We're close to that most wonderful time of the year, folks! No, not Christmas, but - well, yeah, I guess Christmas is closer than we'd all wish it would be. But ANYWAY, the wonderful time I was alluding to is Record Store Day's Black Friday event. The day after Thanksgiving, our beloved local independent record stores join forces with major and independent labels alike to release special exclusive treats as a way of thanking us for patronizing their businesses. While a full list of RSD
Review: The Beatles, "Magical Mystery Tour" on Blu-ray and DVD
“Paul said ‘Look I’ve got this idea’ and we said ‘great!’ and all he had was this circle and a little dot on the top – that’s where we started,” Ringo Starr recalls in one of the special features included on Apple’s new DVD and Blu-ray of The Beatles’ 1967 BBC television film Magical Mystery Tour. That McCartney-drawn circle, later transformed into a pie chart, is included in the accompanying booklet. It epitomizes the loose, freewheeling nature of this largely improvised musical journey
Review: Glen Campbell and Jimmy Webb, "In Session"
What drew together the son of a sharecropper from Delight, Arkansas and the minister’s boy from Eld City, Oklahoma? They were separated by a decade; one conservative, one liberal; one singer, one songwriter; one an establishment country star, the other a long-haired pop wunderkind – the paths of Glen Campbell and Jimmy Webb first crossed when Campbell chose to record Webb’s “By the Time I Get to Phoenix” in 1967. The Oklahoma kid had written the song as a young staff songwriter at Motown’s
EMI's Beatles Single is a Bust (UPDATED 10/10)
Update (10/10/2012): The official Record Store Day Facebook page just confirmed a new date for the corrected, repressed single is October 22. Check your local stores for more details! Original post (10/5/2012): Bad news for anyone looking for EMI's repressed Beatles 50th anniversary single: you're not going to find it anytime soon. The label announced in a statement earlier this week that the single would be pulled from the release schedule. Embarrassingly, EMI cites a "faulty" pressing
Review: The Beach Boys Remasters, Part One: "50 Big Ones: Greatest Hits"
We’re continuing our series of in-depth features dedicated to America’s band, The Beach Boys, and the various projects that have kept the group occupied throughout 2012! Today, as the Boys launch a new series of album reissues and compilation titles, we explore Greatest Hits, 50 Big Ones and more! It was the headline heard the world (wide web) over: Mike Love Fires Brian Wilson from the Beach Boys. Of course, it wasn’t true. No matter, though: suddenly, good, good, good vibrations were
7Ts Wakes Up in Love This Morning with David Cassidy Reissues; Beach Boys Among Guests
David Cassidy sure is getting a lot of love on both sides of the Atlantic. Almost simultaneously, reissue campaigns for the singer, actor and former teen idol were launched in the U.S. by Real Gone Music and in the U.K. by Cherry Red's 7Ts imprint. The former label has already reissued 1974's Cassidy Live!, 1976's Gettin' It in the Street, and 1985's Romance. 7Ts began its own campaign with a two-fer of Cherish and Rock Me Baby (both from 1972) and is continuing chronologically with four
WE HAVE A WINNER of The Beatles' "Magical Mystery Tour" Blu-ray!
CONGRATULATIONS TO OUR WINNER: SEAN TANNER!
