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/ Pop

Moments in Time: First Whitney Houston Live CD/DVD Announced

September 16, 2014 By Joe Marchese Leave a Comment

whitney live

It's not often that music mogul Clive Davis takes to The Today Show to make a special announcement, but that's exactly what the former Columbia President, Arista founder and current Chief Creative Officer at Sony Music Entertainment did this morning to unveil his latest passion project.  Five-time Grammy winner Davis was on hand to present the first-ever live album from one of his most famous discoveries, the late Whitney Houston.  "This is her legacy," said Davis of Whitney Houston Live - Her

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Categories: News Formats: CD, DVD Genre: Pop, R&B/Soul Tags: Whitney Houston

Release Round-Up: Week of September 16

September 16, 2014 By Joe Marchese Leave a Comment

jh

Jimi Hendrix, The Cry of Love and Rainbow Bridge: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack (Experience Hendrix/Legacy) Legacy and Experience Hendrix have reissues of Jimi Hendrix's first two posthumously-released albums, both from 1971; The Cry of Love is long out-of-print on CD, while Rainbow Bridge makes its first authorized appearance in the CD format.  Both titles have been freshly remastered by Bernie Grundman from the original analog masters. The Cry of Love: Amazon U.S. / Amazon

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Categories: News, Release Round-Up Formats: CD Genre: Classic Rock, Classical/Opera, Disco/Dance, Jazz, Pop, Popular Standards/Vocal, Soundtracks Tags: Barbra Streisand, Charles Lloyd, Elmer Bernstein, James Galway, Jimi Hendrix, Neil Sedaka, Paul Anka, Ray Price, Salsoul Orchestra, Scruffy the Cat

Rocky Mountain High: Legacy Remembers John Denver With New Box Set

September 15, 2014 By Joe Marchese 4 Comments

john denver all of my memories

Randy Sparks was right. ”Henry John Deutschendorf, Jr.” likely wouldn’t have commanded attention on a marquee. “John Denver” would – and did. The beloved troubadour, who perished in 1997 at just 53, took the advice of the New Christy Minstrels’ leader. Choosing a new name from his favorite state, which he would immortalize numerous times in song, Denver went on to a career encompassing seven multi-platinum, thirteen platinum and 20 gold albums. During that sadly-curtailed career, he also penned

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Categories: News Formats: Box Sets, CD Genre: Country, Pop Tags: John Denver

In Memoriam: Bob Crewe (1931-2014)

September 12, 2014 By Joe Marchese 7 Comments

four seasons gold vault of hits

From you’re just too good to be true, can’t take my eyes off you to voulez-vous coucher avec moi (ce soir)?, some of the most memorable phrases in popular music came courtesy of Bob Crewe. The multi-hyphenate talent – a songwriter, producer, singer, entrepreneur, artist, philanthropist, activist, and candidate for the title of “Fifth Season” – passed away yesterday at the age of 82, but not before leaving behind a rich legacy guaranteed to endure for decades to come. Crewe’s songs were built

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Categories: News Genre: Pop Tags: Bob Crewe

Simply Deluxe: Edsel Expands and Remasters Simply Red In New Multi-Disc Sets

September 11, 2014 By Joe Marchese Leave a Comment

simply red home

Edsel has gone red – Simply Red, that is – on its recent series of deluxe CD and DVD editions from the British pop-soul band.  By the time of Simply Red’s breakup in 2010, founding member and lead vocalist Mick Hucknall was the last man standing, but the legacy left behind by the group - and its songs including “Holding Back the Years” and revivals of “If You Don’t Know Me By Now” and “You Make Me Feel Brand New” - remains strong.  Edsel’s new Simply Red series encompasses three 2-CD/1-DVD sets

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Categories: News Formats: Blu-Ray, CD, DVD Genre: Pop, Rock Tags: Mick Hucknall, Simply Red

