If you've followed catalogue releases for long enough, you know some titles just do so well that you don't necessarily have to go out of your way to get people - especially new fans - to buy a new version of a classic album. Buyers - especially vinyl buyers - will always come of age and need copies of Rumours or Dark Side of the Moon in their libraries. It's this sort of thinking - perhaps a rebellion against the commercialism of reissue practices - that often gets us most interested not in the
Holiday Gift Guide Review: David Bowie, "Divine Symmetry: An Alternative Journey Through 'Hunky Dory'"
MAGNIFICENT OUTRAGE. The phrase is emblazoned on the slipcase of David Bowie's new box set Divine Symmetry (An Alternative Journey Through 'Hunky Dory'). It was derived from an ad - reprinted as the first image in the 100-page tome housing the set's four CDs and one Blu-ray Disc - which noted, "That's what they're saying about David Bowie." Happily, no one would accuse this latest Bowie archival dig of being an outrage, though magnificent comes closer. Much like its 2019 predecessor
Is This the Way to Amarillo? "Essential Tony Christie" Offers Hits, Rarities, and Unreleased Tracks
In 1972, Yorkshire-born Tony Christie took Neil Sedaka and Howard Greenfield's jaunty "(Is This the Way To) Amarillo" to the top of the pops throughout the world: No. 1 in Belgium and Germany, the top ten in Switzerland, The Netherlands, South Africa, New Zealand, and Australia, and the top twenty in his native United Kingdom. Thirty-three years later, in 2005, the same recording was re-released to raise funds for the Comic Relief charity. Propelled by a music video featuring comedian Peter
The Weekend Stream: December 18, 2022
Welcome to The Weekend Stream, a relaxing weekly review of notable digital-only catalogue titles. There may be no CD or vinyl, but there's plenty of great new/old music to usher you into the weekend. And we've got a lot to cover today, from a massive Pink Floyd copyright dump to a new Whitney Houston soundtrack and some underrated Motown gold. Pink Floyd, Live at Southampton Guildhall, UK, 23 January 1972 / Live at Carnegie Hall, New York, 5 Feb 1972 / Live at the Rainbow Theatre, London, 17
Holiday Gift Guide Update: Emerson, Lake and Palmer, Marianne Faithfull, International Pop Overthrow, and Maureen Taylor Sings Michael Colby
The Second Disc is always updating our Holiday Gift Guide with items large and small that just might make the perfect stocking stuffer or present under the tree. In recent days, we've added entries for four very different releases that are all worth seeking out. Emerson, Lake, and Palmer, Singles (BMG) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada) This handsome new vinyl box collects a dozen seven-inch, two-sided singles culled from Emerson, Lake, and Palmer's U.K. and international
Release Round-Up: Week of December 16
Welcome to this week's Release Round-Up, featuring a selection of the week's most notable new titles! As next week will see very few releases, this will be our final Release Round-Up of 2022...regular daily coverage will continue, though! See you in the new year! Frank Zappa, Waka/Wazoo (Zappa/UMe) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada / uDiscoverMusic.com / Zappa Online Store) UMe and Zappa Records are chronicling Frank Zappa's 1972 in a new 4CD/1BD box set. The original
Holiday Gift Guide Review: The Beach Boys, "Sail on Sailor: 1972"
I need a whole lot of sunshine to keep my sundial advancing... Who were The Beach Boys? Hawthorne, California's favorite sons might have been asking themselves that very question in 1972. Their creative leader was withdrawing further into himself and musical tastes were changing: where did that leave them? This period of adjustment was first chronicled on last year's superlative Feel Flows: The Sunflower and Surf's Up Sessions 1969-1971 box set. The story begun on that collection
The Living Word: New Box Sets Chronicle Wattstax in Full, 50 Years On
One of the greatest music festivals of the '70s is getting celebrated with an exhaustive array of reissues in 2023: Wattstax, the multi-dimensional Los Angeles celebration of soul, funk, blues and gospel courtesy of Stax Records. A half-century after the premiere of a Golden Globe-nominated documentary on the star-studded 1972 event, Craft Recordings, custodian of the Stax catalogue, will release the most definitive looks at Wattstax, most recently addressed in a 3CD box set in 2003 that took
The Weekend Stream: December 10, 2022
Welcome to The Weekend Stream, a relaxing weekly review of notable digital-only catalogue titles. There may be no CD or vinyl, but there's plenty of great new/old music to usher you into the weekend. This week, a Madonna rarity makes a splashy debut, the daughter of a soul legend sings with her dad on his holiday classic, and Roger Waters emerges from lockdown - plus remixes old and new, and a World Cup throwback you might not believe is real. Madonna, Gambler (Warner/Rhino) (iTunes /
Respectable: The Rolling Stones Release Star-Studded 50th Anniversary Show on "GRRR Live!"
