Beale Street in downtown Memphis, Tennessee runs approximately 1.8 miles from the Mississippi River to East Street. Created in 1841 and originally named Beale Avenue, it was immortalized in 1916 by composer, musician and bandleader W.C. Handy in his "Beale Street Blues." By the middle of the century, Louis Armstrong, B.B. King, Albert King, Muddy Waters and more had all played Beale Street, recognized as one of the nation's foremost cradles of the blues. But by the mid-1960s, the legendary
Ace Super Soul Round-Up Part One: Put a Little Love in Your Heart With Jimmy Holiday
Readers around these parts know that Ace Records can be counted on for the finest in rare soul music - and three recent releases prove to be no exception. We'll cover one of those titles today in our new Super Soul Round-Up, with more to come next week! Spread Your Love collects the complete Minit Records singles recorded between 1966 and 1970 by singer-songwriter Jimmy Holiday, best-known for his co-writing credit with the incomparable Jackie DeShannon and her brother Randy Myers on the
Rip It Up! New Box Set Spotlights Little Richard at Specialty and Vee-Jay
On June 2, 2015, Specialty Records, a unit of Concord Music Group, celebrates one of the founders of rock-and-roll with the release of a new box set from the inimitable Little Richard. Directly from My Heart: The Best of the Specialty & Vee-Jay Years brings together 64 tracks on three CDs from the piano-pounding legend, including all of Richard's early classics as well as B-sides and rarities. This deluxe package puts the music in context with a 30+-page booklet containing new liner notes
Release Round-Up: Week of April 21
Today's Release Round-Up features an array of titles including a box set from the one and only Chairman of the Board, a number of vintage albums in surround sound, a classic reissue from a new Rock and Roll Hall of Famer, and more! Frank Sinatra, Ultimate Sinatra (Capitol/UMe) 4-CD Box: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. 1-CD Highlights: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. 2-CD Target Exclusive: Target.com 2-LP: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. Standard Edition DD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. The 100th
Review: Six By Booker T. and the MG's
"Soul Dressing," "Jelly Bread," "Red Beans and Rice," "My Sweet Potato," "One Mint Julep," and of course, "Green Onions" and "Mo' Onions" - Edsel has served up a veritable feast with its recent reissues of the complete 1962-1968 recordings of Booker T. and the MG's [sic] originally issued on the Stax label during its affiliation with Atlantic Records. The new reissues pair two albums per package: Green Onions and Soul Dressing plus bonus tracks on one CD; And Now and In the Christmas Spirit
The Second Disc's 2015 Record Store Day Must-Haves
Tomorrow, Saturday, April 18, music fans and collectors will flock to their local independent record stores to celebrate both the sounds on those familiar round black platters and the cherished opportunity to shop for music in a physical retail environment. To many of us, both are a way of life. Each year around this time, we here at Second Disc HQ take a few moments to count down the titles to which we're most looking forward to picking up! Our friend and founder, Mike Duquette, returns to
Soul Serenades: RPM Expands Mod Music of "The Mike Cotton Sound"
The name of The Mike Cotton Sound might be most familiar from the group’s role backing Mary Hopkin on her debut album Post Card, or for supporting The Kinks on Muswell Hillbillies. But the band, led by trumpeter and multi-instrumentalist Mike Cotton, actually traveled a diverse musical road throughout the 1960s, a trajectory chronicled on RPM Records’ expanded edition of the band’s 1964 long-player, The Mike Cotton Sound. Leader Cotton had scored his first hit in 1963 with “Swing That
New "Playlist" Wave Features Ben Folds Five, DJ Jazzy Jeff and Fresh Prince, Santana and More
Legacy’s long-running Playlist series rolls on with another batch of titles to be released tomorrow, April 14. This wave of titles in the budget line range from rock to R&B to rap, and span from the late 1960s right up to the 2000s. As per the standard with this series, each entry is fourteen tracks and generally has some harder-to-find edits and track choices than are generally found on budget compilations. Following a description of each title kindly provided by our friend and founder
Review: Bee Gees, "1974-1979"
