Oh, for the days when there was a bounty of venues to hear the latest, greatest music on television. By far, one of the greatest vanguards of popular music in the halcyon days of the medium was Ed Sullivan, host of his eponymous show from 1948 to 1971. While Sullivan found himself somewhat bemused by the wide variety of talent he showcased - legendarily confining camera angles on Elvis Presley to tight shots that wouldn't expose too much of his gyrating hips - he generally picked performers
Review: Alberta Hunter, "Downhearted Blues"
Alberta Hunter may have sang the blues, but she was far from forlorn when she took the stage at New York’s Cookery, at 8th Street and University Place, in 1981 to record the gig captured on Downhearted Blues: Live at the Cookery. Newly remastered on both CD and 180-gram vinyl from Rockbeat Records (ROC-CD-3024, 2011), this 18-track live set captures the bawdy blues singer at the ripe age of 86 and just as vibrant than she was in the 1920s and 1930s recording for storied labels like OKeh,
Different Drums: Music Club Compiles Linda Ronstadt and George Benson
The U.K.-based Music Club Deluxe label continues to raid the Warner Music Group archives with two new collections following similar sets for Dionne Warwick and Chicago. Linda Ronstadt: The Collection and George Benson: The Collection are both due next Monday, September 5, and these 2-CD sets celebrate the long careers of two music legends. Ronstadt’s fans will be glad to know that Music Club Deluxe has licensed tracks from Capitol Records to create a fairly comprehensive overview of the
Who's Next? "Quadrophenia" Gets The "Director's Cut" Treatment In November [UPDATED 8/31 WITH TRACK LIST]
UPDATE: The full press release with track list is now after the jump. Original post:After Tommy, there was Jimmy. He’s the protagonist of Pete Townshend’s rock opera Quadrophenia, first a 1973 2-LP studio album by The Who, then a 1979 film and most recently a 2009 musical. Never one for small ideas, Quadrophenia was Townshend’s way of working out the relationship between the band and its fans while telling the story of a prototypical Mod Who fan. The album yielded some of The Who’s most
Review: Charles "Packy" Axton, "Late Late Party: 1965-67"
Were there a Stax family portrait, label founders Jim Stewart and Estelle Axton would undoubtedly be surrounded by any number of the famed artists they shepherded to fame: Otis Redding, Isaac Hayes, Steve Cropper, Booker T. Jones, Donald “Duck” Dunn, Eddie Floyd and the Wicked Wilson Pickett, to name a few. And lurking somewhere near the corner of the frame, in the shadows, would be Charles “Packy” Axton, his saxophone in tow, looking for the nearest party. Though Axton is far from a household
With A Little Help From His Friends: James Burton Anthology Features Everlys, Nelson, Hazlewood and Buffalo Springfield
When James Burton was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2001, no less a legend than Keith Richards delivered his induction speech. Richards was just one of the many guitarists influenced over the years by Burton, a talent whose C.V. boasts names like Rick Nelson, Johnny Cash, Merle Haggard, Elvis Costello, Roy Orbison, Jerry Lee Lewis, Joni Mitchell, John Denver, and oh yeah, Elvis Presley. Burton’s talent has transcended genre and classification, and at the age of 72, he
Someday, Somehow, Someone's Gotta Play
La-La Land Records has a one-man army for their latest film score reissue: James Horner, for his score to the hit action film Commando. Unless you've been living in a particularly nonviolent box these past 26 years, Commando was one of the first major starring vehicles for bodybuilder/actor/future governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. Yes, Schwarzenegger was certainly in the national consciousness in two killer sci-fi/fantasy roles, as the title characters in Conan the Barbarian (1982) and The
Gone, Baby, Real Gone: New Label From Collectors' Choice and Hep Cat Founders To Launch November 8
It was a mere three weeks ago that we reported on the formation of Real Gone Music, a new venture between Collectors’ Choice Music’s Gordon Anderson and Hep Cat Records’ Gabby Castellana. That announcement generated a great deal of excitement around these parts, and you can read that initial story (along with the spirited discussion that ensued) at the link above. Well, we’re bursting at the seams to pass on the news that Real Gone is up and running! On August 26, Real Gone Music updated its
I Can't Wait for Saturday! Classic CHIC Production to Receive CD Expansion
