In 1977, James Taylor jumped ship from Warner Bros. Records, his home between 1970 and 1976, for the greener pastures of Columbia. His longtime producer Peter Asher joined him, and JT marked their first effort at the new label. Taylor was rapidly rewarded, as JT spawned the hit singles "Your Smiling Face" and "Handy Man," […]
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Judas Priest may be heading toward the finish line, at least as live performances go, with their current Epitaph World Tour (though sadly without founding guitarist K.K. Downing, who elected to retire a bit early), but they still have plenty of irons in the fire - including a neat catalogue set for hardcore collectors. The […]
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In 1975, Tony Bennett was without a record label and at a crossroads. He had turned down numerous entreaties to return to Columbia Records, the label that launched him to stardom in 1950 but refused to give him the creative freedom he deserved. (See our special feature on Tony Sings the Great Hits of Today for […]
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La-La Land Records has a great slate of archival soundtrack titles up for order today. First up is a big one: the score to Breakdown, a 1997 thriller written and directed by Jonathan Mostow (who would later become a moderately successful action director with films like U-571 (2000), Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (2003) and Surrogates (2009)). […]
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Ring-a-ding ding! It can be used as an adjective or an interjection. But when Frank Sinatra chose the expression to title his very first album for his very own label, it was simply an ecstatic expression of pure joy. Sinatra was no longer tethered to Capitol Records, the label at which he'd made history with […]
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Argentinian composer Lalo Schifrin has never been one to be boxed into any single genre. He created one of the most memorable television themes of all time with his “Mission: Impossible,” recorded jazz albums for labels like Verve and Creed Taylor’s CTI, and scored innumerable films, racking up six Oscar nominations in the process. Now, […]
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Marvin Gaye, What's Going On: 40th Anniversary Edition (Motown/UMe) Two CDs feature the original album and a host of rarities, single mixes, and all the best outtakes leading up to the making of this R&B classic (almost a dozen of which are unreleased). The deluxe package is rounded out by the great Detroit mix of the […]
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Rory Calhoun as Marco Polo? The California-born star of films like How to Marry a Millionaire and camp cult classic Motel Hell was cast in the title role of 1962's freewheeling Italian historical epic (shot in CinemaScope, no less!) Marco Polo. When the film was picked up for release in America, it was courtesy the […]
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Whether quarreling with Gary Busey on The Celebrity Apprentice or taking the stage beneath a giant bat, Meat Loaf has never done anything in a small way. So it’s not surprising that EMI’s just-announced 2-CD/1-DVD deluxe reissue of 1995’s Welcome to the Neighborhood looks to be a weighty package! It’s due in the U.K. on […]
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NME reports the first three albums by the recently-reunited Britpop legends Pulp will be reissued later this summer. Although It (1983), Freaks (1987) and Separations (1992) (the first originally released on indie label Red Rhino and the other two released through indie Fire Records) will not be remastered, they will feature new artwork and, in the case of the […]
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