Here at The Second Disc, the holiday season is the perfect time to do what we love to do best: share the gift of music. For the second year in a row, we have we reached out to some of our favorite reissue labels and we’ve teamed with them to play Santa Claus to our awesome and faithful readers. It’s called – what else? – Second Discmas, and it’s going on now through Christmas! The fifth day of Second Discmas is a celebration of all things stage and screen! We're offering two amazing gift sets
Day After Day: Your Chance to Support Release of Demos by Badfinger's Pete Ham
The name of Pete Ham may not be familiar to everyone, but his work certainly is. As a member of Badfinger, Ham penned “Day After Day,” “Baby Blue” and “No Matter What,” as well as a little song with Tom Evans called “Without You” which became a chart-topper for both Harry Nilsson and Mariah Carey, decades apart. Ham tragically took his own life in 1975 at the age of 27, leaving behind a small but significant legacy in pop and rock. Two collections of Ham’s personal demo recordings have
Del Shannon's Shelved "Home and Away" Finds New Life on Remastered Reissue
Pair the Rolling Stones’ producer Andrew Loog Oldham with American rock-and-roll hero Del Shannon at the height of Swinging London, and what’s the result? It was an album called Home and Away, but despite its lofty ambitions of being a British answer to Pet Sounds, the LP didn’t see release as scheduled in 1967. It took more than a decade for Home and Away to surface, and it’s recently been reissued as a remastered CD from Now Sounds (CRNOW 40). Though the new Home and Away is a most welcome
On The Third Day of Second Discmas...
Here at The Second Disc, the holiday season is the perfect time to do what we love to do best: share the gift of music. For the second year in a row, we have we reached out to some of our favorite reissue labels and we’ve teamed with them to play Santa Claus to our awesome and faithful readers. It’s called – what else? – Second Discmas, and it’s going on now through Christmas! Today, we have a gift set from our friends at Omnivore Recordings which we think is pretty damn cool! Earlier this
Now Sounds Unearths Lost Leon Russell-Produced Psych-Pop Classic "Daughters of Albion"
Before he actually became The Master of Time and Space to his fans, Leon Russell was manipulating everything but time and space on a psychedelic pop opus that nobody heard. The fantastically imaginative Daughters of Albion was, well, DOA in the commercial sense upon its initial release in 1968. Its blend of dense lyrics, elaborate vocal arrangements, shifting moods and an everything-but-the-kitchen-sink-oh-hell-we'll-throw-that-in-too approach to the musical accompaniment might have been too
The Race Is On! Singles Collections Coming From George Jones, Merle Haggard, Wanda Jackson
One thing the folks at Omnivore Recordings are, well, omnivorous about is country music. For Record Store Day's Black Friday event, the label previewed four upcoming releases with special vinyl EPs from Buck Owens, Wanda Jackson, Merle Haggard and George Jones. Following the January 23, 2013 release of Owens' Honky Tonk Man and Don Rich Sings George Jones, Omnivore will issue three new compilations on February 12: Haggard's The Complete '60s Capitol Singles, Jones' The Complete United Artists
The Magic Touch: Kent Label Celebrates 30 Years with Soulful New Anthology
The Kent label (part of the Ace Records family) is turning 30, and you’re invited to the party. In a year which has also seen celebrations for labels including A&M and GRP, Kent 30: Best of Kent Northern 1982-2012 stands out as the toe-tapping, floor-filling compilation most suitable for dancing! With 30 selections in recognition of 30 years from soul greats like Chuck Jackson, Lorraine Chandler, Lou Johnson, Maxine Brown and Ben E. King, Kent 30 takes in previously anthologized tracks
Ahead of His Time: Final Wave of Zappa Reissues Arrives (For Now)
Welcome to our ongoing exploration of the Zappa Records/Universal Music (UMe) reissue campaign which will see a comprehensive array of Zappa titles remastered and reissued before 2012 is out! The first batch of 12 titles arrived on July 31, and another 12 followed on August 28. The third dozen appeared in stores on September 25, and Wave Four (including a new title, Understanding America) saw release on Tuesday, October 30. Wave Five, the penultimate group, hit stores on November 19, and
Holiday Gift Guide Review: Various Artists, "'Twas the Night Before Hanukkah"
The story behind The Idelsohn Society for Music Preservation’s fascinating new 2-CD set ‘Twas the Night Before Hanukkah is a simple one. The label, dedicated to telling Jewish history through music, set out to chronicle the music of Hanukkah before discovering that the most famous Christmas songs – “White Christmas,” “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer,” “The Christmas Song,” just to name three – were all written by members of the Jewish faith! So the Hanukkah compilation doubled in size, and
On The First Day of Second Discmas...
