One of the most inescapable songs of last year was immediately identified by two words: "Ho Hey." The best-selling single by Denver-based folk band The Lumineers gradually earned a steady stream of airplay after some choice ad placement and a performance on Saturday Night Live, ultimately sending the tune to No. 3 on Billboard's Hot 100. Next month, […]
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Here's a recent treat for fans of British rockers The Cult: the band recently reissued their breakthrough album, 1987's Electric, pairing it with a little-heard early version of the album. The Cult burst onto the scene in England with debut LP Love and the Top 20 hit "She Sells Sanctuary" two years prior. When it came time […]
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John Oates, the famously mustachioed half of the legendary blue-eyed soul duo Hall and Oates, once described their tenure at Atlantic Records as “three steps towards finding a sound. Whole Oats had a folksiness to it, Abandoned Luncheonette started combining acoustic folk with a little bit of funk, and War Babies was our more adventurous […]
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Friday night I was late, I was walking you home, we got down to the gate, and I was dreaming of the night…would it turn out right? With those conversational lyrics to the song “Reminiscing,” The Little River Band finally saw their commercial breakthrough in 1978. The catchy, soft-rock track came from the Australian group’s […]
Continue ReadingNot long after Joe had posted about Rhino's upcoming expansion of Van Morrison's Moondance, I vocalized my pleasant surprise at the news. Morrison's history with reissues has been spotty at best; a late-2000s reissue campaign was quickly halted and almost instantly commanded top dollar on the secondary market. The next day, however, Morrison issued a statement denouncing […]
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“Who’s going to want to listen to the band with Don [Rich] playing the melody line to the song, when you could hear Buck [Owens] doing the real deal?” queried drummer Willie Cantu of The Buckaroos when called upon to record 1965’s all-instrumental The Buck Owens Song Book. Capitol Records surely thought there would be […]
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Otis Redding, The Complete Stax/Volt Singles (Shout! Factory) A triple-disc set featuring every one of Otis' single sides in mono - a striking statement on a short but iconic soul career. (Amazon U.S.) Smashing Pumpkins, The Aeroplane Flies High: Deluxe Edition (Virgin/UMe) The Pumpkins' 1996 box set of Mellon Collie-era singles is massively expanded, with bonus tracks on each of […]
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It begins so simply, as all immortal songs do: a hopeful melody, plucked on a banjo by the versatile flippers of a frog. "Why are there so many songs about rainbows / And what's on the other side?" sings Kermit the Frog, in one of the unmistakable voices of his creator Jim Henson. If Henson […]
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Deep-pocketed Yes fans will want to steel their bank accounts for this one: a brand-new box set, to be released this fall in Japan, newly mastering the prog heroes' Atlantic/ATCO albums on hybrid SACD. High Vibration looks to be a typically lavish import, featuring 16 discs of Yes material from 1969 to 1987. The set […]
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Perhaps the time just wasn’t right for The Idolmaker. Director Taylor Hackford (An Officer and a Gentleman, Ray) made his feature-length motion picture debut with the 1980 film based on the life of Philadelphia impresario Bob Marcucci, enlisting Ray Sharkey to play the fictionalized manager Vincent Vacari. In reality, Marcucci had discovered Frankie Avalon and […]
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