Cherry Red has recently released its second volume of archival material from Iggy Pop and The Stooges following 2020's You Think You're Bad, Man? The Road Tapes '73-'74. The new title is Born in a Trailer: The Session and Rehearsal Tapes '72-'73, and it's a 4-CD collection chronicling the band's rehearsal recordings made in London, Michigan, Los Angeles, Detroit, and New York. Author Kris Needs doesn't pull any punches in his liner notes to this box when he describes this period in Stooges
Release Round-Up: Week of August 20
Welcome to this week's Release Round-Up! Eric Clapton, Eric Clapton: Anniversary Deluxe Edition (Polydor/UMe) 4CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada 1LP (Original Album Only): Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada Eric Clapton's eponymous 1970 solo debut is reissued today in 4CD and 1LP iterations. The 4CD Deluxe Edition presents Eric Clapton in three separate mixes, with one mix on each of the first three CDs in the box: The Tom Dowd Mix, The Eric Clapton Mix, and The
You Make a Grown Man Cry: Rolling Stones Celebrate 40th Anniversary of “Tattoo You” with New Multi-Format Release
The old saying goes that necessity is the mother of invention. And when The Rolling Stones needed a new LP to tour behind but didn't have time to write and record, they invented Tattoo You. The 1981 album was primarily assembled from a decade's worth of outtakes, some essentially finished and some nowhere near so; band members eventually made their way into the studio to complete the latter tracks. The gamble paid off and Tattoo You topped the U.S. Billboard 200 and went to No. 2 on the U.K.
Get Up, Stand Up: Bob Marley and The Wailers’ “The Capitol Session ’73” Comes to CD, LP, DVD
1973 was a landmark year for Bob Marley. His band, The Wailers, released their sixth studio album in October to critical acclaim and commercial success. Burnin' earned a Gold sales certification in the U.S. and eventually an induction into the Library of Congress' National Recording Registry. The album introduced "Get Up, Stand Up" as well as the future Eric Clapton hit "I Shot the Sheriff." But Marley and The Wailers weren't resting on their laurels around the time of the album's release.
She’s a Survivor: Reba McEntire’s “Revived, Remixed, Revisited” Box Due in October
Reba McEntire is looking back on her career with a three-disc, three-album retrospective - but with a twist. Revived Remixed Revisited, due on October 8 from MCA Nashville, consists entirely of new and previously unheard versions of her greatest hits for a total of 30 tracks. The first disc, Revived, presents McEntire's songs (including "Can't Even Get the Blues" and "Is There Life Out There") performed with her touring band as they would be heard in concert today with arrangements and
Like a Prayer (Answered): Madonna Signs Career-Spanning Deal with Warner, Announces Deluxe Reissue Series
For years - decades, even - fans have wondered when Madonna's catalogue would get the kind of deluxe treatment befitting her stature as a trailblazer. It now looks like that day is coming soon, as early this morning, the artist and Warner Music Group announced a career-spanning partnership. The new deal between Madonna and WMG (already her home for the first 24 years of her career on the Sire, Maverick, and Warner labels) sees that WMG will represent her entire body of work in both recordings
Review: Aretha Franklin, “Aretha”
R-E-S-P-E-C-T. Otis Redding may have written the song, but Aretha Franklin owned it. The singer was only in her mid-20s when she left Columbia Records after five years and seven albums but she wasted no time in making music history when she signed with Atlantic Records in December 1966. By the middle of 1967, she'd had long-sought-after hits with "I Never Loved a Man (The Way I Love You)" and "Respect" and was proclaimed The Queen of Soul by a Chicago disk jockey. Some reports indicate the
I’m Leavin’: Legacy Collects Elvis’ Final Nashville Sessions in Remixed Form on “Back in Nashville”
The annual Elvis Week kicked off at Graceland on Wednesday, August 11 with numerous events, activities, and presentations honoring the King of Rock and Roll. Yesterday, Legacy Recordings announced its major Elvis release for 2021, and it's one that picks up directly from last year's release. Elvis: Back in Nashville, due on November 12, is a sequel project to 2020's From Elvis in Nashville. Like that set, it features a host of new remixes by Matt Ross-Spang to place the focus squarely on
Release Round-Up: Week of August 13
