Happy 2022! Welcome, friends, to Part Two of The Second Disc's 12th Annual Gold Bonus Disc Awards! Once again, we've all faced unprecedented challenges over the past twelve months. A year that began with hope and promise has ended with further uncertainty for many of us. But music continues to fill a significant role in our lives, providing solace, comfort, and escape in a time unlike any other. With that spirit in mind, The Second Disc wishes to recognize 2021's cream of the catalogue
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
Release Round-Up: Week of December 10
Welcome to this week's Release Round-Up! The Band, Cahoots: 50th Anniversary Edition (Capitol/UMe) 2CD/LP/BD/7-inch single: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada 2CD (Contents of CDs 1 & @ below): Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada 1LP (2021 Mix of Original Album): Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada The Band and Capitol/UMe are in Cahoots for a deluxe 50th anniversary reissue of the group's fourth studio album. The remixed and remastered Cahoots arrives in
The Complete Philips Recordings
Decca will celebrate John Williams' 90th by turning the clock back to 1980 when the famed composer-conductor took the baton from the legendary Arthur Fiedler to lead The Boston Pops Orchestra into a new era. John Williams and The Boston Pops: The Complete Philips Recordings boasts 21 CDs and 22 albums originally released on Philips between 1980 and 1990, at which point the Pops switched affiliations to Sony Classical. (The Sony Classical era was addressed in 2018 on the John Williams:
Out of This World: Decca Celebrates John Williams' 90th Birthday with New Box Set
On February 8, 2022, John Williams will turn 90. Over the course of an extraordinary career, he's earned 25 Grammy Awards, five Oscars (out of 52 nominations, second only to Walt Disney), four Golden Globes, and three Emmys. Rather than resting on his considerable laurels in recent years, he's remained prolific, most recently scoring 2019's Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker and serving as Music Consultant for longtime collaborator Steven Spielberg's highly-anticipated remake of West Side Story.
Classical Goes Rock: Prog "Peter and the Wolf" Featuring Manfred Mann, Brian Eno, Phil Collins, Stephane Grappelli Returns to CD from Cherry Red, Esoteric
Russian composer Sergei Prokofiev wrote Peter and the Wolf in 1936 as "a symphonic fairy tale for children." As conceived, the narrator tells a story for children in which every character is musically "played" by a different instrument, i.e., the bird is a flute, the duck is an oboe, the cat is a clarinet, the grandfather is a bassoon, the Wolf is French horns, the hunters are woodwinds and trumpets, and Peter is string instruments. Prokofiev's composition earned the attention of Walt Disney
The Weekend Stream: November 20, 2021
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 discover! This week features some new remixes for Marvin Gaye and Teddy Pendergrass, a revisit of Josh Groban's debut and some great rarities for soul and alt-rock fans. Marvin Gaye + SaLaAM ReMi, Save the World Remix Suite (Motown/UMe) (iTunes / Spotify / Amazon) From remixer SaLaAM ReMi - who helped organize Gaye's
The Weekend Stream: October 9, 2021
While The Second Disc prides itself on connecting people to reissues and box sets they can keep on their shelves, it's no secret that listening audiences are also digital - catalogue music lovers, too - and our passion is connecting people to music from the past that they might adore. So we've introduced a new feature: The Weekend Stream, which focuses on hidden gems that recently made it to digital channels that might make your playlists a little brighter! Madonna, Madame X - Music from the
Release Round-Up: Week of September 10
Welcome to this week's Release Round-Up! Chicago, Chicago at Carnegie Hall: Complete (Rhino) (Rhino.com) For the first time, Rhino brings together all eight of Chicago's concerts between April 5-10, 1971 at New York's Carnegie Hall in one deluxe, 16-CD box set. The original 4-LP box Chicago at Carnegie Hall was a commercial smash, reaching No. 3 on the Billboard 200. This set features every note played by the band as newly restored by the band's Lee Loughnane and engineer Tim
Release Round-Up: Week of August 27
Welcome to this week's Release Round-Up! The Beach Boys, Feel Flows: The Sunflower and Surf's Up Sessions 1969-1971 (Capitol/UMe) 5CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada 2CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada 2LP: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada 4LP Black Vinyl: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada 4LP Translucent Blue & Translucent Gold: The Beach Boys Shop Feel Flows: The Sunflower and Surf's Up Sessions 1969-1971, a hardcover book-style set
Release Round-Up: Week of June 18
Welcome to this week's Release Round-Up! Joe Jackson and Todd Rundgren featuring Ethel, State Theater, New Jersey 2005 (Purple Pyramid) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada) Todd Rundgren and Joe Jackson's 2005 international tour featuring post-classical string quartet Ethel is brought to a 2CD/DVD set from Purple Pyramid collecting all three artists' sets plus the encore which brought them together. Both Jackson and Rundgren performed solo for sets blending fan favorites with
Release Round-Up: Week of May 28
Welcome to this week's Release Round-Up! Various Artists, Get on Board the Soul Train: The Sound of Philadelphia Vol. 1 (Snapper/United Souls) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada / Burning Shed) Get On Board the Soul Train: The Sound of Philadelphia International Records Vol. 1 is the first in a series of box sets from the U.K.-based United Souls label, an imprint of Snapper Music, which will ultimately collect the entire Philadelphia International albums discography on CD.