Anyone who knows the story of CHIC (told quite well in last year's box set and to be told on the printed page in guitarist/producer Nile Rodgers' memoir in October) knows that their success was not limited to their roles as lead performers but writing and production as well - not just for themselves, but for a host of luminaries from Sister Sledge to Diana Ross. The first step in that direction, though, was a solo album for CHIC singer Norma Jean Wright, the first extracurricular project
From Monro With Love: "The Singer's Singer" Box Set Due From EMI
Matt Monro never met a genre of music he didn’t like. Whether covering standards, tackling contemporary pop hits or singing in Spanish, that reassuring, velvet croon, unerring interpretive skills and all-around good taste made Matt Monro “the singer’s singer.” A 2001 EMI box set of that title was a limited edition of 3,000 copies, and quickly disappeared from store shelves, but EMI will re-offer that 103-track box set in a budget-priced reissue due in the U.K. on September 12. And it gets
Release Round-Up: Week of August 29
Spin Doctors, Pocket Full of Kryptonite: 20th Anniversary Edition (Epic/Legacy) The "Two Princes" guys...hey, stop laughing...have their hit debut album remastered and expanded - cut that out! - with a bonus disc of demos and rarities. (Official site) Aerosmith, Celine Dion, The Byrds and Carole King, The Essential 3.0 (Columbia/Epic/Legacy) Four Essential compilations get the third-disc treatment. Note that the Celine Dion title is identical to 2008's My Love: The Essential Collection and
The Aeroplane Flies High: Vinyl Box Coming from Neutral Milk Hotel
As principal singer, songwriter and driving force between darling indie outfit Neutral Milk Hotel, Jeff Mangum has spent much of the last decade as one of the most mysterious and low-profile of respected musicians. It looks like things may be changing, however, thanks in part to a vinyl box set curating Neutral Milk Hotel's discography. Ruston, Lousiana-born Mangum began recording in earnest under the Neutral Milk Hotel moniker in the mid-1990s. The collective nature of his albums (early works
A(nother) Man and a Woman: Vintage Francis Lai Coming From Kritzerland
Had Francis Lai only composed the immortal (and for a time, ubiquitous) themes to Un Homme et Une Femme (A Man and a Woman) and Love Story, his name would have gone down in the annals of both film and popular music. Thankfully, Lai – born in 1932 in Nice, France – has offered us much, much more. Un Autre Homme, Une Autre Chance (Another Man, Another Chance) arrived from director Claude Lelouch (the director of A Man and a Woman, and the director with whom Lai has had one of the longest-lasting
Wes Montgomery's Verve Years "Movin'" to CD on New Box Set
Hip-o Select announced their latest box set release just before the weekend: a massive chronicle of legendary guitarist Wes Montgomery's output for Verve Records. Montgomery was already an influential jazz player in the late '50s and early '60s when signed to Riverside Records. His thumb-picked guitar stylings influenced countless axe men, from Pat Metheny to Jimi Hendrix, and his plethora of recordings from the era give even the most seasoned fans much to treasure. But when he joined Impulse!
BREAKING NEWS! Good, Good, Good Vibrations: The Beach Boys' "SMiLE" Arrives November 1
Surf's up. At long last, we can finally announce that SMiLE is coming to a shop near you. On November 1, Capitol Records will release The Beach Boys' 1967 lost masterwork as The SMiLE Sessions in three editions: a 5-CD/2-LP/2 7-inch single box (yes, 9 discs!), a slimmer 2-CD version and a 2-LP set. Where to start? First, I recommend digging that artwork at your left. Has it settled in that this set is becoming a reality? Good. Read on, friends. The saga of SMiLE, 2011, was becoming
Dreams Come True: Aerosmith's Classics Coming to iTunes
While most fans of The Second Disc wouldn't know it - likely owning some of the remasters and compilations that have been on shelves in the past - much of the Aerosmith catalogue has not been available digitally. This changes with the recent announcement of Aerosmith's first Columbia-era output, including all studio and live albums and select compilations, coming to iTunes on September 6. Pre-order links are already up through the digital provider for Aerosmith's seven studio albums from 1973's
Miles Davis' "Blue Flame" Continues To Burn Bright With New Fan-Selected Comp
For many, the very art of jazz is inextricably tied to the art of improvisation, or creating in the moment. So it’s both innovative and altogether appropriate that Legacy Recordings is spearheading an improvised album of a sort for one of jazz’s true greats, the trumpeter and composer Miles Davis. Though christened Blue Flame, little else has been set in stone for the digital-only album which will be released on September 26. (And even that title was chosen via a fan poll! Doesn’t it tip the
