In today’s reviews, we’re looking at three albums from two true legends of soul. What do they have in common? Each title has been reissued by Big Break Records, and each found its respective artist conquering new terrain: the pop music world of the 1980s! Aretha Franklin, Jump to It (Arista AL-9602, 1982 – reissued Big Break Records CDBBR 0154, 2012) Each era of Aretha Franklin’s long and remarkable career has gotten some catalogue love lately, from the artist’s first days at Columbia
All You Can Eat: The Fat Boys' Out-of-Print Debut Gets Super-Sized
For a while, they were the biggest names in hip-hop, and their crossover success made many power players of the genre hungry for similar mainstream acceptance. Who else could prompt two eating puns in that sentence but The Fat Boys, whose debut album is coming out next month in a unique deluxe package. First known as The Disco 3, the Brooklyn-based Fat Boys - Mark "Prince Markie Dee" Morales, Damon "Kool Rock-Ski" Wembley and Darren "Buff Love" Robinson - were at first glance the latest in a
Review: "Album Produced By: More Of My Roller Coaster Life" by Bruce Kimmel
At The Second Disc, we're (literally) all about reissues! But none of the titles we cover daily would be possible without the efforts of the producers who select the bonus tracks, commission the liner notes, oversee the remastering and pull the packaging together. And that's just the tip of the iceberg! We have endeavored to spotlight the protean work of this select group of individuals, and have been grateful for the opportunity to conduct interviews with some of the finest in the business,
"The Very Best Of" Jazz: Concord Launches New Series With Davis, Rollins, Coltrane and More
If you've ever felt it might be a daunting task to "get into" jazz, Concord Music Group just might have the perfect releases for you. Concord is home to many of the genre's greatest labels, including Prestige, Contemporary, Riverside, Milestone, Fantasy and Pablo. With the new series simply titled The Very Best Of, the Concord team has offered an affordable, entry-level look into five of the most influential musicians of all time: Miles Davis (trumpet), John Coltrane (tenor saxophone), Sonny
Soundtrack Corner: La-La Land Has More Goldsmith, Intrada Has "Bite"
This week's soundtrack reissue offerings include two fantastical scores from one label and another pair of Jerry Goldsmith titles from a label that's done a fantastic job on recent releases from the late, great composer. Over at Intrada, they've released one of their more-requested titles: Charles Bernstein's score to the comedy Love at First Bite. The 1979 film starred George Hamilton as a spooky but ultimately light-hearted Dracula, displaced from Transylvania to modern-day New York City.
Smashing Pumpkins' "Pisces Iscariot" to Be Expanded with Bonus Discs, Cassette
Having treated fans last year to lavish expanded versions of the Smashing Pumpkins' first two LPs, Gish and Siamese Dream, Billy Corgan is again working with EMI to release a deluxe edition of the band's Pisces Iscariot compilation. Released at the end of 1994, after the band's wave of success off the Top 10, quadruple-platinum Siamese Dream through 1993 and 1994, Pisces Iscariot collated the best of the band's many non-LP B-sides (most of which were only available on import singles) as well as
They Walk The Line: Johnny Cash Celebrated By Crow, Nelson, Kristofferson, Plus Four New Compilations Due
Much like the train Johnny Cash so often sang about, the celebration of what would have been his 80th birthday year rolls on. Following the issue of Bootleg IV: The Soul of Truth earlier this year, Legacy Recordings has just announced the CD/DVD and Blu-ray releases of We Walk the Line: A Celebration of the Music of Johnny Cash. Due on August 7, these preserve the concert held on Friday, April 20, 2012 at Austin, Texas’ Moody Theater in which a wide-ranging roster of musicians paid homage to
Young, Gifted and Live: Shout! Factory Collects Two Out-of-Print Donny Hathaway Concert LPs
The late, great Donny Hathaway was rather beautifully celebrated by Rhino France some time ago with the release of a career-spanning box set. While U.S. audiences had no such luck with a similar compilation, Shout! Factory is picking up the slack and releasing a two-disc set containing both of the soul legend's long out-of-print live albums. Hathaway had recorded two sensational studio albums when Live was released in 1972. Very little of those albums are replicated here, save for "The Ghetto"
Short Takes: Neil Young's Budget Box Set, The Latest from Heart, and Incubus Goes Live
