The Oscars are almost upon us, and soundtrack label Quartet Records recently announced four archival score titles all tied with winning Academy Awards across the ’70s, ’80s and ’90s. The oldest title is also the only of the four which actually earned a trophy for Best Original Score: the 1970 drama Love Story. An adaptation of sorts of a bestselling romance novel by Erich Segal (who turned his screenplay into a novel at Paramount Pictures’ request to drum up anticipation for the film), Love Story tells the tale of a wealthy college…
Release Round-Up: Week of February 16
Welcome to this week’s Release Round-Up! The Choir, Artifact: The Unreleased Album (Omnivore) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada) Omnivore premieres an unreleased album from pre-Raspberries group The Choir, recorded in 1969 by one of the final iterations of the popular Cleveland band. These ten ultra-rare recordings have been restored for this release by the team of Tommy Allen and Ducky Carlisle (The Raspberries’ Pop Art Live), and Choir fan Eric Carmen has provided liner notes along with Al Kaston and Choir members Denny Carleton and Phil Giallombardo. Read more here!…
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Cheech & Chong Light Up New Deluxe Edition of ‘Up In Smoke’ with Blu-ray, CD and Vinyl Soundtrack
Hey man, we’ve got some news for fans of Cheech Marin and Tommy Chong: their breakthrough film, Cheech & Chong’s Up In Smoke, is being reissued on Blu-ray for its 40th anniversary – and a deluxe edition will feature a trifecta of reissued product from Rhino Records. Comedians Richard “Cheech” Marin and Tommy Chong had met in Canada during the ’60s; Marin was there to evade the Vietnam War draft, while Chong, a native of the country, had been performing with his band, The Vancouvers. (The group had signed to the Motown…
La-La Land Slays Competition with ‘Buffy’ Anthology
If you’re a fan of Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Joss Whedon’s iconic horror-comedy, La-La Land Records’ latest release certainly doesn’t suck. The soundtrack label makes Buffy The Vampire Slayer Collection: Original Soundtrack Recordings available today. This 4CD set features both music from across the seven seasons of the acclaimed TV series as well as Carter Burwell’s score from the 1992 film adaptation that predated it. Whedon, a writer on Roseanne and a short-lived sitcom adaptation of Ron Howard’s Parenthood (not to be confused with the drama that ran for five seasons in…
The Searcher: The Original Soundtrack
CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada TBD 2LP: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada TBD 3CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada TBD RCA and Legacy have the soundtrack to director Thom Zimny’s upcoming documentary on Elvis Presley coming in a variety of formats: an 18-track soundtrack CD, a 2-LP gatefold 12-inch vinyl edition, and a 3-CD collectible deluxe box set with additional music from Presley and those who inspired him. The film traces the artistic evolution of the artist from his R&B and country beginnings…
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Tale As Old As Time: ‘Beauty and the Beast’ Added to Disney’s Legacy Collection (UPDATED 2/9)
After two years of dormancy, Walt Disney Records’ archival series, The Legacy Collection, swung back into stores last year with an expanded edition of the music to 1973’s Robin Hood. Now, The Legacy Collection is giving the red-carpet treatment to one of the studio’s most popular films: 1991’s Beauty and the Beast. After initial Amazon solicitations indicated that Beauty would be reissued (this revelation following a separate confirmation by engineer Bruce Botnick of his involvement in a future expansion of the soundtrack to Disney’s follow-up film Aladdin (1992)), the Disney Music Emporium…
Good Rockin’ Tonight: Soundtrack to New Elvis Documentary Announced
A new Elvis Presley documentary is heading to television screens this April, and an accompanying soundtrack album will arrive in a variety of formats that same month from Legacy Recordings and RCA Records. Elvis Presley: The Searcher, directed by Emmy and Grammy winner Thom Zimny and written by author/journalist Alan Light, traces the artistic evolution of the artist from his R&B and country beginnings through his final Jungle Room recording sessions at Graceland. The three-hour, two-part movie will premiere on April 14 on HBO, but before that, The Searcher (The Original Soundtrack)…
Release Round-Up: Week of February 2
