Well, it’s one for the money, two for the show, three to get ready, now go, cat, go! With such words was a revolution born! Those simple lyrics were the first sung by Elvis Presley on his 1956 RCA Victor debut, accompanied by the blasts of Scotty Moore’s guitar, then the frantic beats of D.J. Fontana’s drums. It’s unlikely that Presley ever anticipated that his recording of Carl Perkins’ “Blue Suede Shoes” would provide the soundtrack to a country’s coming of age, or for that matter, lead off a massive 6-disc box…
BREAKING NEWS! Good, Good, Good Vibrations: The Beach Boys’ “SMiLE” Arrives November 1
Surf’s up. At long last, we can finally announce that SMiLE is coming to a shop near you. On November 1, Capitol Records will release The Beach Boys’ 1967 lost masterwork as The SMiLE Sessions in three editions: a 5-CD/2-LP/2 7-inch single box (yes, 9 discs!), a slimmer 2-CD version and a 2-LP set. Where to start? First, I recommend digging that artwork at your left. Has it settled in that this set is becoming a reality? Good. Read on, friends. The saga of SMiLE, 2011, was becoming as convoluted as that…
Reach Out For Them: New 2-CD Comps Coming In September For Dionne, Chicago
Following collections devoted to Foreigner, Christopher Cross, Otis Redding and Yes, the U.K.’s Music Club Deluxe label (a member of the Demon Music Group family) continues its exploration of the Warner Music Group catalogue with new compilations focusing on the long, diverse careers of Dionne Warwick and Chicago. Either of these esteemed acts would be solid candidates for our Greater Hits feature, in which we compare an artist’s “greatest hits” output. Both certainly have been the subjects of countless compilations over the years. Music Club’s The Essential Dionne Warwick and Chicago –…
Review: The Left Banke, “Walk Away Renee/Pretty Ballerina” and “The Left Banke Too”
After listening to The Left Banke’s two original albums, just reissued by Sundazed, I have only one question: what took so long? The group’s recorded output was collected back in 1992 by Mercury on There’s Gonna Be A Storm: The Complete Recordings 1966-1969. Besides getting my vote for Best Rhino Album Not Actually Produced By Rhino (Bill Inglot produced and Andrew Sandoval annotated…’nuff said!), the single disc compilation offers a remarkable view of the group that soared with 1966’s “Walk Away Renee” and then crashed in a big way. But Sundazed’s remasters of 1967’s…
Reissue Theory: WHAM! “The Final: Live at Wembley”
Welcome to another installment of Reissue Theory, where we take a look back at notable albums and the reissues they could someday see. Twenty-five years after one of pop’s guiltiest pleasures said goodbye to a packed live audience, we wonder what a release of that show would look like. On June 28, 1986, twenty-five years ago today, WHAM! became a past-tense pop act. It wasn’t your typical pop meltdown, however; it was a breakup for the ages. What other group bids their fan base (80,000 attendees worth) farewell with a handful of…
Gentle On His Mind: Two Early Glen Campbell Classics Reissued By BGO
It’s knowing that your door is always open and your path is free to walk/That makes me tend to leave my sleepin’ bag rolled up and stashed behind your couch… For nearly fifty years, many of us have opened our doors to Glen Campbell on record and on television. So it came as a shock that, just two months before the release of what’s being billed as his final studio recording, Campbell announced that he has been diagnosed with the early stages of Alzheimer’s Disease. The beloved singer and guitar legend still…
Ipanema, Again: “Getz/Gilberto” Restored To Original Mix For New SACD and Vinyl LP
Bossa nova, translated, literally means “new trend.” And as 1964 began, with the British Invasion taking flight, America was also experiencing a Brazilian Invasion thanks to this new trend in popular music and jazz. Identified by gentle acoustic guitar and sometimes piano, and often adorned with subtle string or horn accents, bossa nova was based on the rhythms of the samba. It soon was adapted on stages from the concert hall to Broadway, spawned the “lounge” genre and influenced countless musicians across the genre divide. But the album that started the American…
Another British Invasion From RPM: Ian and the Zodiacs, Katch-22 Reissued
The RPM arm of the U.K.’s mighty Cherry Red empire has had a busy 2011, recently highlighted by the first-ever collection of the young Dusty Springfield’s recordings with The Lana Sisters. The label’s latest titles shed light on two largely-overlooked bands to come out of England in the 1960s, Ian and the Zodiacs and Katch 22. The Best of Ian and the Zodiacs: Wade in the Water and Major Catastrophe: The Katch 22 Story are both in stores now, and have much to offer fans of Merseybeat, mod, sunshine pop and lite psychedelia. Crosby,…
Carly Simon Goes For The Gold: “No Secrets” Coming In 24K
