What do we know about The Rat Pack, that famed group of celebrity rogues and rapscallions that defined American cool in the early '60s? You might not know that only a third of the classic members of the group were initially included; The Rat Pack was initially made up of actor friends of Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall, including Frank Sinatra but not Dean Martin or Sammy Davis, Jr. But after Bogart's death and the subsequent release of Ocean's 11 in 1960, the classic image of The Rat Pack -
How Killer Are the Queen Reissue Track Lists?
I see a little silhouetto of the track lists of the forthcoming U.K. Queen remasters, as released on the band's official site today. There was a track list posted on the Steve Hoffman forums that was taken from a Japanese Web site and perhaps too heavily devoted to the remixes from The eYe (that odd 1998 computer game with five discs' worth of remixes and instrumental tracks built into the CD-ROMs and suitable for ripping to one's iPod). Those track lists were mostly wrong, thankfully. So what
Aretha Opens "The Great American Songbook"
Can't wait for that massive 11-CD/1-DVD box set, Take a Look: Aretha Franklin Complete on Columbia? Or maybe you're just looking for the perfect Valentine's Day gift? Either way, Legacy may have the disc for you. Next Tuesday, February 1, will see the under-the-radar release of Aretha Franklin's The Great American Songbook from Columbia/Legacy, compiling 18 of the tracks from that massive box set on one CD. Oddly, this release features the same cover art as the upcoming box, not due for
Reissue Theory: Hall and Oates, Extended
Welcome to another installment of Reissue Theory, here we reflect on well-known albums of the past and the reissues they could someday see. Today's post might be out of touch, but we remind fans that Sony's not out of time to release a collection of remixes for one of their greatest acts of the 1980s. There are so many artists who have a lot of great 12" mixes that are either out of print on compact disc or entirely unavailable on the format. Oddly, some of the brightest stars of the MTV era
More Smokey Reissues Cruisin' Your Way (UPDATED)
(UPDATE 1/26: This set is now available to order direct from Hip-o Select.) Usually, the first place to hear about Hip-o Select titles is through Hip-o Select themselves. They keep a semi-frequent newsletter and an active Twitter feed which usually gets the links out to their new reissues and box sets. It's strange, then, that there hasn't yet been a peep about their forthcoming installment in the long-running The Solo Albums two-fers from Smokey Robinson. Meanwhile, Amazon has put up a full
Short Takes: Soundtracks on Tap from Barry, Horner and Mancini
It's already been a busy week here at Second Disc HQ, and the news just keeps on comin'. Three more soundtracks are due from some of the finest composers in film score history: John Barry, James Horner and Henry Mancini. Before becoming an eminence grise in the world of film scoring, John Barry was best-known as the leader of the John Barry Seven, an association which led him to one of his earliest film projects, the score to the 1960 British film Beat Girl. The long-unavailable soundtrack to
Intrada Partially Finds Missing "Link"
It's always a cause for celebration in the soundtrack community when a Jerry Goldsmith score is put into print. Today is no different; one of Goldsmith's scores from the 1980s is one of the two new releases from Intrada. Link was a strange 1986 horror film from England in which Elisabeth Shue and Terence Stamp were pitted against a super-intelligent orangutan. Goldsmith was in his typical '80s form - orchestra augmented with synthesized instruments, not unlike another favorite at Second Disc HQ
Billy Joel's Shea Play on Its Way to Disc in March
The Billy Joel floodgates are about to burst open with the release of Live at Shea Stadium: The Concert, an audio scrapbook of the Piano Man's show-stopping concerts at Shea Stadium, the last major events held at the iconic sporting arena before its closure and demolition. Already documented in Last Play at Shea - a multifaceted documentary on the longtime home of the New York Mets and the Long Island-raised rocker who performed there (to be released on DVD next month) - Columbia/Legacy will
Release Round-Up: Week of January 25
