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/ Popular Standards/Vocal

The Year In Review - The 2016 Gold Bonus Disc Awards, From A to Z

January 2, 2017 By Joe Marchese 5 Comments

gold cd

Happy New Year, and welcome to The Second Disc's Seventh 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 today's unpredictable 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

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Categories: Features Formats: Blu-Ray Audio, Box Sets, CD, DVD, Vinyl Genre: Classic Rock, Jazz, Pop, Popular Standards/Vocal, R&B/Soul, Rock, Soundtracks Tags: Gold Bonus Disc Awards

Release Round-Up: Week of December 16

December 16, 2016 By Joe Marchese Leave a Comment

Kinks The Mono Collection Cover

Welcome to this week's Release Round-Up!  The Kinks, The Mono Collection (Sanctuary/BMG) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada) The Kinks' The Mono Collection brings together eight of the band's classic albums in their original U.K. Pye Records mono editions on ten LPs, all pressed on 180-gram vinyl.  The set includes 1967's Live at Kelvin Hall and 1970's original 2-LP collection The Kinks (otherwise known as The Black Album.  A hardcover 48-page book including never-before-seen

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Categories: Release Round-Up Formats: Box Sets, CD, Digital Download, Vinyl Genre: Classic Rock, Jazz, Pop, Popular Standards/Vocal, Rock Tags: Rage Against the Machine, Randy Newman, Rush, Social Distortion, The Doors, The Kinks, Tony Bennett

Holiday Gift Guide Review: A Vinyl Christmas From Presley, Cash and More

December 13, 2016 By Joe Marchese Leave a Comment

Elvis Merry Christmas Baby

As the vinyl revolution continues, it's no surprise that numerous classic Christmas albums have been reissued in the format, while newer holiday recordings have gotten the 33-1/3 treatment as well.  Legacy Recordings, rather than continuing its Classic Christmas Album series in CD form this year, has brought a number of titles to vinyl including new collections from Elvis Presley and Johnny Cash, and a Classic Christmas volume dedicated to the big band sound. Of course, Elvis Presley has been

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Categories: Holiday Gift Guide, Reviews Formats: Vinyl Genre: Country, Holiday, Pop, Popular Standards/Vocal Tags: Benny Goodman, Elvis Presley, Glenn Miller, Johnny Cash, Sammy Kaye, Various Artists

Holiday Gift Guide Review: Frank Sinatra, "World on a String"

December 5, 2016 By Joe Marchese Leave a Comment

Frank Sinatra World on a String 1

Leave it to Noel Coward to sum it all up.  In his introduction to Frank Sinatra's June 14, 1958 performance at the Sporting Club in Monte Carlo, the famous British playwright-actor-songwriter-raconteur observed of his American friend's on-screen performances, "I've never yet known him to strike a false note."  As Coward undoubtedly knew, the same was true of Sinatra's musical recordings, sung with the emotional honesty and unvarnished directness of a great actor and communicator.  From his

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Categories: Holiday Gift Guide, Reviews Formats: Box Sets, CD, DVD Genre: Popular Standards/Vocal Tags: Frank Sinatra

Yes, Sir-ee! Kritzerland to Release "The Gang's All Here" Score Featuring Benny Goodman

December 5, 2016 By Randy Fairman Leave a Comment

The Gangs All Here

By 1943, Busby Berkeley was a Hollywood veteran who had choreographed the dance sequences that would make him famous for decades.  He had also directed several classic films such as the Judy Garland/Mickey Rooney vehicles Babes In Arms and Strike Up The Band.  However, he had never directed a full motion picture in color, where his choreographed tableaux could be more vividly realized.  That all changed with The Gang's All Here.  This famous musical has never had its soundtrack officially

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Categories: News Formats: CD Genre: Jazz, Popular Standards/Vocal, Soundtracks Tags: Benny Goodman, Carmen Miranda

