Fifty years ago, the release of Billy Paul's Going East on LP and The Ebonys' "You're the Reason Why" on a 45 RPM single marked the birth of Philadelphia International Records. By 1971, co-founders Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff had already garnered significant chart success with their songs and productions for such artists as The Soul Survivors ("Expressway to Your Heart"), The Intruders ("Cowboys to Girls"), Archie Bell and the Drells ("(There's Gonna Be A) Showdown"), Lesley Gore, Dusty
Release Round-Up: Week of January 22
Welcome to this week's Release Round-Up! The Kinks, Lola Versus Powerman and the Moneygoround, Part One (BMG) 3CD/2 7-inch Box Set (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada) 1CD Edition (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada) 1LP Edition (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada) 2CD Edition (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada) The Kinks' 1970 classic Lola Versus Powerman and the Moneygoround, Part One arrives in a variety of formats including bonus material such as
Love and Only Love: Neil Young Announces Long-Awaited "Way Down in the Rust Bucket" Concert Album and Film
Neil Young has been exciting fans lately with his comprehensive journey through the past. Following an extensive box set anthologizing an era and a 50th anniversary edition of a landmark album, he now turns his focus to a beloved Crazy Horse-backed concert from November 1990. On February 26, Young will release the long-awaited archival release, Way Down in the Rust Bucket. It's volume 11.5 in his ongoing Archives Performance series and features Crazy Horse - newly reignited after the release
Like Someone In Love: Craft Recordings Launches New "Small Batch" Audiophile Vinyl Series With John Coltrane's "Lush Life"
Craft Recordings has announced a new series of specially curated and high-quality vinyl reissues: the Small Batch collection. It kicks off with a new pressing of John Coltrane's Lush Life, due February 19. Each limited edition release in the Craft Recordings Small Batch series is a deluxe affair, combining audiophile-approved mastering techniques, a special vinyl lacquering process, and stunning design - adding up to what the label promises is the highest quality listening experience. The
Living It Up: Level 42 Preps Box Set of Early Polydor Material
Before the rest of the world knew there was something about Level 42, the British jazz-rock group built a foundation of successful material that caught on in their home country. This spring, Cherry Red's Robinsongs label will compile, with the band's input and blessing, their material for Polydor Records with the first of two CD box sets. The Complete Polydor Years Volume 1 1980-1984, available March 26, chronicles singer/bassist Mark King, keyboardist Mike Lindup and brothers Boon Gould (on
Midnight Rocks: Cherry Red, Esoteric Reissue Al Stewart's "24 Carrots," Collect Anthony Phillips' "Missing Links"
Periodically this month, we'll be looking at titles released in the latter part of 2020 that we either didn't cover, or only covered briefly, the first time around! We hope you enjoy this look at "some nice things we've missed." Scottish singer-songwriter Al Stewart released his first album in 1967 but didn't break into the lucrative American market until 1974's Past, Present, and Future (released 1973 in the U.K.). While that LP only peaked within the second half of the Billboard 200, the
Hard to Handle: Black Crowes Revisit Debut for 30th Anniversary
Before the COVID-19 pandemic spread across the globe, one of the weirder music stories of 2020 was the reappearance of brothers Chris and Rich Robinson, reviving The Black Crowes with a new touring line-up (after dissolving in 2002, 2011 and 2015) and touring their breakthrough debut Shake Your Money Maker in full. On February 26, that album will get the deluxe treatment. For its belated 30th anniversary - it was released in 1990 - Shake Your Money Maker will be remastered and reissued on
King of the Monsters: Waxwork Preps Massive Vinyl Box of Godzilla Scores
Soundtrack reissue label Waxwork Records has a massive project rising from the sea in 2021: an 18LP box set collecting two decades' of scores from the Godzilla film series. Japanese studio Toho Pictures introduced the legendary kaiju - known natively as "Gojira" - in an acclaimed 1954 film of the same name. Released less than a decade after shocking nuclear attacks on the country during World War II, Godzilla played upon the anxiety around those weapons in the form of a massive, dinosaur-like
The Year In Review: The 2020 Gold Bonus Disc Awards, From A to Z
