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/ Reviews

Colour My World: Petula Clark's Complete 1974 Royal Albert Hall Concert Comes to CD

March 30, 2020 By Joe Marchese 13 Comments

Petula Clark Royal Albert Hall

When you're alone and life is making you lonely, you can always go downtown... When Petula Clark first sang those words by Tony Hatch back in 1964, it's highly doubtful that she - or anybody else - could have predicted the COVID-19 crisis which we're all currently experiencing. But the warm, inviting, and reassuring sentiment has never seemed more relevant than it does today. Thanks to the herculean efforts of the United Music Foundation, it's now possible to travel with the timeless Ms. Clark

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Categories: News, Reviews Formats: CD Genre: Pop, Popular Standards/Vocal Tags: Petula Clark

Review: Matt Monro, "Stranger in Paradise: The Lost New York Sessions"

March 24, 2020 By Joe Marchese 1 Comment

MattMonro StrangerinParadise

After years of exhaustively mining the late singer's catalogue for a series of definitive releases, the Matt Monro estate has turned up a new chest of buried treasure - and it's a collection that's both required listening for longtime fans and an ideal introduction for new ones. Stranger in Paradise: The Lost New York Sessions from Capitol Records/UMC takes listeners back to the Big Apple circa 1966 when the British singer joined with a quintet of jazz pros to record a different kind of album.

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Categories: Reviews Formats: CD Genre: Jazz, Popular Standards/Vocal Tags: Matt Monro

Follow Me Follow: Grapefruit Reissues, Expands "The Birthday Party" from Jeff Lynne, The Idle Race

March 11, 2020 By Joe Marchese 5 Comments

The Idle Race The Birthday Party

For Jeff Lynne, listening to The Idle Race must be a bit like viewing baby pictures. He's quoted from a 2013 interview in the liner notes to Cherry Red/Grapefruit's essential new reissue of the band's 1968 LP The Birthday Party: "I still like all those Idle Race songs, but I just find them so weird!" Indeed, The Birthday Party is weird - but in the best sense of the word as the young Lynne's melodic gifts were already very much in flower in his pre-Move, pre-ELO days. Somewhat surprisingly, The

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Categories: News, Reviews Formats: CD Genre: Pop Tags: The Idle Race

Mystic Lady: Modern Harmonic Reissues Nancy Priddy's "You've Come This Way Before"

March 3, 2020 By Joe Marchese 1 Comment

Nancy Priddy Youve Come This Way Before

Nancy Priddy titled her 1968 Dot Records LP You've Come This Way Before but the actress-singer actually hadn't followed many footsteps in creating her debut album. Modern Harmonic, which has just reissued it on a splendid new vinyl pressing, describes the lost gem as "Dreamy Psych Baroque Pop." Throw in folk, jazz, psychedelia, and sunshine pop, and you have an idea of this ambitious, offbeat, and altogether trippy curio on which the underground met the mainstream. Priddy's own story is a

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Categories: News, Reviews Formats: Vinyl Genre: Pop Tags: Nancy Priddy

Dionne Warwick's "Déjà Vu: The Arista Recordings" Box Out Today from Cherry Red, SoulMusic

February 28, 2020 By Joe Marchese 6 Comments

Dionne Warwick Deja Vu

UPDATED 2/28: Earlier this week, the popular competition show The Masked Singer unmasked The Mouse.  But to anyone who's ever listened to a radio over the past 50-plus years, there was no need for a reveal.  It was obvious that, underneath the giant mouse head, was the voice of only one person: the inimitable Dionne Warwick.  Over 40 years ago, Warwick left Warner Bros. Records and signed to Clive Davis' Arista label to begin a new chapter in her remarkable career.  Today, Cherry Red's SoulMusic

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Categories: News, Reviews Formats: Box Sets, CD Genre: Pop, Popular Standards/Vocal, R&B/Soul Tags: Dionne Warwick

Review: Frank Zappa, "The Hot Rats Sessions"