Release Round-Up: Week of December 2

December 2, 2016 By Joe Marchese Leave a Comment

Rolling Stones Blue and Lonesome

Welcome to December, and this week's Release Round-Up! The Rolling Stones, Blue and Lonesome (Interscope) Standard Edition: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada Deluxe Edition: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada Vinyl: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada The Rolling Stones return with their first studio album since 2005's A Bigger Bang.  Recorded over just three days in London, Blue and Lonesome returns the legendary band to its blues roots.  Available on CD, LP

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Categories: Release Round-Up Formats: Blu-Ray, Blu-Ray Audio, Box Sets, CD, Digital Download, DVD, Vinyl Genre: Blues, Classic Rock, Gospel, Pop, Popular Standards/Vocal, R&B/Soul, Rock Tags: Archie Bell and the Drells, Deniece Williams, Kate Bush, Mary Martin, The Alan Parsons Project, The Mills Brothers, The Rolling Stones, Todd Rundgren

Dream: The Lost Recordings

December 1, 2016 By

Margaret Whiting Dream

53 never-before-released recordings (originally aired on radio broadcasts) from the late, great vocalist Margaret Whiting are available for the first time on this beautiful new release on the Sepia label!  You'll hear her tackle songs she never recorded commercially including standards such as "Skylark," "And the Angels Sing," "Embraceable You," "Georgia on My Mind," and many more!

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Formats: CD Genre: Popular Standards/Vocal

Holiday Gift Guide Review: Margaret Whiting, "Dream: The Lost Recordings"

December 1, 2016 By Joe Marchese 3 Comments

Margaret Whiting Dream

Margaret Whiting was a singer's singer.  Possessed of a clarion vocal instrument capable of both great exultation and deep longing, a performance by Whiting guaranteed a path to the heart of a song.  It's no wonder that Johnny Mercer, a songwriter of no small stature, made sure that the 18-year old songbird was one of the first artists signed to his fledgling Capitol Records label.  Mercer had known Whiting since her childhood as the daughter of his collaborator, composer Richard Whiting, and

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Categories: Reviews Formats: CD Genre: Popular Standards/Vocal Tags: Margaret Whiting

THE SECOND DISC'S 2016 HOLIDAY GIFT GUIDE IS HERE!

November 28, 2016 By Joe Marchese Leave a Comment

David Bowie Who Can I Be Now

We wouldn't want you to be left out in the cold for Cyber Monday, so we're proud to present our annual Holiday Gift Guide featuring more than 50 essential selections for the music enthusiast in your life!  We've filled the guide with box sets (such as the popular David Bowie title to your left!) as well as archival releases and holiday music favorites that make great stocking stuffers.  So Just click here to access this year's top picks! You'll notice that the Gift Guide is in the same

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Categories: Features, Holiday Gift Guide Formats: Blu-Ray, Box Sets, CD, Digital Download, DVD, Vinyl Genre: Classic Rock, Holiday, Jazz, Pop, Popular Standards/Vocal, R&B/Soul, Rock, Soundtracks

Good Times! The Second Disc's Essential RSD Black Friday 2016 Release Guide

November 24, 2016 By Joe Marchese 3 Comments

Monkees Good Times Plus

From all of us here at Second Disc HQ to all of you, we hope you're enjoying a wonderful Thanksgiving in the company of family and friends.  Of course, from this day which conjures nostalgic and warm feelings comes a celebration of a different kind with this year's annual Black Friday - the day for consumers to start off the holiday shopping season on a mad, frenetic note. But 2016 is just in the latest year in which numerous retailers in the U.S. have made headlines by blackening Thursday, or

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Categories: News Formats: CD, Vinyl Genre: Classic Rock, Disco/Dance, Holiday, Jazz, Pop, Popular Standards/Vocal, R&B/Soul, Rap/Hip-Hop, Rock, Soundtracks Tags: Amanda Palmer, Ben Folds, Bob Crewe, Bob Dylan, Charles Fox, CHIC, Erykah Badu, Frank Sinatra, Geto Boys, Isaac Hayes, Record Store Day, The Bangles, The Monkees, The Paul Butterfield Blues Band, The Sugarhill Gang, The Turtles

