In The Mood: Rollofone Label Celebrates Glenn Miller On New Album Of 78 RPM Records
The vinyl revival has certainly brought its fair share of unexpected projects on 33 and 45…but how about 78 RPM? Rollofone Records, a Texas-based independent label, recently announced plans to reissue ten sides from the legendary Glenn Miller Orchestra as a limited edition album of five 78 RPM records entitled Swing for the Jukebox. Featuring Miller’s signature “Moonlight Serenade” as well as the era-defining, chart-topping “In the Mood” and “Tuxedo Junction” and other hits like “Pennsylvania 6-5000,” Swing for the Jukebox has been licensed from Sony Music Entertainment, successors to RCA’s Bluebird…
Analog Spark Breathes New Life Into Three Classic Broadway Cast Recordings
Curtain up! Analog Spark, the audiophile imprint of Razor and Tie, has brought back the luster of yesteryear with a trio of reissues from the days when people dressed up to go to the theatre. The label has given the Original Broadway Cast Recordings of My Fair Lady, West Side Story and Fiddler on the Roof the deluxe treatment on 180-gram vinyl, and indeed, one would be hard-pressed to think of three titles more worthy of the presentation. Fair Lady, Fiddler and West Side all reveal profound, universal truths about love, tolerance,…
Release Round-Up: Week of February 19
Welcome to this week’s Release Round-Up with titles from legends of pop, jazz, country and more! Stan Getz and Joao Gilberto, Getz/Gilberto ’76 (Resonance) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada) In 1976, Stan Getz and Joao Gilberto reunited at San Francisco’s Keystone Korner alongside pianist Joanne Brackeen, bassist Clint Houston and drummer Billy Hart. Their never-before-released set arrives in lavish fashion from Resonance Records on CD and vinyl. The deluxe CD includes a 32-pg booklet of essays by author James Gavin, bossa nova pioneer Carlos Lyra, Stan’s son Steve Getz, and producers…
For Whom The Bell Tolls: Metallica Catalogue Project Begins with Two Deluxe Box Sets
Years after Metallica took control of their own masters through their Blackened Records imprint, the metal masters will begain a super deluxe rollout of their classic hard rock albums. The band announced details for extensive reissues of their first two albums, Kill ‘Em All (1983) and Ride the Lightning (1984), vault-clearing affairs that offer the remastered original albums alongside rare and unreleased B-sides, demos, rough mixes and video footage across CD, DVD and vinyl. Altogether, there are six LPs, two picture discs, 11 CDs and two DVDs between these two packages! Formed in 1981 in Los…
Go Your Own Way: Fleetwood Mac’s “In Concert” Gets Standalone Vinyl Release
Last December, Fleetwood Mac expanded its seminal album Tusk to box set proportions. Among the material premiering on the Tusk: Deluxe Edition was an all-new 2-CD concert album featuring 22 previously unreleased live recordings from the band’s 1979-1980 tour. On March 4, Fleetwood Mac: In Concert will arrive for the first time as a stand-alone vinyl release. Pressed on 180-gram vinyl with Tusk-inspired artwork, its three LPs will be presented in a tri-fold jacket. The music heard on In Concert was recorded at four stops (Wembley, Tucson, St. Louis, Omaha) during the…
Love Is: Robinsongs Reissues A Quiet Storm Pair from Maze Featuring Frankie Beverly
Frankie Beverly began his recording career in his native Philadelphia, but it wasn’t until he took his band Raw Soul to San Francisco that the group began to pick up steam. With the support of Marvin Gaye, Raw Soul became Maze, one of the biggest proponents of the “quiet storm” sound. Late last year, Cherry Red’s Robinsongs label reissued the final two albums by Maze featuring Frankie Beverly – Silky Soul and Back to Basics – as one 2-CD set with bonus tracks. Gaye reportedly came up with the name of Maze,…
Review: JD Souther, “Black Rose” and “Home By Dawn” Expanded Editions
Omnivore Recordings continues to mine one of the great underrated catalogues in contemporary pop-rock with two more titles from singer-songwriter JD Souther. Black Rose (1976) has been joined on compact disc by Home by Dawn (1984) with both titles splendidly remastered and featuring previously unreleased bonus tracks. These definitive reissues aren’t to be missed. The wide-ranging Black Rose, originally released on Asylum Records, remains Souther’s most diverse and expansive musical statement as well as his first to utilize significant orchestration. Produced in lavish fashion by Peter Asher, it utilized the studio to…
They Are Family: BBR Reissues, Expands Sister Sledge’s Debut “Circle of Love”
“We Are Family” catapulted Sister Sledge to stardom in 1979, but while the uplifting anthem was a breakthrough, it wasn’t a beginning. Philadelphia-based Kathy Sledge and her three older sisters Debbie, Joni and Kim had been recording for Atlantic Records since 1973 when all four members were still teenagers. In 1975, Sister Sledge’s first album, Circle of Love, was released. This lost gem has been previously released on CD in a bare-bones version, but Cherry Red’s Big Break Records label has happily revisited it as a comprehensive, expanded edition that adds 10…
Milan Records Rebuilds “Terminator” for CD and LP