Ten years ago, The Rolling Stones named their tour 50 & Counting which turned out not to be an exaggeration at all, considering The World's Greatest Rock and Roll Band is still going strong today even after weathering the loss of drummer Charlie Watts. On February 10, Mercury Studios will commemorate a special night on that tour with the release of GRRR Live!, a 24-song set recorded at Newark, New Jersey's Prudential Center on December 13 and 15, 2012. The concert will be released in a
Mo' Onions: Booker T. and The MG's "Green Onions" Returns in February
A little more than sixty years ago, Booker T. and The MG's tasty serving of "Green Onions" became one of the summer's biggest dishes. The largely improvised 12-bar blues entered the Billboard Hot 100 on August 11, 1962 and peaked at No. 3 the week ending September 29. It also made it all the way to the top of the R&B Singles Chart, peaking there on four non-consecutive weeks. On February 24, Rhino will reissue Booker T. and The MG's Green Onions album on both CD and translucent "green
What a Surprise: Neil Sedaka Reissues His Four Elektra Albums on New 2-CD Set
Sedaka's Back was no understatement. Neil Sedaka's 1974 LP - in actuality, a compilation of tracks from his previous three albums issued only in the U.K. - yielded a No. 1 Pop and AC hit with the sparkling "Laughter in the Rain," earning the artist his first chart-topper since 1962. It also spun off another No. 1 AC with "The Immigrant," and a top ten AC/top thirty Pop hit with "That's When the Music Takes Me." That wasn't all; the album also contained the future standards "Solitaire" and
The Weekend Stream: December 3, 2022
Welcome to The Weekend Stream, a relaxing weekly review of notable digital-only catalogue titles. There may be no CD or vinyl, but there's plenty of great new/old music to usher you into the weekend. This week, we've got a treasure trove from the great ladies of song, a Fab mega-box, and much more! Petula Clark, Blue Lady: The Nashville Sessions (UMe) (iTunes / Amazon) On November 15 of this year, Petula Clark celebrated her milestone 90th birthday. The legendary performer was hardly
Release Round-Up: Week of December 2
Welcome to this week's Release Round-Up, featuring a selection of the new titles in stores this week! The Beach Boys, Sail On Sailor: 1972 (Capitol/UMe) 6CD Super Deluxe: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada 2CD Highlights (Remastered Albums plus bonus tracks): Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada 5LP+7" Super Deluxe Vinyl Edition: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada 5LP+7" Super Deluxe Vinyl Edition (Limited Edition): Beach Boys Store 2LP+7" Remastered Albums
In Memoriam: Christine McVie (1943-2022)
Many words have already been typed to memorialize Christine McVie, the stalwart Fleetwood Mac singer/songwriter/keyboardist who died November 30 after a brief illness. But really, it was right there in the name all along: before that fateful marriage to John McVie, she was born Christine Perfect. How she'd live up to that name over time. McVie, a founding member of the British blues band Chicken Shack, joined her bass-playing husband in Fleetwood Mac in 1970, a year after they were wed.