And All That Jazz: Liza Minnelli, Petula Clark, Michael Crawford Featured On "Elaine Paige Presents The Musicals"

November 17, 2016 By Joe Marchese Leave a Comment

Elaine Paige Presents The Musicals

Elaine Paige is lending her name to a new 3-CD collection of musical theatre favorites.  Elaine Paige Presents The Musicals is due on November 25 from Union Square Music, with 58 tracks and over three hours of music. Elaine Paige Presents the Musicals is licensed from various labels, making for a cross-section of recordings.  You'll find familiar names from the worlds of theatre, movies and pop, including Michael Ball ("Love Changes Everything" from Aspects of Love, "Falling Slowly" from

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Categories: News Formats: CD Genre: Cast Recordings, Pop, Popular Standards/Vocal Tags: Barbara Dickson, Elaine Paige, Liza Minnelli, Michael Crawford, Petula Clark, Various Artists

Tony Bennett Celebrates 90: Deluxe Edition

November 14, 2016 By

Tony Bennett 90

Standard Edition (Concert Only): Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada Amazon-Exclusive Deluxe Edition (3 CDs): Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada This past August 3, Tony Bennett celebrated his milestone 90th birthday...and made it clear that he had no intentions of slowing down.  Indeed, the legendary vocalist has dates booked well into 2017, but first, he's looking back with a new 3-CD set including rare and previously unreleased material. Tony Bennett Celebrates 90 premieres

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Formats: CD, Digital Download Genre: Popular Standards/Vocal

Sundazed's Black Friday Line-Up Boasts Scepter Soul, Spacey Jazz From Sun Ra, and an "Adult" Classic

November 14, 2016 By Joe Marchese 1 Comment

Scepter Records Square

Sundazed Music has announced a trio of limited edition releases for Black Friday's Record Store Day event, and they're sure to be a crate-digger's delight. Scepter Records may today be best remembered as the home of Dionne Warwick's classic recordings, but the New York label founded by pioneering executive Florence Greenberg also gave a home to The Shirelles, B.J. Thomas, Chuck Jackson, Maxine Brown, and numerous other stars of soul and pop.  In addition, Greenberg nurtured a stable of some

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Categories: News Formats: CD, Vinyl Genre: Jazz, Popular Standards/Vocal, R&B/Soul Tags: B.J. Thomas, Ronnie Milsap, Sun Ra, The Shirelles, Tommy Hunt, Various Artists

"Tony Bennett Celebrates 90" With All-Star Concert, Previously Unreleased Songs, More

November 11, 2016 By Joe Marchese 2 Comments

Tony Bennett 90

This past August 3, Tony Bennett celebrated his milestone 90th birthday...and made it clear that he had no intentions of slowing down.  Indeed, the legendary vocalist has dates booked well into 2017, but first, he's looking back with a new 3-CD set including rare and previously unreleased material.  Tony Bennett Celebrates 90 premieres the recording of the all-star concert tribute held at Radio City Music Hall on September 15 of this year, but the Amazon-exclusive Deluxe Edition will

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Categories: News Formats: CD, Digital Download Genre: Popular Standards/Vocal Tags: Billy Joel, Diana Krall, Elton John, Lady Gaga, Rufus Wainwright, Stevie Wonder, Tony Bennett

Release Round-Up: Week of November 4

November 4, 2016 By Joe Marchese 2 Comments

Stevie Nicks Bella Donna

Welcome to this week's Release Round-Up, featuring a host of holiday offerings (including three new titles from Second Disc Records and Real Gone Music!) and much, much more! Jack Jones, The Jack Jones Christmas Album (Second Disc Records/Real Gone Music) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada) Second Disc Records and Real Gone Music proudly bring Jack Jones' 1964 Kapp Records classic to CD for the very first time!  The Jack Jones Christmas Album features lush renditions of "White

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Categories: Release Round-Up Formats: Box Sets, CD, Digital Download, DVD, Vinyl Genre: Classic Rock, Country, Gospel, Holiday, Pop, Popular Standards/Vocal, R&B/Soul, Rock Tags: Bing Crosby, Eddy Arnold, Frank Zappa, Jack Jones, Mantovani, Margaret Whiting, Mitch Miller and the Gang, Mother Love Bone, Queen, Ray Conniff, Sammy Kaye, Stevie Nicks, The Blind Boys of Alabama, The Living Strings, The Norman Luboff Choir, The Robert Shaw Chorale, The Ventures

Do You Hear What I Hear? Jack Jones, Eddy Arnold, Mitch Miller Coming TOMORROW From Second Disc Records!

