receives her long-overdue recognition into The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. But rock and roll, of course, played only a small - if key - role in Ronstadt's career. The breadth of that career is revealed on Rhino's new release of Linda Ronstadt - Duets (Rhino R2 542161), containing fourteen tracks originally released between 1974 and 2006 plus one previously unreleased performance. While there are no duets here from Ronstadt's Tony-nominated turn in Gilbert and Sullivan's
Reviews: Bayeté, Sandra Rhodes and Sid Selvidge Arrive from Omnivore
If you’re looking for a record label to do your deep crate-digging for you, look no further than Omnivore Records. The musical archaeologists there have unearthed three all-but-unknown records from artists on the fringe. But these fresh and vital discoveries from Sid Selvidge, Sandra Rhodes and Todd Cochran a.k.a. Bayeté will likely leave you wondering, “How have I missed this music until now?” Likely on the strength of his work on Bobby Hutcherson’s 1971 Blue Note LP Head On,
Review: Johnny Cash, "Out Among The Stars"
“It’s midnight at a liquor store in Texas, closing time, another day is done when a boy walks in the door and points a pistol/He can’t find a job, but Lord, he’s found a gun...” Talk about an introduction! Listening to the “new” 2013 Johnny Cash album Out Among the Stars, it doesn’t take long to realize you’re in good hands. Cash’s robust, reassuring storyteller’s voice is firmly authoritative on the ironically jaunty opening track, yet filled with empathy for the “many weary
Reviews: Real Gone Goes R&B with Bettye Swann and Samuel Jonathan Johnson
Shreveport, Louisiana-born Bettye Swann never liked her birth name of Betty Jean Champion, yet when it came to soul music, Swann was certainly a champion. Her debut single for Money Records, 1965’s “Don’t Wait Too Long,” became a Top 30 R&B hit, and two years later, “Make Me Yours” went all the way to the No. 1 spot on that chart. It was inevitable that bigger labels than Money would come calling, and sure enough, Swann recorded two country-flavored LPs in 1969 and 1970 for Capitol. Rick
Review: Elvis Presley, "Recorded Live on Stage in Memphis"
Lord a-mighty, do you feel your temperature rising? Okay, "Burning Love" isn't among the songs on the new 2-CD Legacy Edition of Elvis Presley's 1974 Recorded Live on Stage in Memphis, but there's nonetheless plenty to get the pulse pounding and the pelvis swiveling. The original Memphis LP preserved The King's hometown show of March 20, 1974, and this reissue adds a live concert from two nights earlier in Richmond, Virginia plus five bonus tracks from an in-studio rehearsal session. Memphis
Review: Eric Carmen, "The Essential Eric Carmen"
The first track on Legacy Recordings' new double-disc anthology The Essential Eric Carmen (Arista/Legacy 88883745522) is titled, appropriately enough, "Get the Message." And the message relayed by its 30 nuggets comes through loud and clear: whether as power pop prince, classically-inspired MOR balladeer or nostalgic yet contemporary eighties rocker, Eric Carmen had the goods. Young lust never sounded as thrilling, as exuberant, or as pretty as it did in the hands of The Raspberries. Over
Review: Elton John, "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road: 40th Anniversary Edition," Part One
“When are you gonna come down? When are you going to land?” It looked like Elton John would never come down. When Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, Elton John’s seventh album and first double-LP set, arrived in October 1973, it followed six straight Top 10 albums. The last two of those had gone all the way to No. 1. Five of John’s singles had also reached the Top 10 of the Hot 100, including one chart-topper. The former Reg Dwight was at the top of the world. Where does one go from there? The answer,
Review: Little Feat, "Rad Gumbo: The Complete Warner Bros. Years 1971-1990"
“Well they say that time loves a hero/But only time will tell/If he`s real he`s a legend from heaven/If he ain`t he was sent here from hell...” Though Little Feat’s singer-songwriter-guitarist Lowell George wasn’t among the writers of the song “Time Loves a Hero” from the band’s 1977 album of the same name, the lyric might well describe him. Time has, indeed, told: almost 35 years after George’s death in June 1979, his legacy still resonates as does that of the band which he founded. Yet
