Over the course of a five-decade career, Jimmy Castor did it all. The multi-instrumentalist, singer and songwriter got his start singing doo-wop in the 1950s, inspired by his school friend Frankie Lymon. Frankie gave Jimmy a big break when he recorded his song "I Promise to Remember." Soon, Jimmy was singing with Frankie's brother Lewis Lymon, playing his trademark saxophone as a session musician, and recording his own sides for labels including Hull, Jet Set, Decca and Smash. Along the way,
Wishing On A Star: BBR Reissues, Expands Ashford and Simpson, Rose Royce On CD
Big Break Records has recently returned to the catalogues of Ashford and Simpson and Rose Royce for a trio of new, expanded and remastered reissues. Gimme Something Real (1973) and I Wanna Be Selfish (1974), Nickolas Ashford and Valerie Simpson's first two albums for Warner Bros. Records, concludes BBR's survey of the duo's WB years. Gimme Something Real introduced all but the most diehard fans to the already-famous songwriters as singer-songwriters. As "Valerie and Nick," they had released
They Are Family: BBR Reissues, Expands Sister Sledge's Debut "Circle of Love"
"We Are Family" catapulted Sister Sledge to stardom in 1979, but while the uplifting anthem was a breakthrough, it wasn't a beginning. Philadelphia-based Kathy Sledge and her three older sisters Debbie, Joni and Kim had been recording for Atlantic Records since 1973 when all four members were still teenagers. In 1975, Sister Sledge's first album, Circle of Love, was released. This lost gem has been previously released on CD in a bare-bones version, but Cherry Red's Big Break Records label has
Heat It Up: Groove Line Tells "The Salsoul Orchestra Story: 40th Anniversary Collection"
The title of The Salsoul Orchestra's second album said it all - Nice 'n' Naasty. The soul-disco orchestra, originally under the baton of MFSB alumnus Vincent Montana Jr., could serve up nice, shimmering and lushly elegant soundscapes...and naasty floor-filling grooves that practically demanded you hit the dancefloor! Happily, the group has recently received a lavish tribute in the form of a sizzling 3-CD collection from Groove Line Records (the label responsible for the recent, definitive
Release Round-Up: Week of January 29
Welcome to this week's Release Round-Up featuring a host of deluxe reissues, box sets, and more! Phil Collins, Face Value: Deluxe Edition (Atlantic/Rhino) CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada LP: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada Phil Collins' 1981 classic featuring "In the Air Tonight" gets expanded to two CDs or DD with the addition of eight live tracks and four demos (plus a new, modern cover photograph echoing the original). Ten of the twelve bonuses are new
Shoot Me (With Your Love): Tasha Thomas' Disco "Rendezvous" Is Expanded By SoulMusic Records
In recent weeks, SoulMusic Records has kept up its busy slate. Through the Caroline label, SMR has offered up reissues of The Dells' Charles Stepney-produced Cadet album Freedom Means (featuring classics like "One Less Bell to Answer," "If You Go Away" and "Make It with You"), The Dramatics' ABC release Shake It Well (featuring the hit R&B title track) and Evelyn "Champagne" King's 1988 RCA album Flirt. Through Cherry Red Group, SoulMusic has also reissued Tasha Thomas' 1979 Midnight
Big Break Records "Breaks Away" with Al Jarreau, Rose Royce
Accompanying the recent releases from The Spinners and Frantique, Big Break Records rounded out its 2015 slate with a pair of titles from Al Jarreau and Rose Royce. Renowned vocalist Al Jarreau made his album debut in 1975 with the Reprise Records release We Got By, a collection of original songs from the jazz-rooted singer. He followed that effort with Glow, incorporating tracks by a wide range of writers including Elton John, James Taylor and Antonio Carlos Jobim. Jarreau was slowly but
The Glow of Love: Groove Line Records Compiles The Music of Change, Featuring Luther Vandross, More
If ever a group lived up to its name, that group was Change. The brainchild of French-Italian music impresario and producer Jacques Fred Petrus, in collaboration with Italian-based producer/arranger Mauro Malavasi and bassist Davide Romani, Change released six albums between 1980 and 1985. Built on infectiously danceable rhythms, melodic hooks and sublimely soulful vocals, the sound of Change was primarily created by a rotating cast of Italian-based musicians and America-based vocalists.