Only yesterday, we shared the speculation of our good buddies at MusicTAP that big things might be in store for the catalogue of Carly Simon. Well, we’ve got a start, just one day later! On June 21, Audio Fidelity will drop a remastered, limited 24K Gold edition of the songstress’ third – and some say, best – album, No Secrets. 1971’s Carly Simon announced a major new talent, offerings songs like the epic and hauntingly personal “That’s The Way I’ve Always Heard It Should Be,” the folk-rock of “Alone” and country of…
Wouldn’t It Be Nice? “Pet Sounds” Coming to SACD
“I figure no one is educated musically ‘til they’ve heard [Pet Sounds],” Paul McCartney once said of The Beach Boys’ classic, released 45 years and one week ago on May 16, 1966. George Martin concurred: “Without Pet Sounds, Sgt. Pepper wouldn’t have happened.” Brian Wilson poured his musical heart into the album’s thirteen tracks; in less than thirty-five minutes, he delivered an entire spectrum of emotions in a song cycle of striking beauty and sensitivity. Pet Sounds may initially have been conceived by Wilson as an answer to The Beatles’ Rubber Soul,…
Where Are All The “Magic Colors”: Lesley Gore’s Lost Album Arrives on CD
Lesley Gore epitomized the sound of American pop in the early-to-mid 1960s with hits like “It’s My Party” and its answer/follow-up, “Judy’s Turn to Cry.” For my money, there may never have been a greater one-two punch in pop than that pair, produced by Quincy Jones and arranged by Claus Ogerman. But where was the teen pop queen by the Summer of Love? The U.K.’s Ace label answers that question with the June release of Magic Colors: The Lost Album with Bonus Tracks 1967-1969, unearthing a lost LP and a full complement…
Dusty Springfield’s Lana Sisters Years Compiled By RPM
At last, the remaining piece of the Dusty Springfield puzzle hits CD. On May 23, Cherry Red label RPM will reissue the complete recordings of The Lana Sisters, the late-fifties girl group formed by Ris Chantelle, Lynne Abrams and Mary Catherine O’Brien, later to find fame as soul queen Dusty Springfield. Between 1958 and 1960, The Lana Sisters released seven singles on the U.K.’s Fontana label, all of which are included on RPM’s Chantelly Lace: Complete Singles Plus Bonus Tracks. Despite their brief time in the limelight, The Lana Sisters had an…
We’re Into Something Good: ABKCO Reissues Two From Herman’s Hermits In May
“Mrs. Brown, You’ve Got a Lovely Daughter.” “There’s a Kind of Hush (All Over the World).” “A Must to Avoid.” These chart hits from Herman’s Hermits have stood the test of time, but how many reading this remember the films in which those songs were featured? Upon signing to MGM Records in the U.S., Herman’s Hermits were groomed for a Hollywood film career, and why not? At the height of the group’s fame, they rivaled the Beatles for popularity, even topping them as the biggest-selling pop act in the U.S. in 1965. …
Rhino Knows What Time It Is: Chicago “Live in ’75” Coming from Handmade (UPDATED 4/11)
UPDATE 4/11: The link just before the jump takes you directly to the order page for this set. Original post: Billboard has certified them as the second-most successful American rock band in music history, only following The Beach Boys. The RIAA places them handily in the Top Ten of all-time album sales from an American group. So it’s fair to say that Chicago is still perhaps the most successful American rock band to have been wholly ignored by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. The band has endured a variety of personnel…
Review: Leon Russell, “The Best of Leon Russell”
There wasn’t a dry eye in the house when Leon Russell, upon accepting his induction to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, thanked Elton John for rescuing him from “a ditch beside the highway of life.” Thanks to the success of The Union, the collaborative album between John and his early idol, Leon Russell’s profile has been considerably high of late. It’s been so high, in fact, that one member of the Steve Hoffman Music Forums even queried of the community, “Is Leon Russell getting too much exposure?” Judging by the…
A Rumor That Would Put Me in a “State of Shock”
It’s one of my favorite Michael Jackson stories: not long after Thriller, Jackson and Randy Hansen collaborate on a few songs together, one of which ends up on The Jacksons’ mostly-forgettable Victory in 1984. That song, “State of Shock,” is recorded as a duet with Mick Jagger and becomes the biggest hit off the album. The thing is, though, that Jagger wasn’t meant to sing the song. Hansen was. And Hansen isn’t even a real person. It’s the pseudonym of one Freddie Mercury, the Queen frontman extraordinaire. Jackson and Mercury demoed several…
Review: Neil Diamond, “The Bang Years 1966-1968”
When it comes to Neil Diamond, I’m a believer. There’s not a trace of doubt in my mind that Diamond burst onto the scene at the right time – not necessarily the night time, though I, too, thank the lord for it. No, Diamond made a big noise in the corridors of Bang Records in the period between 1966 and 1968, an era when the music business was experiencing change more rapidly than anyone could have predicted. And it was far from predictable that the somber and intense young man pictured on…
