The Five Proud Walkers weren't the only British blues 'n soul band to go psychedelic, but they were certainly one of the finest. As Elmer Gantry's Velvet Opera and then just plain Velvet Opera, the group recorded two well-received albums in the late 1960s before splintering. Cherry Red's Grapefruit imprint has recently collected and expanded those LPs on 3 CDs as Long Nights of Summer: The Elmer Gantry's Velvet Opera Anthology. Lead singer Dave Terry - who took the name of Elmer Gantry, the
Snap Shot: Iconoclassic Expands Slave's Funk Classic "Show Time," Steve Arrington's "Dancin' in the Key of Life"
Dayton, Ohio-based funk band Slave achieved success right out of the gate when their self-titled 1977 album shot to No. 6 R&B and No. 22 Pop, earning a Gold certification from the RIAA. Slave was off and running, producing eight consecutive chart albums for Atlantic Records' Cotillion imprint through 1983. (A ninth, in 1984, would do less well and precipitate a change of labels.) Slave weathered changes in the musical landscape, spinning off more than a dozen hit singles in that period.
Sending You Forget-Me-Nots: Patrice Rushen's Elektra Discography Gets Its Own Box Set
Jazz-turned R&B singer Patrice Rushen met with commercial and artistic success when she signed with Elektra Records. Now, Strut Records has revisited all five of her albums for the label plus an array of bonus tracks on the new 5-CD box set Feels So Real: The Complete Elektra Recordings 1978-1984. After a trio of acclaimed (but modest-selling) fusion-influenced albums for Prestige Records in the mid-1970s, Rushen, an accomplished pianist/vocalist, joined the Elektra roster in 1978.
Release Round-Up: Week of November 11
Welcome to this week's Release Round-Up, featuring a selection of the new titles in stores today. Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gorme, That Holiday Feeling! (Real Gone Music) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada / Real Gone Music) Real Gone Music presents a newly-remastered and expanded edition of Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gorme's 1964 Christmas classic That Holiday Feeling! This new edition adds eight bonus tracks including all three of Steve and Eydie's songs from the 1969 RCA
Seven Bridges Road: Real Gone's November Slate Features Pat Martino, Herb Ellis, Remo Palmier, Less Than Jake, and Steve Young
We've already told you about Real Gone Music's pair of Christmas albums coming out this Friday, November 11: a vinyl version of Lea Michele's Christmas in the City and an expanded CD reissue of Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gorme's That Holiday Feeling! featuring liner notes by our very own Joe Marchese. (Unfortunately, the expanded CD reissue of B.J. Thomas' Christmas Is Coming Home has been canceled for this year due to an unforeseen issue relating to the bonus material. Hopefully it will be
An Interview with Scott Davies, Rubellan Remasters' One-Man Band
Scott Davies has learned a lot on the job. Once toiling in the business of IT, music fans now know him as the singular creative force behind Rubellan Remasters - the sole curator, engineer, designer and distributor of a handful of CDs covering respected catalogues by New Wave/alternative acts including Visage, Missing Persons, Divinyls and most recently Oingo Boingo, the alt-rock band led in the '80s and '90s by future film composer Danny Elfman. From 2021 to the present Rubellan remastered
It's Only a Paper Moon: Cherry Red's El Imprint Celebrates Director Peter Bogdanovich on New Anthology
Writer-director Peter Bogdanovich (1939-2022) rose to fame as part of the "New Hollywood" movement of cinematic auteurs. While these maverick filmmakers shattered conventions and reshaped film to modern sensibilities, many had a deep and abiding love of the medium - and perhaps none more so than Bogdanovich. The onetime film critic and Museum of Modern Art programmer wrote extensively about Alfred Hitchcock, Orson Welles, and Howard Hawks; shot The Last Picture Show in black-and-white; and
Rubellan Puts Flesh N' Blood Into Next Wave of Oingo Boingo Reissues on CD, Vinyl (UPDATED PRE-ORDER LINKS)