February 26, 2020 By Joe Marchese 1 Comment

Hot Rats Sessions

What is jazz-rock? The label has been applied to the work of diverse artists such as Chicago, Blood Sweat & Tears, Miles Davis, Steely Dan, and Santana (and that's just to name some of the most well-known exponents) not to mention an entire cadre of fusion artists like the groups Weather Report and Return to Forever. In the jazz-rock canon, the name of Frank Zappa certainly stands tall. The multi-faceted artist delivered one of the genre's earliest and most seminal albums with 1969's Hot

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Categories: Reviews Formats: Box Sets, CD, Digital Download, Digital Streaming Genre: Classic Rock, Jazz Tags: Frank Zappa

Review: Hank Williams, "Pictures from Life's Other Side"

February 24, 2020 By Joe Marchese 5 Comments

Hank Williams Pictures from Lifes Other Side

Hank Williams' Pictures from Life's Other Side isn't your ordinary box set. The collection from BMG is essentially a big, handsome coffee table book with six CDs as musical accompaniment. But when the subject is Hank Williams, the music can't be an afterthought - and it certainly isn't here. The discs in this lavish tome present all 144 tracks recorded by Williams for his 1951 radio show sponsored by the Mother's Best flour company. After gaining a considerable audience as part of the popular

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Categories: Reviews Formats: Box Sets, CD Genre: Country Tags: Hank Williams

Shake a Tail Feather! RPM Collects Complete Mitch Ryder and The Detroit Wheels

February 20, 2020 By Joe Marchese 4 Comments

Mitch Ryder Sockin It to You

Between 1965 and 1968, Mitch Ryder and The Detroit Wheels scored a series of hits on producer-impresario Bob Crewe's DynoVoice and New Voice labels.  With the prolific Crewe at the helm, Ryder's records featured a fiery blend of blue-eyed soul and pure, high-adrenaline rock-and-roll. Mitch Ryder (real name: William Levise, Jr.) set the stage for Michigan rockers from Bob Seger to Grand Funk Railroad to conquer the charts. For one of its final releases, Cherry Red's RPM imprint has celebrated the

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Categories: News, Reviews Formats: CD Genre: Classic Rock, Pop Tags: Bob Crewe, Mitch Ryder and The Detroit Wheels

Review: Bobby Hatfield, "Stay with Me: The Richard Perry Sessions"

February 17, 2020 By Joe Marchese Leave a Comment

Bobby Hatfield Stay with Me

During rehearsals for their landmark single "You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'," Righteous Brother Bobby Hatfield reportedly asked producer/co-writer Phil Spector just what he was supposed to do while Bill Medley took the lead on the powerful song. Spector's reply? "Go to the bank!" The producer wasn't kidding, as the anthemic ballad became a No. 1 on both sides of the Atlantic, the fifth best-selling song of the U.S. in 1965, and the most-played song on radio and television of the entire 20th

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Categories: Reviews Formats: CD Genre: Pop Tags: Al Kooper, Bobby Hatfield, Ringo Starr, The Righteous Brothers

Ace Round-Up, Part Two: Spotlight on Merseybeat Girls, "Jon Savage's 1969-1971" and "Deep Soul Treasures"

February 11, 2020 By Joe Marchese 2 Comments

She Came from Liverpool

Today, we're looking at another trio of recent releases from the team at Ace Records!  If you missed Part One of our Ace Round-Up, click here! While The Beatles are no doubt Liverpool's most famous musical export, Merseyside - spanning 249 square miles (or 645 square kilometers) bordering Lancashire to the northeast, Greater Manchester to the east, Cheshire to the south and southeast, and The Irish Sea to the west - yielded an abundance of groups like The Cryin' Shames, Gerry and The

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Categories: News, Reviews Formats: CD Genre: Classic Rock, Pop, R&B/Soul Tags: Allen Toussaint, Beryl Marsden, Cilla Black, Gladys Knight and the Pips, Jackie DeShannon, The Emotions, Various Artists

Review: The Band, "The Band: 50th Anniversary Edition"

February 10, 2020 By Joe Marchese Leave a Comment

The Band The Band

How to top Music from Big Pink? Wisely, The Band didn't even try. Ditching the Dylan co-writes and the covers, The Band returned with their self-titled sophomore LP in fall 1969. Late in 2019, Capitol Records and UMe remixed and expanded that now-classic effort for its 50th anniversary in the style of 2018's Big Pink campaign with releases in a variety of formats - most notably, a 2-CD/2-LP/1-BD/1 -7" single super deluxe edition. The so-called "Brown Album" was recorded about as far from New

