Thomas Z. Shepard is among the most celebrated of all classical and show music record producers, counting 12 Grammy Awards to his name (including four for the musicals of Stephen Sondheim). Now, Shepard (with co-author Gayden Wren) is telling his singular story of coming up through the ranks at Columbia and RCA at a most extraordinary time, and peeling the curtain back on how some of the most famous cast albums of all time - including the original Company and Sweeney Todd - were made. As an
Set the Night on Fire: The Doors Announce 60th Anniversary Campaign
2025 marks the 60th anniversary of the founding of The Doors. Though the eponymous debut album from Jim Morrison, Ray Manzarek, Robby Krieger, and John Densmore didn't hit stores until January 1967, the foursome was already a seasoned one, having served as house band at the famed Whisky a Go Go since mid-1966. To celebrate 60 years since that fateful day when Manzarek met his old UCLA classmate Morrison on a California beach and the two decided to form a band, Rhino has announced a number of
Best of All Possible Worlds: "Maestro on Record" Offers Leonard Bernstein Recordings, Photos in One Volume
Director-star Bradley Cooper's long-awaiting Leonard Bernstein biopic Maestro, featuring Cooper as the late composer-conductor (1918-1990) and Carey Mulligan as his wife Felicia Montealegre, opens next week in limited theatrical release before arriving December 20 on Netflix. Bernstein's final label home of Deutsche Grammophon (DG) has the official soundtrack album featuring the new recordings made for the film by Yannick Nezet-Seguin leading the London Symphony Orchestra as well as a 2-CD
Release Round-Up: Week of October 20
Welcome to this week's Release Round-Up, featuring a selection of the many titles being released today as we inch closer to the holiday shopping season! As an Amazon associate, we earn from qualifying purchases. Nancy Sinatra, Keep Walkin': Singles, Demos, and Rarities (1965-1978) (Light in the Attic) CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada Standard Black 2LP: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada Zodiac Blue 2LP: Nancy's Bootique Highway Song Yellow 2LP: Nancy's
I'm a Believer: Micky Dolenz Opens Up His Archive for "I'm Told I Had a Good Time"
It's often been said that if you remember the 1960s, you weren't really there. Well, Micky Dolenz has incontrovertible proof that he was there, and as he says, I'm Told I Had a Good Time. That's the title of the remarkable new tome from Beatland Books which chronicles the singer-drummer-actor's life from 1945-1978 via previously unpublished photographs, artwork, scripts, lyrics, and assorted miscellany. I'm Told I Had a Good Time, now available for pre-order with a December 6 ship date,
THE SECOND DISC'S 2022 HOLIDAY GIFT GUIDE IS HERE!
Cyber Monday is upon us today, which means one thing at Second Disc HQ: it's time to launch our annual Holiday Gift Guide, featuring (more than) a few of our favorite things for the music enthusiast in your life. Sure, we might not have included raindrops on roses or whiskers on kittens, but we've filled the guide with more than 50 essential selections: sprawling box sets as well as releases from favorite artists that just might make great stocking stuffers. So just click here or visit the
The Philosophy of Modern Song
Book: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada Audiobook: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada Bob Dylan examines 66 of his favorite songs through his own, idiosyncratic perspective in this entertaining new tome. Dylan adopts the tone of a pulp writer for many of his most fanciful excursions and extrapolations: discussing the My Fair Lady ballad "On the Street Where You Live," he imagines that "you've got a habit, a bad habit. You fell in love with the hard stuff. You fell for the
Release Round-Up: Week of November 4
Welcome to this week's Release Round-Up, featuring a selection of the new titles in stores today! Billy Joel, Live at Yankee Stadium (Columbia/Legacy) 2CD/Blu-ray: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada 3LP: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada Billy Joel's Live at Yankee Stadium, originally released on video, is getting a major makeover. The concert film, shot on June 22 and 23, 1990, has been restored and remixed from original audio and video elements for a 2CD/Blu-ray
EXCLUSIVE: Roxette Singer Marie Fredriksson's Memoirs Coming to America with Rare Solo Album
Fans of Swedish pop masters Roxette are in for a special treat next year: the group's late, celebrated singer Marie Fredriksson's memoirs will be published in America, alongside the release of a rare solo record. Listen to My Heart: Life, Love & Roxette takes fans into the life and career of one of the most arresting figures of '80s and '90s pop. Co-written with Swedish writer Helena von Zweigbergk and published in her homeland in 2015 - four years before Fredriksson's passing at the age
Release Round-Up: Week of August 12
Welcome to this week's Release Round-Up, featuring a selection of the titles arriving in stores today! Jimi Jamison, Rock Hard (Iconoclassic) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada) Iconoclassic Records is now premiering Rock Hard, Survivor lead singer Jimi Jamison's previously unreleased 1990 album, in a deluxe, expanded CD edition. Intended to be Jamison's solo debut, Rock Hard features 10 songs including three previously unreleased compositions, three previously unreleased
The Doris Day Centennial: Celebration of the Late Superstar Begins This Weekend!
