But Never Ever On A Sunday: él Collects Greek Cinema Classics, Early Michel Legrand
For the past seven decades, Michel Legrand has been composing rich melodies for film, stage, television and records. The three-time Academy Award winner and co-writer of such songs as “The Windmills of Your Mind,” “What Are You Doing the Rest of Your Life” and “Happy (Love Theme from Lady Sings the Blues)” has been a prolific recording artist since the 1950s, and now Cherry Red’s él label has recently reissued some of his earliest work on Bonjour Paris/Le Joli Mai/Rendez-vous a Paris. The American Columbia Records label took an interest in the French…
Sarah Vaughan’s “Live at Rosy’s” Premieres 1978 Concert On CD
“Live from Rosy’s…The Divine One, Sarah Vaughan!” So begins Resonance Records and NPR Music’s new release, Live at Rosy’s. It would take an extraordinary talent to live up to that sobriquet, but throughout her career, Sarah Vaughan certainly did. Live at Rosy’s is the first commercial release of Vaughan’s May 31, 1978 performances at the New Orleans nightspot, recorded for NPR’s Jazz Alive program and presented here as remastered from the original eight multitrack reels. Vaughan was backed by Carl Schroeder on piano, Walter Booker on bass and Jimmy Cobb on drums…
Release Round-Up: Week of March 25
Welcome to this week’s Release Round-Up! Bob Dylan, The Bootleg Series Vol. 6 – Live 1964: Concert at Philharmonic Hall (Audio Fidelity) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada) Bob Dylan’s The Bootleg Series Vol. 6 – Live 1964: Concert at Philharmonic Hall comes to hybrid 5.0 multichannel SACD for the first time. Audio Fidelity’s release will boast a full booklet (as on the original standard CD release) and is playable in stereo on all CD players. Read more here! Various Artists, Kinked! Kinks Songs and Sessions 1964-1971 (Ace) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon…
With a Little Help From Their Friends: Esoteric Reissues “McGough and McGear” In Mono and Stereo
The original 1968 LP issue of McGough and McGear reprinted a handwritten list of “People on a Train.” These famous people included Jimi Hendrix, Spencer Davis, Gary Leeds of the Walker Brothers, Dave Mason, John Mayall, Graham Nash, Paul Samwell-Smith, Jane Asher and a certain Paul McCartney. The train, in fact, was the studio where Roger McGough and Mike McGear – real name, Mike McCartney – recorded their only album as a duo. The unconventional yet accessible art-rock classic, produced in part by the future Sir Paul and featuring all of those…
Made For These Times: TRACK LISTING REVEALED For The Beach Boys ‘ “Pet Sounds 50”
On June 10, Capitol/UMe will reissue The Beach Boys’ 1966 masterwork Pet Sounds in a variety of formats to mark its 50th anniversary. If you haven’t read our previous story on the upcoming 4-CD/1-Blu-ray box set and more, do not pass go, do not collect $200…just go right here! Now, without further ado, here’s the complete, newly-confirmed track listing and pre-order links for the various iterations of Pet Sounds 50! The Beach Boys, Pet Sounds: 50th Anniversary Deluxe Edition (Capitol/UMe, 2016) 4-CD/1-BD Deluxe Edition: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. TBD / Amazon…
De-Luxe: Cherry Red Chronicles The Sound of Shoegaze On “Still in a Dream” Box Set
Noise-rock, dream-pop, post-punk, drone-rock, neo-psychedelia…all of these musical subgenres and more became components of the shoegaze sound. The term itself was rather derisively coined by the press to describe a certain group of musicians’ tendencies to stare down at their feet while performing – partly out of introspection, partly out of necessity to operate guitar effects pedals. But the “shoegaze” term stuck, and so did the music. Still in a Dream: A Story of Shoegaze, a lavish, hardcover book-style 5-CD box set, arrived last month from Cherry Red Records. It celebrates the…
Still Driving: America Releases “Lost and Found” On Vinyl
Last year, Gerry Beckley and Dewey Bunnell, a.k.a. America, released two significant archival collections bookending their still-thriving career. Archives Vol. 1 presented 15 previously unreleased alternate versions, early mixes, demos, rehearsals and outtakes spanning the halcyon period between America’s 1971 debut album America and 1975’s Hearts. These, of course, featured Beckley and Bunnell in addition to original member Dan Peek. Lost and Found pressed fast-forward on the band’s history with 10 tracks recorded by Beckley and Bunnell between 2000 and 2011. Both of these collections produced and compiled by singer-songwriter Jeff Larson,…
Slip Away: Ace Reissues, Expands Two Albums From Soul Legend Clarence Carter
As 2000 ushered in a new millennium, it also reintroduced the soulful voice of Clarence Carter on Cameron Crowe’s Grammy-winning soundtrack to Almost Famous. Being the sole (pun intended) R&B gem on this compilation, Crowe embedded Carter’s hit song, “Slip Away” into what is otherwise his definitive 1970s classic rock retrospective. This is not to say that Carter is the only R&B artist found in the film proper. On the contrary, Stevie Wonder’s “My Cherie Amour” was masterfully used as an “eleven o’clock number” in the Plaza Hotel scene toward the conclusion…
Chance of a Lifetime: 7a Releases Micky Dolenz’s First Single In 33 Years
