Allen Toussaint once asked in song, "What is success? Is it doin' your own thing, or to join the rest?" The New Orleans native, of course, was well-acquainted with success, if ever mindful of its cost. In a career spanning seven decades, Toussaint happily was able to do his own thing - as a pianist, composer, lyricist, arranger, conductor, orchestrator, producer, and recording artist. Toussaint, who passed away suddenly last evening at the age of 77 while on tour in Europe, brought the music
Our Big Record Store Day Black Friday Round-Up Featuring McCartney, Bowie, Wilson, Queen, Ronstadt, More
Over the past couple of weeks, we've told you about the 2015 Black Friday Record Store Day offerings from Legacy, Omnivore and Real Gone Music. Well, the full list of releases which are coming out on November 27 has been announced and we've got the details below including new titles from Rhino, Varese Sarabande, Hear Music and more! The entire list is over 125 items long, so we've just highlighted some entries below in which you might be interested. The full listing can be seen at
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
Don't Fear the Reaper: "Now!" Series Releases a Halloween Volume
We've reported on several Christmas reissues being released in the lead-up the yuletide season. And when it comes to holidays throughout the year, Christmas certainly reigns supreme in terms of the quantity of music devoted to it. However, some other holidays and occasions throughout the year have music devoted to them. One of the more popular ones is Halloween which is coming up this weekend. To provide a soundtrack to your Halloween parties or trick-or-treating, Legacy Recordings, in
All Aboard! Ace Collects "London American Label: 1966" and "25 Train Tracks"
Ace is saying "All Aboard!" with a pair of recent releases spotlighting the label's pursuit of the diverse sounds of music. The London American Label Year by Year: 1966 continues Ace's long-running survey of the American sides issued on London Records in the U.K. between the 1950s and the 1970s while All Aboard! 25 Train Tracks Calling at All Musical Stations spotlights (you guessed it!) "train songs." The eleventh volume of Ace's The London American Label series is here, with 28 selections
You've Got the Touch: Legacy's 2015 Black Friday RSD Slate includes Presley, Cash, Hendrix, Isley Brothers and "Transformers" Soundtrack
Announcements about this year's Black Friday Record Store Day event have been trickling out. A couple of days ago we brought you news of Omnivore's titles and before that, of Real Gone's Dictators release! Now we can tell you about Legacy's slate for the day after Thanksgiving. The titles run the gamut in size from 7" singles to 12" 2-LP sets, and also range in genre from rock to country to hip-hop. Several soundtracks are being released including a single from the 1960s Batman TV show,
Release Round-Up: Week of October 23
Welcome to this week's Release Round-Up! Elvis Costello, Unfaithful Music & Soundtrack Album (UMe) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.) Elvis Costello has compiled a 2-CD companion release to his recently-released, utterly engrossing memoir Unfaithful Music & Disappearing Ink. Featuring songs that "offer the deepest emotional connection to the themes and stories in his book," Unfaithful Music & Soundtrack Album non-chronologically spans the onetime Angry Young Man and latter-day
Could It Be Love: Cherry Red Collects Sweet Soul Sounds of Jimmy Helms
With Cherry Red Records' release of Gonna Make You an Offer: The Complete Cube Recordings 1972-1975, the label is turning the spotlight on the soul man behind the 1973 hit "Gonna Make You an Offer You Can't Refuse." The Florida-born musician-vocalist released his earliest records on labels including Sue subsidiary Symbol and Oracle Records. At Oracle in 1969-1970, he recorded songs by R.B. Greaves, Dorsey Burnette and Jimmy Webb, and worked with producers including Joe Renzetti.