Happy 2021 and welcome to The Second Disc's 11th Annual Gold Bonus Disc Awards! The past year has presented any number of unprecedented challenges. But music has filled a more important role than ever, providing solace, comfort, and escape in a time unlike any other. With that spirit in mind, The Second Disc once again wishes to recognize 2020's cream of the catalogue music crop - those exemplary reissues and box sets big and small that proved to be truly outstanding for music lovers
Holiday Gift Guide Review: Legacy Looks Back at 1970 With Elvis Presley and Jimi Hendrix Archival Offerings
50 years ago, two of American music's greatest talents proved they were still venturing into new territories. Elvis Presley, some decade and a half after he first took the world by storm, was setting up shop in Nashville for a marathon session that saw him pulling from the new popular songbook and many songs written just for him. These sessions delivered several albums' worth of material and are now presented chronologically in a new box set, complete with exciting new mixes on From Elvis In
Holiday Gift Guide Review: Shania Twain, 'The Woman in Me (Diamond Edition)'
If there's one good thing we can pull from 2020's reissue slate, it's diversity. The end of the year's biggest box sets focused less on the typical classic-rock heavy-hitters and more on genres, eras and artists that typically don't get the red carpet treatment. It's a trend that would surely be nice to continue. The new "Diamond Edition" of Shania Twain's The Woman in Me (Mercury Nashville/UMe B0032601-02) checks off all three of those boxes, yet it's initially an odd sell. After all, isn't
Holiday Gift Guide Stax Spotlight: The Staple Singers' "Come Go with Me" and "The Gospel Truth: Complete Singles Collection"
UPDATED DECEMBER 2020: Earlier this year, Craft Recordings released The Staple Singers' Come Go with Me: The Stax Collection in vinyl and digital editions. The set compiled all of the famed gospel group's 1968-1974 albums for the Stax label plus a volume of rarities, non-LP single sides, and live recordings. Now, that box has come to CD as beautifully remastered from the original analog tapes by Jeff Powell at Take Out Vinyl. Come Go with Me: The Stax Collection features the following
Holiday Gift Guide Review: The Replacements, "Pleased to Meet Me: Deluxe Edition"
The Replacements' Pleased to Meet Me marked the moment when Minneapolis met Memphis. For their second major label album, fifth overall, first without founding member Bob Stinson, and lone offering as a trio, the 'Mats called upon Jim Dickinson. The producer and Memphis mainstay entered the picture after abortive demo sessions in the band's hometown during which time Bob had been dismissed from the band, leaving Paul Westerberg to pick up the lead guitar duties, Tommy Stinson on bass, and Chris
Holiday Gift Guide Review: Tears for Fears, 'The Seeds of Love: Deluxe Edition'
Think back to your days listening to pop music in the '80s - say, for the sake of argument, 1985. Thriller's wrapped up its run of seven hit singles. Bruce Springsteen's Born in the U.S.A. is in the middle of its own seven-hit stretch. Purple Rain made Prince a juggernaut - and Tears for Fears, the British duo behind the moody, electronic The Hurting (1983) have broken into the mainstream with the progressive psych-pop of 1985's Songs from the Big Chair, including back-to-back chart-toppers
Holiday Gift Guide Spotlight: Esoteric Reissues Classics by Barclay James Harvest, Be-Bop Deluxe
As our Holiday Gift Guide continues with a fourth and final look at Cherry Red's recent box set offerings, we wanted to bring to your attention two collections that would look great underneath the tree, whether for a prog-rock enthusiast in your life or for yourself (we won't tell!). First up: Barclay James Harvest's And Other Short Stories, recently reissued as a 2-CD/DVD set. The English prog rock outfit Barclay James Harvest had already made a name for themselves as part of Harvest
Roll Your Tapes: Bruce Springsteen Releases 'Darkness' Tour Box Through Nugs
Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band's tour to promote 1978's Darkness on the Edge of Town has been lauded by casual and hardcore fans alike in the four decades since it happened, with several shows considered among the Boss' best. A myriad of official live releases through Nugs.net has helped provide evidence to the case - and now, eight of those shows are being collected in a 24CD box set. Darkness on the Edge of Town Tour 1978 features full sets from that legendary tour which took place
Holiday Gift Guide Review: U2. "All That You Can't Leave Behind: 20th Anniversary Edition"
Prepare to elevate your soul with this 20th anniversary box set edition of U2's All That You Can't Leave Behind. Twenty years into their career, U2 rang in the new millennium with a career-redefining recording that saw them return to the upper echelons of the Billboard charts, with Grammy nominations and worldwide hits to boot. With enduring instant classics like "Beautiful Day," "Walk On," "Elevation," and "Stuck in a Moment That You Can't Get Out Of," it's no wonder the album remains a