We need a little Christmas...right this very minute. Here at The Second Disc, the holiday season is the perfect time to do what we love to do best: share the gift of music. For the second year in a row, we have we reached out to some of our favorite reissue labels and we've teamed with them to play Santa Claus to our awesome and faithful readers. It's called – what else? – Second Discmas, and it’s going on now through Christmas! Today's giveaway is courtesy the fine folks at Edsel Records!
Holiday Gift Guide Reviews: Etta James and Sarah Vaughan, "Complete Albums Collections"
Etta James and Sarah Vaughan: by any and all accounts, two formidable women of song. Now, these late legends are both receiving the deluxe treatment from Legacy Recordings on two box sets as part of the Complete Albums series. Though Etta James' most enduring recordings were made during her sixteen years (1960-1976) at Chess Records, including her oft-imitated but never-topped perennial "At Last," the former Jamesetta Hawkins recorded for over fifty years in a variety of genres for a variety
I Think I Love Them: The Partridge Family's First Two Albums Combined on One CD from 7Ts
C’mon, get happy…again! 2012 has already seen David Cassidy’s solo catalogue mined in the U.S. by Real Gone Music and in the U.K. by Cherry Red’s 7Ts label, and now 7Ts is turning its attention to none other than The Partridge Family! A two-fer of the group’s first two albums, The Partridge Family Album and Up to Date, has just arrived in stores from 7Ts. The made-for-TV group fronted by David Cassidy and Shirley Jones came out of the gate swinging with 1970’s The Partridge Family Album. The
Don't Just Stand There: Real Gone Readies January Slate with Patty Duke, Rick Wakeman, Billy Joe Shaver, and More
2012 isn’t yet over, but it’s not too soon to look forward to all of the amazing releases already slated for 2013! Real Gone Music is doing its part with a whopping nine-title slate due January 29 from a plethora of pop, rock, country and soul artists. One of the sixties’ most unexpected hits might have been Patty Duke’s “Don’t Just Stand There,” a 1965 Top 10 hit that sounded more than a little like Lesley Gore’s “You Don’t Own Me.” By the time the actress recorded her first album for United
Bob Dylan, Patti Smith, Eddie Vedder, Johnny Depp, Nick Cave Join "Voices for Justice" on New Soundtrack
When not telling the story of The Hobbit on Middle Earth, film producers Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh are hoping this winter to bring a different, real-life story to light. West of Memphis is their new documentary film directed by Amy Berg (Best Documentary Oscar nominee Deliver Us from Evil), so named for the Arkansas city of West Memphis in which three eight-year old boys were tragically killed in 1993. The film chronicles the battle to prove the innocence of the three young men convicted
As a Matter of Opinion I Think She's Tops: Mary Wells Celebrated On New Releases from Hip-o Select, Soul Music Records
Mary Wells had a number of firsts under her belt. The first true Motown superstar, she became the first of the company’s artists to net a Grammy Award nomination. She also was the first superstar artist to leave Berry Gordy’s empire at the height of her fame. In 1965, Wells departed for a lucrative deal with 20th Century Fox Records, but her greatest successes were already behind her. Yet despite her death at just 49 years of age in 1992, Wells’ star still burns bright, largely thanks to her
Holiday Gift Guide Review: Louis Armstrong, "The OKeh, Columbia and RCA Victor Recordings 1925-1933"
Duke Ellington famously stated, “It don’t mean a thing if it ain’t got that swing,” but without Louis Armstrong, Duke would assuredly have had to pose some other question. Bing Crosby, the man owed a debut by every popular singer of the past eighty or so years, described Armstrong as “the beginning and end of music in America” while fellow trumpeter Miles Davis acknowledged that “you can’t play anything on a horn that Louis hasn’t played.” Yet Armstrong is arguably most remembered today by the
Holiday Gift Guide Review: The Moving Sidewalks, "The Complete Collection"
Before ZZ Top, there was The Moving Sidewalks. The dust has been blown off a lost chapter of Texas rock history with RockBeat Records’ release of The Complete Collection (ROC-CD-3018) from Billy Gibbons’ early band. This 2-CD set chronicles, in deluxe style, the four-piece psychedelic blues-rock outfit that emerged from the ashes of The Coachmen and eventually morphed into the first iteration of ZZ Top. Vocalist and guitarist Gibbons, a native of Houston, founded the psychedelic blues-rock