Donna Summer and John Barry Go "Deep" On New Hot Shot Reissue
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
California Dreamin': Carole King, Merry Clayton, The Everly Brothers Featured on "Lou Adler: A Musical History"
Songwriter, manager, A&R man, producer, director, impresario, diehard L.A. Lakers fan – in his eighty years, Lou Adler has worn all of those labels proudly. It’s hard to believe that the same man behind The Rocky Horror Show – both on stage and on screen – and Cheech and Chong’s Up in Smoke also helmed one of the most successful records ever in Carole King’s Tapestry, or that the same man penned a bona fide standard in Sam Cooke’s “Wonderful World.” But much of Lou Adler’s extraordinary
Ray Charles, Glen Campbell, Chet Baker, Peggy Lee Featured On Soundtrack Bumper Crop From Varese
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
Review: Bob Dylan, "The 30th Anniversary Concert Celebration: Deluxe Edition"
Bob Dylan’s 30th Anniversary Concert Celebration, held on October 16, 1992 at New York’s Madison Square Garden to mark Dylan’s Columbia Records debut, could have been a valedictory. The 51-year old honoree and participant was nearly at the halfway point of a self-imposed sabbatical from writing and recording original songs; it would last seven years, from 1990 to 1997. He had not had an album reach the Top 20 of the Billboard 200 since 1983’s Infidels and hadn’t cracked the Top 5 since 1979’s
Brotherhood's "Complete Recordings" Show Another Side of Former Paul Revere and the Raiders Members
Rock's back pages are littered with "creative differences." Such differences split Paul Revere and the Raiders into two warring factions - Paul Revere and Mark Lindsay on one side; Phil "Fang" Volk, Mike "Smitty" Smith and Drake "The Kid" Levin on the other. The Volk-Smith-Levin triumvirate bristled at the more pop direction that the onetime garage band had been taking, and were none too pleased with the studio musicians being enlisted to beef up the Raiders' recordings. In early 1967, the
Review: Otis Redding and Aretha Franklin, "The King of Soul" and "The Queen of Soul"
All hail The King and Queen. The careers of Otis Redding and Aretha Franklin have been inextricably linked since Franklin entered New York’s Atlantic Studios on Valentine’s Day, 1967, with producer Jerry Wexler to record Redding’s “Respect.” Even before that pivotal moment, however, the two artists shared a label in Atlantic Records (distributor of Redding’s Stax records) and an ability to invest any song with raw honesty and unvarnished emotion. Atlantic and Rhino Records have recently
Review: Johnny Winter, "True to the Blues: The Johnny Winter Story"
If there’s some truth to the importance of being in the right place at the right time, Johnny Winter might attest to it. The slide guitar virtuoso came up in the ranks of show business when blues-rock was rising in popularity. He embodied an American alternative to Clapton, Page or Mayall, and offered a grittier take than Hendrix, more of the earth than the cosmos. Since debuting in 1969, Winter has rarely strayed from his signature style even as he’s stretched its boundaries, remaining True
Hot Shots: Big Break Relights Dan Hartman's "Fire," Expands Sheryl Lee Ralph's Solo Debut
Talk about fusion! For "Hands Down," the opening cut of his 1979 album Relight My Fire, Dan Hartman enlisted rock and roll great Edgar Winter to weave his alto saxophone licks throughout the Latin-flavored disco track, and Stevie Wonder to provide his instantly recognizable harmonica. Hartman wasn't just a dilettante, but a regular musical renaissance man. A veteran of the Johnny Winter Band and the Edgar Winter Group, he wrote the latter's smash hit "Free Ride," and successfully completed
Review: Dionne Warwick On Edsel Records
Dionne Warwick's third album bore the title Make Way for Dionne Warwick. But truth to tell, by the time of its release in September 1964, America had already made way for the New Jersey-born singer. She had climbed the charts with the immortal likes of "Don't Make Me Over," "Anyone Who Had a Heart," "Walk on By" and "Reach Out for Me," the latter two of which were included on that LP. Of course, all of those singles were written and produced by the team of Burt Bacharach and Hal David, who
Review: Blood, Sweat and Tears, "The Complete Columbia Singles"
