When Elvis Presley said Aloha from Hawaii 50 years ago, the whole world was watching - or close to it. The King, fashionably late, stepped onstage at Honolulu's International Center (capacity at the time: roughly 6,000) at 1:00 a.m. on January 14, 1973 for a scheduled 12:30 a.m. concert. Satellites were beaming the program to […]
Continue ReadingWelcome to The Weekend Stream, a relaxing review of notable digital-only catalogue titles. There may be no CD or vinyl, but there's plenty of great new/old music to float you into the weekend. A short but intriguing selection of digital debuts this week includes rare '00s rock, '80s soul, '30s jazz, a new take on […]
Continue ReadingJohnny Mathis is known the world over as The Voice of Romance, but the legendary vocalist deserves another title, as well: The Voice of Christmas. Mathis' very first holiday album, 1958's Merry Christmas, sold over five million copies and remains one of the biggest-selling Christmas albums of all time. Now, Mathis is back with his […]
Continue ReadingWelcome to this week's Release Round-Up, featuring a selection of the new titles available today! Elvis Presley, Aloha from Hawaii Via Satellite: 50th Anniversary Edition (RCA/Legacy) 3CD/1BD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada 2LP: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada Elvis Presley's seminal 1973 returns for its 50th anniversary in a new box set. This edition takes its cues from the […]
Continue ReadingAlready enjoying a burgeoning solo career after his time with the alt-country group Drive-By Truckers, Jason Isbell established a presence as one of the genre's most intriguing performers with his fourth album Southeastern, released in 2013. Ten years later, he's revisiting the record in a deluxe edition. The remastered and expanded Southeastern will combine the […]
Continue ReadingNo need to hold back for so long: Marvin Gaye's Let's Get It On will be celebrated this month with a digital deluxe edition packed with unreleased tracks. Following the stirring social consciousness of his last album, 1971's What's Going On, Gaye used the musical canvas to dive deep into matters of the bedroom. Romance, […]
Continue ReadingStoryteller, songwriter, guitarist, musicologist, singer: throughout a career spanning the 1950s through the present day, Jaime Royal "Robbie" Robertson wore many hats. The Toronto-born musician joined his first band in 1956 and attracted the attention of Ronnie "The Hawk" Hawkins in 1959. Hawkins liked what he heard, and recorded two of the teenaged Robertson's songs […]
Continue ReadingThe last few weekends have seen moviegoers pouring back into theaters thanks to the head-to-head blockbusters Barbie and Oppenheimer. Their dual openings made for one of the highest-grossing non-holiday weekends ever, and the talents of Greta Gerwig (co-writer/director of the zingy comedy based on the popular doll) and Christopher Nolan (writer/director of the epic biopic […]
Continue ReadingJason Mraz's debut album Waiting for My Rocket to Come (2002), released amid a new wave of witty but sensitive acoustic rockers, became a major hit thanks to the irresistible single "The Remedy (I Won't Worry)." But the lead single to follow-up Mr. A-Z (2005), the self-effacing "Wordplay," pretty accurately predicted a sophomore slump. How […]
Continue ReadingVan Halen fans were on pins and needles in the spring of 1986, when the California rockers replaced iconoclastic vocalist David Lee Roth with former Montrose frontman/rhythm guitarist Sammy Hagar. This unexpected partnership will be examined in full on a box set offering the first ever remastered editions of the group's Hagar-led albums on vinyl […]
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