Holiday Gift Guide Review: Michael Jackson, 'Thriller 40'
We are more than 35 years into the practice of record labels utilizing compact discs to sell a venerated artist's catalogue while also telling a story through the format's expanded capacity and clarion sound capabilities. The one-two punch of Bob Dylan's Biograph (1985) and Eric Clapton's Crossroads (1988) helped legitimize the idea of the CD box set and put both artists' bodies of work in sharper focus at a time when both of them were, should we say, not as relevant to the cultural
The Weekend Stream: November 26, 2022
Welcome to The Weekend Stream, a relaxing weekly review of notable digital-only catalogue titles. There may be no CD or vinyl, but there's plenty of great new/old music to usher you into the weekend. This week, it's hardly Thanksgiving leftovers thanks to some British Christmas favorites, a legendary dance duo and a killer rockabilly discovery. Elton John, Step Into Christmas (Rocket/Mercury/UMe) (iTunes / Amazon) He may have retired from performing, but Elton John is still in the release
Release Round-Up: Week of November 25
Welcome to this week's Release Round-Up, featuring a selection of the (non-Record Store Day) titles hitting stores today! Watch this space for our RSD Black Friday Picks! David Bowie, Divine Symmetry (An Alternative Journey Through 'Hunky Dory') (Parlophone) 4CD/1BD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada 1LP: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada This 4CD/1BD slipcased box set chronicling the twelve months leading up to the December 1971 release of David Bowie's fourth
Coming Around Again: Carly Simon's "Live at Grand Central" Comes to CD, LP, Blu-ray
Earlier this month, Carly Simon was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. It was a long-overdue recognition for the singer-songwriter whose thirteen U.S. top 40 hits include such radio staples as "Anticipation," "The Right Thing to Do," "Nobody Does It Better," "Coming Around Again," and the chart-topping "You're So Vain." Any fan of Simon knows that any live appearance is a true rarity-and the same was true back on April 2, 1995, when she performed her first full-length concert in 14
The Weekend Stream: November 19, 2022
Madonna, You Can Dance (Single Edits) / Rain (Warner/Rhino) Dance: iTunes / Amazon Rain: iTunes / Amazon Rhino keeps digitally uploading intriguing stuff from Madonna's single and remix catalogue, and this month saw two such releases: first, a bundle of mixes surrounding the Erotica favorite "Rain," then this week, to celebrate the 35th anniversary of remix album You Can Dance, an upload of the rare promo version that found all the tracks unmixed and edited to single-ready
Release Round-Up: Week of November 18
Welcome to this week's Release Round-Up, featuring a selection of the many titles hitting stores today as the countdown to the holidays continues! Michael Jackson, Thriller 40 (MJJ/Epic/Legacy) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada) The best-selling album of all time returns in a 2CD edition for its 40th anniversary. The second disc features 10 bonus tracks including the previously issued outtake "Sunset Driver," "Got the Hots" (making its U.S. release debut), non-LP B-side
Not Dark Yet: Bob Dylan's Next Bootleg Volume Celebrates "Time Out of Mind"
The last volume of Bob Dylan's Bootleg Series, 2021's Springtime in New York, chronicled the singer-songwriter at the outset of the 1980s. On January 27, 2023, the seventeenth volume of the long-running series will arrive, this time exploring the creation of Dylan's thirtieth studio album. Fragments: Time Out of Mind Sessions (1996-1997) takes a deep dive into the three-time Grammy Award-winning album which was perceived by many as a comeback after a string of lackluster or uninspired LPs.
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.
The Weekend Stream: November 12, 2022
Welcome to The Weekend Stream, a relaxing weekly review of notable digital-only catalogue titles. There may be no CD or vinyl, but there's plenty of great new/old music to usher you into the weekend. This week features a new version of a pop legend's most recent compilation, great proto-Motown soul, an expanded version of Robert Glasper's breakout album, Bon Jovi in Spanish(?) and a heap of early Christmas gifts. Check it out! Elton John, Diamonds (Deluxe) (Virgin/EMI) (iTunes /
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
- « Previous Page
- 1
- …
- 17
- 18
- 19
- 20
- 21
- …
- 61
- Next Page »