November 3, 2016 By Joe Marchese 4 Comments

RGM 0531 Eddy Arnold Christmas Cover

With Halloween now in the rearview window, decorations springing up everywhere and yuletide tunes on the radio, it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas everywhere you go.  Here at Second Disc HQ, we're no exception.  Tomorrow, November 4, we're thrilled to spread some holiday cheer with three Second Disc Records releases as part of Real Gone Music's amazing 10-strong (yes, 10 titles!) Christmas line-up!  All three titles feature new-to-CD tracks, copious liner notes, original album and label

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Categories: News Formats: CD Genre: Country, Holiday, Pop, Popular Standards/Vocal Tags: Eddy Arnold, Jack Jones, Mitch Miller and the Gang

Accentuate The Positive: Capitol Records Turns 75, Plans New Vinyl Reissues

November 2, 2016 By Joe Marchese 7 Comments

Capitol 75

Capitol Records, the venerable label founded by Johnny Mercer with B.G. DeSylva and Glenn Wallichs and now a unit of Universal Music Group, turns 75 next year.  In celebration of this landmark anniversary, the label has announced three new initiatives. The first of these endeavors is The Capitol Records 75th Anniversary Collection, a series of 75 vinyl reissues from various genres curated by "noted music journalists, authors and other renowned creative figures."  The Beatles are represented

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Categories: News Formats: Vinyl Genre: Cast Recordings, Classic Rock, Country, Jazz, Pop, Popular Standards/Vocal, R&B/Soul, Rap/Hip-Hop, Rock, Soundtracks Tags: Bobby Darin, Bonnie Raitt, Dean Martin, Frank Sinatra, Johnny Mercer, The Band, The Beach Boys, The Beatles

Do Your Thing: 20 Record Store Day Black Friday Essentials

November 1, 2016 By Mike Duquette 3 Comments

Popeye OST

Are you making a list and checking it twice? We are! Record Store Day Black Friday is here in less than a month, and this week we're showcasing all of our favorite titles. We've shown you the goods from Legacy, Real Gone, Rhino and Omnivore; now, here are 20 more titles we think you should absolutely check out. There's soundtrack goodies from Varese Sarabande and Light in the Attic; holiday favorites from Bob & Doug McKenzie, Frank Sinatra and "Dolemite" himself; lost gems from Isaac Hayes,

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Categories: News Formats: Vinyl Genre: Blues, Holiday, Pop, Popular Standards/Vocal, R&B/Soul, Rap/Hip-Hop, Rock, Soundtracks Tags: Bob Crewe, Charles Fox, Frank Sinatra, Frank Zappa, Harry Nilsson, Isaac Hayes, Jerry Goldsmith, Muddy Waters, Otis Redding, Record Store Day, Soundgarden, The Runaways

Christmas Carols

October 28, 2016 By

Mantovani Christmas Carols

Mantovani's 1958 stereo re-recording of Christmas Carols has been on CD before from Collectors' Choice, but it is long out of print and commanding high prices on the secondary market.  Real Gone is putting this Christmas classic back in print with photos and notes by Kim Cooper.

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Formats: CD Genre: Holiday, Popular Standards/Vocal

Songs of Christmas/Christmas with The Norman Luboff Choir

October 28, 2016 By

Norman Luboff Christmas Two Fer

Norman Luboff was a prolific composer for film and television and began recording with his own Choir as backing for other artists in the early 1950s for Columbia.  The popular group eventually moved to releasing their own albums.  On this new two-fer are two beloved holiday classics: the mono 1956 Songs of Christmas and the stereo 1964 Christmas with the Norman Luboff Choir.  The Norman Luboff Choir recorded over 75 albums and toured up until Luboff's death in 1987.

