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/ Reviews

Review: Eric Carmen, "The Essential Eric Carmen"

March 25, 2014 By Joe Marchese 6 Comments

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

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Categories: Reviews Formats: CD Genre: Classic Rock, Pop Tags: Eric Carmen, The Raspberries

Review: Elton John, "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road: 40th Anniversary Edition," Part One

March 25, 2014 By Joe Marchese Leave a Comment

elton gbyr 40 super deluxe

“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,

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Categories: Reviews

Review: Little Feat, "Rad Gumbo: The Complete Warner Bros. Years 1971-1990"

March 21, 2014 By Joe Marchese 5 Comments

little feat complete wb

“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

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Categories: Reviews Formats: Box Sets Tags: Little Feat

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

March 19, 2014 By Joe Marchese Leave a Comment

the deep ost1

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

California Dreamin': Carole King, Merry Clayton, The Everly Brothers Featured on "Lou Adler: A Musical History"

March 17, 2014 By Joe Marchese Leave a Comment

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

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Categories: News, Reviews Tags: Lou Adler, Merry Clayton, Sam Cooke, The Everly Brothers, The Mamas and The Papas

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

March 12, 2014 By Joe Marchese Leave a Comment

any which way you can

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: Bob Dylan, "The 30th Anniversary Concert Celebration: Deluxe Edition"

March 10, 2014 By Joe Marchese Leave a Comment

bob dylan 30th concert

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

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Categories: Reviews Formats: Blu-Ray, DVD Tags: Bob Dylan, Lou Reed, Neil Young, The O'Jays, Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers

Brotherhood's "Complete Recordings" Show Another Side of Former Paul Revere and the Raiders Members

March 4, 2014 By Joe Marchese Leave a Comment

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

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Categories: Reviews Formats: CD Genre: Classic Rock, Pop Tags: Paul Revere and The Raiders

Review: Otis Redding and Aretha Franklin, "The King of Soul" and "The Queen of Soul"

March 3, 2014 By Joe Marchese Leave a Comment

otis redding king 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

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Categories: Reviews Formats: Box Sets Tags: Otis Redding

Review: Johnny Winter, "True to the Blues: The Johnny Winter Story"

March 3, 2014 By Joe Marchese Leave a Comment

johnny winter true to the blues

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

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Categories: News, Reviews Formats: Box Sets

Hot Shots: Big Break Relights Dan Hartman's "Fire," Expands Sheryl Lee Ralph's Solo Debut

February 28, 2014 By Joe Marchese Leave a Comment

dan hartman relight my fire

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

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Categories: Reviews Formats: CD Genre: Disco/Dance, Pop, R&B/Soul Tags: Dan Hartman, Loleatta Holloway, Sheryl Lee Ralph

Review: Dionne Warwick On Edsel Records

February 20, 2014 By Joe Marchese Leave a Comment

presenting dionne edsel

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

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Categories: News, Reviews Formats: CD Genre: Pop, R&B/Soul Tags: Burt Bacharach, Dionne Warwick

Review: Blood, Sweat and Tears, "The Complete Columbia Singles"

February 12, 2014 By Joe Marchese Leave a Comment

blood sweat and tears 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

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Categories: Reviews Formats: CD Genre: Classic Rock, Pop Tags: Blood Sweat and Tears

Review: Two From Camper Van Beethoven and Omnivore Recordings

February 11, 2014 By Joe Marchese Leave a Comment

camper our beloved

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”

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Categories: News, Reviews

Review: Michael Bloomfield, "From His Head to His Heart to His Hands"

February 5, 2014 By Joe Marchese Leave a Comment

super session1

“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

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Categories: Reviews Formats: Box Sets Tags: Michael Bloomfield

Dance a Little Bit Closer with Charo and The Salsoul Orchestra, Loleatta Holloway

January 31, 2014 By Joe Marchese Leave a Comment

loleatta queen of the night1

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

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Categories: News, Reviews Formats: CD Genre: Disco/Dance, R&B/Soul Tags: Charo, Loleatta Holloway, Salsoul Orchestra

You're Gonna Hear From Her: Dory Previn's Debut Album Reissued on CD

January 30, 2014 By Joe Marchese Leave a Comment

dory langdon my heart is a hunter1

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,

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Categories: News, Reviews

Review: Tower of Power, "Hipper Than Hip: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow - Live on the Air and In the Studio"

January 27, 2014 By Joe Marchese Leave a Comment

tower of power live

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

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Categories: News, Reviews Tags: Tower of Power