What's the contender for the title of Longest-gestating Music Box Set? That dubious honor would have to go to Neil Young's Archives, Volume 1, bandied about since the 1980s and not released until 2009. Available as 10 Blu-rays, 10 DVDs or 8 CDs, Archives provided an immersive journey deep into Young's vaults, and it picked up a Grammy Award for Art Direction in 2010. In conjunction with the massive box (supposedly the first of five such sets), Young has branded a number of his catalogue
Expanded "Green Onions" Coming From Booker T. & The MGs
Concord Music Group continues its Stax Remasters series by dipping into the label's early days with a bona fide R&B classic. The title track of Booker T. & The MGs' 1962 Green Onions is still instantly recognizable today from appearances in television (American Dad) and film (X-Men: First Class), and was in May 2012 inducted into the Library of Congress' prestigious National Recording Registry. On July 24, the original Green Onions album will be reissued and expanded with two bonus
Swing Out Sister's "Travel" Expansion Breaks Out with New Track List
Well, this certainly doesn't happen often: a previously-reported expanded edition of U.K. pop group Swing Out Sister's debut LP is undergoing some 11th-hour changes, actually picking up a few bonus tracks for good measure. When it was initially announced, the 25th anniversary edition of It's Better to Travel from Universal's U.K. arm featured the original nine-track LP and 11 bonus tracks over two discs. While there were plenty of B-sides and remixes to go around, many of them were previously
Cleveland (Still) Rocks: Ian Hunter "Complete Singles Collection 1975-83" Released By 7Ts
What do Great White, The Presidents of the United States of America and Barry Manilow have in common? Why, Ian Hunter, of course. The former Mott the Hoople frontman provided those three with enduring songs, respectively, “Once Bitten, Twice Shy,” “Cleveland Rocks” and “Ships.” The career of the singer and songwriter is being celebrated by Cherry Red’s 7Ts label with the release of Ian Hunter’s Singles Collection 1975-83. This 2-CD set compiles all 29 sides released by Hunter as a solo
Don't Cry For Julie Covington: Baroque-Pop "Beautiful Changes" Remastered and Reissued
Before Elaine Paige, before Patti LuPone, there was Julie Covington. The singer/actress was the first to sing the role of Evita in the Andrew Lloyd Webber/Tim Rice musical, introducing “Don’t Cry For Me, Argentina” on the 1976 concept album and scoring a No. 1 single in the U.K. the following year with the song. Musical theatre aficionados might also know Covington from her roles in Godspell and Guys and Dolls or even another concept album, War of the Worlds. But Covington also recorded some
Back on the Block: Jennifer Lopez Planning New Hits Set
Singer, actress, model, mogul - Jennifer Lopez has done all of these things in a surprisingly short span of time. And now, she's taking a look back at part of her career with her first ever greatest hits compilation, Dance Again...The Hits, to be released in July. From her early days as one of the "Fly Girls" dancing on FOX's In Living Color, Jennifer Lopez had quite the personality and the following. The Bronx-born performer gained critical and commercial acclaim with early film roles opposite
Release Round-Up: Week of June 26
The Beat, I Just Can't Stop It / Wha'ppen? / Special Beat Service: Deluxe Editions (Edsel) The Beat's discography is expanded in the U.K. by Edsel in fashionable 2 CD/1 DVD editions. (Don't forget: a similar five-disc box is coming out from Shout! Factory in the U.S. next month.) The Miracles, Renaissance / Do It Baby (Hip-o Select/Motown) The first two post-Smokey LPs by The Miracles on one CD. The Electric Prunes, The Complete Reprise Singles / The New Christy Minstrels, A Retrospective
Jiminy Cricket! Two Leigh Harline Scores Paired On New CD
Those who wished upon a star for more music from Leigh Harline are in luck. The Academy Award-winning composer of “When You Wish Upon a Star,” from Walt Disney’s 1940 Pinocchio, had a distinguished career in Hollywood until his death in 1969 at age 62. Kritzerland is celebrating Harline’s career with a new two-for-one CD of the great man’s scores. The Wayward Bus is making its world premiere, while The Enemy Below is returning to print after an absence of many years. Both titles are
Of Weasels, Hot Rats and Lumpy Gravy: Some Zappa Reissue Questions Answered
Ever since news broke of Universal's upcoming series of Frank Zappa reissues, there have been as many questions as answers regarding this hotly-anticipated catalogue campaign. Although the first thirteen titles, chronologically representing 1966's Freak Out! through 1971's Just Another Band From L.A., don't arrive until July 31, a trickle of information has already been released by Gail Zappa, Frank's widow and the representative of the Zappa Family Trust. Gail Zappa has taken to answering