Thin Lizzy, Jailbreak / Johnny the Fox / Live and Dangerous: Deluxe Editions (Universal) A trio of long-awaited deluxe editions from the U.K., featuring bonus tracks, non-LP sides and (in the case of Live and Dangerous) a DVD. (Amazon U.K.) Santana, The Swing of Delight / Zebop! / Shango: 30th Anniversary Editions (Friday Music) Though only one of them is truly a 30th anniversary edition (each album dates back from 1980, 1981 and 1982, respectively), these remasters are more than welcome for
Review: The Jayhawks, "Hollywood Town Hall" and "Tomorrow the Green Grass"
"Please don't call it 'alt-country!'," pleads The Jayhawks' archivist P.D. Larson in the liner notes to the new Legacy Edition of the band's fourth album, 1995's Tomorrow the Green Grass. But whatever you call it, the uniquely American music of the Jayhawks has endured, and is currently being celebrated by American Recordings and Sony/Legacy with two deluxe reissues produced by Larson and John Jackson. The band's major label debut from 1992, Hollywood Town Hall, has been expanded with a clutch
Upcoming Slate from Big Break Includes Edwin Starr, Patti LaBelle and More
Cherry Red's Big Break Records imprint has been the busiest arm of the U.K. reissue label group's roster by far. Joe filled you in on the expanded edition of Melba Moore's first album for Epic in 1978, but there are 11, count 'em, 11! new reissues on the slate between now and March. Of the artists covered in the latest batch, Patti LaBelle and Jon Lucien each have the most - two albums each - being reissued. For LaBelle, it's her first and third solo albums originally released on Epic, 1977's
FTD to Release Vintage Elvis Show in Vegas
The King has returned: Follow That Dream, Sony's "official bootleg" label for Elvis Presley catalogue projects, has announced its two newest titles for February, a live set and a vinyl reissue. First up is White Knight in Vegas, a 1969 performance at Las Vegas' International Hotel, the biggest showroom on the strip at the time. Fresh off the iconic NBC comeback special some nine months prior, Presley began his stint at the venue in late July, and this show captures Elvis at his showiest.
Derek, Eric and "Layla": Details Announced for 40th Anniversary Set
Prepare to be on your knees: details have been released for UMe's upcoming 40th anniversary editions of Derek & The Dominos' Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs, due out March 8. The result of a searing, bluesy collaboration between Eric Clapton, members of Delaney & Bonnie's touring outfit and Duane Allman, Layla was a critical success but sold only moderately until the title track shot to the Top 10 some two years after the album was released. It became a multigenerational hit in the
Sail On, Silvergirl: "Bridge" Returns for 40th Anniversary Edition (UPDATED 1/22)
“Bridge Over Troubled Water” began as Paul Simon’s “humble little gospel hymn song.” But upon its release, it quickly took on a life of its own. Simon’s inspirational words and music, Art Garfunkel’s spine-tingling vocal and Larry Knechtel’s majestic piano all contributed to a work that resonated deeply, as a both an epitaph for the 1960s and a reassuring affirmation for a new decade’s beginning. Believe it or not, “Bridge Over Troubled Water” is 40 years old; what’s hard to grasp isn’t that
Friday Feature: "Men in Black"
Once in a while, a great comedy comes around that makes an incredible impact on film, thanks to its quick wits, original ideas and great performances. In the 1980s, there were several great films that deftly blended comedy with science fiction and action film tropes - 1984's Ghostbusters and 1985's Back to the Future - that remain generational touchstones and modern-day classics of popular cinema. When children of the '80s say, "They don't make 'em like they used to," it's not hard to imagine
Amazon to Start Pressing Universal's Catalogue on Demand
Here's some interesting news from the too-rarely-reported business side of the catalogue world: Universal Music Group is going to start pressing out-of-print catalogue titles through Amazon's CreateSpace self-publishing and on-demand services. Similar to Warner and Collectors' Choice's Tartare program, the UMG/CreateSpace partnership will see the label licensing its out-of-print content to the online service's Disc on Demand program. Each copy of an album under this program is made direct to
More of Melba: Moore's Epic Debut Due from BBR
By 1978, Melba Moore had already established herself as a multifaceted musical force. After making her Broadway debut as Dionne ("White Boys") in the original Broadway company of Hair, she picked up a Tony Award in 1970 for her performance in Purlie, where she introduced the showstopping "I Got Love." In 1978, she was starring in New York opposite the legendary Eartha Kitt in Timbuktu! and ready to resume her solo recording career. With stints on the Mercury and Buddah labels behind her, she