Release Round-Up: Week of September 9

September 9, 2014 By Joe Marchese Leave a Comment

treat me nice

The Beatles, The Beatles in Mono (Apple/UMe) Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. Here it is - a massive white box filled with 14 newly-remastered vinyl LPs from the Fab Four, all in original mono - just the way the boys intended all those years ago! The Midnight Special various editions (StarVista/Time Life) Deluxe 11-DVD Box Set: StarVista 6-DVD Set: Amazon U.S. 1-DVD: Amazon U.S. The groundbreaking late-night music show is celebrated on a variety of releases featuring live

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Categories: News, Release Round-Up Formats: Box Sets, DVD, Vinyl Genre: Classic Rock, Pop, Popular Standards/Vocal Tags: Burt Bacharach, Queen, The Beatles, The Grateful Dead, The Seeds

It's Gotta Be Rock and Roll Music: Bear Family Unveils Ultimate 16-CD Chuck Berry Box Set

September 8, 2014 By Joe Marchese 18 Comments

chuck berry rock and roll music

This fall, Bear Family Records is releasing the ultimate tribute to perhaps the ultimate rock and roll artist. On October 17, the label will unveil Chuck Berry's Rock and Roll Music - Any Old Way You Choose It - The Complete Studio Recordings Plus! -and its title isn't the only mammoth thing about it. The 16-CD box set is even lavish by Bear Family's gold standard, containing within its 28 x 28 x 6 cm clothbound box every single and LP track recorded in the studio by Chuck Berry, starting with a

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Categories: News Formats: Box Sets, CD Genre: Pop, R&B/Soul, Rock Tags: Chuck Berry

Back to the House That Jack Built: Cherry Red Uncovers More Music From Tracie Young

September 5, 2014 By Joe Marchese Leave a Comment

tracie young no smoke without fire

Back in 2010, Cherry Red Records rescued Tracie Young’s 1984 debut Far from the Hurting Kind from obscurity. Four years later, the label has returned to the British pop singer’s discography for the first-time release of No Smoke Without Fire. Intended as the follow-up to Hurting Kind, No Smoke was slated to be issued in 1985, only to be consigned to the vaults. Cherry Red’s new edition includes ten songs from the original album plus seven rare bonus tracks from Young’s catalogue. Tracie Young

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Categories: News Formats: CD Genre: Pop Tags: Paul Weller, Tracie Young

Real Gone Has Stories In September, Plus Kerry Chater, Grateful Dead, Barbara Lynn, More

September 3, 2014 By Joe Marchese Leave a Comment

real gone september 30

Real Gone Music has plenty of stories to tell with its September 30 slate of releases – including music from, well, Stories! The eclectic reissue specialists have the first-ever anthology dedicated to Stories (“Brother Louie”) featuring 19 tracks from the band led by Ian Lloyd and Michael Brown, late of legendary baroque-pop band The Left Banke. And that’s not all. Real Gone is digging deep into the Atlantic vaults for the complete recordings of southern soul star Barbara Lynn including an

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Categories: News Formats: CD Genre: Classic Rock, Pop, R&B/Soul Tags: Barbara Lynn, Faith Hope and Charity, Kerry Chater, Ronnie Dyson, Stories, The Grateful Dead

Release Round-Up: Week of September 2

September 2, 2014 By Joe Marchese Leave a Comment

george benson breezin sacd

Willie Hutch, In Tune (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.) / Willie Hutch, Midnight Dancer (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.) / Esther Phillips, Alone Again, Naturally (Expanded Edition) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. ) /Ullanda McCullough, Ullanda McCullough/Watching You, Watching Me (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.) / Ray Griff, The Entertainer – Greatest U.S. & Canadian Hits (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.) / Rick Wakeman, Rick Wakeman’s Criminal Record (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.) / The Ides of March, Vehicle (Expanded