All of Rubellan Remasters' titles are a labor of love, but special care was taken when the label expanded a section of the Oingo Boingo catalogue in 2021. The seminal California alt-punk band, which first catapulted film composer Danny Elfman to the national stage, never got their due in peak reissue eras - but Rubellan corrected that record with expanded CDs (and colored vinyl reissues) of the band's first four albums, issued on the I.R.S. and MCA labels. With the Day of the Dead just
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
This Girl's in Love: Mercury Studios Premieres Ella Fitzgerald's "Montreux 1969" on CD and LP
Following in the footsteps of such titles as Ella at the Hollywood Bowl: The Irving Berlin Songbook (2022), The Lost Berlin Tapes (2020), Ella at the Shrine (2018), and Ella at Zardi's (2017), the team at Mercury Studios has unveiled another previously unreleased concert from the late Ms. Fitzgerald. On January 20, 2023, the label will release Live at Montreux 1969. While the performance from the early years of the Montreux Jazz Festival (founded in 1967) was seen on DVD in 2005, the upcoming
Just For You: Peter Green's "In the Skies" Returns in Expanded Edition from Iconoclassic Records
As a co-founder of Fleetwood Mac, Peter Green (1946-2020) expanded the boundaries of blues-rock and forged a powerful sound on such remarkable compositions as "Black Magic Woman," "Man of the World," "Albatross," and "Oh Well." Despite well-publicized challenges throughout his life and career, Green persevered and made music until the new millennium. Two years ago, Cherry Red's Esoteric Records returned his 1970 Reprise Records solo debut The End of the Game to CD. That album wasn't the end
You Just May Be The One: The Monkees Revisit "Headquarters" With 55th Anniversary Box Set
55 years ago, The Monkees took part in what TV Guide deemed to be "the Great Revolt of '67." Micky Dolenz, Davy Jones, Michael Nesmith, and Peter Tork demanded creative control from impresario Don Kirshner - and won it. The group might have been brought together as actors portraying a band, but they were ready to build upon their phenomenal success and become that band in reality, too. The Headquarters album, The Monkees' third, was the startling result. It became their third consecutive No.
Surrender: Cherry Red Collects Swing Out Sister Albums, Bonus Tracks on New Box
Swing Out Sister burst onto the scene in 1986 with "Breakout." The first song on the group's first album, the sleek admonition reached the top ten on both sides of the Atlantic as well as the top of the U.S. Adult Contemporary chart. With Corrine Drewery's lead vocal soaring over a fizzy cocktail of funky bass, brash horns, bubbly synths, a sweet string arrangement, and a driving snare drum, "Breakout" bridged the gap between contemporary and retro. It launched Swing Out Sister to
Review: The Beatles, "Revolver" (2022)
I took a ride, I didn't know what I would find there... George Harrison's snarling takedown of the "Taxman" opened The Beatles' Revolver with a powerful sting. The so-called Quiet Beatle took on the first-person role with the relish of (and a musical nod to) a Batman villain. Though 1965's folk-rock-influenced Rubber Soul had seen the Fab Four's songwriting grow by leaps and bounds, Revolver matched the songwriting strides with revelatory studio processes including ADT (Artificial Double
Release Round-Up: Week of October 28
Welcome to this week's Release Round-Up, featuring a selection of the new titles available today! The Beatles, Revolver [Various Editions] (Apple/Capitol/UMe) 5CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada 4LP + 7": 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 / Official Store (Picture Disc) The Beatles' seventh studio album - and the bridge
Fare Thee Well: Sony Music, Analogue Productions Reissue Two Harry Belafonte Classics
On March 1, 2022, Harry Belafonte turned 95 years old. Though the actor, singer, and humanitarian largely retired from performing in the early years of the twenty-first century, he's remained active with the causes near and dear to his heart. On November 5, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame will honor this American legend with its Early Influence Award, a recognition previously bestowed on such musical heroes as Louis Armstrong, Nat "King" Cole, Woody Guthrie, Mahalia Jackson, and Hank Williams.