Casting Their Spell: Croydon Municipal Celebrates Halloween, Salutes Girl Groups
With Halloween around the corner, the pre-Beatles pop specialists at Cherry Red's Croydon Municipal imprint have offered up a collection of spooky musical treats, Songs for Swinging Ghosts, along with a disc of more traditional fare, the girl group salute All About the Girls. The 22 tracks on Songs for Swinging Ghosts, comprising both vocals and instrumentals, are primarily drawn from U.K. releases though a handful of American artists are on hand, too. Compiler Bob Stanley of St. Etienne
Release Round-Up: Week of October 16
Welcome to this week's Release Round-Up! The dB's and Friends, Christmas Time Again! (Omnivore) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.) Omnivore revisits and revises the classic alt-rock Christmas compilation. Producer Chris Stamey has added new performances by Yo La Tengo & Jeff Tweedy, Marshall Crenshaw, Robyn Hitchcock, and Big Star's Third (featuring Mike Mills of R.E.M. taking lead vocals on Big Star's "Jesus Christ") to selected tracks from past editions of the album for a total of 22
Real Gone "Goes Crazy" With December Releases From The Dictators, Nat King Cole, King Curtis, More
Real Gone Music has just announced its December release slate, and the label is closing out 2015 with as dizzyingly eclectic a line-up as ever - from the proto-punk clamor of The Dictators to the velvet vocals of Nat "King" Cole. Real Gone previews its December 4 offerings on Record Store Day - Black Friday, November 27, with a special 10" EP from The Dictators featuring previously unreleased tracks unavailable anywhere else! Then, the following week comes an expanded edition of the band's The
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. /
Stax of Wax: Ace Mines Stax Records For New Anthology, Isaac Hayes and David Porter Reissues
Ace Records has recently celebrated the enduring legacy of Stax Records with a trio of exciting releases from some of the label's leading lights. The Isaac Hayes Movement's 1975 Disco Connection makes its first ever CD appearance, joined by Hayes' songwriting partner David Porter's equally rare 1970 ...Into a Real Thing in a newly-expanded edition. Ace tops it all off with Ian Levine's Solid Stax Sensations, a revelatory collection showcasing the varied sides of the Stax label family. It's
Croydon Municipal Pops More "Popcorn," Revisits "Troxy Music" On Recent Compilations
Croydon Municipal, an imprint of Cherry Red Group, has recently continued two of its popular series with the releases of Troxy Music 2 and Popcorn Exotica. Like the first volume of Troxy Music, this edition is subtitled Fifties and Sixties Film Themes; this time around, it's Screen 2. Compiler Bob Stanley and compiler/annotator Martin Green set out the collection's ethos in the liner notes, explaining how both Hollywood and Great Britain fought against the onslaught of television: "Hollywood
Release Round-Up: Week of October 2
Welcome to our new Release Round-Up! Paul McCartney, The Paul McCartney Archive Collection: Tug of War (MPL/Concord) The Paul McCartney Archive Collection continues with 1982's Tug of War, featuring "Ebony and Ivory" and "Here Today." The release is available in various formats: 3-CD/1-DVD Deluxe Edition: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. 2-CD Special Edition: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. 2-LP Vinyl Edition: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. Check out our full feature for information on what
Man, We Had a Party: Ace Collects Sequel Songs On "Second Helpings"
Numerous collections have compiled famous "answer songs." Ace Records' 2007 anthology The Answer to Everything had many of the best, like Jody Miller's "Queen of the House," Esther Phillips' "When a Woman Loves a Man" and Marilyn Michaels' "Tell Tommy I Miss Him." Early in the summer, Ace took a look not at answer songs, per se, but at sequel songs, on the compilation of Second Helpings: Sequels to the Songs That Left 'Em Hungry for More! The 24 tracks on this collection all hail from the
Review: Dr. John, "The Atco/Atlantic Singles 1968-1974"
Dr. John's most famous single was titled "Right Place Wrong Time," but the one and only Mac Rebennack has certainly found himself in the right place at many a right time. One particularly halcyon period of the funky New Orleans piano man's long career is captured on Omnivore Recordings' essential new collection of The Atco/Atlantic Singles 1968-1974 (OVCD-149). Though the 22 U.S. and U.K. singles included on this collection represent Dr. John's earliest years as a solo artist under that