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Categories: Reviews Formats: Blu-Ray, Box Sets, CD, Digital Download, Digital Streaming, Vinyl Genre: Classic Rock Tags: The Band

Let's Do It Again: Playback Records Returns with Curtis Mayfield, Timi Yuro Collections

February 7, 2020 By Joe Marchese 1 Comment

Timi Yuro Make the World Go Away

Australia's Playback Records label returned to the scene in 2019 with a pair of new releases and the promise of more to come.  Today, we're looking at those new titles from Curtis Mayfield and Timi Yuro! As a writer, producer, and artist - both solo and with The Impressions - Curtis Mayfield (1942-1999) was one of the foremost exponents of Chicago soul. He penned such favorites as Jan Bradley's "Mama Didn't Lie" and Major Lance's "The Monkey Time," not to mention such Impressions hits as

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Categories: News, Reviews Formats: CD Genre: Country, Pop, R&B/Soul Tags: Aretha Franklin, Curtis Mayfield, Gladys Knight and the Pips, Maxayn, Melba Moore, The Five Stairsteps, The Main Ingredient, Timi Yuro, Various Artists, Willie Nelson

Ace Round-Up, Part One: London American and Westbound Records Anthologies

January 23, 2020 By Joe Marchese Leave a Comment

London American Label 1967

Having previously chronicled 1956-1966 over eleven volumes, Ace has returned to its London American Label series for a last (?) hurrah. The London American Label Year by Year: 1967 is packed with 28 stellar selections to illuminate a year in which the label was in steadfast decline. London had long been the destination for great American records, but the major U.S. companies were launching their own U.K. arms and declining to license to London. This led London to release fewer 45s from

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Categories: News, Reviews Formats: CD Genre: Disco/Dance, Funk, Pop, R&B/Soul Tags: Various Artists

You Got Me Anyway: Cherry Red Collects Complete Sutherland Brothers and Quiver on Box Set

January 15, 2020 By Joe Marchese Leave a Comment

Sutherland Brothers and Quiver The Albums

This month, we'll be periodically looking at titles from the final months of 2019 which we haven't yet covered.  Today's spotlight is on The Sutherland Brothers and Quiver's The Albums box set. Hailing from Aberdeenshire, Scotland, brothers Gavin and Iain Sutherland carved out one of the most consistent runs in '70s pop-rock, releasing eight melodic, memorable albums between 1972 and 1979 on the Island and CBS/Columbia labels. The brothers were born into a musical family, and when they moved

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Categories: News, Reviews Formats: Box Sets, CD Genre: Classic Rock, Pop Tags: Quiver, The Sutherland Brothers

The Importance of Your Love: Vince Hill Reflects on His "Legacy" with 1965-1974 Anthology

January 9, 2020 By Joe Marchese 2 Comments

Vince Hill Legacy

One of our favorite releases of 2017 was Cherry Red/Strike Force Entertainment's two-fer of Edelweiss (1967) and Look Around (1971) from the big-voiced British pop crooner. While the set didn't inaugurate the hoped-for series of reissues on CD (to date, at least), Hill followed it up with Legacy: My Hits and Rarities (1965-1974). We've caught up with this CD which is available exclusively through the singer's webstore. It's both a fine introduction to Hill's oeuvre and a welcome reminder of why

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Categories: News, Reviews Formats: CD Genre: Pop, Popular Standards/Vocal Tags: Vince Hill

Year-End Review: Bob Dylan, "The Rolling Thunder Revue: The 1975 Live Recordings"

January 6, 2020 By Sam Stone 2 Comments

Bob Dylan Rolling Thunder Revue Cover

As we continue to look back on the year that was, it's hard to disagree that Bob Dylan was 2019's king of the reissue. Since releasing More Blood, More Tracks in time for the holidays in 2018, Legacy Recordings and the Dylan team approved MoFi's deluxe audiophile version of Blood on the Tracks; celebrated the first leg of the famed Rolling Thunder Revue with a new film, CD box set, and LP reissue; delivered a new Bootleg Series installment focusing on his time in Nashville in the late '60s; and

