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
"Catch the Love Parade" With Second Volume of Now Sounds' "Book a Trip"
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
Holiday Gift Guide Review: Various Artists, "The South Side of Soul Street"
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
Holiday Gift Guide Review: "Here's Edie: The Edie Adams Television Collection"
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
Holiday Gift Guide Review: The Who, "Tommy: Super Deluxe Edition"
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
Holiday Gift Guide Review: Matt Monro, "The Rarities Collection" and "Alternate Monro"
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
Ace Celebrates Soulful Girls with "The Artistry of Brenda Holloway" and "Where the Girls Are"
If you want to know Where the Girls Are, look no further than two of Ace Records’ latest releases. The eighth installment of the label’s Where the Girls Are series is a grab-bag of the best girl-group pop you’ve never heard, while The Artistry of Brenda Holloway gives a much-deserved spotlight to the underrated Motown vocalist who so often found herself in the shadows of Diana Ross or Martha Reeves. Where the Girls Are Volume 8, compiled and annotated by Malcolm Baumgart and Mick Patrick,
Holiday Gift Guide Review: Donny Hathaway, "Never My Love: The Anthology"
This time of year, it’s nearly impossible to spend much time on a holiday music station without hearing the familiar, resonant voice persuasively imploring, “Hang all the mistletoe/I’m gonna get to know you better/This Christmas!” Donny Hathaway’s 1970 single “This Christmas” has become one of the most frequently-sung latter-day Christmas standards, recorded in recent years by everybody from Carole King to Mary J. Blige. In a too-short life that was tragically curbed at 33 in January 1979, the
Holiday Gift Guide Review: Buck Owens, "Buck 'Em! The Music of Buck Owens"
No less an eminent personage than American author William Faulkner once said that "a writer needs three things - experience, observation, and imagination - any two of which, at times any one of which, can supply the lack of the others." Country music legend and Bakersfield Sound pioneer Buck Owens, however, utilized all three of those key elements in his songs, which may help explain their timeless stature. Fifty of those recordings are anthologized on Omnivore's new Buck 'Em! The Music of
Holiday Gift Guide Review: Woody Guthrie, "American Radical Patriot"
The title of Rounder Records’ new box set describes its subject, Woody Guthrie (1912-1967), as an American Radical Patriot. Especially in today’s politically-polarized times, some might find those words a contradiction in terms. But in the late folk troubadour’s world, very little was black-and-white. It’s that world which is explored in such depth in this lavish new collection, a limited edition of 5,000 units. American Radical Patriot (Rounder 11661-9138-2) not only proves why Guthrie
Holiday Gift Guide Review: A Real Gone Christmas With Andy Williams, Patti Page and The New Christy Minstrels
When Andy Williams passed away on September 25, 2012 at the age of 84, the loss was keenly felt by anyone who had ever played the “red album” and the “green album” during the holiday season. The Andy Williams Christmas Album (1963) and Merry Christmas (1965) were the best-selling Columbia LPs that led Williams to embody the title of “Mr. Christmas.” His rich, warm and resonant tenor was ideally suited to holiday music of both the secular and spiritual traditions, and his association with the
Review: James Taylor, "The Essential James Taylor"
In the annals of American popular song, there’s a place reserved for James Taylor. For 45 years, the Boston-born troubadour’s distinctive and soothing baritone has been a reassuring voice bringing light to the darkness with his nakedly emotional, often autobiographical music. Sure, recording technology has changed a bit over the years, but Taylor’s style now is essentially the same as it was then – applying that warm voice and shimmering, precise guitar to those direct, melodic and deceptively
Now Sounds Tip-Toes Thru The Tulips With "God Bless Tiny Tim"
Welcome to my dream, and how are you? Will you be here long, or just passing through? Brush off that stardust, where have you been? Don’t tell me my rainbow was late getting in... When Herbert Buckingham “Tiny Tim” Khaury, 37, married Victoria May “Miss Vicki” Budinger, 17, on December 17, 1969 before Johnny Carson, Ed McMahon, The Rev. William Glenesk and a studio audience filled with 268 of the happy couple’s closest friends, roughly 40 million people were watching. It was a high point
Holiday Gift Guide Review: Bobby Darin, "The 25th Day of December" and Various Artists, "Funky Christmas"
Real Gone Music is ensuring that it’s going to be a merry Christmas, indeed, with a number of holiday-themed releases that practically beg to be enjoyed alongside a glass of egg nog and a warm fireplace. Bobby Darin’s The 25th Day of December, the late singer’s only holiday LP, arrived on the Atco label in 1960. However, the album wasn’t the work of Bobby Darin, the splish-splashin’ rock-and-roller, or Bobby Darin, the finger-snapping, tuxedoed crooner. It’s not even the work of Bob Darin,
Holiday Gift Guide Review: Frank Sinatra, "Duets: Twentieth Anniversary"
"May you live to be one hundred and may the last voice you hear be mine." The image of Frank Sinatra, glass in hand, delivering that favorite toast is an indelible one. His wasn't just a voice, after all. Before he was Ol' Blue Eyes or The Chairman of the Board, he was simply The Voice. And through all its many changes, The Voice endured. The pure, romantically-charged timbre that set the hearts of bobbysoxers pounding in the forties transformed into the ultimate instrument of ultimate cool