Strut Your Funky Stuff: Philadelphia International's "Frantique" Comes to CD
Everything about Philadelphia International Records' 1979 release of the self-titled album from Frantique was unexpected. The cradle of Philly soul wasn't exactly a typical home for an LP of Eurodisco. Nor was Frantique's benefactor someone particularly associated with disco, Euro- or otherwise - the legendary maestro of elegant and silky soul, Thom Bell. But Bell had taken an interest in songwriter-producer Jack Robinson and his collaborator David Christie, enlisting them for projects by The
Raven Has Folk and Funk With Melanie and Mother's Finest
Raven Records' most recent pair of CDs certainly showcase the label's eclectic leanings! From singer-songwriter Melanie Safka, the label has a three-for-one release of her much-loved albums Candles in the Rain, Leftover Wine and Gather Me. The Melanie release is joined by a four-for-one title from pioneering funk-rockers Mother's Finest collecting the band's self-titled LP plus Mother's Finest Live, Another Mother Further and Mother Factor. Raven's release from Melanie follows the Morello
The Year in Review - The 2015 Gold Bonus Disc Awards, From A to Z
Happy New Year, and welcome to The Second Disc's Sixth Annual Gold Bonus Disc Awards! As with every year's awards, our goals are simple: to recognize as many of the year's most essential reissues and catalogue titles as possible, and to celebrate as many of those labels, producers and artists who make these releases happen in an increasingly-challenging retail landscape. The labels you'll read about below have, by and large, bucked the trends to prove that there's still a demand for physical
Jump To The Beat! BBR Reissues Dancefloor Classics By Stacy Lattisaw, Karen Young
With a quartet of recent releases, Big Break Records continues to deliver to the highest standard in deluxe, remastered and generously expanded editions of R&B classics. Today, we turn the spotlight on two of those titles, from Stacy Lattisaw and Karen Young! Stacy Lattisaw was just 12 - yes, 12! - years old when she made her major label debut on Atlantic Records' Cotillion imprint with Young and in Love. One of the final projects produced by Van McCoy before his untimely death, the
Release Round-Up: Week of October 30
Welcome to this week's Release Round-Up! Packed with over 30 titles including highly-anticipated reissues, a slew of box sets, collections and more, it just may be the mightiest of the year! The Velvet Underground, Loaded: Re-Loaded 45th Anniversary Edition (Rhino) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.) The Velvet Underground's 1970 album - and Lou Reed's swansong with the band - gets the deluxe expanded treatment from Rhino in this new box set featuring the original stereo and mono
Release Round-Up: Week of October 9
Welcome to this week's Release Round-Up highlighted by the first course of a Christmas feast, plus a trio of deluxe box sets, new albums from veteran artists, and more! The Three Suns, A Ding Dong Dandy Christmas / George Melachrino and His Orchestra, Christmas Joy / John Gary, The John Gary Christmas Album / The Soulful Strings, The Magic of Christmas (Real Gone Music) The Three Suns: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. George Melachrino: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. John Gary: Amazon U.S. /
Release Round-Up: Week of August 28
Welcome to New Release Friday and this week's Release Round-Up! Faces, You Can Make Me Dance, Sing or Anything (1970-1975) (Rhino) CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. Vinyl: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. This long-awaited 5-CD box set includes Faces' First Step (1970), Long Player (1971), A Nod Is as Good as a Wink...to a Blind Horse (1971), and Ooh La La (1973), and adds never-before-released bonus tracks to each album. The set is topped off with a bonus disc containing non-LP selections.