Billy Paul Is "Feelin' Good" On BBR Reissue Of His First Studio Album

January 20, 2014 By Joe Marchese Leave a Comment

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

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Categories: News, Reviews Formats: CD Genre: Jazz, Popular Standards/Vocal, R&B/Soul Tags: Billy Paul

SoulMusic Goes "Loco" with Expanded Reissues From Dee Dee Warwick, The Four Tops

January 9, 2014 By Joe Marchese 2 Comments

dee dee warwick i want to be with you1

Dee Dee Warwick signed with Mercury Records’ Blue Rock imprint in 1964, the same year her sister Dionne solidified her place in the upper reaches of the charts with songs like “Walk on By,” “Reach Out for Me” and “You’ll Never Get to Heaven (If You Break My Heart).”  Though Dee Dee never saw the same kind of commercial success as Dionne, she carved out a unique vocal identity with her dark, bluesy and intense tone.  At Mercury, Dee Dee recorded two albums and a number of singles.  In 2012, Soul

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Categories: News, Reviews Tags: The Four Tops

"Catch the Love Parade" With Second Volume of Now Sounds' "Book a Trip"

January 8, 2014 By Joe Marchese Leave a Comment

book a trip 21

Between 1965 and 1970, Los Angeles’ Capitol Tower – standing then, as it does now, near the intersection of Hollywood and Vine - was the place to be.  Capitol Records had The Beatles, and the Beach Boys, too.  But the label that Nancy Wilson and The Lettermen called home also hosted a number of bands with groovy names like The Tuneful Trolley, The Sugar Shoppe, The Pink Cloud, The New Kick and (my personal favorite) The Unforscene.  These happening acts, and many more, take the spotlight on Book

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Categories: News, Reviews Tags: The Knack, The Sugar Shoppe, The Tuneful Trolley

Holiday Gift Guide Review: Various Artists, "The South Side of Soul Street"

December 23, 2013 By Joe Marchese Leave a Comment

south side of soul street1

The trusty musical archaeologists at the Omnivore label have the perfect stocking stuffer for those looking for a little bit of southern soul hung by the chimney with care.  The 2-CD anthology  The South Side of Soul Street (OVCD-68, 2013), collecting the A- and B-sides of 20 singles released by the Minaret label between 1967 and 1976, makes the argument that Valparaiso, Florida’s Playground Recording Studio deserves to be spoken of in the same breath as Muscle Shoals, American Sound, Stax and

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Categories: Holiday Gift Guide, News, Reviews

Holiday Gift Guide Review: "Here's Edie: The Edie Adams Television Collection"

December 23, 2013 By Joe Marchese Leave a Comment

heres edie2

In one of the many testimonials that enhance the booklet to the first-ever DVD release of Here’s Edie: The Edie Adams Television Collection, Carl Reiner may have put it best and most succinctly: “Edie Adams...a combination of beauty, brains and talent...what else do you need?”  Based on the evidence in this thoroughly delightful 4-DVD, 12-hour, 21-episode set now available from MVD Visual (MVD 59200), you don’t need anything else.  Adams just about had it all, and showed it off for the 1962-1964

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Categories: Holiday Gift Guide, News, Reviews Formats: DVD Tags: Sammy Davis Jr.

Holiday Gift Guide Review: The Who, "Tommy: Super Deluxe Edition"

December 20, 2013 By Joe Marchese Leave a Comment

The opening chords of The Who’s Tommy may be among the most famous in all of rock.  By the time the horns kicked in, around the forty-second mark, it was already clear that this double-album wasn’t business as usual for the heavy mod-rockers.  In fact, the melodic, thunderous, commanding piece of music that opened the 1969 album sounded a bit like the overture to a Broadway musical, weaving together themes that would follow.  Thirty-four years later, it would become one.  By the time The Who’s

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Categories: Holiday Gift Guide, Reviews Formats: Box Sets Tags: The Who

Holiday Gift Guide Review: Matt Monro, "The Rarities Collection" and "Alternate Monro"

December 20, 2013 By Joe Marchese Leave a Comment

How lovely to sit here in the shade, with none of the woes of man and maid/I’m glad I’m not young anymore!  The rivals that don’t exist at all, the feeling you’re only two feet tall/I’m glad I’m not young anymore!  Matt Monro recorded those Alan Jay Lerner lyrics in January 1973 at just 42 years of age.  But by that point, the golden-voiced singer had already acquired enough experience to interpret them with supreme confidence and natural charm.  Monro’s reassuring, crisply impeccable tone

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Categories: Holiday Gift Guide, News, Reviews Formats: Box Sets, CD Genre: Popular Standards/Vocal Tags: Matt Monro

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