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Categories: News, Release Round-Up Formats: CD, SACD Genre: Classic Rock, Jazz, Pop, R&B/Soul, Soundtracks Tags: Big Star, Michel Legrand, Rick Wakeman, The Grateful Dead, The Ides of March

Look Through Any Window: The Hollies Mark "50 At Fifty" For Golden Anniversary

August 27, 2014 By Joe Marchese 10 Comments

hollies 50 at fifty

The rich harmonies of 2010 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees The Hollies will be celebrated by the Parlophone label on September 22 in the U.K. and October 21 in the U.S. with the release of 50 at Fifty, a new 3-CD career-spanning anthology of 50 songs originally released between 1963 and the present day (including one previously unissued recording). The new anthology, officially announced on The Hollies’ website, includes material from the band’s various lineups as originally released on

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Categories: News Formats: Box Sets, CD Genre: Classic Rock, Pop Tags: The Hollies

Turn It On Again: New Genesis Anthology Features Greatest Hits, Solo Tracks From Collins, Gabriel, More

August 25, 2014 By Joe Marchese Leave a Comment

genesis r kive

Earlier this year, the BBC confirmed plans for the feature-length documentary film Genesis – Together and Apart, chronicling the ups and downs of the 2010 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees.  On the heels of that project which featured the cooperation of Peter Gabriel, Phil Collins, Tony Banks, Mike Rutherford and Steve Hackett, Rhino (for North America) and Universal (for the rest of the world) have announced the September release of R-Kive, a 3-CD collection continuing the “together and

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Categories: News Formats: CD Genre: Classic Rock, Pop, Rock Tags: Genesis, Peter Gabriel, Phil Collins

Gentlemen, Please! Croydon Collects "Mid-Century Minx," "Soho Blondes" and Other Pop Pleasures

August 21, 2014 By Joe Marchese Leave a Comment

mid century minx

Bob Stanley’s Croydon Municipal label has carved out a niche as part of Cherry Red’s label roster with its eclectic compilations and album reissues from the 1950s and early 1960s focusing on dusty corners of classic American pop ripe for reevaluation.  Three of Stanley’s latest projects continue that mission with the compiler’s usual flair for the unexpected.  The anthology Mid Century Minx focuses on many of the lesser-known ladies of vocal jazz along with some still-beloved (if underrated)

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Categories: News Formats: CD Genre: Pop, Popular Standards/Vocal Tags: Anita O'Day, Dolores Gray, Jo Stafford, Peggy Lee

Review: Lulu, "The Atco Sessions 1969-1972"

August 18, 2014 By Joe Marchese Leave a Comment

lulu new routes

Muscle Shoals, Alabama is a long way from Glasgow, Scotland. But when Lulu took the trek in 1969, the “To Sir with Love” songbird proved that she could play with the big boys. Though neither New Routes nor its Miami-recorded, Dixie Flyers-assisted follow-up Melody Fair scaled the heights commercially, both projects proved the versatility of the vocal dynamo. In 2007, Rhino U.K. issued The Atco Sessions 1969-72 collecting both of Lulu’s lost southern soul forays in one deluxe 2-CD package. Upon

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Categories: Reviews Formats: CD Genre: Pop Tags: Lulu

Get Outta His Dreams: Cherry Pop Expands Billy Ocean's "Tear Down These Walls"

August 18, 2014 By Joe Marchese Leave a Comment

billy ocean tear down these walls

Back in 2011, Cherry Red’s Cherry Pop label gave the deluxe treatment to the two albums that established Billy Ocean’s chart supremacy in the 1980s: the Jive Records releases of Suddenly (1984) and Love Zone (1986).  Now, the label has returned to the Trinidad-born, U.K.-raised singer’s catalogue with an expanded edition of 1988’s Tear Down These Walls. Ocean had been recording since 1972, and scored memorable hits in his home of England with the No. 2s “Love Really Hurts Without You” and

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Categories: News Formats: CD Genre: Pop Tags: Billy Ocean