Holiday Gift Guide Review: Duke Ellington, "The Complete Columbia Studio Albums Collection 1951-1958"
What made Ellington a Duke? Though born in the final year of the 19th century, few figures in 20th century music were as influential as composer, pianist and bandleader Edward Kennedy “Duke” Ellington. By the time of his first ever long-playing album, 1951’s Masterpieces by Ellington, he was already American royalty, well-established via films, Broadway musicals and the enduring compositions he gifted to the Great American Songbook. Masterpieces also kicks off the nine-disc journey through
Play Something Sweet: Ace Taps R&B and Rock Legends for "The Allen Toussaint Songbook"
What is success? For Allen Toussaint, it's been a career that's lasted for over fifty years in which he's created some of the most memorable music ever committed to tape: "Mother-in-Law." "Whipped Cream." Lady Marmalade." "Working in the Coal Mine." "Southern Nights." "Yes We Can Can." The latter song, a hit for the Pointer Sisters, took on added significance when it became associated with Barack Obama's 2008 U.S. Presidential campaign. As writer, producer, vocalist and arranger, Allen
Holiday Gift Guide Review: Various Artists, "Surf Age Nuggets: Trash and Twang Instrumentals 1959-1966"
In 1996, Rhino Records released Cowabunga! The Surf Box, a four-disc celebration of surf music, both vocal and instrumental, from its earliest days to the then-present. It’s taken more than fifteen years, but James Austin, the co-producer of that long-out-of-print box, has returned with an all-new companion piece. Surf Age Nuggets, released through the RockBeat label (ROC-CD-3098), offers another four discs’ worth of “trash and twang instrumentals,” as the cover promises. Its 104 tracks
Morello Label Rescues Rare Glen Campbell with Bobbie Gentry and Anne Murray, Brings Helen Schneider to CD
The Morello imprint of Cherry Red Records has kept busy of late. Following its initial slate of country releases from George Jones, Marty Robbins and Lacy J. Dalton, the Morello team reintroduced gems to the catalogue from Crystal Gayle and Dan Seals, respectively Crystal Gayle / Somebody Loves You, and Rage On / Rebel Heart. Though Dan was England Dan in the pop duo England Dan and John Ford Coley, Rage On and Rebel Heart were both excursions into pure country. For its latest two releases,
Miles Runs The Voodoo Down: "The Bootleg Series Volume 2" Sheds Light on Third Great Quintet
Where was Miles Davis at in 1968? In a June 1968 interview with Leonard Feather of Downbeat, the journalist observed of Davis’ hotel suite, “I found strewn around the room records or tape cartridges by James Brown, Dionne Warwick, Tony Bennett, The Byrds, Aretha Franklin and the Fifth Dimension. Not a single jazz instrumental.” Feather asked “Why?” but concluded that most likely, “when you have reached the aesthetic mountaintop, there is no place to look but down.” Feather’s summation was
Holiday Gift Guide Review: Johnny Cash, "The Complete Columbia Album Collection"
Are you ready to add some Black to the red and green this Christmas? If you are, you’ll be richly rewarded thanks to Columbia Records and Legacy Recordings’ Johnny Cash: The Complete Columbia Album Collection (88697 91047 2, 2012). It’s no easy feat to distill the essence of an artist into one package, let alone when the artist in question is John R. Cash. Yet this collection spanning 33 years (1957-1990), 61 albums and 63 CDs succeeds in revealing the man behind the black in all his many
He's Got a Way: Billy Joel Collects "Love Songs" For January Release
2013 will mark the 20th anniversary of Billy Joel's final studio album to date, 1993's River of Dreams. Since then, the semi-retired Piano Man has busied himself with sold-out concerts, live recordings, a foray into classical music and a Broadway musical based around his storied songbook. More recently, Joel has signed on as one of the artists performing at 12 12 12, a concert to benefit the victims of the East Coast's crippling Hurricane Sandy. But with the dearth of new music from Joel,
Still On The Line: Glen Campbell's "American Treasure" Box Set Arrives This Month
Way back on August 6, we confirmed a delay to Surfdog Records' box set An American Treasure, a limited edition box and gift set dedicated to the life and career of Glen Campbell. We're happy to report that this 3-CD/1-DVD limited edition of 1,000 units is finally available for pre-order, with delivery guaranteed before Christmas for domestic purchasers. To bring you up to date: An American Treasure will mark only the second box set to be devoted to the entirety of Campbell's career; the
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