Come April, Micky Dolenz will be returning to a place where he hasn’t appeared in 33 years. No, the performing mainstay won’t be discovering some new, far-flung venue. But he will be returning to the single shelves of record store racks with his first 45 RPM release since 1983. 7a Records, the label responsible for Dolenz’s The MGM Singles Collection and the recent An Evening with Peter Noone and Micky Dolenz, will release “Chance of a Lifetime” b/w “Living on Lies” in conjunction with Europe’s Record Store Day festivities on Saturday, April…
Breathe Me: Sia’s “Colour the Small One” Gets Vinyl Debut
Before Sia hit it big, both as a pop songwriter for Rihanna, Beyonce and Britney Spears and an enormous-voiced singer of tunes like “Titanium,” “Chandelier” and recent hit “Alive,” she was a quirky, tuneful indie-pop artist whose albums became critical darlings if not commercial successes. One such project, her third album Colour the Small One, is being reissued this spring, as both a digital expanded edition and, for the first time, a vinyl offering. Colour the Small One was, upon release in 2004, an intriguing step in Sia’s budding solo career. The…
Wouldn’t It Be Nice: “Pet Sounds” 50th Anniversary Celebrated in June With Multiple Editions Including 4 CD/Blu-ray Box Set
On May 16, 1966, one of the most acclaimed albums in pop/rock history was released: The Beach Boys’ Pet Sounds. 2016 marks the 50th anniversary of this landmark album and it is being commemorated in several ways. Brian Wilson is embarking on a concert tour in a little under a week in which he and his band will play the album in its entirety for what’s being billed as the last time. And it has just been revealed that a new box set is due to be released on June 10 by Capitol/UMe…
Review: Elvis Presley, “The Album Collection”
I. Playing for Keeps “You don’t have to face the music…you don’t have to face the crowd…Just go back where you came from,” sings a world-weary Elvis Presley on “It’s Easy for You,” the closing track of his 1977 album Moody Blue. “If you ever tire of the good life, call me in a year or two…I’ve got no choice, I’ll forgive you, ’cause it’s easy for you.” Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice’s musical recrimination not only dated back to the superstar artist’s final studio session – at home in Graceland,…
Release Round-Up: Week of March 18
Welcome to this week’s Release Round-Up featuring a host of titles on CD and vinyl! Elvis Presley, The Album Collection (RCA/Legacy) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada) To coincide with the 60th anniversary of his signing to RCA, Elvis Presley’s The Album Collection is a whopping 60-disc box set containing 57 RCA albums released during Presley’s lifetime (many with bonus tracks added) and 3 bonus discs of rarities, one disc each for the ’50s, ’60s and ’70s. A 300-page hardcover book accompanies this landmark set. You’ll find more details here. Watch…
Dan Fogelberg, Johnny Paycheck, Beau Brummels, More Join Bobby Darin On Real Gone’s May Slate
Real Gone Music has just announced its May release slate, and with rock, jazz, gospel, country, pop and beyond, it’s one of the label’s most diverse months yet! Naturally, we’re partial to the May 6 release of Bobby Darin’s Another Song on My Mind: The Motown Years from Real Gone and our own Second Disc Records (get all of the details right here!), but there’s plenty more on offer, too! Bobby Darin was a remarkable singer-songwriter; another beloved titan of popular song is the late Dan Fogelberg. He’s celebrated on the 2-CD,…
Find Out What’s Happening: Ace Explores “Where Soul Meets Country” On New Collection
Between 2012 and 2014, Ace issued three volumes of Where Country Meets Soul. All three volumes featured many of the greatest soul singers of all time tackling country-and-western repertoire. Now, the label has revisited the country-soul territory – in reverse! Out of Left Field: Where Soul Meets Country presents 24 sizzling R&B songs as sung by country’s greatest performers, and most are surprisingly comfortable fits. Stax thought it was onto something when it ushered Daaron Lee into the studio to re-record one of the label’s own hits, Johnnie Taylor’s “Who’s Making Love,” in…
Love is the Drug: Grace Jones’ “Warm Leatherette” Gets Expanded
“See the breaking glass in the underpass…” Universal will expand Grace Jones’ influential fourth album Warm Leatherette this summer with a variety of formats. Jones’ tenure on Island Records has been the subject of some fascinating reissues in recent years. Her 1981 masterpiece Nightclubbing was expanded in 2014, and the following year saw the release of Disco, a box set compiling her first three albums with producer Tom Moulton, released between 1977 and 1979. Warm Leatherette is the latest link in that chain–her fourth record and her first of three recorded at…
Playing In The Band: Rhino Unveils 12-CD, 3-CD Sets For Grateful Dead’s July 1978 Concerts
There’s more Dead on the way from Rhino. 1978 was a successful year for Grateful Dead on many levels. The band released Shakedown Street, its second album for Clive Davis’ Arista label, and played over 80 shows, including three landmark performances at the Giza Pyramids in Egypt. On May 13, Rhino will draw into that vast well of live recordings for a major box set. The 12-CD set July 1978: The Complete Recordings focuses on five previously unreleased concerts from that month, and marks the first official release of master recordings from…