Linkage: Catalogue Encounters from Around the Internet
While The Second Disc tries to be your No. 1 source for cool news and views on stuff around the catalogue music scene, it can't hurt to give it up for others that are doing great things in the same field. Here's a little catch-up on some nice things in that area: The Quietus has a lengthy interview with Everything But the Girl's Tracey Thorn and Ben Watt on their career and the great new reissues that are out now. The pair have some nice things to say about Edsel - things that are hard to
Dinah Shore, Songs of James Taylor Feature on Upcoming Masterworks Broadway Reissues
After a brief sabbatical, Masterworks Broadway has taken another dive into its vaults, with its first round of disc-on-demand/digital reissues since February. The label was hardly idle, however, delivering releases from Julie Andrews and Carol Burnett, and Liza Minnelli as deluxe CDs in the ensuing months, and preparing the new Broadway Cast Recording of Evita. This summer, however, Masterworks will turn its attention to two classic recordings from the 1950s and one with a more contemporary
Bend Them, Shape Them: Amen Corner "Complete Deram Recordings" Out From RPM
Turn on an American oldies radio station today and it shouldn’t be too long before you hear The American Breed’s “Bend Me, Shape Me,” a Top 5 hit in 1968. Across the pond, however, the song unequivocally belongs to Amen Corner. The Welsh outfit didn’t last long, but in a jam-packed two year period, Amen Corner produced six hits and three albums on two labels: Deram and Immediate. The Deram years have just been collected in full on RPM’s new Round Amen Corner: The Complete Deram Recordings. The
Baby, It's Burt: Cherry Red's Él Label Collects Early Bacharach On "Long Ago Last Summer"
Although Burt Bacharach had been composing songs at least since 1952, when he kicked off a long career with the instrumental “Once in a Blue Moon” for Nat “King” Cole, the Burt Bacharach “sound” didn’t truly crystallize until the early 1960s. Prior to his reshaping of the sound of adult R&B, Bacharach teamed with a variety of lyricists to craft songs in virtually every genre imaginable: rock-and-roll, rockabilly, country, pop balladry, jazz, even the novelty song. Naturally, the earliest
Checkmate: Get On Down to Expand GZA's Acclaimed "Liquid Swords"
When it was first released in 1995, Liquid Swords, the acclaimed solo album from GZA of the immortal rap collective Wu-Tang Clan, was credited to its maker as "Genius/GZA." Nearly two decades later, with a deluxe edition forthcoming from specialty label Get On Down, it's hard to argue that. Liquid Swords came at a time when the Wu-Tang Clan, who'd turned many a head with their patchwork lyrical style, idiosyncratic sense of humor and straightforward look at urban life. Enter the Wu-Tang (36
Review: Omnivore's Legends of Music and Comedy, Buck Owens and Ernie Kovacs
In the pantheon of American comedy legends, you’d likely find Ernie Kovacs, the gifted, gone-too-soon (1919-1962) personality who carved out a niche in the early days of American television. Joining Ernie in that esteemed company might well also be Buck Owens (1929-2006), the influential guitarist and songwriter who made a second career out of joking, a-pickin’ and a-grinnin’ on the cornpone television variety show Hee Haw. However different these two gentlemen are, however, Omnivore
Soundtrack Bi-fecta: Goldsmith, Grusin and More Arrive from Intrada, FSM
After a quiet month for soundtracks, save the score reissue to little-seen art-house flick Star Trek: The Motion Picture, the past week has seen three releases from Intrada and Film Score Monthly readied for film music aficionados. Intrada's first title did an excellent job of satiating anyone's post-Trek desire for more Jerry Goldsmith; it's the unreleased, unused score to 1996's 2 Days in the Valley. A twisty thriller with a solid cast (Charlize Theron, Eric Stoltz, James Spader, Teri Hatcher
Positively 4th Street: Bob Dylan's First "Greatest Hits" Goes Gold
When Bob Dylan’s Greatest Hits first appeared on record store shelves in March 1967, it was Dylan’s first offering since the previous year’s Blonde on Blonde double-LP opus and subsequent, well-publicized motorcycle accident. Although the 10-track Columbia Records set has since been superseded by numerous other compilations from the Bard of Hibbing, Dylan’s first ever Greatest Hits captures the moment in time when there was arguably no more influential songwriter. On July 3, the original Dylan
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