Welcome to this week’s Release Round-Up! Ron Wood and Ronnie Lane, Mahoney’s Last Stand: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack (Real Gone Music) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada) Faces’ Ronnie Lane and Ron Wood teamed up to pen the score, consisting of country/folk-flavored songs and instrumental tracks, for this 1972 low-budget Canadian film. Real Gone brings it back to CD with new liner notes by Richie Unterberger. Read more here! Roxy Music, Roxy Music: Super Deluxe Edition (Virgin/UMe) 3CD/1DVD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada 2CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon…
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Summon the Heroes: John Williams Box to Celebrate More Than 25 Years of Pops and More
This past Sunday, John Williams received a Grammy Award for Best Arrangement, Instrumental or A Capella, for a track on his latest studio album. It’s his 24th Grammy and joins his five Oscars, four Golden Globes, three Emmys and numerous other awards. At 85, Williams has hardly slowed down. Of course, aside from his film composing work, he has also been an orchestra conductor for many years. Sony Classical is celebrating that aspect of Williams’ career with the 20-disc John Williams: Conductor box set due this Friday, February 2. Williams himself needs…
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The “Wait” Is Over: Varese Returns Dave Grusin’s “Heaven Can Wait” and “Racing with the Moon” to CD
For more than fifty years, Robert David Grusin – or Dave Grusin, as he’s better known – has been making music to the tune of multiple Grammys and an Oscar, not to mention Golden Globes and various other honors. Grusin has successfully scored for motion pictures and kept a busy profile in pop, soul and jazz, co-founding GRP Records and encouraging compact disc technology at the dawn of the era. Back in 2013, Kritzerland delivered the world premiere soundtrack releases of two of the composer’s finest scores: 1978’s Heaven Can Wait, which netted Grusin…
Never Can Say Goodbye: Craft Reissues Three Isaac Hayes Classics
On the heels of last year’s acclaimed box set The Spirit of Memphis (1962-1976), Craft Recordings is returning to the catalogue of soul legend Isaac Hayes with three upcoming vinyl reissues. The seminal trio of Hot Buttered Soul, Shaft, and Black Moses will return to vinyl on February 23 as newly remastered by Dave Cooley at Elysian Masters from the original analog tapes. All three titles have been pressed on 180-gram vinyl by Memphis Record Pressing and feature authentic tip-on jackets. Black Moses replicates the original four-foot, cross-shaped fold-out image of Hayes…
Unmasked: The Platinum Collection
Andrew Lloyd Webber celebrates his 70th birthday and his memoir Unmasked with this 4-CD, 71-track box set of the same name. The career-spanning anthology features many of the composer’s most famed songs from Phantom of the Opera, Evita, Cats, Jesus Christ Superstar, School of Rock, and more, performed by artists including Barbra Streisand, Madonna, Elvis Presley, Alice Cooper, Tom Jones, The Everly Brothers, and the stars of his hit shows onstage such as Glenn Close, Donny Osmond, Elaine Paige, Sarah Brightman, and Michael Crawford. Previously unissued tracks from Beyoncé, Nicole Scherzinger, Gregory…
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Music of the Night: Andrew Lloyd Webber Celebrates His 70th Birthday with a New Box Set
Since September 25, 1979, there hasn’t been a day when an Andrew Lloyd Webber melody hasn’t been heard on Broadway. That was the opening night of Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice’s Evita. Before it ended its run in June 1983, Lloyd Webber’s musical Cats had opened, launching a record-breaking run through September 2000. But on January 26, 1988, the show opened which would eclipse them all: Phantom of the Opera. It today celebrates 30 years (marked with a special gala earlier this week) and is comfortably the longest-running show in Broadway history,…
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Intrada’s Valiant Effort: A Deluxe ‘Roger Rabbit’ Soundtrack From Disney!
Intrada is set to make Disney fans p-p-p-pleased with a major soundtrack expansion: Alan Silvestri’s stirring score to Who Framed Roger Rabbit. Gary K. Wolf’s quirky novel Who Censored Roger Rabbit? – the tale of a hard-boiled private detective named Eddie Valiant solving the murder of a comic strip character – was equal parts Raymond Chandler and Chuck Jones, and perfect film fodder. But nobody could have predicted what Who Framed Roger Rabbit would have become: Jeffrey Price and Peter S. Seaman’s script rearranged the plot into a Chinatown-esque mystery in 1940s…
Charlotte’s Web: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
Following a brief delay, the original soundtrack to Hanna-Barbera’s 1973 animated classic Charlotte’s Web finally comes to CD from Varese Sarabande, featuring the wonderfully melodic songs of the Sherman Brothers as performed by Debbie Reynolds, Agnes Moorehead, Paul Lynde, Henry Gibson, and others!
