Melanie Safka, known the world over simply as Melanie, tapped into a deep well of emotion with the powerful anthem "Lay Down (Candles in the Rain)" and skated into listeners' hearts with "Brand New Key." Though the singer-songwriter's U.S. hits dried up by the early 1980s, she continued to write and record in her disarming […]
Continue ReadingNext month, American PBS stations premiere Nolly, a three-part miniseries written by Russell T. Davies (Doctor Who, It's a Sin) about British television star Noele "Nolly" Gordon (1919-1985), portrayed by Helena Bonham Carter. The 2023 production is presented on PBS by Masterpiece - formerly Masterpiece Theatre - which describes it as "an outrageously fun and […]
Continue ReadingWith Bond back in action at La-La Land Records, some of our favorite soundtrack reissue labels are also starting the new year off with a bang! Quartet Records has just reissued a '90s favorite score on CD, while Intrada has revisited an early classic by James Horner with an all-new approach. The name Cutthroat Island would shiver […]
Continue ReadingGet ready to hit the jackpot: one of Rhino's first big reissues of 2024 is a new expanded edition of Billion Dollar Babies, the 1973 album by glam rockers Alice Cooper. Available March 8 as a 2CD or 3LP set, this Billion Dollar Babies expansion builds upon even the 2001 double-disc edition issued by Rhino back in […]
Continue ReadingAgainst all odds, Edsel will release a third deep-dive box set into the career of U.K. hitmakers Dead or Alive - this time focusing on their single mixes. Still Spinnin': The Singles Collection 1983-2021 offers 27 discs of the group's single releases through their entire career, including hits like "Lover Come Back to Me," "Brand […]
Continue Reading"If you're born a woman, you're born to be hurt..." The stark sentiment expressed by singer Sandy Posey in her 1966 recording of Martha Sharp's "Born a Woman" didn't keep the song from reaching the twelfth spot on the Billboard Hot 100 - effectively launching a career that's continued into the 21st century. Between 1966 […]
Continue ReadingIt was a pleasant surprise to see British '80s duo Go West get a deluxe edition of their debut album last year. Chrysalis is making lightning strike twice early this year for fans with a follow-up: an 3CD/1DVD expansion of the duo's 1987 release Dancing on the Couch. After Peter Cox and Richard Drummie scored […]
Continue ReadingLegendary metal band Motörhead have been steadily unearthing soundboard shows as part of their The Löst Tapes series since 2021. Now, those shows - previously only available on vinyl or digitally - will make their way to CD in a new eight-disc box set. The Löst Tapes - The Collection: Volumes 1-5 collates all the audio heard […]
Continue ReadingToday, Rhino announced four new titles in its ever-growing line of Quadio Blu-rays: Randy Newman's Good Old Boys (1973), WAR's The World Is a Ghetto (1972), Gil Evans' Svengali, and Average White Band's AWB. The Second Disc had the opportunity to preview this quartet of Blu-ray reissues of classic albums in quadraphonic (four-channel) sound, and […]
Continue ReadingJapan can't get enough of the Piano Man! Shortly after Sony Music's Japanese division released a newly-compiled collection of live odds and ends by Billy Joel, the label will next put out a deluxe edition of Joel's sophomore album (and first in a long line of albums for Columbia Records), 1973's Piano Man. Billed as a […]
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