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Formats: CD Genre: Holiday, Popular Standards/Vocal

Christmas Hymns and Carols Vol. 1: Expanded Edition

October 28, 2016 By

Robert Shaw Christmas Hymns

The Robert Shaw Chorale's Christmas Hymns and Carols Vol. 1 got its first release in 1949, just one year after Shaw formed the Chorale.  It was re-released in 1957 and then re-recorded in stereo in 1958, which is the version Real Gone is presenting in expanded form.  Two tracks have been added from the original mono version (one actually in stereo) which were excluded from the re-recording.  The Chorale, while having an intermittent existence, finally disbanded permanently in 1965 when Shaw

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Formats: CD Genre: Holiday, Popular Standards/Vocal

The Joy of Christmas/The Sound of Christmas

October 28, 2016 By

Living Strings and Guitars Christmas

Joe has contributed the liner notes to a twofer featuring vintage Christmas music from The Living Guitars and The Living Strings.  Last year, Real Gone released a compilation featuring two holiday albums by The Living Voices and the label continues this year with this CD including The Living Guitars' The Joy of Christmas from 1969 and The Living Strings' The Sound of Christmas from 1970.  The "Living" series of albums, the brainchild of RCA Camden producer Ethel Gabriel, consisted of

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Formats: CD Genre: Holiday, Popular Standards/Vocal

I Want to Wish You a Merry Christmas

October 28, 2016 By

Sammy Kaye I Want to Wish You

Bandleader Sammy Kaye got his start in the 1930s and he became popular for his "Swing and Sway" style of music.  This 1957 Christmas classic presents him at three different times during his 1950s Columbia tenure, as it was assembled from several releases and sessions throughout the decade.  Kaye would leave Columbia for Decca where he would record another Christmas album in 1960:  Christmas Day with Sammy Kaye.  Joe has written the new liner notes for this first-time-on-CD reissue!

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Formats: CD Genre: Holiday, Popular Standards/Vocal

Release Round-Up: Week of October 21

October 21, 2016 By Joe Marchese 1 Comment

Lazarus OCR

Welcome to this week's Release Round-Up - one of the year's biggest! Frank Sinatra, World on a String (Capitol/UMe)  (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K./ Amazon Canada) Featuring performances spanning 1953 to 1982, this new live collection boasts more than four hours' worth of rare audio and video from the legendary Chairman of the Board - over 90 tracks on CD alone including such Sinatra favorites as "I Get a Kick Out of You," "I've Got You Under My Skin," "The Lady is a Tramp," "Witchcraft"

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Categories: Release Round-Up Formats: CD, Digital Download, Vinyl Genre: Cast Recordings, Classic Rock, Country, Holiday, Jazz, Pop, Popular Standards/Vocal, R&B/Soul, Rock Tags: Bette Midler, David Bowie, David Crosby, Donna Fargo, Dr. John, Elvis Presley, Frank Sinatra, Frankie Valli, Leonard Cohen, Miles Davis, The Pretenders, Tony Hadley

Review: Keely Smith, "The Intimate Keely Smith: Expanded Edition"

October 20, 2016 By Randy Fairman 3 Comments

Keely Smith The Intimate

Rarely has an album so lived up to its name as in the case of The Intimate Keely Smith.  The 1965 Reprise record, just brought to CD for the first time in a top-notch expanded edition via Real Gone Music, puts the song stylist front and center onstage in a tiny club, backed by just a small combo.  The listener has a stage-side table.  Other than the happy lack of clinking glasses and billowing smoke, you are there for a romantic, sensual, and yes, intimate set of classic ballads by Harry Warren,

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Categories: Reviews Formats: CD Genre: Popular Standards/Vocal Tags: Frank Sinatra, Keely Smith

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