Clapton Sings the Blues: Vinyl Box Set to Anthologize Late Period Albums
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pHmbLs7sd5w] Vinyl enthusiasts are going to have Slowhand for the holidays. A report from fanzine Where's Eric? announces the November release of Clapton Blues, a five-vinyl box set that encompasses three of Clapton's great late-period blues albums. First up is From the Cradle, Clapton's first LP since the triumphant success of his MTV Unplugged appearance in 1992. It's a raw, straight pass of a set (the liner notes detail only two overdubs and no
Act Naturally: Buck Owens Is "Bound For Bakersfield"
Buck Owens and Bakersfield have always gone together, the singer and guitarist inextricably linked to his California home. Owens’ “Bakersfield Sound” was a carefully-developed response to the slick, string-laden productions frequently coming out of Nashville, and a return to real country roots in the late 1960s. RockBeat Records is building an eclectic line-up (including a new studio recording from a California legend of the pop/rock world, Jackie DeShannon) and has announced Bound for
Speaking of Monkees: Rhino Announces Very Limited "Head" Vinyl
A no-nonsense brief on this story, because the product may be gone by the time you read: Rhino's taking orders on a special vinyl repressing of Head for you Monkeemaniacs out there. It's not as involved as last year's box set, but this 180-gram clear vinyl pressing of the album will feature a bonus 7" single of two tracks from the Rhino Handmade deluxe edition, "Circle Sky (Live)" and "Can You Dig It (Mono Mix)." There's only 500 of them going to be made, though, so act fast! Here's the link,
Review: Original Cast, "Half-Past Wednesday"
Anyone have a little love for Rumpelstiltskin? The Brothers Grimm popularized the story of the mischievous imp in the early part of the 19th century, but he has never received the same kind of commercial fame as many of the Grimms’ other creations. No wonder, then, that Rumpelstiltskin was so ornery when he appeared as the villain of Shrek Forever After. And how many indignities did he survive as the titular character of a 1996 grade B horror film! Rumpelstiltskin has had a few moments in
What's the World? James Offer Up New Rarities Box
Manchester's James have been going strong for nearly 30 years, amassing some 19 Top 40 singles in their native England. It's kind of a surprise, then, that the recently-announced The Gathering Sound is only their first box set. But it sure is a good one. The set chronicles James' discography, from their earliest recordings in 1982 to last year's EPs The Night Before and The Morning After, across three CDs, one DVD, a vinyl record and a USB stick. The three CDs feature a program of studio
UPDATED 8/25: Daydream Believing: "The Monkees" Returns To DVD
When the winner of Outstanding Comedy Series was announced at the 1967 Emmy Awards, it came as quite a shock. It wasn't the timeless magic of Elizabeth Montgomery and co. in Bewitched, nor the homespun sweetness of The Andy Griffith Show. Agent 99 and Agent 86 of Get Smart didn't win the prize, and Colonel Klink and the gang at Hogan's Heroes were similarly empty-handed. The winner that year was The Monkees, a kooky and wildly irreverent comic romp starring those crazy kids, Micky, Davy, Peter
It Might As Well Be Swing, Again: Complete "Sinatra-Basie" Coming Soon From Concord
When Frank Sinatra launched Reprise Records in 1961 with Ring-a-Ding Ding!, the greats of the jazz world came to the future Chairman of the Board. Johnny Mandel arranged that volcanic first offering, and Sinatra’s next concept albums teamed the singer’s singer with a top flight of talents, past and present: Billy May, Sy Oliver, Don Costa, Gordon Jenkins, Robert Farnon and a trumpeter, arranger and composer named Neal Hefti. That last-named gent would figure prominently in a 1963 collaboration
Soundtrack Round-Up: La-La Land Goes "Commando," Intrada Goes "Galactica"
Another pair of great stories for catalogue film score fans from around the way - another great sci-fi release from Intrada and a surprise expansion from La-La Land Records! Intrada's first in a series of archival titles devoted to Stu Phillips' score for the original Battlestar Galactica television show, released earlier this year, was a considerable hit. Naturally, the label was ready to partner with Universal on more volumes, and the second was released Monday - a nice companion piece to the
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