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Categories: Reviews Formats: Box Sets, CD Genre: Classic Rock Tags: Bob Dylan, Eric Andersen, Joan Baez, Joni Mitchell, Robbie Robertson, Roger McGuinn

The Year in Review: The 2019 Gold Bonus Disc Awards, From A to Z

January 3, 2020 By The Second Disc 4 Comments

gold cd

Happy 2020 and welcome to The Second Disc's 10th Annual Gold Bonus Disc Awards! It's time once again to recognize this year's cream of the crop - those exemplary reissues and box sets big and small that proved to be truly outstanding products for music lovers worldwide.  There was no shortage of great reissue titles in 2019; in fact, by our count, we covered over 700 releases in all!  And after much deliberation, we're excited to unveil our favorites.  This isn't your run-of-the-mill Top 10,

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Categories: News, Reviews Formats: Blu-Ray, Box Sets, CD, Digital Download, Digital Streaming, DVD, Vinyl Genre: Cast Recordings, Classic Rock, Country, Folk, Jazz, Pop, Popular Standards/Vocal, R&B/Soul, Rock, Soundtracks Tags: Gold Bonus Disc Awards

Holiday Gift Guide Reviews: A Rhino Round-Up with Bad Company, Rush, Van Halen, Hootie, STP and The Notorious B.I.G.

December 23, 2019 By The Second Disc 2 Comments

StoneTemplePilots Purple pl

Many of this year's finest box sets came courtesy of the Rhino label.  Here, Joe and Randy take a look at a few more of our favorites!  First up are Randy's three picks... First up is Rhino's 25th anniversary 3-CD/1-LP Super Deluxe Edition of Stone Temple Pilots' Purple. Initially hitting shelves on June 7, 1994, the band's sophomore album would debut atop the Billboard 200 and stay there for three weeks, eventually becoming the group's second best-selling album after their debut effort,

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Categories: Holiday Gift Guide, News, Reviews Formats: Box Sets, CD, Digital Download, Digital Streaming, DVD, Vinyl Genre: Classic Rock, Pop, Rap/Hip-Hop, Rock Tags: Bad Company, Hootie and The Blowfish, Rush, Stone Temple Pilots, The Notorious B.I.G., Van Halen

Holiday Gift Guide Review: Nat King Cole, "Hittin' the Ramp: The Early Years (1936-1943)"

December 20, 2019 By Joe Marchese Leave a Comment

Nat King Cole Hittin the Ramp

The first voice you hear on Resonance Records' exhilarating new box set Nat King Cole - Hittin' the Ramp: The Early Years (1936-1943) isn't that of the famous artist. Rather, it's his older brother and bassist Eddie Cole warbling teenaged Nat's sprightly composition "Honey Hush." Nat, of course, is the one tickling the ivories with confidence, grace, and an already sure sense of swing. Although he hadn't yet formed his famous trio (and the lineup here credited as "Eddie Cole's Solid Swingers" is

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Categories: Holiday Gift Guide, Reviews Formats: Box Sets, CD, Digital Download, Digital Streaming, Vinyl Genre: Jazz, Popular Standards/Vocal Tags: Nat King Cole

Let It Snow: Omnivore Breaks Away with Murry Wilson and Snow EP

December 20, 2019 By Joe Marchese 8 Comments

Murry Wilson and Snow EP

With its latest release, Omnivore Recordings might as well as be singing "Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!" The intrepid label has unearthed a true rarity for a new digital EP: four previously unreleased songs produced in 1969 by Murry Wilson for an all-but-unknown harmony-pop outfit named Snow. Freshly unearthed from The Beach Boys' vault, Murry Wilson & Snow: The Break Away EP features Snow's lush and fully-produced and orchestrated renditions of two songs from Brian Wilson's

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Categories: News, Reviews Formats: Digital Download, Digital Streaming Genre: Pop Tags: Brian Wilson, Murry Wilson, Snow, The Beach Boys

