Edsel continues populating a busy release schedule with recently-announced expansions of three albums from two bands featuring Scottish pop singer Jimmy Somerville. British pop fans might know Somerville today as the falsetto-voiced singer who crooned several hits in the '80s and '90s (including a chart-topping dance track in the U.S., "Heartbeat," in 1995). But his […]
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If you're a catalogue soundtrack fan, you doubtlessly know the name and work of Mike Matessino. For decades, Matessino has been among film score elite, serving ably as a producer, editor, mixer and writer for some of the best soundtrack catalogue titles. The New York University graduate first rose to prominence restoring the music of The […]
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Tomorrow sees the release of That's Why God Made the Radio, the long-awaited studio album from Brian Wilson, Mike Love, Al Jardine, Bruce Johnston and David Marks: The Beach Boys. As the favorite sons of Hawthorne, California continue their enormously successful 50th Anniversary Tour and with the promise of catalogue projects to come later in […]
Continue ReadingBelieve it or not, Jimi Hendrix would have turned 70 this year. Though the groundbreaking guitarist died at just 27 years old in the fall of 1970, he continues to leave behind an invaluable legacy. You don’t have to wait till what would have been his 70th birthday on November 27 to enjoy the latest […]
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On Tuesday, June 5, The Beach Boys release their long-awaited new studio album, That's Why God Made the Radio. Here at Second Disc HQ, we're counting down to its release. We're kicking off our mini-celebration of the California legends with a look at a duo intertwined with The Beach Boys' history, Jan and Dean! With The Beach […]
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It’s rare that three labels team up for one project, but rare is From the Vaults of Ric & Ron Records: Rare and Unreleased Recordings 1958-1962. Not only is this 10-record set rare in terms of quantity (a worldwide limited edition of 1,500) but it’s rare in quality, too. Rounder Records is the force behind […]
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It wasn’t that Albert King couldn’t play music other than the blues…but even when crooning in his most velvety-rich style, there was just something inherently lived-in, worldly, and commanding about that voice…in other words, something bluesy. And though that underrated voice would be enough for a lesser artist, King’s greatest gift was as a guitarist. […]
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The list of artists with whom Jimmy “Wiz” Wisner has worked is rather staggering: Tony Bennett, Barbra Streisand, Neil Sedaka, Iggy Pop, Carly Simon, Al Kooper, Tommy James and the Shondells, The Searchers…the list goes on. But although everybody knows “Palisades Park” (on which Wisner played organ for Freddy “Boom Boom” Cannon) or “Sunday Will […]
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If there's such a thing as a First Family of Soul, it might as well be the combined Houston/Warwick clan. Born in Newark, New Jersey in 1933, Emily "Cissy" Drinkard sang gospel with her family as part of The Drinkard Singers, which counted Cissy's sister Lee Warrick among its members. Marie Dionne Warrick was born […]
Continue Reading“You Are Everything.” “You Make Me Feel Brand New.” “Betcha By Golly Wow.” The songs of Philadelphia’s Stylistics are still prominent in the fabric of American music, largely thanks to a three-album run between 1971 and 1973 on the Avco label. With Thom Bell as the producer, arranger and composer, and Linda Creed as lyricist, […]
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