Holiday Gift Guide Spotlight: Diamond, Streisand, Williams, Cash, Jones, Wynette and More Join "Classic Christmas Album" Roster [UPDATED]
Legacy Recordings’ Classic Christmas Album series has grown this holiday season. Last year brought volumes from a variety of artists across the rock, pop, country and R&B spectrum including Barry Manilow, Luther Vandross, John Denver, Willie Nelson, Kenny G and Elvis Presley. For 2013, another eight seasonal anthologies have arrived under the Classic Christmas Album umbrella from Neil Diamond, Johnny Cash, Andy Williams, Barbra Streisand, Alabama, George Jones and Tammy Wynette, Gladys
It's a Scream! "Rhumba" Takes Latin-Jewish Musical Journey with Carole King, Herb Alpert, Celia Cruz, Tito Puente, More
Last year, The Idelsohn Society for Musical Preservation regaled listeners with ‘Twas the Night Before Hanukkah, an eclectic and offbeat anthology that breathed life into the concept of a holiday-themed compilation. With its mission “to look at Jewish history and the Jewish experience through recorded sound” firmly in mind, the organization this year has released another two-disc set that lives up to the much-overused word unique. Whereas last year’s release focused on the relationship in song
Review: The Jimi Hendrix Experience, "Miami Pop Festival"
By the time Jimi Hendrix took the stage at Hallandale, Florida’s Gulfstream Park on May 18, 1968, the 25-year old guitarist, songwriter and visionary’s reputation preceded him. He had already released two studio albums (1967’s Are You Experienced and Axis: Bold as Love released in 1967 in the U.K. and 1968 in the U.S.) and established himself as an unpredictable performer not to be missed when he set his guitar ablaze amidst the peace and love of the Monterey Pop Festival in June 1967. With
Review: Miles Davis, "The Original Mono Recordings"
“Mono featured less audio trickery and fewer audio distractions, so you can actually hear the musical conversation between Miles and the other musicians as it occurred in the studio.” That’s producer George Avakian as quoted in the liner notes for Columbia and Legacy’s new nine-album box set Miles Davis: The Original Mono Recordings. And that purity of sound - further described by the producer of Davis’ first two Columbia albums as “truer to the studio sound and the original intent” – is
Review: The Beatles, "On Air: Live at the BBC Volume Two"
Meet the Beatles...again. The new Apple/Capitol/Universal release On Air: Live at the BBC Volume Two sets the Wayback Machine at Destination: 1963 and 1964, when four Liverpool lads named John, Paul, George and Ringo ignited a British Invasion that continues to this very day. All 63 tracks (both spoken-word introductions and songs) on this new 2-CD time capsule date back to those two years, when the Fabs recorded unique performances for such BBC programs as Saturday Club and Pop Go the
Review, "Released! The Human Rights Concerts 1986-1989" On DVD and CD
Sex, drugs and rock and roll have been closely linked since, well, the dawn of rock and roll itself. But those who have been lucky enough to make a living in the rough-and-tumble world of rock have also frequently given themselves over to more noble pursuits. George Harrison’s 1971 Concert for Bangla Desh wasn’t the first time a rock superstar had performed for charity, but The Quiet Beatle’s star-studded event is rightfully considered the first benefit concert of such stature. Since then,
BBR Completes Pointer Sisters' Planet Catalogue with "Priority" and "Black and White" Remasters
Between 1978 and 1988, The Pointer Sisters recorded a stunning series of nine albums with producer Richard Perry (Barbra Streisand, Harry Nilsson), first for his Elektra-distributed Planet Records label, and then for RCA, to whom Perry eventually sold Planet. During this period, June, Ruth and Anita finally were able to Break Out on the U.S. charts - to quote the title of the group's multi-platinum 1983 album which introduced four U.S. Top 10 hits. Previously the Pointers had mastered jazz,
Review: Bob Dylan, "The Complete Album Collection Volume One"
Tucked away on Bob Dylan’s 23rd studio album Empire Burlesque, the troubadour sings simply but sternly, “Trust yourself/Trust yourself to do the things that only you know best/Trust yourself/Trust yourself to do what’s right and not be second-guessed...” Dylan had trusted himself since he first arrived on the scene in 1962, engaging in a series of transformations that enthralled, angered, transfixed and bewildered those that followed his career – from folk troubadour to electric rocker to
Review: Jefferson Starship, "Live in Central Park NYC May 12, 1975"
“The police say you guys in the trees are causing problems...you can either jump out or they’ll...do something!” So went one of the colorful and increasingly adamant stage announcements about tree-dwelling audience members made throughout the near-entirety of Jefferson Starship’s free concert at New York City’s Central Park on May 12, 1975. The eight-strong band line-up of Paul Kantner, Grace Slick, Marty Balin, Craig Chaquico, Papa John Creach, John Barbata, David Freiberg and Pete Sears was
It's Love That Really Counts: Él Continues Vintage Burt Bacharach Series
In 1962 alone, Burt Bacharach premiered more than 30 new compositions, recorded by a variety of artists from Marlene Dietrich to The Drifters. It's even fair to say that '62 was the year the composer truly came into his own. While previous years offered their share of hits for the songwriter - "I Wake Up Crying," "Tower of Strength," "Baby, It's You," "Magic Moments," "The Story of My Life" - the Bacharach sound hadn't completely crystallized. With Jerry Butler's July 1962 single of Bacharach
- « Previous Page
- 1
- …
- 27
- 28
- 29
- 30
- 31
- …
- 43
- Next Page »