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
Review: Hank Williams, "Pictures from Life's 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
Shake a Tail Feather! RPM Collects Complete Mitch Ryder and The Detroit Wheels
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
Review: Bobby Hatfield, "Stay with Me: The Richard Perry Sessions"
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
Ace Round-Up, Part Two: Spotlight on Merseybeat Girls, "Jon Savage's 1969-1971" and "Deep Soul Treasures"
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
Review: The Band, "The Band: 50th Anniversary Edition"
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
Let's Do It Again: Playback Records Returns with Curtis Mayfield, Timi Yuro Collections
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
Ace Round-Up, Part One: London American and Westbound Records Anthologies
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
You Got Me Anyway: Cherry Red Collects Complete Sutherland Brothers and Quiver on Box Set
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
The Importance of Your Love: Vince Hill Reflects on His "Legacy" with 1965-1974 Anthology
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
Year-End Review: Bob Dylan, "The Rolling Thunder Revue: The 1975 Live Recordings"
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
The Year in Review: The 2019 Gold Bonus Disc Awards, From A to Z
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,
Holiday Gift Guide Reviews: A Rhino Round-Up with Bad Company, Rush, Van Halen, Hootie, STP and The Notorious B.I.G.
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,
Holiday Gift Guide Review: Nat King Cole, "Hittin' the Ramp: The Early Years (1936-1943)"
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
Let It Snow: Omnivore Breaks Away with 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
Holiday Gift Guide Review: Mariah Carey, "Merry Christmas: Deluxe Anniversary Edition"
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
Holiday Gift Guide Review: Margaret Whiting, "Let's Fall in Love: The Lost Recordings Vol. 2"
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
Holiday Gift Guide Reviews: Cherry Red's Esoteric and Grapefruit Imprints Offer Diverse Box Sets
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
Holiday Gift Guide Review: 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
Holiday Gift Guide Review: "A Voice of the Warm: The Life of Rod McKuen" by Barry Alfonso
"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
Holiday Gift Guide Review: MoFi Gives the Audiophile Treatment to Dylan's "Blood on The Tracks" and J. Geils' "The Morning After"
Over the years, Mobile Fidelity has cemented itself as one of the leaders in the audiophile re-issue realm. From deluxe 45rpm box set affairs to more bare-bones remasters, the label has been known to go the extra mile to make every album sound its best. Two of their recent reissues have arrived at Second Disc HQ: the extravagant 45rpm One-Step remaster of Bob Dylan's Blood on the Tracks and the slimmed-down remaster of J. Geils Band's The Morning After. Both titles are sure to please that
Holiday Gift Guide Review: Bear Family Explores "The Bakersfield Sound" on New Box Set
Get Along Down to Town Bakersfield, California is a long way from Nashville - a little under 2,020 miles west, actually. But the distance isn't quite as great when one considers how much significant country music came out of the city in Kern County. Recent years have seen numerous reissues from legendary Bakersfield artists like Buck Owens and Merle Haggard, as well as a fine exhibit at the Country Music Hall of Fame. But now Bear Family Records has delivered the ultimate tribute to the
Holiday Gift Guide Review: Jewel, "Joy: A Holiday Collection" [Reissue]
In 1999, singer-songwriter Jewel teamed with veteran producer-arranger Arif Mardin (Aretha Franklin, Dusty Springfield) for Joy: A Holiday Collection, her first Christmas album and third overall studio LP. Within a month of its release, it received a platinum certification, and it continues to be a perennial during the holiday season. Now, Craft Recordings has reissued the gentle album originally released on Atlantic Records for its vinyl premiere, as newly mastered by George Horn and Anne-Marie
Holiday Gift Guide Review: The Replacements, "Dead Man's Pop"
One of the year's most unexpected box sets - The Replacements' Dead Man's Pop, an alternative look at the band's 1989 album Don't Tell a Soul - has turned out to be one of its most exciting. The hell-raising Minneapolis rockers have proudly told the tale of stealing a clutch of tapes from their onetime home of Twin/Tone Records and chucking them into the Mississippi River back in 1987. But happily, the 'Mats and their associates were more careful about subsequent masters, and the next year,
Holiday Gift Guide Review: The Doors, "The Soft Parade: 50th Anniversary Edition"
Tell all the people that you see/Follow me... With those words penned by bandmate Robbie Krieger, Jim Morrison invited listeners to the world of The Doors' fourth studio album, The Soft Parade. Originally released on July 18, 1969, it was the fourth consecutive top ten smash for Messrs. Morrison, Krieger, Manzarek, and Densmore, but in the ensuing years it's also become one of the group's most divisive - primarily for its extensive use of orchestral arrangements. To mark its fiftieth
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