It's The Falling In Love: Raven Reissues The Complete Carole Bayer Sager Albums; Bacharach, Jackson, Diamond, Midler Guest
Carole Bayer Sager knew "that's what friends are for" long before she wrote the song of the same name. The former Carole Bayer was already a hitmaking lyricist before graduating high school, thanks to the Mindbenders' No. 2 hit "A Groovy Kind of Love." The song was written by Bayer and Toni Wine before both women hit the ripe old age of 18. Following more hit tunes with the likes of the Monkees and Neil Sedaka, and even a Broadway musical (1970's Georgy, with music by George Fischoff), she
All the Love in the World: Dionne, Aretha Classics Are Remastered by BBR
The eighties aren't traditionally remembered as a halcyon period for classic soul. R&B eventually took on new meaning as it splintered into hip-hop, rap and urban genres that were as integral to their day as street-corner doo-wop and soul were to their own. Big Break Records, a Cherry Red imprint, has long been committed to rediscovering perhaps-neglected works by some of the biggest names in soul and R&B, and a particularly fascinating series of recent reissues has turned its
Completely Fab: Beatles Remasters, Debut Single Coming to Vinyl (UPDATED)
The wait is over. This holiday season, vinyl enthusiasts and Beatlemaniacs everywhere will finally have a chance to hear 2009's long-awaited Beatles remasters on 180-gram vinyl. All of the albums in The Fab Four's official discography - 1963's Please Please Me and With The Beatles, 1964's A Hard Day's Night and Beatles for Sale, 1965's Help! and Rubber Soul, 1966's Revolver, 1967's Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band and the U.S. Magical Mystery Tour LP, 1968's self-titled "White Album,"
Always Something There: Dionne Warwick Celebrates 50 Years with Bacharach, David, Ramone on "Now"
Were there a competition to crown Most Striking Album Cover of 2012, Dionne Warwick might win it hands-down for the image adorning Now, the singer's new album due on October 30 internationally and November 6 in North America. Now is a celebration of Warwick's 50 years in music, looking back on a solo career that began in 1962 with Burt Bacharach and Hal David's "Don't Make Me Over." That song soared to No. 21 Pop/No. 5 R&B, setting Warwick on a course that would see her place more than 50
Getting the Knack (No, Not That Knack!) From Now Sounds
When The Knack burst onto the scene in 1979 with the album Get the Knack, allegedly the fastest-selling debut LP since Meet the Beatles, was it a case of déjà vu for Dink Kaplan, Larry Gould, Pug Baker and Michael Chain? The "My Sharona" group was a quartet that came to prominence in Los Angeles, played the Sunset Strip, signed to Capitol Records, and was lauded for a Beatlesque pop style via a massive promotional campaign. But Kaplan, Gould, Baker and Chain had been through it all before.
Déjà Vu: Expanded Reissue of Dionne Warwick's 1979 "Dionne," Produced by Barry Manilow, Arrives on CD
Dionne Warwick recently announced a new album, produced by Phil Ramone. Entitled Now, the projected October release will reflect on a storied career that’s lasted 50 years. But Warwick was in a very different place then, meaning in 1979. The sophisticated soul singer was at a crossroads. Her unprecedented string of pop and R&B hits written and produced by Burt Bacharach and Hal David at Scepter Records were far in the rearview mirror. Bacharach and David had bitterly split after just
The Beatles' "Magical Mystery Tour" Is Coming to Take You Away
The Magical Mystery Tour is coming to take you away on October 9 when The Beatles’ 1967 feature film arrives on DVD and Blu-ray in a completely restored new edition! Initially aired on BBC1 television in December, 1967, The Beatles starred in the film opposite a motley crew of performers including Ivor Cutler, Victor Spinetti, Jessie Robins, Nat Jackley, Derek Royle, and the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band. Both the DVD and Blu-ray will sport a fully remixed soundtrack (5.1 and stereo) as well as
And I Want You For All Time: Glen Campbell, Jimmy Webb Reunite For Vintage "Session"
What makes for the perfect marriage of songwriter and singer? The magic is nearly indefinable when composer and lyricist meet a voice to serve as a muse; when two or three people, each with an inimitable gift, find themselves on a perfect, sympathetic and transcendent wavelength to bring each other’s music to life. There have been many such marriages across all genes of music: Dionne Warwick with Burt Bacharach and Hal David, Frank Sinatra with Sammy Cahn and Jimmy Van Heusen; Petula Clark
He'd Like to Teach the World to Sing (In Perfect Harmony): RPM Reissues Famed Songwriter Roger Cook's "Study"
Even if you don't know the name of Roger Cook, chances are you do know his songs: "You've Got Your Troubles," "I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing," "My Baby Loves Lovin'," "Long Cool Woman in a Black Dress," just to name a few. But like so many of his contemporaries, the songwriter harbored aspirations of a solo career, too. This wasn't so far-fetched; as half of the duo David and Jonathan (with Roger Greenaway, co-writer of all those aforementioned songs), Cook was already a bona fide