Blood, Sweat and Tears has much in common with Rodney Dangerfield - they get no respect. Though the band founded by Al Kooper, Steve Katz, Bobby Colomby, Jim Fielder, Dick Halligan, Randy Brecker and Jerry Weiss produced some of the most enduring pop singles of the late 1960s and early 1970s, the group has long lingered in the shadows of rock's back pages. Eclipsed in fame by Columbia Records labelmates Chicago, plagued by a series of acrimonious departures from the ranks, and pilloried for
Review: Two From Camper Van Beethoven and Omnivore Recordings
And this here's a government experiment and we're driving like Hell To give some cowboys some acid and to stay in motels We're going to eat up some wide open spaces like it was a cruise on the Nile Take the hands off the clock, we're going to be here a while - Camper Van Beethoven, “Eye of Fatima (Pt. 1)” You can take the band out of the underground, but you can’t take the underground out of the band. California’s Camper Van Beethoven had been making its brand of “surrealist, absurdist folk”
Review: Michael Bloomfield, "From His Head to His Heart to His Hands"
“I think we’ve exploited you enough. I just want you to know I’m signing you!” With those words, spoken by John Hammond Sr. and heard on the first disc of Legacy Recordings’ new 3-CD/1-DVD box set From His Head to His Heart to His Hands, Michael Bloomfield became a Columbia Records recording artist. Though he died in 1981 at the age of 37, the blues guitarist extraordinaire left behind a substantial body of work in a variety of musical settings. Perhaps he never fulfilled the entirety of his
Dance a Little Bit Closer with Charo and The Salsoul Orchestra, Loleatta Holloway
Cuchi-cuchi! Charo, or María del Rosario Mercedes Pilar Martínez Molina Baeza, burst onto the cultural radar with her goofy, slightly suggestive catchphrase during the late-sixties run of the television phenomenon Rowan and Martin’s Laugh-In. Once a frequent passenger on The Love Boat, the comedienne-bombshell still is a familiar face today on television (Dancing with the Stars, RuPaul’s Drag University) and onstage – on land and on sea, even on the good ship Disney Magic. In 1977, Charo
You're Gonna Hear From Her: Dory Previn's Debut Album Reissued on CD
When songwriter Dory Previn died in 2012, The Los Angeles Times noted one of the contradictions inherent in her life and art: “Although she was an Oscar-nominated songwriter, Dory Previn was better known for ballads that spoke to wounded souls.” Truth to tell, even her early film music was often believably personal, intense, and filled with emotion. It’s no wonder that vocalists including Judy Garland, Dionne Warwick, Frank Sinatra, Rosemary Clooney, Bobby Darin, Barbra Streisand, Matt Monro,
Review: The Beatles, "The U.S. Albums"
I. Meet the Beatles! Did The Beatles save rock and roll? If John, Paul, George and Ringo didn’t save the still-young form, they certainly gifted it with a reinvigorating, exhilarating jolt of musical euphoria the likes of which hadn’t been seen before – and hasn’t been duplicated since. The scene was early 1964. Buddy Holly was long gone, and the big hits had dried up – at the moment, at least – for Jerry Lee Lewis and Little Richard. Elvis had served his time in the Army, threatening
Review: Tower of Power, "Hipper Than Hip: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow - Live on the Air and In the Studio"
What is hip? Based on the evidence of Tower of Power’s Hipper Than Hip: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow - Live on the Air and in the Studio (RGM-0208), the Bay Area band certainly qualifies. Real Gone Music’s crackling first-time release of a 1974 concert recorded for radio is a potent reminder of why Tower of Power’s rip-roaring horns have enlivened a host of recordings from artists as diverse as Elton John, Grateful Dead, Poison, Neil Diamond, Santana, and Aerosmith. Tower of Power scored its
Billy Paul Is "Feelin' Good" On BBR Reissue Of His First Studio Album
Big Break Records and Billy Paul - they've got a thing going on. The label, an imprint of the Cherry Red Group, has just returned to the soul titan's catalogue for the sixth time - and with this release has gone back to the very beginning. BBR's previous reissues from the "Me and Mrs. Jones" singer have explored his Philadelphia International discography as well as his Neptune release Ebony Woman and a post-PIR album for Total Experience Records. Now, the label has turned its attention to
- « Previous Page
- 1
- …
- 26
- 27
- 28
- 29
- 30
- …
- 43
- Next Page »