Release Round-Up: Week of April 30
Welcome to this week's Release Round-Up! Michael Nesmith, Different Drum: The Lost RCA Victor Recordings (Second Disc Records/Real Gone Music) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada / Real Gone Music) For our first release of 2021, Second Disc Records and Real Gone Music take a deep dive into the archives for Michael Nesmith's Different Drum: The Lost RCA Victor Recordings. This compendium features 22 tracks on CD drawn from the RCA Victor vaults, every one of which is previously
Release Round-Up: Week of April 23
Welcome to this week's Release Round-Up! John Lennon, Plastic Ono Band (Capitol/UMe) 6CD/2BD: 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 2LP: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada The 6-CD/2-BD John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band: The Ultimate Collection contains everything recorded by John and Yoko during the sessions for John's 1970 Plastic Ono Band LP, totaling 159 tracks on CD and 131 on
Is This A Dream: André Previn's HMV and Teldec Albums Collected on Massive Box Set "The Warner Edition"
André Previn (1929-2019) was a true renaissance man, making his mark in the worlds of jazz, classical, film, and stage. A composer, pianist, and conductor, the German-born Previn won four Academy Awards as well as ten competitive Grammys; he led orchestras including the Houston Symphony Orchestra, the London Symphony Orchestra, the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Royal Philharmonic, and the Oslo Philharmonic. He scored classic Hollywood films, co-wrote the
Bernstein Conducts Stravinsky
Sony Classical rounds up the landmark RCA and Columbia recordings conducted by Leonard Bernstein (for The Boston Symphony Orchestra, The London Symphony Orchestra, and The New York Philharmonic) of Igor Stravinsky's greatest works, plus the maestro's lectures on Stravinsky, in this new box set. Each disc utilizes "the newest remastering from analogue tape."
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
The Columbia Legacy
Sony Classical revisits Eugene Ormandy and The Philadelphia Orchestra's early Columbia recordings with a massive 120-disc box set, The Columbia Legacy. This will be the second-largest box in Sony Classical history after the complete Arthur Rubinstein set of 142 CDs released in 2011. The Columbia Legacy is dedicated to Ormandy's mono recordings made for Columbia through 1957; his subsequent stereo albums beginning in 1958 number over 200. While Columbia parent Sony has released various boxes
The Original Philadelphia Sound: Sony Classical Collects 120 Discs of Eugene Ormandy's "Columbia Legacy"
Eugene Ormandy's 44-year tenure as music director of the world-renowned Philadelphia Orchestra remains the single longest affiliation between conductor and orchestra. Though Ormandy passed away in 1985 at 85 years of age, the enormous body of work he left behind continues to resonate. Though he also recorded for RCA Victor, EMI, Telarc, and Delos, his most long-lasting label association was with Columbia Records. Between 1944 and 1968, Ormandy surveyed a broad swath of the classical
Takin' Care of Business: Dutton Vocalion Reissues Bachman-Turner Overdrive, Burton Cummings, Mott the Hoople, Leonard Bernstein, More in Quadraphonic
The Dutton Vocalion label has announced its first batch of hybrid SACD releases (playable on all CD players) for 2021 including another group of long-out-of-print quadraphonic surround mixes. First up is a three-for-one release from Ian Hunter and Mott the Hoople. The first disc of this 2-SACD set presents 1974's The Hoople (the band's highest charting album in the U.S.) in stereo and quadraphonic; followed by a stereo-only presentation of 1972's All the Young Dudes (featuring David Bowie's
John Williams in Vienna: Live Edition
Released just this past August and noted as 2020's best-selling classical album, John Williams in Vienna presented the five-time Oscar winner leading the Weiner Philharmoniker and violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter - the soloist on 2018's Across the Stars collaboration album - from the stage of The Musikverein in Austria, considered one of the world's finest-sounding stages. Williams ably led the ensemble through a stirring set of thematic favorites (JAWS, Star Wars, Raiders of the Lost Ark, E.T. The
The Complete Columbia Analogue Recordings
This 75-disc box celebrates the great violinist's legacy at Columbia Records where he recorded the classical repertoire with such titans as Leonard Bernstein, Eugene Ormandy, and Andre Previn.
Release Round-Up: Week of October 23
Welcome to this week's Release Round-Up! Bruce Springsteen, Letter to You (Columbia) CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada 2-LP: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada 2-LP black with white swirl: Bruce Springsteen Online Store 2-LP grey: Your Local Record Shop The Boss returns with a new, long-awaited album featuring The E Street Band. Produced by Springsteen and his frequent collaborator Ron Aniello, it features original songs as well as his first recordings of
Release Round-Up: Week of September 11
Welcome to this week's Release Round-Up! Reba McEntire, Rumor Has It: 30th Anniversary Edition (MCA Nashville) CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada Vinyl: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada Exclusive Orange Vinyl: Wal-Mart Reba McEntire expands her 1990 album in a new anniversary edition with two bonus tracks on CD (an acoustic take of Bobbie Gentry's "Fancy" recorded at the Ryman Auditorium and a dance remix of the song by Dave Audé) and one on vinyl (the acoustic
The Second Disc Guide to Record Store Day Drop 1 TOMORROW!
With the nation still fighting COVID-19, Record Store Day here in the U.S. looks a little - make that a lot - different this year. The usual offerings have been split among three dates with Drop 1 taking place tomorrow, August 29, at your local independent record retailer. Drop 2 is September 26, and Drop 3 is October 24. Every retailer is handling the Drop a bit differently thanks to the necessary accommodations for social distancing, smaller crowds, and better safety precautions. So please