Try to Remember: Stage Door Brings Rare "The Fantasticks" Mexico City Cast Album to CD
On May 3, 1960, The Fantasticks opened at the tiny Sullivan Street Playhouse in New York's Greenwich Village. The intimate, eight-actor, two-musician musical by Tom Jones and Harvey Schmidt continued to light up the Sullivan Street stage until January 13, 2002 by which time it had earned the moniker "The World's Longest-Running Musical." Appropriately enough, the Playhouse closed along with the show- its 19th century Greek revival rowhouse home turned into glass-windowed luxury condominiums -
Do You Realize?? The Flaming Lips' 'Yoshimi' Turns 20 with Expansive Box Set
The Flaming Lips' Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots was the band's tenth album and perhaps their most successful, earning their only U.S. Gold record to date as well as a Platinum certification from the U.K.'s BPI. A loose concept album incorporating electronica, rock, pop, and hip-hop textures, Yoshimi saw the band continuing its inventive path while embracing accessibility. The album even inspired a stage musical in 2012, and now, its 20th anniversary is being celebrated with a deluxe box
Tired of Toein' the Line: Iconoclassic Premieres Rocky Burnette's "The Son of Rock and Roll" on CD
Jonathan "Rocky" Burnette made quite an impression in the family business. His father, Johnny Burnette, was the rockabilly hitmaker who notched such international hits as "You're Sixteen (You're Beautiful, and You're Mine)" and "Dreamin'" before tragically perishing in a boating accident in 1964; his uncle, Dorsey, was a member with Johnny of The Rock and Roll Trio and a recording artist in his own right on such labels as Imperial, Dot, Reprise, Motown, and Capitol before his own sad death at
Can't Keep It In: Cat Stevens Reissues "Catch Bull at Four" in 50th Anniversary Editions
Cat Stevens, today known as Yusuf, marked the 50th anniversary of his first three Island/A&M albums (1970's Mona Bone Jakon and Tea for the Tillerman, and 1971's Teaser and the Firecat) with a variety of releases including expansive super deluxe box sets. For 1972's Catch Bull at Four, the troubadour is taking a distinctly slimmed-down approach. On December 2, Island and A&M will reissue Stevens' classic album on CD, LP, and digitally, newly remastered from the original tapes but with
Release Round-Up: Week of October 21
Welcome to this week's Release Round-Up, featuring a selection of the new titles in stores today! Lou Reed, Words and Music - May 1965 (Light in the Attic) CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada Black Vinyl LP: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada Yellow Vinyl LP: Light in the Attic Store Cassette: Light in the Attic Store CD/2LP/7" Vinyl Deluxe Edition: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada / Light in the Attic Store Light in the Attic launches The Lou Reed
Keep On Sailing: Cherry Red Collects Iain Matthews' Plainsong on New Box Set
Cherry Red's Lemon imprint has anthologized the works of singer-songwriter Iain Matthews on previous releases including the 2019 rarities collection Orphans and Outcasts and this year's I Can't Fade Away: The Rockburgh Years 1978-1984. Now, Lemon is turning back the clock to Matthews' time in the band Plainsong with a new 6-CD box set. Following Amelia: The 1972 Recordings and More is, in essence, a generous 50th anniversary expanded edition of the original band's one and only album to be
She'll Be Thunder: Tina Turner's "Break Every Rule" Goes Deluxe in November
Last year, Parlophone revisited Tina Turner's 1989 triumph Foreign Affair in a deluxe edition. Now, the label is turning the clock back to 1986 for a similar presentation of the artist's equally incendiary Break Every Rule. The 1986 album will be reissued on November 25 as a 3CD/2DVD box as well as on vinyl and as a 2CD expanded edition. Break Every Rule followed Turner's 1984 solo breakthrough, the four-time Grammy-winning Private Dancer (itself reissued as a 2CD Deluxe Edition in 2015).
Come On Over: Olivia Newton-John's "Greatest Hits" Reissued, Remastered in Various Formats
Last month, Primary Wave delivered the second title in the label's ongoing Olivia Newton-John reissue program. The 2-CD edition of the late superstar's debut If Not for You not only presented a remastered version of the original LP but added a plethora of singles, B-sides, international recordings, outtakes, and the best of Olivia's performances with the group Toomorrow. This Friday, October 21, the series will continue with the first remaster of Newton-John's original 1977 Greatest
It Just Might Be a One-Shot Deal: Zappa's 1972 Chronicled on New CD/Blu-ray Box "Waka/Wazoo"
On the evening of December 10, 1971, Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention had just encored with a performance of The Beatles' "I Want to Hold Your Hand" at London's Rainbow Theatre when a so-called fan jumped onto the stage and pushed the bandleader some twelve feet into the orchestra pit. With injuries to his face, head, ribs, arm, and leg, Zappa was lucky to survive. He was forced into a near-yearlong period of convalescence in a wheelchair and leg brace, but he didn't stop creating or
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