WE HAVE OUR WINNERS! Varese Victories For Eight Great Years
Congratulations! Our special 8th anniversary giveaway was a sterling success, thanks to our awesome readers who entered! And now, we’ve got the list of prize winners. The following 15 friends have won a bundle of Chuck Berry’s Rockit (1979) and the 40th anniversary soundtrack of Smokey and The Bandit and its sequel, both courtesy of Varese Sarabande: Marty Brandt Gary Dunaier Brian Edmiston Scott Fraley Emile Gardette Marc Hiatt Adrian Hickman Heath Holland Rusty Houston Dan Rushing Tyler Rutt Avner Shemi Cole Smith PoPo Sydow Matt Tauber And these lucky 20 winners…
Some Disc! ‘Charlotte’s Web’ Soundtrack Makes CD Debut From Varese
In 1973, Hanna-Barbera’s animated adaptation of E.B. White’s beloved children’s novel Charlotte’s Web was released; over time, it became a multi-generational classic. 45 years later, a major milestone occurs with the first ever CD release of the film’s winning soundtrack, courtesy of Varese Sarabande. Though White professed to not care for the film, condemning it as “a travesty” and admitting “I don’t care much for jolly songs,” Charlotte’s Web has incredibly gained fans with time. The story of Wilbur, a timid pig (Henry Gibson) saved from slaughter by the kind arachnid Charlotte…
Release Round-Up: Week of January 12
Welcome to this week’s Release Round-Up! Dionne Warwick, Odds and Ends: Scepter Records Rarities (Real Gone Music) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada) From 1962 to 1971, Dionne Warwick, working primarily with songwriters/producers Burt Bacharach and Hal David, notched over twenty Top 40 hits on the Scepter label and garnered two Grammy Awards. Yet while there have been numerous reissues of Warwick’s work at Scepter, some material has been overlooked. This new collection rectifies that! All 27 tracks on this compilation are new to U.S. CD, including 11 previously unreleased tracks. You’ll…
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WIN! WIN! WIN! Celebrate Eight Great Years With a Varese Mega-Giveaway!!
It’s no “Video Killed The Radio Star” on MTV, but it’s still pretty cool! On January 11, 2010, a very simple WordPress version of The Second Disc opened its digital doors. In the eight years since, a lot of stuff about the business has changed – back then, there were still four major music labels, and streaming music wasn’t really a thing in the U.S. – but we think one thing has remained consistent: this has remained a hub for enthusiastic coverage of reissues, compilations, box sets and all sorts of archival…
The Last of the Mohicans: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack (Limited “Sepia-Toned” Vinyl Edition)
Real Gone has a new 2-LP limited edition vinyl release (on sepia-toned vinyl) of Trevor Jones and Randy Edelman’s original soundtrack to director Michael Mann’s 1992 classic, The Last of the Mohicans.
Mahoney’s Last Stand: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
Faces’ Ronnie Lane and Ron Wood teamed up to pen the score, consisting of country/folk-flavored songs and instrumental tracks, for this 1972 low-budget Canadian film. Real Gone brings it back to CD with new liner notes by Richie Unterberger.
Better Than A Dream: Varese Expands “Thief of Hearts” Soundtrack Featuring Melissa Manchester
This Friday, January 12, Varese Sarabande is reissuing the long-out-of-print soundtrack album to 1984’s thriller Thief of Hearts. The album’s only prior release on CD was back during its original release and only in Germany, at that. This new edition has been expanded by three bonus tracks and features new liner notes written by our very own Joe Marchese. And we want you to WIN a copy! Read on… The film starred newcomer Steven Bauer as Scott, a burglar who breaks into the home of married couple Mickey (Barbara Williams) and Ray (John…
Soundtrack Watch: Intrada Crowns ‘Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves,’ La-La Land Boards ‘Deep Space Nine’
From the forests of medieval England to the furthest corners of the galaxy, two of the biggest soundtrack labels are kicking off 2018 with some great archival titles. Intrada announced last night their first release of the year: an expansion of Michael Kamen’s score to Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves. The 1991 adaptation of the English folk hero, starring Kevin Costner in the title role and star turns from Morgan Freeman (as Azeem, one of the Merry Men) and Alan Rickman (as the villainous Sheriff of Nottingham), was the year’s second highest-grossing…
Rhino “Starts Your Ear Off Right” with Aretha Franklin, Dio, Alice Cooper, More
Rhino’s “Start Your Ear Off Right” campaign is back for 2018, and this year’s crop of titles is a happily eclectic one ranging from classic R&B to rock, metal, hip-hop, and beyond. These limited edition vinyl reissues will be released every Tuesday beginning tomorrow, January 9, and continuing through the 23rd. We can’t think of a better way to start our year off right than visiting a local record store, and Rhino agrees – so all of these titles will be exclusively available at brick-and-mortar outlets including independent retailers and Barnes and…
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Top of the World: Real Gone’s February Slate Includes Ronnie Lane and Ron Wood, Grateful Dead and “Last of the Mohicans” Soundtrack
After the rush of the holiday season and the New Year, we now settle into the winter months, but that still doesn’t mean that there isn’t a lot of music to talk about. Today, we’ve got new of some of Real Gone’s titles hitting just under a month from now on February 2. First up is a CD reissue of an obscure title featuring two members of the Faces: Mahoney’s Last Stand – Original Motion Picture Soundtrack by Ronnie Lane and Ron Wood. If you have never seen or heard of the…