Get On Up, Get On Down: Roy Ayers' Jazz, Funk and Disco Revisited On "Searching for Sunshine"
In a career spanning six decades, vibraphonist and composer Roy Ayers has pushed the boundaries of jazz, transitioning from bop to soul-jazz, funk and acid jazz. Three classic albums from the "Godfather of Neo-Soul" have recently been reissued by Australia's Raven Records label with a handful of bonus selections, as well. The 2-CD set Searching for Sunshine: 1973-1980 collects Ayers' Polydor albums You Send Me (1978), Fever (1979) and No Stranger to Love (1979) and then dips into other areas
Always and Forever: Big Break Reissues Heatwave, Silver Convention
Big Break Records, an imprint of the Cherry Red Group, is back in a big way with its first three reissues of 2015! Expanded editions of Heatwave's first two albums Too Hot to Handle and Central Heating as well as Silver Convention's Summernights all have arrived in stores in the U.K. this week, and are due in the U.S. next week! Heatwave burst onto the scene in a big way with 1976's Too Hot to Handle, an album that lived up to its title with three hit singles. The group's membership crossed
Release Round-Up: Week of May 26
Welcome to this week's Release Round-Up! We hope all of our U.S. readers enjoyed a wonderful Memorial Day weekend. And now, without further ado, onto the music! Yes, Progeny: Seven Shows from Seventy-Two (Rhino) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.) Finally, after a brief delay, Progeny is here! This whopping 14-CD box captures seven complete concerts from Yes circa 1972 - the same tour leading up to the performances preserved on Yessongs. For those who don't need 14 discs, 2-CD and 3-LP
It's Your Thing: The Isley Brothers' RCA and T-Neck Albums and More Collected On 23-CD Box Set
Get ready for a release that will make you want to shout! Today marks the 74th birthday of Ronald Isley, one-third of the original founding trio of The Isley Brothers. Since bursting onto the scene with 1959's Shout! on the RCA Victor label, Ronald, Rudolph and O'Kelly Isley - plus Ernie and Marvin Isley and Chris Jasper - the R&B legends have notched four Top 10 Pop singles, sixteen Top 40 albums, thirteen Gold, Platinum or Multi-Platinum albums, and inductions into the Rock and Roll
Release Round-Up: Week of May 5
Welcome to this week's Release Round-Up! Oddly, releases were split between yesterday and today, but both days add up to a wealth of titles in nearly every genre! Without a doubt, this is one of the most packed weeks yet this year! Jackie DeShannon, All the Love: The Lost Atlantic Recordings (Real Gone) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.) All the Love--The Lost Atlantic Recordings brings together DeShannon's entire 1973 Atlantic Records material in one place for the first time,
The Second Disc's 2015 Record Store Day Must-Haves
Tomorrow, Saturday, April 18, music fans and collectors will flock to their local independent record stores to celebrate both the sounds on those familiar round black platters and the cherished opportunity to shop for music in a physical retail environment. To many of us, both are a way of life. Each year around this time, we here at Second Disc HQ take a few moments to count down the titles to which we're most looking forward to picking up! Our friend and founder, Mike Duquette, returns to
Review: Bee Gees, "1974-1979"
For many veteran artists, disco was simply a mountain that couldn’t be climbed….not that they didn’t try. The Beach Boys, Grateful Dead, Elton John and so many others – even Frank Sinatra! – flirted with the genre only to find that that those sultry disco grooves weren’t as easy to emulate as they may have appeared to be. Barry, Robin and Maurice Gibb not only climbed the mountain, but conquered it. The brothers had already amassed a back catalogue of some of the richest, most melodic and
Release Round-Up: Week of March 10
This week brings a particularly impressive slate by any standard, but we're particularly proud to introduce the world to Second Disc Records with our first two releases, from Johnny Mathis and the late Bob Crewe! Johnny Mathis, Life is a Song Worth Singing: The Complete Thom Bell Sessions (Second Disc/Real Gone) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.) Here, on two CDs, we proudly present both of Johnny Mathis' album collaborations - including the never-on-CD Mathis Is... - with songwriter-producer
Shake Your Pants! Robinsongs Goes "Insane" With New Cameo Reissues
In 2010, Cherry Red’s Superbird imprint combined Cameo’s first two albums, Cardiac Arrest and We All Know Who We Are, in one package. Now, five years later, Cherry Red’s Robinsongs has just reissued the funk supergroup’s third and fourth outings, 1978’s Ugly Ego and 1979’s Secret Omen. Originally founded as The New York City Players, Larry Blackmon and his big band soon changed the group name to Cameo, to avoid confusion with the Ohio Players. Prior to this, Blackmon (the band’s
Don't Leave Her This Way: Thelma Houston's "Any Way You Like It" Gets Expanded Treatment
Powerhouse vocalist Thelma Houston has long had a champion in SoulMusic Records. In 2012, the label issued an expanded edition of her debut album (and second overall) for Motown’s California-based MoWest label, and in 2013, SoulMusic reissued both of her duet albums with the “Ice Man” Jerry Butler. The label has just revisited 1976’s Any Way You Like It, the album that made a superstar out of Houston thanks to a little anthem called “Don’t’ Leave Me This Way.” Though Berry Gordy’s West