For many veteran artists, disco was simply a mountain that couldn’t be climbed….not that they didn’t try. The Beach Boys, Grateful Dead, Elton John and so many others – even Frank Sinatra! – flirted with the genre only to find that that those sultry disco grooves weren’t as easy to emulate as they may have appeared to be. Barry, Robin and Maurice Gibb not only climbed the mountain, but conquered it. The brothers had already amassed a back catalogue of some of the richest, most melodic and
Release Round-Up: Week of April 7
Welcome to this week's Release Round-Up! The Who, The Brunswick Singles 1965-1966 (UMe) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.) The Who box up replicas of seven early 7-inch singles plus an eighth with The High Numbers’ “Zoot Suit” b/w “I’m the Face” on this deluxe vinyl box set. Read more here. Herman's Hermits, The 50th Anniversary Anthology (Bear Family) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.) Bear Family gives the “I’m Into Something Good” and “There’s a Kind of Hush” pop stars the deluxe
Muddy Waters, Willie Dixon, Mike Bloomfield, Dr. John Featured On "Soundstage Blues Summit"
Muddy Waters (1913-1983) was frequently considered the father of Chicago blues. Born in Mississippi and discovered there in 1941 by musicologist Alan Lomax, he moved to the Windy City in 1943 and proceeded to refine and redefine the sound of the blues, inspiring not just future artists in the genre but, significantly, those who later created rock-and-roll. In July 1974, some of the country’s premier blues artists joined together onstage in Chicago to celebrate the Muddy Waters legacy with the
Come On: The Complete Ric and Ron Singles of New Orleans' Johnny Adams Are Collected By Ace
Of New Orleans’ many musical greats, few embodied the city’s spirited style of rhythm and blues as well as the late Johnny Adams (1932-1998). Though he charted just six R&B hits in a career spanning 40 years, New Orleans native Adams had one of the city’s most distinctive and dramatic voices. Ace has recently released the first-ever complete anthology of Adams’ singles for Ric and Ron Records with I Won’t Cry: The Complete Ric and Ron Singles 1959-1964. Ric and its sister label Ron were
SoulMusic Records Is Caught In Tavares' "Love Storm"
Between 1974 and 1981, Tavares – brothers Ralph, Arthur (Pooch), Antone (Chubby), Feliciano (Butch) and Perry (Tiny) – recorded ten albums for Capitol Records during which time the group established itself as smooth purveyors of R&B, soul, funk and pop. Cherry Red’s SoulMusic Records imprint has reissued six of those titles in the past, and the seventh title in the series has just arrived: 1977’s Love Storm. Love Storm, Album No. 5, was produced, like its predecessor Sky High, by Freddie
Dance to the Music! Sly and the Family Stone Vinyl Box Arrives
A little more than a week ago, on March 15, Sly Stone turned 72. The Rock and Roll Hall of Famer and multi-hyphenate artist has survived more than his share of ups and downs. But for a staggering period of nearly 50 years, Sly's work as composer, singer, producer and musician has continued to take listeners higher with his groundbreaking blend of funk, rhythm and blues, soul, rock, psychedelia, jazz and pop. Epic Records and Legacy Recordings have recently reissued the first five albums from Sly
The Entertainers: Billy Joel, America, Labelle, Earth Wind and Fire Get Surround-Sound Treatment From Audio Fidelity
Audio Fidelity is continuing its well-received series of surround-sound releases on hybrid SACD with a trio of quadraphonic (4.0) titles from 1974 and one classic rock favorite from 1972 in 5.1. All of these titles feature the surround mix on the high resolution SACD layer with a newly-remastered version of the original stereo mix on both the SACD and standard CD layers. The '72 classic is America's Homecoming. The second album by the trio of Dewey Bunnell, Gerry Beckley and Dan Peek,
Release Round-Up: Week of March 23
It's a Monday release date here in the U.S., so here's your early Release Round-Up! Bee Gees, 1974-1979 (Reprise/Rhino) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.) This box set brings together the band’s Mr. Natural, Main Course, Children of the World and Spirits Having Flown plus a disc of previously issued bonus material. Full track listing and details here. Watch on Record Store Day for a companion vinyl release to this set featuring the 12-inch mixes from Saturday Night Fever! Kansas,
Nothing But The Truth: RPM Uncovers Complete Recordings of Sixties Mod Duo
In keeping with its mission of uncovering some of the best, criminally-unknown pop of the 1960s, RPM has just unveiled Who’s Wrong? Mod Bedlam 1965-1969 from the mod-R&B duo known as The Truth. Frank Aiello and Steve Jameson issued seven singles between 1965 and 1968 and even notched a minor hit with their recording of The Beatles’ “Girl,” but have gone largely unrecognized in the decades since. RPM’s compilation rights that wrong, and collects all of the duo’s singles plus a number of