Holiday Gift Guide Spotlight: Cherry Red Box Set Bonanza - Rhinoceros, Jerry Jeff Walker, Fumble
Welcome to the third part of our Holiday Gift Guide Spotlight - Cherry Red Box Set Bonanza! Click here for Part One, featuring Evelyn "Champagne" King, and here for Part Two featuring Graham Bonnet! When one thinks of bands assembled by audition, The Monkees usually spring to mind. Davy, Micky, Peter, and Michael had been assembled by Screen Gems for the purposes of starring in a new television sitcom, and by sheer force of will became a "real" band making some of the era's most
The Shape I'm In: Capitol, UMe Prep The Band's "Stage Fright" In New Stereo and Surround Mixes For 50th Anniversary Releases
With their seminal first two albums, Music from Big Pink and The Band, the group consisting of Garth Hudson (keyboards, piano, horns), Levon Helm (drums, vocals, mandolin), Richard Manuel (keyboards, vocals, drums), Rick Danko (bass, vocals, fiddle) and Robbie Robertson (guitar, piano, vocals) had earned the right to call themselves, simply, The Band. They effortlessly fused folk, country, blues, gospel, soul, and a dash of rock to create an organic, back-to-basics sound that reverberated with
Release Round-Up: Week of December 18
Welcome to this week's Release Round-Up! Tom Jones, The Complete Decca Studio Albums Collection (Decca/UMC) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada Link TBD) This long-awaited box from Sir Tom Jones - counting 17 discs, including 15 studio albums and two CDs of non-LP single and EP sides - boasts over 200 tracks and 10+ hours of music from Jones' classic Decca period of 1965-1975. It includes hits such as "What's New Pussycat?," "It's Not Unusual," "Help Yourself," "Green, Green
Stir It Up: Bob Marley's 75th Anniversary Celebration Continues with Two Box Sets, Vinyl Reissues
Nearly 40 years after his passing, Bob Marley's music, image and message continue to fascinate audiences the world over. The end of this year has seen some considerable activity around his classic '70s and '80s catalogue for Tuff Gong/Island Records, including a new career-spanning box set and some vinyl reissues - and another box set, a new version of an old collection, is due early next year. Five years from its original vinyl release in 2015, a CD edition of The Complete Island Recordings
Holiday Gift Guide Spotlight: Cherry Red Box Set Bonanza - Graham Bonnet's "Solo Albums 1974-1992"
Perhaps no label this holiday season has offered such a bonanza of box sets as Cherry Red. Yesterday, we looked at Evelyn "Champagne" King's The RCA Albums 1977-1985. Today, we're turning the spotlight onto Graham Bonnet's Solo Albums 1974-1982! Cherry Red's Hear No Evil (HNE) imprint has long been a home for archival releases from singer Graham Bonnet of Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow, Alcatrazz, and The Michael Schenker Group. Now, HNE has brought together Bonnet's first four solo albums,
Holiday Gift Guide Spotlight: Cherry Red Box Set Bonanza - Evelyn "Champagne" King, "The RCA Albums 1977-1985"
Perhaps no label this holiday season has offered such a bonanza of box sets as Cherry Red. Today we kick off a three-part feature on five of these sets (any of which just might make the perfect stocking stuffer!) with a Holiday Gift Guide spotlight on Evelyn "Champagne" King's The RCA Albums 1977-1985. Bronx-born, Philadelphia-raised vocalist Evelyn "Champagne" King came from a showbiz family including her uncle Avon Long - perhaps best known as Sportin' Life in multiple productions of Porgy
Holiday Gift Guide Review: Kiki Dee, "The Fontana and Motown Years"
UPDATED DECEMBER 2020: Kiki Dee rocketed to worldwide stardom (no pun intended) on Elton John's Rocket Records in 1976, imploring "Don't Go Breaking My Heart" to John on the chart-topping duet. She had been recording for Rocket since 1973, scoring such U.K. hits as "Amoreuse" and "I've Got the Music in Me," the latter of which also went to the top 20 of the U.S. Hot 100, as well. Anyone familiar with Dee's Rocket recordings knows her to be a singer of both power and sensitivity, and last year,
Return Trip: Rick Wakeman Releases Box Set of "Return to the Centre of the Earth"
Rick Wakeman's 1974 opus Journey to the Centre of the Earth was a landmark effort from the Yes keyboardist. The orchestral rock adaptation of Jules Verne's 1864 novel was narrated by actor David Hemmings (Blowup, Gladiator) and featured the London Symphony Orchestra, the English Chamber Choir, and a rock group later to be known as the English Rock Ensemble. Wakeman's progressive sci-fi fusion went all the way to No. 1 in the U.K. (the first album by A&M Records to do so there) and No. 3 in
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