Following the colossal success of Thriller, Michael Jackson waited roughly five years before releasing another album. Rumors swirled around the album that became known as Bad, which would turn out to be the third and final collaboration between Jackson and producer Quincy Jones. Bad marked the end of an era, too, as Jackson's final album […]
Continue ReadingThere’s been a lot of talk around these parts about A&M Records’ 50th anniversary celebration, and why not? The label founded by Herb Alpert and Jerry Moss virtually defined the sound of AM radio in the 1960s before embracing cutting-edge new wave , rock and R&B sounds in the ensuing decades. And that’s just the […]
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What's that sound? Is that...a plane buzzing low overhead? Not this time: it's the sound of Bernard Herrmann's classic score to Alfred Hitchcock's North by Northwest, the benefactor of a beautiful new expansion by Intrada! The 1959 thriller, written by Ernest Lehman as "the Hitchcock picture to end all Hitchcock pictures," stars Cary Grant as an […]
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I only met Marvin Hamlisch once. It was late in September 2010, on the campus of Los Angeles' UCLA, where the esteemed composer had been working on a revised production of his 1979 musical They're Playing Our Song. He and I were both on our cell phones in the lobby a few minutes before the […]
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"Nothing could convince me that any show that has sold two and one-half million copies of its album before the opening night is anything like all bad," wrote The New York Times' Clive Barnes on October 13, 1971 upon the Broadway debut of Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice's Jesus Christ Superstar. Indeed, the original […]
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The Beach Boys, Japanese 2012 Remasters (EMI) Released last week across the sea, these new Japanese remasters of 12 of the boys of summer's first LPs (spanning from 1963 to 1971 but, alas, incomplete) should be hitting our shores around now. Has anyone had the chance to hear them yet? Roxy Music, The Complete Recordings 1972-1982 (Virgin) This 10-disc […]
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La-La Land's latest catalogue title, released last week, is a pleasant surprise: the premiere release of the score to the cult-classic comedy Used Cars. The 1980 picture, starring Kurt Russell as an unscrupulous salesman willing to go to any lengths to shut down his competition, was a particular surprise for anyone familiar with the talent behind […]
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Pop-punk legends Green Day are looking forward thrice over for the rest of the year, releasing three albums (¡Uno!, ¡Dos! and ¡Tré!) in September, November and January. But before they put those out, they're releasing a box set to get new fans up to speed in one fell swoop. The trio are releasing The Studio Albums 1990-2009 later this […]
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Even when faced with Alzheimer's, you can't keep a good rhinestone cowboy down. Glen Campbell continues to make headlines on his Goodbye Tour, recently packing the Hollywood Bowl with a special show featuring Lucinda Williams, Jackson Browne, Kris Kristofferson, Jenny Lewis plus Dawes and the Dandy Warhols. Yes, Glen Campbell's music transcends all generational and […]
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