Like a Rhinestone Cowboy: Glen Campbell "Live Anthology" Plagued by DVD Playback Problem, "American Treasure" Box Set Delayed [UPDATE 8/6]
Even when faced with Alzheimer's, you can't keep a good rhinestone cowboy down. Glen Campbell continues to make headlines on his Goodbye Tour, recently packing the Hollywood Bowl with a special show featuring Lucinda Williams, Jackson Browne, Kris Kristofferson, Jenny Lewis plus Dawes and the Dandy Warhols. Yes, Glen Campbell's music transcends all generational and genre lines, as his classic songs continue to invite record labels to repackage, reissue and anthologize the great man's
Review: Elvis Presley, "I Am An Elvis Fan"
RCA Victor famously trumpeted back in 1959 that 50,000,000 Elvis Fans Can't Be Wrong in compiling the singer's hit singles from 1958-1959. Well, can 250,000 Elvis fans be wrong? Earlier this year, Elvis Presley Enterprises and Legacy Recordings gave today's crop of fans a chance to vote on their favorites from the King's rich catalogue. Over a quarter million votes were tabulated; do you agree with the final picks? The results are now on display via I Am an Elvis Fan (RCA/Legacy 88725 42334
Tomorrow Never Knows: The Beatles Offer Rock-Themed Digital LP
Although albums like Rock ‘n’ Roll Music (1976), Love Songs (1977) and Reel Music (1982) have all yet to be released in any CD or digital format, Apple and EMI are reviving the spirit of those LP compilations with a new release available exclusively as an “iTunes LP.” Tomorrow Never Knows, subtitled File Under “Rock,” collects fourteen of The Beatles’ heaviest tracks including the psychedelic title track from 1966’s Revolver. Somewhat surprisingly, some harder-edged hits have been eschewed;
Cherish Is The Word: David Cassidy Reissues Arrive From 7Ts
Everyone remembers David Cassidy, the bubblegum pop king and teen idol supreme. But Cassidy - still an active entertainer, singer, and actor today - was also a persuasive and versatile vocalist who stepped out of, and prospered beyond, the shadow of the fictional Partridge Family. Far from being simple fodder for the teenybopper crowd, the records he released as a solo artist were in many ways a continuation of the sophisticated pop sounds of the 1960. Cassidy enlisted top-tier songwriters,
Some Kind of a Summer: Real Gone Offers David Cassidy, Gary Lewis, Grateful Dead, Johnny Mathis In August
Real Gone Music is looking ahead to August, and it's going to be one hot summer! The label has just announced new titles from all around the pop/rock spectrum: Gary Lewis and the Playboys, David Cassidy, The Grateful Dead and Johnny Mathis! Gary Lewis and the Playboys' Complete Liberty Singles first arrived in 2009 from the late Collectors' Choice Music label, with 45 tracks on 2 CDs. This anthology definitely proved that there was much more to the group than just "This Diamond Ring,"
Review: Carly Simon, "Spoiled Girl: Expanded Edition"
The title of Spoiled Girl had a knowingly ironic resonance for Carly Simon. A scion of the Simon and Schuster publishing firm (her father was founder Richard L. Simon), Carly was considered by some to be a "spoiled girl." In fact, that couldn't have been further from the truth, despite a somewhat privileged upbringing. Yet here she was, mockingly singing of a woman who "thinks of nothing but herself," the kind of gal who sends her chauffeur to supply more bubbles for her bath! 1985's Spoiled
Review: Jellyfish, "Live at Bogart's"
When Jellyfish's Live at Bogart's was recorded on February 21, 1991, did anybody realize that neither the band nor the venue were long for this world? On December 2, 1993, The Los Angeles Times lamented the closure of the Long Beach, California club, calling it a "mighty blow" to the local music community. Yet Bogart's actually outlasted the first iteration of the band that hailed from miles up north in the San Francisco Bay Area. Andy Sturmer (drums/vocals), Roger Joseph Manning Jr.
Review: The Beatles, "Yellow Submarine" on Blu-Ray and DVD
Picture yourself in a boat on a river…with tangerine trees and marmalade skies… Now, picture the evocative imagery of The Beatles’ most mind-bending lyrics transferred to a silver screen world where imagination and wonder run rampant. The result might be something like the 1968 animated film Yellow Submarine. Out of print for some time on DVD, Yellow Submarine has just returned to DVD and Blu-Ray (5099962146098) in a painstakingly restored new edition from Apple Corps and
Are You An Elvis Fan? New Fan-Selected Compilation Arrives In July
Although this August 16 will mark the 35th anniversary of Elvis Presley's death, the musical light left behind by the once and future King of Rock and Roll has never dimmed. 2012 has already seen the expanded reissue of Elvis Country, including the Love Letters from Elvis album, and a handful of reissues from the Follow That Dream specialty label. (More titles are on the way from FTD including a long-awaited, upgraded collection of Presley's Sun recordings: watch for Part Two for more
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