Welcome to this week's Release Round-Up! Various Artists, Rip It Up: The Best of Specialty Records (Craft Recordings) CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada LP: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada Craft Recordings' 75th anniversary campaign for groundbreaking R&B label Specialty Records kicks off with Rip It Up: The Best of Specialty Records on CD, LP, and digital platforms. The 18 tracks on Rip It Up spotlight the incendiary R&B and, later, rock-and-roll that
Kick Your Door Down: The Replacements Go Back to the Beginning for Deluxe Box of Debut Album
The Replacements burst onto the scene with 1981's Sorry Ma, Forgot to Take Out the Trash. The Minneapolis band's debut arrived on the city's independent Twin/Tone label, its eighteen punk nuggets (more than half of which were under two minutes in length) imbued with a pop accessibility and reckless, rebellious spirit. Lead singer/songwriter/guitarist Paul Westerberg, drummer Chris Mars, and brothers Bob and Tommy Stinson (on lead guitar and bass, respectively) came close to implosion more than
Put on a Happy Face: Jasmine Reissues, Expands Dick Van Dyke’s “Songs I Like”
In an extraordinary showbiz career spanning almost 75 years, perennial song-and-dance man Dick Van Dyke has only recorded three solo albums (in addition to his appearances on best-selling cast albums and soundtracks, that is!). While two of those - 2017's Step Back in Time and 2009's Put on a Happy Face, the latter with his a cappella group The Vantastix - are from recent years, he did record one LP while starring on the 15-time Emmy Award-winning sitcom The Dick Van Dyke Show. 1963's Songs I
You Know How to Love Me: A Closer Look at Phyllis Hyman’s “Old Friend: The Deluxe Collection 1976-1998”
UPDATED AUGUST 2021: "Phyllis sat right in my class. I can still see the pigtails." In a 2016 interview with The Second Disc, Thom Bell shared his earliest memories of the late Phyllis Hyman (1949-1995). The songwriter-arranger-conductor-producer would cross paths numerous times over the years with his childhood friend: first via Phyllis' hit recordings of his "Betcha By Golly Wow" and "Loving You - Losing You," and later, his own productions and songs for her. "She was a lonely individual,"
Harvest for the World: Demon Music Group Spotlight on Average White Band, The Rubettes, and Barry Blue
Today, we're taking a look at three recent releases from Demon Music Group! On their 1974 Atlantic debut and breakthrough LP AWB, Average White Band proclaimed that they had "Work to Do." The group's confident stab at The Isley Brothers' 1972 funk classic closed the first side of AWB; now, it's one of ten tracks comprising the enjoyable new vinyl collection Cover to Cover, Soul to Soul out on Demon Records. Cover to Cover, Soul to Soul offers a bounty of AWB's most soulful tracks - not
Are You That Somebody: Blackground Records Catalogue, Against All Odds, Coming Back Into Print
It's the reissue announcement a generation wanted but nobody expected - and it's honestly hard to parse how to feel about it: Blackground Records will release its long out-of-print catalogue, including albums by the late R&B singer Aaliyah. Record producer Barry Hankerson started Blackground in the '90s as a vehicle to score his niece, Aaliyah Haughton, a record deal. After years of being turned down, Jive Records signed the 15-year-old singer, and debut Age Ain't Nothing But a Number
Happy To Be Here: Ellen Foley Returns with “Fighting Words”
Ellen Foley is back with a vengeance. The singer-actress who shared the microphone with Meat Loaf on Bat Out of Hell's immortal "Paradise by the Dashboard Light" has one of the smallest yet choicest discographies in rock: just three albums between 1979 and 1983 on which she was joined by such collaborators as Ian Hunter, Mick Ronson, Vini Poncia, and The Clash's Mick Jones, Paul Simonon, Topper Headon, and Joe Strummer; and a 2013 "comeback" LP. But Foley was hardly ever away. She flourished
Release Round-Up: Week of August 6
Welcome to this week's Release Round-Up! George Harrison, All Things Must Pass: 50th Anniversary [Various Formats] (Capitol/UMe) 5CD/BD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada 8LP: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada 5LP: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada 3CD (contains CD 1, CD 2 & CD 5, below): Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada 3LP: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada 2CD (contains CD 1 & CD 2 only): Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon
Sing a Happy Song: Omnivore Brings Nine Buck Owens Albums to CD, First Three Out Tomorrow
Hello happiness, goodbye loneliness! Over the past dozen years, Omnivore Recordings celebrated Buck Owens on a variety of releases, from a multi-volume series dedicated to the Bakersfield country hero's complete Capitol singles to rare live material, a Buck Sings Eagles EP, a Christmas collection, and even a coloring book. Now, Omnivore is answering fans' wishes and returning nine of his classic Capitol albums to print for the first-time ever on standalone CD. The series, to roll out in three