Release Round-Up: Week of September 25
Welcome to this week's Release Round-Up - maybe the biggest and most diverse yet of 2015! David Bowie, Five Years (Parlophone) 12 CD Box Set: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. 13 LP Box Set: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. New remasters of David Bowie (a.k.a. Space Oddity), The Man Who Sold the World, Hunky Dory and Pin Ups are collected in a new box set along with existing versions of Ziggy Stardust (in both the original and 2003 mixes), Aladdin Sane, Live Santa Monica '72, the Ziggy Stardust
More Love: High Moon Reissues, Expands Arthur Lee and Love's Rare "Reel to Real"
High Moon Records, the label behind the recent releases of Love's Black Beauty and Gene Clark's Two Sides to Every Story, has announced its next title. On November 27, High Moon will reissue Love's 1974 album Reel to Real as a newly-expanded Deluxe Edition in the following formats: Expanded CD packaged in a deluxe custom digipak with a full-color, 32-page booklet; LP pressed on high-quality RTI vinyl with full-color, 28-page LP-sized booklet; LP includes download card for high-quality
Tell It All: Ashford and Simpson's "Come As You Are" Continues BBR's Reissue Series
The husband-and-wife team of Nickolas Ashford and Valerie Simpson needs no introduction; the classic R&B and pop songbook has been shaped by the duo's compositions including "Ain't No Mountain High Enough," "Ain't Nothing Like the Real Thing," "Reach Out and Touch (Somebody's Hand)," "Let's Go Get Stoned," "California Soul" and "Solid (As a Rock)." Big Break Records has recently been celebrating Ashford (1941-2011) and Simpson (born 1946) in a major way - with a definitive expanded reissue
Release Round-Up: Week of September 18
Welcome to this week's Release Round-Up including a couple of spectacular new box sets, one acclaimed soundtrack, numerous reissues and anthologies, and the return of a few beloved artists! a-ha, Hunting High and Low: 30th Anniversary Super Deluxe Edition (Warner Bros./Rhino) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.) The 1985 debut from a-ha gets super-sized with Rhino's upcoming 4-CD/1-DVD edition. Disc One has the original, remastered album, while Disc Two boasts 25 demos, Disc Three has 15
Uh Huh Yeah! New Release Explores The Roots of Earth, Wind & Fire
A new digital album explores little-known soul trio The Salty Peppers, best known as the elements of one of the best soul bands of the 1970s: Earth, Wind & Fire. In 1969, Maurice White, the drummer in the Ramsey Lewis Trio, struck out on his own on the Chicago music scene first as a songwriter and then as the drummer in a new quartet of his own creation. With two friends, keyboardist/bassist Don Whitehead and singer Wade Flemons and Don Whitehead, White would found a trio, The Salty
New "Casino Classics" Box Features Northern Soul From Jackie Trent, Tommy Hunt, Gloria Jones, Len Barry
When American soul great Tommy Hunt first approached the Wigan Casino in Wigan, England to celebrate the nightclub's second anniversary on September 27, 1975, his first reaction was decidedly mixed. He recalled in 2013, "When I got to Wigan, I refused to go in! It scared me because it looked so rough! I'd been playing these fabulous clubs. When I looked at the outside, I said to the driver, 'you must be at the wrong place.' He said, 'Tommy, wait 'til you get inside.' When I walked in
Do You Hear What I Hear?: Legacy Adds Four New Entries to "Classic Christmas Album" Series
Legacy Recordings is getting into the Christmas spirit this year by continuing its Classic Christmas Album series. On October 2, four new entries will be released featuring artists who had their biggest successes in the '70s (Earth, Wind & Fire), '80s (a various artists compilation), '90s (Sarah McLachlan) and 2000s (Celtic Thunder). The majority of the material on these compilations is of a relatively recent vintage. The exception is The Classic Christmas '80s Album which obviously
Release Round-Up: Week of September 4
The fall is almost upon us - which means some of the most exciting release weeks of the year are just around the corner! We hope you've checked out Ted's farewell to the sounds of summer, because we're kicking off September right here with a new release from Second Disc Records - as well as goodies from The Doors, Eydie Gorme, Micky Dolenz, Peter Frampton, Pugwash, and many more! To our U.S. readers, we wish you a safe and happy Labor Day weekend filled with great new (and old)
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