Release Your Love: Robinsongs Expands Two Isley Brothers Albums
The Isley Brothers’ first studio album, in 1959, made listeners want to Shout! with its soulful blend of doo-wop, R&B, jazz, rock and roll, and gospel. Ronald, O’Kelly and Rudolph Isley followed up that RCA Victor LP with tenures at labels including Wand, United Artists, Atlantic, and most notably, Motown, before setting up shop at their own T-Neck label. The Isleys’ line-up would expand and alter over the years, but their marriage of soul, funk and rock would keep them at the forefront of popular music for decades. In 1985, following the…
Hang On To Yourself: David Bowie’s “A Reality Tour” Comes To Vinyl
On October 7, 2003, David Bowie launched A Reality Tour in support of his 23rd studio album, Reality. The tour took the legendary artist to North America, Europe, Asia, Australia, New Zealand and The Bahamas for 112 electrifying shows before it was curtailed due to Bowie’s health. In October 2004, A Reality Tour was issued on DVD, capturing the Point Theatre, Dublin performances of November 2003. In 2010, the audio to the concerts was released on CD. On June 3 of this year, Friday Music will issue A Reality Tour on vinyl…
To Know Them Is To Love Them: Dolly, Emmylou and Linda Release “The Complete Trio Collection”
Individually, Dolly Parton, Linda Ronstadt and Emmylou Harris have created some of the most beautiful records of all time, blurring the lines between country, pop, folk, and rock-and-roll. Collectively, the threesome released two transcendent and heartfelt albums, Trio (1987) and Trio II (1999). The two landmark LPs garnered sales of over five million copies and three Grammy Awards and became beloved additions to all three artists’ discographies. Today, Rhino Records announced the September 9 release of The Complete Trio Collection, available in three formats. Emmylou Harris has produced The Complete Trio Collection, a 3-CD release…
Moonlight Serenades: Bruce Kimmel Talks Complete Glenn Miller Soundtracks Coming To CD!
Legendary bandleader Glenn Miller only made two film appearances as an actor. 20th Century Fox’s 1941 musical Sun Valley Serenade introduced two standards into the American Songbook – “Chattanooga Choo Choo” and “At Last” – and earned three Academy Award nominations. Its 1942 follow-up, Orchestra Wives, moved Miller from featured status to above-the-title billing and introduced another Oscar-nominated hit, “I’ve Got a Gal in Kalamazoo.” Yet both films, and their remarkable treasure trove of music, have remained largely unheralded. The Kritzerland label is setting out to change that with the first-ever complete…
Review: Jeff Buckley, “You and I”
In February 1993, the young Jeff Buckley entered producer Steve Addabbo’s Shelter Island Sound studio in New York City to record a series of demos for his new label, Columbia Records. On these tracks, Buckley explored a variety of material as he found his “voice” in the recording studio. Never intended for release, the Shelter Island demos were discovered during research for the 20th anniversary reissue of the late singer’s 1994 breakthrough Grace. Now, Columbia Records and Legacy Recordings have released them from the vault on CD, digital download and vinyl as…
And The Wheels Keep Turning: Esoteric Reissues Two Tony Banks Albums As CD/DVD Sets
Last year, Tony Banks went A Chord Too Far with a career-spanning box set; now, the Genesis keyboardist has teamed once more with Esoteric Recordings for a CD/DVD edition of his sophomore solo album, 1983’s The Fugitive. The first disc presents a new stereo mix of the album plus two bonus tracks, while the DVD includes a DTS 5.1 surround mix, a 96/24 PCM stereo mix, and a promotional music video. The Fugitive has recently arrived alongside a new pressing of the similar 2009 CD/DVD reissue of Banks’ first solo release A…
Release Round-Up: Week of March 11
This week’s Release Round-Up is filled with reissues and anthologies from favorite artists on both CD and vinyl! Peter Noone and Micky Dolenz, An Evening with Peter Noone and Micky Dolenz (7a Records) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada) Today sees the U.S. release of one of the coolest titles so far of 2016! An Evening with Peter Noone and Micky Dolenz captures the candid, intimate conversations between the rock legends recorded earlier this year. The first CD in this deluxe new package presents the conversation from January 7 recorded at Westbury,…
UPDATED: Bobby Darin’s “Another Song On My Mind: The Motown Years” Coming In May For His 80th!
Look out, old Bobby is back! On May 14, 2016, Bobby Darin would have turned 80 years old. Though he tragically passed away at the age of 37 on December 20, 1973, he accomplished more in these short years than most artists do in a lifetime. It’s no wonder that Darin remains one of the most electrifying entertainers the world has ever known. Earlier this year, Second Disc Records and Real Gone Music announced the release of a new title from two legendary icons of American popular song: Bobby Darin and Motown Records!…