Holiday Gift Guide Review: Mariah Carey, "Merry Christmas: Deluxe Anniversary Edition"

December 19, 2019 By Randy Fairman 1 Comment

Mariah Carey Merry Christmas Deluxe

Sitting atop the Billboard Hot 100 this week is a song which took a quarter-century to reach that peak: Mariah Carey's "All I Want For Christmas Is You." The song achieved a couple of milestones with that ranking: it now holds the record for the longest time between a song's debut and its reaching the top of the charts, and it's the first Christmas song to reach the peak in 60 years since The Chipmunks did it in 1959. Before this new milestone for Carey's tune, the song and the album of its

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Categories: Holiday Gift Guide, Reviews Formats: CD, Digital Download, Digital Streaming Genre: Holiday, Pop Tags: Mariah Carey

Holiday Gift Guide Review: Margaret Whiting, "Let's Fall in Love: The Lost Recordings Vol. 2"

December 19, 2019 By Joe Marchese 2 Comments

Margaret Whiting Lets Fall in Love

Three years ago, Sepia Records and My Ideal Music celebrated the late, great Margaret Whiting with Dream: The Lost Recordings, a 2-CD collection of rare radio performances. Now, the long-awaited follow-up has arrived. Let's Fall in Love: The Lost Recordings Vol. 2 has been worth the wait. Like the first volume, the recordings premiering on Let's Fall in Love - a whopping 56 songs, complementing the 57 on Volume 1 - have been culled from The Barry Wood Show, a syndicated radio program for

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Categories: Holiday Gift Guide, News, Reviews Formats: CD, Digital Download, Digital Streaming Genre: Popular Standards/Vocal Tags: Margaret Whiting

Holiday Gift Guide Reviews: Cherry Red's Esoteric and Grapefruit Imprints Offer Diverse Box Sets

December 19, 2019 By Joe Marchese Leave a Comment

Across the Great Divide

Cherry Red's ongoing series of small clamshell box sets filled with big content make for the perfect stocking stuffer! Here's a look at three more titles you might have missed... Climax Blues Band's The Albums 1973-1976 is the second such box set released this year by Cherry Red's Esoteric Recordings imprint, following The Albums 1969-1972. This 4-CD set contains the following albums, culminating in the biggest commercial triumph for the band that began its life as The Climax Chicago Blues

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Categories: Holiday Gift Guide, News, Reviews Formats: Box Sets, CD Genre: Classic Rock, Country, Folk, Pop Tags: Bridget St. John, Climax Blues Band, Faces, Iain Matthews, Procol Harum, Rod Stewart, The Hollies, The Marmalade, The Tremeloes, Various Artists

Holiday Gift Guide Review: David Bowie, "Conversation Piece"

December 17, 2019 By Joe Marchese 1 Comment

David Bowie Conversation Piece

The new David Bowie box set is entitled Conversation Piece - and it's an apt one, as this set is certain to inspire conversations punctuated with cheers. Quite simply, this slipcased, hardcover-book style collection featuring five CDs of material recorded by the late superstar in 1968-1969 is one of the year's best boxes: an exquisite, museum-quality release that exceeds all expectations. Necessity may indeed be the mother of invention, as the set ostensibly exists because of the desire to

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Categories: Holiday Gift Guide, Reviews Formats: Box Sets, CD Genre: Classic Rock, Pop Tags: David Bowie

Holiday Gift Guide Review: "A Voice of the Warm: The Life of Rod McKuen" by Barry Alfonso

December 16, 2019 By Joe Marchese 2 Comments

A Voice of the Warm Rod McKuen scaled

"Come with me/What wonders we'll find," sings Rod McKuen to open his lilting waltz "Kaleidoscope" in his recognizable sandpaper voice. But the more revealing lyrics come later, when the poet-singer-songwriter asserts, "You'll look in my eyes and see you." Over a career spanning seven decades - but particularly during a purple patch in the late 1960s and early 1970s - McKuen's loyal legion of fans saw themselves in his deceptively simple art. His empathetic words conveyed the beauty of everyday

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Categories: Holiday Gift Guide, News, Reviews Genre: Pop, Popular Standards/Vocal Tags: Rod McKuen

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