Short Takes: Early Details on Reissues from Pearl Jam, Kate Bush
A new Rolling Stone article has revealed some details about the upcoming batch of catalogue titles from Pearl Jam. The forthcoming reissues of Vs. (1993) and Vitalogy (1994) will feature "previously unheard bonus tracks (including an alternate version of “Corduroy” and a guitar-and-organ version of “Betterman”), an entire 1994 Boston show and a cassette from their Monkeywrench radio series." The article is not clear, but it seems as though both albums and bonus material may be paired together,
Back Tracks: Aerosmith Part I - The Columbia Years
Aerosmith isn't dead, but it may as well be. Frontman Steven Tyler was preposterous in his first televised appearance as a judge on American Idol (though there was some very funny writing about the whole ordeal), and if you're like me, you wish Tyler had stepped away from such ridiculous duties and went on to perform with what many have called America's greatest rock and roll band - even if it sounded more like their recent, pop-oriented rock instead of their bluesy, pre-metal days. To
Kinks Reissues Get Klearer
The other day we'd mentioned that The Kinks' first three U.K. albums were being expanded across the pond. Amazon's U.K. pages had track listings for the double-disc sets, but there wasn't much in the way of annotations. If a song popped up twice, was it an alternate mix? A live version? A demo? We didn't know, so we didn't say much. Now, U.K. site Spin CDs has put up track listings for Kinks, Kinda Kinks and The Kink Kontroversy, and while there's still a small bit of speculation to be had, the
Massive Live Dead Box Coming in Fall
Do you love The Grateful Dead? I mean really love-with-capital-letters-bold-italicized-and-underlined LOVE The Grateful Dead? Well, there's a massive box set coming your way to help you express that love. In its newest issue, Rolling Stone reports a box is coming from Rhino that will chronicle The Dead's European tour of 1972 in its entirety, all from original 16-track recordings. It's going to be 60 discs of 22 shows, in their entirety, unedited and bursting at the seams with liner notes and
Reissue Theory: Sammy Davis, Jr., Compiled: "Sammy in the Seventies"
Welcome to another installment of Reissue Theory, here we reflect on well-known albums of the past and the reissues they could someday see. Today, we look at a beloved American icon and one of the least anthologized periods of his lengthy career. There may be no figure in American popular culture more maligned in death than Sammy Davis, Jr. The image of the diminutive entertainer, clad in open shirts and bell-bottoms, wearing beads and gold chains, and with an ever-present cigarette dangling
Zombies LPs to Be Revived As Double-Disc Sets
Repertoire Records is releasing double-disc editions of the original two albums by The Zombies. The British group, acclaimed for such singles as "She's Not There" and "Time of the Season," only cut two albums in the late '60s - Begin Here for Decca and Odessy and Oracle for CBS - before splitting up. But there was plenty of material to be had; there were quite a few non-LP singles and a host of material for a third, never-released album. This work has been anthologized before - perhaps most
La La Land Goes Live with First Releases of 2011
La La Land Records' first titles of 2011 were promised earlier this month, and they're now available to order. Two television shows, the '60s war program The Rat Patrol and the late '80s Western The Young Riders, are being presented in premiere releases (1,200 units each), alongside a straight, unlimited reissue of the original soundtrack to Solaris (2002) with improved sound quality. It's a smaller-scale start, but La La Land also recently promised they're again appearing at this year's San
Back Tracks: Queen, Part II
We continue our coverage of Queen's previous reissues - in anticipation of the band's forthcoming remasters on new U.K. home Island Records - with a look at Queen during most of the '80s, where they went increasingly pop-friendly before returning to their rock roots in the 1990s, losing their iconic frontman and becoming anthologized in nearly a dozen or so compilations. The show must go on, after the jump.
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