Tomorrow, April 3, 2022, marks the 100th anniversary of Doris Day's birth. Yesterday, Real Gone Music kicked off the festivities with two releases celebrating the singer-actress-activist's extraordinary musical legacy. Early Day: Rare Songs from the Radio 1939-1950 features two dozen rarities from the dawn of Day's career (as well as a booklet with period photographs and a new essay by TSD's Joe Marchese) on one CD, while Day's final album, 2011's My Heart, premieres on vinyl. (Read more
Release Round-Up: Week of February 18
Welcome to this week's Release Round-Up! Pink Floyd, PULSE: Restored and Re-Edited (Pink Floyd Records/Sony) 2 Blu-ray: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada 2 DVD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada PULSE, originally released in 1995, chronicled Pink Floyd's Division Bell Tour of Europe. The video release was taken from a performance at Earls Court in London on October 20, 1994. There, Pink Floyd (then comprised of founding members David Gilmour on vocals and guitar,
Have Yourself a Merry Little Discmas...
Wow! And just like that, another year has flown by. Just a few weeks before The Second Disc hits its 12th anniversary(!), this Christmas Eve it is our custom to look back on the last 12 months and take some time to think fondly of the music, magic, memories and friends that made our lives worth living. As if last year wasn't unconventional enough, 2021 packed more pop, clicks, skips and distortion than the most misguided vinyl pressings. We got vaccinated, we got boosted, we tentatively
The Beatles "Get Back" In New Hardcover Book Chronicling the "Let It Be" Sessions
A book about a film about an album? The new coffee table book from Callaway Arts and Entertainment and Apple Corps, The Beatles: Get Back, is essentially that: a hardcover, 240-page tome based on the film footage shot in the buildup to The Beatles' final album, 1970's Let It Be. Get Back was, of course, the name of the first version of Let It Be. It's also the name of director Peter Jackson's upcoming three-part, six-hour documentary (the first part of which premieres November 25 on the
Release Round-Up: Week of October 15
Welcome to this week's Release Round-Up! The Beatles, Let It Be: 50th Anniversary Edition [Various Formats] (Apple/Capitol/UMe) 5CD/Blu-ray: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada 5LP: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada 2CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada 1CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada 1LP: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada The Beatles' final album, Let It Be, arrives in deluxe editions to coincide with Peter Jackson's multi-part
Release Round-Up: Week of April 9
Welcome to this week's Release Round-Up! Fleetwood Mac, Live: Super Deluxe Edition (Warner/Rhino) (Rhino.com / Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada) Rhino reissues Fleetwood Mac's 1980 Live - the first live album from the line-up of Lindsey Buckingham, Stevie Nicks, Christine McVie, John McVie, and Mick Fleetwood - as a deluxe 3CD/2LP/7″ box set. The two CDs and two LPs will both have the remastered original double album. The third CD will offer 14 previously unreleased
Listen to the Band: Andrew Sandoval Reveals "The Monkees: The Day-by-Day Story" In June
Since its publication in 2005, author Andrew Sandoval's The Monkees: The Day-by-Day Story has been an indispensable reference tool for fans of Davy, Micky, Peter, and Michael - not to mention one helluva read. But as the years passed, the guide to all things Monkees went out of print, with secondhand copies fetching in the three-figure range. Happily, Sandoval has returned to the book for a completely new edition due this June. We were thrilled to have the chance to speak with the author
Songteller: My Life in Lyrics
Dolly Parton is busier than ever today. In between releasing a new Christmas album, writing and scoring a Netflix film, and juggling various TV, musical, and theme park projects - not to mention philanthrophic work - Parton has rounded up lyrics to 175 songs. In the coffee table book Songteller, she shares those lyrics along with the stories behind the songs which include "9 to 5," "Jolene," "My Tennessee Mountain Home," "Coat of Many Colors," I Will Always Love You," and many more. The book
