The 10th anniversary reissues of Alicia Keys' Songs in A Minor now have track lists with some tantalizing unreleased material - but how much you get, as is so often the case, depends on which version you buy. As previously reported, the singer/songwriter/pianist's Grammy-winning debut LP is being expanded across several formats for its 10th […]
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Lesley Gore epitomized the sound of American pop in the early-to-mid 1960s with hits like "It's My Party" and its answer/follow-up, "Judy's Turn to Cry." For my money, there may never have been a greater one-two punch in pop than that pair, produced by Quincy Jones and arranged by Claus Ogerman. But where was the […]
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Blame it on the bossa nova. It was at a Westwood record store that Reid King first heard Antonio Carlos Jobim’s “One Note Samba,” performed by the great Brazilian guitarist Laurindo Almeida and the Modern Jazz Quartet. In no time at all, King found inspiration in the tricky chords of the bossa nova. He mastered […]
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Queen, Queen / Queen II / Sheer Heart Attack / A Night at the Opera / A Day at the Races: Deluxe Editions (Hollywood) No, you're not seeing double. The first batch of 40th anniversary Queen expanded editions, available in the U.K. since March, make their stateside debuts. There's an Amazon-exclusive box with all of them included, too. Dear […]
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Shortly before Christmas 1960, Frank Sinatra entered the studio to record the tracks that would yield Ring-A-Ding Ding!, his inaugural release on the record label he founded, Reprise. As the company’s slogan went, Reprise albums were meant “to play and play again,” and boy, did Sinatra live up to his word! Ring-A-Ding Ding! is still […]
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After a terrifically eclectic volume dedicated to the hits, misses and everything in between of 1963, Ace’s London American Label turns the clock back to the early days of rock and roll via the pioneering British imprint. The London American Label: 1958, the sixth volume of the series, similarly offers something for everyone. Unlike so […]
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Intrada's newest release batch has only one catalogue score (the other is a symphonic piece by Arthur Rubenstein) but it's a keeper: it's the earliest film work of legendary composer Jerry Goldsmith currently on CD. City of Fear, a 1959 thriller about an escaped convict who believes himself to be in possession of a canister […]
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When Jimi Hendrix wrote the lyrics, "Well, she's walking through the clouds, with a circus mind that's running 'round?," is it possible that he was writing about himself? Hendrix isn't generally considered part of the school of autobiographical singer/songwriters, and appreciation of his lyrical and melodic craft usually takes a backseat to his dazzling virtuosity […]
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Now that the Thin Lizzy catalogue has begun being properly serviced by Universal in the U.K., it's exciting to report on three more deluxe reissues of some of the band's albums in June. The band's Bad Reputation (1977), Black Rose: A Rock Legend (1979) and Chinatown (1980) will be expanded as two-disc sets with rare and unreleased B-sides, demos, […]
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Curt Smith, vocalist/bassist for Tears for Fears, is set to reissue one of his earlier solo projects this summer. Mayfield (1998) was Smith's second album, recorded under the same name as the record (Curt is Mayfield - get it?). It'll feature a new track, a new recording of the song "Trees." Smith talks about the album […]
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