Still Into Something Good: Ace Collects More From Carole King and Gerry Goffin
The songs of Carole King and Gerry Goffin have been enjoying a rather spectacular renaissance on both sides of the Atlantic thanks to the success of King’s biographical Broadway and West End musical Beautiful. Happily, Ace Records has returned to the duo’s catalogue for a fourth anthology. Hung on You: More from the Goffin and King Songbook follows three previous excursions: Goffin & King: A Gerry Goffin and Carole King Song Collection 1961-1967 (2007), Honey and Wine: Another Gerry Goffin
Release Round-Up: Week of March 17
This week's Release Round-Up has box sets and deluxe editions a-plenty... The Pretty Things, Bouquets from a Cloudy Sky (Snapper) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.) This box set is much in the style of last year's Small Faces set Here Come the Nice, and contains 11 studio albums on CD with 42 bonus tracks, two rarities CDs with 45 previously unreleased tracks, 2 DVDs including a new documentary by Reelin' in the Years Productions, a 10-inch replica acetate disc, posters, an art print, and a
Soul Deep: Raven Collects The Box Tops' Complete Studio Albums
For Alex Chilton, coping with the legacy of The Box Tops wasn’t always easy. As the band’s frontman – and future cult hero as leader of Big Star – once ruminated to the San Francisco Chronicle, “I guess my life has been a series of flukes in the record business. The first thing I ever did was the biggest record that I’ll ever have.” He was, of course, speaking of “The Letter,” the Wayne Carson Thompson song that opens Raven Records’ new 2-CD collection The Original Albums 1967-1969 containing
Jackie DeShannon, Perry Como, Nils Lofgren Lead Off Real Gone's Diverse May Slate
Rarities are the order of the day from Real Gone Music when it comes to the label's just-announced slate of releases scheduled for late April and early May. The label kicks things off on April 28 with its reissue of one of the most famous Grateful Dead shows of all time. Dick's Picks Volume 8 captures the epic May 2, 1970 show at Binghamton, New York's Harpur College - a show even singled out by Jerry Garcia himself. Then, on May 5, Real Gone has five more titles, all of which are packed
(Don't) Walk On By: Rhino's Record Store Day Lineup Boasts a-ha, Bee Gees, Bowie, Doors, Dionne, More
Rhino isn't resting on its laurels for Record Store Day! The label has announced its biggest slate ever for Record Store Day, with 30 limited edition 12-inch, 10-inch, and 7-inch vinyl releases due on Saturday, April 18. Full details as provided by the label for all titles can be found below. As always with RSD, these releases will be available exclusively at select independent music retailers on April 18, and you can find the list of participating shops here! a-ha - Take On Me 7-inch
Such a Much! Croydon Collects R&B Girls, Swingin' TV Themes
Since its inception in 2013, Cherry Red’s Croydon Municipal label has reliably shed light on some of the least illuminated corners of the pre-Beatles pop world. Two recent releases - Such a Much: R&B Girls of the ‘50s and ‘60s and TV is the Thing: Fifties and Sixties Television Themes – continue in this tradition. Like many of Croydon’s releases, Such a Much features a blend of names both familiar (LaVern Baker, Little Esther, Etta James, Ruth Brown) and less familiar (Paula Grimes,
Release Round-Up: Week of March 10
This week brings a particularly impressive slate by any standard, but we're particularly proud to introduce the world to Second Disc Records with our first two releases, from Johnny Mathis and the late Bob Crewe! Johnny Mathis, Life is a Song Worth Singing: The Complete Thom Bell Sessions (Second Disc/Real Gone) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.) Here, on two CDs, we proudly present both of Johnny Mathis' album collaborations - including the never-on-CD Mathis Is... - with songwriter-producer
In Season: Bob Crewe's Lost Musical Revealed On "The Complete Elektra Recordings" Coming NEXT WEEK From Second Disc Records and Real Gone Music
"Bob Crewe's lyrics have meant so much--to so many--for so long; it is hard to imagine they will ever be forgotten. Bob had a way about him in life as he did in the studio, a charismatic personality, an ability to draw the best out of everyone and a limitless joy of music, art and life...We will never forget Bob Crewe." So spoke Frankie Valli and Bob Gaudio upon the passing last year of Bob Crewe at the age of 83. A veteran songwriter, producer and entrepreneur, Crewe's vibrant, thrilling music
- « Previous Page
- 1
- …
- 52
- 53
- 54
- 55
- 56
- …
- 61
- Next Page »