Time Between: My Life as a Byrd, Burrito Brother, and Beyond
Chris Hillman has one of the most impressive C.V.s in rock. The four-time Grammy nominee and inductee into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of The Byrds not only blazed trails with that band but with The Flying Burrito Brothers, Manassas, The Souther-Hillman-Furay Band, and The Desert Rose Band. Now, on the heels of a recent, well-received tour celebrating The Byrds' Sweetheart of the Rodeo as well as new and reissued solo works, Hillman has delivered an engrossing autobiography which
Ready Steady Go! The Weekend Starts Here - The Definitive Story of the Show That Changed Pop TV
Want to impress the Anglophile pop lover in your life? Drop this beautiful coffee table book under the Christmas tree, and that loved one won't be disappointed. In this exquisite, LP-sized 268-page tome, author Andy Neill has explored every aspect of Ready Steady Go!, the famed British pop-rock show that aired on ITV Friday evenings in Great Britain between August 1963 and December 1966. While RSG! only lasted a relatively short period of time, its impact on music television was tremendous.
Release Round-Up: Week of November 20
Welcome to this week's Release Round-Up! The Jimi Hendrix Experience, Live in Maui (Experience Hendrix/Legacy) 2CD/Blu-ray: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada 3LP/Blu-ray: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada Experience Hendrix and Legacy Recordings have a brand-new collection that celebrates The Jimi Hendrix Experience's near-mythic performances on Maui, Hawaii in 1970. Live In Maui brings together audio and video with a new feature-length documentary called Music,
Jump to It! Rhino Collects Aretha Franklin's Hits, Rarities, Never-Before-Released Tracks on New Box Set
It was late in 2015 when audiences across the country watched Aretha Franklin take the stage at The Kennedy Center Honors to salute honoree Carole King. The undisputed Queen of Soul tore into King, Gerry Goffin, and Jerry Wexler's "(You Make Me Feel Like A) Natural Woman" with blazing intensity and thrilling authenticity. She had not just sung these lyrics but lived them. Nearing the song's finale, she simply but defiantly dropped her fur coat to the floor, creating an instant viral moment
Review: The Rolling Stones' "Goats Head Soup 2020" Box Set Is Sure To Satisfy Your Hunger
Goats Head Soup: as far as Rolling Stones albums go, it's an outlier. It's not a "landmark album" in the same way as Sticky Fingers, it didn't defy expectations in the same way as Exile. It didn't herald a new sound like Beggars Banquet or Let It Bleed. Now, that's not to say it's not a great album, but it just feels...different. After the one-two-three-four punches of Beggars Banquet, Let It Bleed, Sticky Fingers, and the magnum opus Exile on Main Street, it makes sense that fans had long
I've Got a Feeling: The Road to "Let It Be" Chronicled on Upcoming Book, "The Beatles: Get Back"
UPDATED: Fans of the Fab Four now have November 25, 2021 on the calendar for the Disney+ launch of director Peter Jackson's three-part documentary The Beatles: Get Back. Now, the group's Apple Corps has joined with Callaway Arts and Entertainment to announce a tie-in project sure to get mouths salivating - The Beatles: Get Back, the book. The 240-page hardcover tome, the band's first authorized book release since the best-selling The Beatles Anthology, will be released on October 12,
Watching The Wheels: Kenneth Womack's New Biography "John Lennon: 1980" Offers A Comprehensive Look At The Artist's Later Days
John Lennon has been in the news a lot lately, and with good reason. 2020 marks what would have been the musician's 80th birthday and, sadly, it's also the fortieth year since his death. But there's more to that final year of John's life than the tragic events of December 8, 1980. In his new biography, John Lennon: 1980 - The Last Days in the Life, Beatles expert Kenneth Womack tracks that period of creativity and reinvention, writing in a way that's simultaneously approachable yet