Review: Jackie DeShannon and Doris Troy, Anthologized by Ace
It may have been sheer coincidence that Ace dropped I’ll Do Anything: The Doris Troy Anthology 1960-1996 and Jackie DeShannon’s Come and Get Me: The Complete Liberty and Imperial Singles Volume 2 on the same day. But different though these two singers may be, their similarities are striking. Both were pioneering female songwriters, with Troy penning her biggest hit, “Just One Look,” and DeShannon offering up the likes of “When You Walk in the Room” and “Put a Little Love in Your Heart.” Both had great success recording in England and both…
The Man Who Sang “Liberty Valance”: RPM Continues Gene Pitney Reissues
With one of the most resonant and recognizable voices in rock and roll, Gene Pitney (1940-2006) was the rare American talent to be able to withstand the British Invasion and continue to thrive. He collaborated with Phil Spector and The Rolling Stones, wrote hit songs for Roy Orbison, Bobby Vee, Ricky Nelson and the Crystals, and brought to life the songs of others, too. Among the recipients of the Pitney treatment were Burt Bacharach and Hal David, Carole King and Gerry Goffin, Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil and even (two-time Oscar winner)…
Angel Air Revisits a Series of Tommy James Classics
Shondells frontman Tommy James has been fairly well-represented on CD, with reissues from both Collectors’ Choice and Collectables compiling most of his classic oeuvre. Now, the U.K.’s Angel Air label takes its turn filling in more gaps in James’ catalogue with a trio of reissues. First up are a pair of two-fers, In Touch (1976) with Midnight Rider (1977), and Three Times in Love (1980) with Hi-Fi (1990), followed by an expanded edition of A Night in…Big City: An Audio Movie (1995). In Touch and Midnight Rider were recorded for San Francisco-based…
King, Taylor and Fellow “Troubadours” Arrive on DVD with Bonus CD
Morgan Neville’s 2010 film Troubadours: The Rise of the Singer-Songwriter is nothing if not ambitious. A participant in the Sundance U.S. Documentary Competition, Troubadours functions as a dual biography of Carole King and James Taylor, as well as the story of Doug Weston’s club on Los Angeles’ Santa Monica Boulevard that gave rise to King, Taylor and so many others. Their 2007 reunion and subsequent tour in 2010 provides the framework for the film. Yet moreover, it touches on the entire singer-songwriter ethos that rose out of the turbulent last days of…
Reissue Theory: George Michael’s Different Corners
Welcome to another installment of Reissue Theory, where we reflect on well-known albums of the past and the reissues they could someday see. With the reissue of George Michael’s most flawless pop album, today’s installment takes you into the corners of the world pop music scene to prove how part of the musical culture he really was. The reissue of George Michael’s iconic Faith album has your humble catalogue correspondent excited. Really excited. So excited that today’s Reissue Theory talks about two albums from the same time period he managed to contribute…
Review: George Michael, “Faith: Legacy Edition”
It won’t make any sense in today’s media-saturated world, but in 1987 and 1988, George Michael was inescapable. The idea that one single artist could grab multiple genders, races, cliques and generations by the shoulders with his or her music is all but impossible today, but the man born Georgios Kyriacos Panayiotou did just that. Faith, released by Epic Records in the fall of 1987, put six tracks in Billboard‘s Top 5 (two-thirds of them No. 1 hits), netted him a Grammy Award for Album of the Year, sold in excess of…
Dionne, Natalie, Nancy Reissues Coming from Soulmusic Label
Cherry Red’s got soul. Mike and I reported last week on the impressive slate planned by Cherry Red’s Big Break Records label. A smaller yet equally rich line-up is on the way from another Cherry Red division, Soulmusic.com Records.On February 14 in the U.K. and one week later stateside, the label will reissue five classic albums from a trio of accomplished vocalists: Nancy Wilson, Dionne Warwick and Natalie Cole. Perhaps most exciting is the two-on-one CD release of Wilson’s 1974 Capitol LP All in Love is Fair and its follow-up, 1975’s Come Get to This….
Come and Get Them: Upcoming Releases Due from DeShannon, Nelson and More
Britain’s Ace family of labels is kicking off 2011 in a big way! Mike filled you in Tuesday about Kent’s upcoming I’ll Do Anything: The Doris Troy Anthology 1960-1996, and today we turn the spotlight on three more releases due in the U.K. on January 31. Jackie DeShannon remains one of the most beloved voices of the 1960s. DeShannon not only broke barriers as a rare female songwriter in an era when it simply wasn’t common, but she was equally comfortable in front of the microphone as a first-class interpreter of others’…