Review: Omnivore Goes New Wave with Lost Songs of "Billy Thermal"

August 14, 2014 By Joe Marchese Leave a Comment

billy thermal

“Eternal Flame,” “So Emotional,” “Like a Virgin,” “True Colors” – the songs of Billy Steinberg not only nearly defined the sound of eighties pop, but have endured to the present day. Yet before Steinberg joined with Tom Kelly to pen those songs and so many others, he was fronting a power pop/new wave quartet with the unlikely name of Billy Thermal – Billy for Steinberg, Thermal for the city in which his father’s vineyards were located. The group, consisting of Steinberg, guitarist Craig Hull,

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Categories: Reviews Formats: CD Genre: Pop, Rock Tags: Billy Thermal

Shine Her Light: "The Midnight Special" Box Set Arrives In September with Fleetwood Mac, Bee Gees, ELO, More

August 13, 2014 By Joe Marchese 9 Comments

midnight special box set

Between August 1972 and May 1981, late night television was a little more rockin'.  Producer Burt Sugarman's The Midnight Special followed Johnny Carson's Tonight Show on Friday evenings, welcoming viewers with Johnny Rivers' rousing rendition of the traditional tune (a Top 20 hit for Rivers in 1965).  Over the course of 450 episodes, The Midnight Special presented a staggering array of music's top talent on network television with most songs performed live for the majority of its run.  The

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Categories: News Formats: Box Sets, CD, DVD Genre: Classic Rock, Pop Tags: Aretha Franklin, Barry Manilow, Marvin Gaye, Neil Sedaka, Rupert Holmes, The O'Jays, Todd Rundgren

Try To Forget Him: Ace Continues "The Jack Nitzsche Story" With The Righteous Brothers, Jackie DeShannon, Darlene Love

August 12, 2014 By Joe Marchese Leave a Comment

jack nitzsche 31

The credit “Arranged and conducted by Jack Nitzsche” should be familiar to any collector of those little black vinyl platters we used to call 45s.  Such a credit – or a similar one - graced records by Frankie Laine and Doris Day, The Paris Sisters and The Righteous Brothers, The Tubes and The Crystals, Graham Parker and Bobby Vee.  Jack “Specs” Nitzsche (1973-2000) made his mark across multiple genres and many decades, the common factor being the quality of his work.  Nitzsche the orchestrator

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Categories: News Formats: CD Genre: Pop Tags: Buffalo Springfield, Jack Nitzsche, Jackie DeShannon, The Righteous Brothers, Various Artists

From Polynesia To Belgium: Cherry Red Goes Exotic! Plus: The Singing Nun! George Melly's Hedonistic Fifties!

August 12, 2014 By Joe Marchese Leave a Comment

exotica classics

No slab of vintage vinyl is too obscure or too esoteric for the team at Cherry Red’s él label, as evidenced by a trio of its most recent offerings from Jeanine Deckers a.k.a. Sœur Sourire a.k.a. The Singing Nun, British critic and personality George Melly, and a whole host of masters of exotica. The mini-box set Exotica Classics features five albums on two discs, each housed in its own paper sleeve within the slipcased set.  The first features two complete LPs (Miriam Burton’s African Lament

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Categories: News Formats: CD Genre: Everything Else, Folk, Pop Tags: Marni Nixon, The Singing Nun

Release Round-Up: Week of August 12

August 12, 2014 By Mike Duquette Leave a Comment

power in the music

Billy Thermal, Billy Thermal (Omnivore) Before Billy Steinberg co-wrote with Tom Kelly a host of pop classics (“Like a Virgin,” “True Colors,” “So Emotional,” “Eternal Flame"), he fronted a little-heard band on Richard Perry's Planet Records: their original five-track EP is expanded to a 12-track compilation with demos and outtakes! (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.) The Guess Who, Power in the Music: Expanded Edition (Iconoclassic) The final Guess Who studio album for RCA (and last with