Just Between You and Me: Cherry Red’s HNE Imprint Collects Lou Gramm’s Atlantic Solo Albums
As original lead vocalist of Foreigner, Lou Gramm was the memorable, full-throated voice on such indelible hits as "Cold as Ice," "Feels Like the First Time," "Hot Blooded," "Urgent," "Waiting for a Girl Like You," and "I Want to Know What Love Is." But tensions with his main creative partner in the band, Mick Jones, had percolated throughout the 1980s, and in 1987 Gramm struck out on his own with the solo LP appropriately entitled Ready or Not. Gramm was indeed ready; he left Foreigner in
Something Like This: Blue Note Expands Lee Morgan’s “Live at the Lighthouse” to 8CD or 12LP Box Set
The discography of trumpeter Lee Morgan is a relatively short one, his life having been cut short at age 33 when he was murdered at the hands of his companion/common-law wife. But in his 33 years, Morgan played with John Coltrane, Dizzy Gillespie, Art Blakey, Wayne Shorter, and Quincy Jones; scored a pop crossover hit with "The Sidewinder;" and released over 20 albums as a leader. Now, Blue Note Records has announced an expanded 50th anniversary reissue of Morgan's final album released in his
What’s The Buzz? “Jesus Christ Superstar” Returning For 50th Anniversary In Various Formats Including 3-CD Box Set
"Nothing could convince me that any show that has sold two and one-half million copies of its album before the opening night is anything like all bad," wrote The New York Times' Clive Barnes on October 13, 1971 upon the New York debut of Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice's Jesus Christ Superstar. Indeed, the original Jesus Christ Superstar album was a sensation long before it ever hit Broadway's Mark Hellinger Theatre. A true hybrid of rock and theater, it was introduced as a record but
Release Round-Up: Week of July 30
Welcome to this week's Release Round-Up! Toomorrow: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack (Second Disc Records/Real Gone Music) Purple Vinyl: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada / Real Gone Music Clear with Copper and Red Swirl Vinyl: Real Gone Music [SOLD OUT] Clear with Red, Blue, and Green "Freak" Swirl Vinyl: Rough Trade [PRE-ORDERS SOLD OUT, MAY BE AVAILABLE AT ROUGH TRADE RETAIL LOCATIONS] Second Disc Records and Real Gone Music are proud to present the first-ever vinyl
The Ultimate Frontier: Real Gone’s Black Jazz Series Continues With Sophomore Albums From The Awakening and Henry Franklin
Real Gone Music is continuing its series of reissues of the Black Jazz label, founded by Gene Russell and Dick Schory in 1969. The company released twenty albums between 1971 and 1975 and two of them will see new reissues on Real Gone, tomorrow, July 30: 1973's Mirage by The Awakening and Henry Franklin's The Skipper At Home from 1974. The Awakening was the lone group on Black Jazz. They only recorded two albums together and both were for the label. The band consisted of Richard "Ari
Listen, Everyone: Cherry Red, Grapefruit Collect Hardin and York Albums
Eddie Hardin and Pete York first met as members of The Spencer Davis Group. York, the drummer, was a founding member of Davis' outfit while keyboardist-singer Hardin joined in 1967 to fill the void left by Steve Winwood. As they refined the sound of the "new" Group, Hardin and York developed their own rapport but found themselves at odds with their bandmates. York was moving in a more improvised, jazz-oriented direction and Hardin was more interested in songwriting; both men left the Group in
Reelin’ in the Years: Steely Dan Announces Two Live Albums, New Tour
Yesterday, Steely Dan announced the kickoff of its Absolutely Normal Tour '21 which will take the Donald Fagen-led band up and down the U.S. east coast in October and November. To coincide with the tour, two new live releases will arrive from UMe in CD and digital formats on September 24 and 180-gram vinyl one week later on October 1: Northeast Corridor: Steely Dan Live! and Donald Fagen's The Nightfly Live. These are the first Steely Dan albums without founding member Walter Becker who passed
Into You Like a Train: Edsel Releases New Career-Spanning Psychedelic Furs Collection
In late July 2020, in the midst of a global pandemic, The Psychedelic Furs released their first album in almost 30 years. Made of Rain found original members Richard and Tim Butler, joined by Paul Garisto, Rich Good, Amanda Kramer, and Mars Williams, in top form. Presumably there were plenty of fans ready to hear new Furs music after appearances of their classic songs in the film Call Me by Your Name and the television fantasy Stranger Things. As of this writing, 1982's "Love My Way" as