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Categories: Release Round-Up Formats: CD Genre: Classic Rock, Pop, R&B/Soul Tags: Allen Toussaint, Billy Thermal, The Guess Who, The Originals

Rhiannon Rising: Stevie Nicks Dips Into The Vault For "24 Karat Gold"

August 11, 2014 By Joe Marchese Leave a Comment

stevie nicks 24 karat

On September 29, Fleetwood Mac kicks off its sold-out On with the Show tour in Minneapolis, Minnesota, marking the band’s first tour with returning member Christine McVie in sixteen years. The same day, Stevie Nicks will unveil her latest solo album, but it’s one with a twist. 24 Karat Gold – Songs from the Vault features songs penned by Nicks between 1969 and 1995, but rather than presenting archival recordings of the tracks, all have been newly recorded by the singer in Nashville and Los

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Categories: News Formats: CD, Digital Download Genre: Classic Rock, Pop Tags: Fleetwood Mac, Stevie Nicks

Review: Elvis Presley, "That's The Way It Is: Deluxe Editions"

August 8, 2014 By Joe Marchese Leave a Comment

elvis thats the way it is box

In 1992, American voters were asked to vote on not one, but two, matters of national importance: who should be the next President of the United States – and which image of Elvis Presley should grace a postage stamp. Bill Clinton won the former with roughly 43% of the popular vote, and as for the latter decision? It was “young Elvis” by a reported 75% landslide. The lithe, “Heartbreak Hotel”-era image of the pelvis-swiveling icon had triumphed over the jumpsuit-clad “old Elvis” – who, in fact,

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Categories: News, Reviews Formats: Box Sets, CD, DVD Genre: Pop Tags: Elvis Presley

Release Round-Up: Week of August 5

August 5, 2014 By Mike Duquette Leave a Comment

stephanie mills for the first time

Elvis Presley, That's the Way It Is: Deluxe Editions (RCA/Legacy) The King regained his crown with a 1970 stint at the International Hotel in Las Vegas, as depicted in the acclaimed documentary of the same name. A new box set features the original album on CD along with seven recorded live shows plus that documentary in two separate cuts on DVD; the documentary bows on Blu-ray next week. 8CD/2DVD box set: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. 2CD Legacy Edition: Amazon U.S. / Amazon

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Categories: News, Release Round-Up Formats: Box Sets, CD Genre: Classic Rock, Jazz, Pop, R&B/Soul Tags: Elvis Presley, Herbie Hancock, Nils Lofgren, Stephanie Mills, The Chairmen of the Board

You Get What You Deserve: Classic Big Star Albums to Be Reissued

August 4, 2014 By Mike Duquette 14 Comments

big star number one record

For years, fans of power pop have had their Magna Carta of a CD: Fantasy Records' two-fer of Big Star's #1 Record and Radio City, the primary records issued by the legendary Memphis band. On September 2, that configuration changes with the release of both albums newly remastered on individual discs. Both albums will be newly remastered from the original analog tapes (approved by original engineer/Ardent Records founder John Fry and allowing for Mastered for iTunes/24-bit hi-res downloads) and

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Categories: News Formats: CD Genre: Classic Rock, Pop Tags: Alex Chilton, Big Star

How Deep Is Our Love: Robin Gibb's Final Album Set For September Release

July 30, 2014 By Joe Marchese Leave a Comment

robin gibb 50 st catherines drive

Earlier this year, Barry Gibb took to the road with his Mythology Tour, in which he looked back on the music of The Bee Gees and his decades-long collaboration with his late brothers Maurice and Robin. Barry's warm onstage tributes to Robin, who died of cancer in May 2012, were among the emotional high points of each concert, with Barry candidly and affectingly acknowledging the friction that sometimes characterized their relationship. Barry’s son Stephen paid homage to his uncle with his lead

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Categories: News Formats: CD Genre: Pop Tags: Bee Gees, Robin Gibb

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