He said he’d be back! Milan Records will reissue Brad Fiedel’s long out-of-print score to The Terminator on LP and CD this spring. James Cameron’s 1984 sci-fi/noir film about a cyborg sent back through time to kill the mother of a man who’d save humanity after a nuclear apocalypse and artificial intelligence uprising remains a high watermark of the genre. With a captivating mythology, groundbreaking makeup effects by Stan Winston Studio and command performances by Linda Hamilton, Michael Biehn and bodybuilder Arnold Schwarzenegger (in his breakthrough/signature role as the unstoppable machine), The…
Release Round-Up: Week of February 12
Welcome to this week’s Release Round-Up featuring the lost songs of a country-pop superstar, two more entries into an underrated SoCal songbook, new music from veteran artists, and much more! Barbara Mandrell, This Time I Almost Made It: The Lost Columbia Masters (Real Gone Music) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada) We all know Barbara Mandrell did make it…as one of the most successful country crossover superstars of all time. Now, Real Gone has rescued the legendary performer’s early, never-on-CD third and final album for Columbia Records. Even better, the…
Everything’s Coming Up Roses: Masterworks Broadway’s Winter Slate Highlighted by “Essential Sondheim,” “Sweet Charity” and “Kismet”
While the months of January and February are usually down times on Broadway, Sony’s Masterworks Broadway is keeping things going during the winter by announcing a quartet of musical theater titles to be released between now and March. The most expansive release, due February 26, is another entry in Sony’s long-running Essential series: The Essential Stephen Sondheim. Sondheim, of course, needs no introduction to musical theater aficionados. Perhaps the most acclaimed theatrical composer and lyricist of the past 50-60 years, his breathtaking canon includes shows ranging from shows like West Side Story…
Cry Wolf: New a-ha Compilation Combines Hits, Remixes on Two Discs
Last year was chock full of reissue news for fans of a-ha, with a 30th anniversary edition of the band’s landmark debut Hunting High and Low and reissues of the band’s third, fourth and fifth albums for Warner Bros. Records. This all came alongside a surprise brief reunion of the Norwegian trio, five years after their 2010 dissolution, for a new album and subsequent tour of Europe. With that tour set to kick off in Russia on March 6, the band have announced another compilation, Time and Again: The Ultimate a-ha, to…
UPDATE: Lose That Long Face: “Judy Garland Sings Harold Arlen” Premieres New-to-CD Tracks, Unearths Lost Recording
UPDATE 2/10/16: Whether imploring those around her to “Get Happy” or dreaming of a place “Over the Rainbow,” Judy Garland gave some of the most immortal performances of her career (and indeed, of the whole of popular music as well as film) with the songs of Harold Arlen. In Arlen’s sophisticated yet blues-based melodies, Garland found the perfect expressions in which to bare her soul, alternately with vulnerability, tenderness, desperation and joy. Now, JSP Records, the label which has recently released such landmark Garland collections as Lost Tracks (and the new The…
Cherry Red, SoulMusic Revive Philly Disco Sounds of Anglo-Saxon Brown
The team of Joseph Jefferson and Charles Simmons is best remembered today for their string of memorable songs penned for The Spinners under the aegis of Philadelphia soul maestro Thom Bell: “Mighty Love,” “Games People Play,” “Love Don’t Love Nobody.” But like many of the talented artists orbiting the creatively fertile Philly scene of the period, Jefferson and Simmons were multi-faceted. In 1975, Jefferson became involved with Ujima, a Richmond, Virginia-founded band that had previously released some singles on the Epic label including one with a Philly imprimatur courtesy of Thom Bell’s…
Review: The Monkees, “Classic Album Collection” and “The Cereal Box Singles”
2016 marks the 50th anniversary of the first time Micky Dolenz, Davy Jones, Michael Nesmith and Peter Tork first hit TV screens and record sleeves as The Monkees, and indeed, it’s shaping up to be an auspicious year. In advance of the restored Blu-ray premiere of The Monkees’ television show, new album Good Times! and a tour featuring Dolenz and Tork, Rhino has released The Monkees 50: Classic Album Collection, a 10-disc box set collecting the original version of every one of the band’s Colgems albums between The Monkees (1966) and Changes…
When I Say Groove: Ace Explores “Detroit Soul,” “South Texas Rhythm ‘n’ Soul” On Recent Compilations
When it comes to chronicling the various regional iterations of rock and soul, Ace Records has few equals. The U.K. label’s Kent imprint has two recent, rarities-packed collections touching on two American locales and their contributions to popular music. Dave Hamilton’s Detroit Soul Volume Two brings together 24 tracks spanning the 1960s-1980s from Hamilton’s small but prolific Motor City studios. Hamilton had been a presence on the Detroit musical landscape since the late 1940s, and continued to churn out music for decades after. The first volume of this series arrived in 2011,…
Love to Love: The Monkees Announce New Album “Good Times!” Coming In June
The Monkees turn 50 this year – and the celebration is just getting bigger and bigger! Rhino has already released two titles in conjunction with the label’s Start Your Ear Off Right campaign, The Classic Album Collection and The Cereal Box Singles (watch this space for reviews soon!), and the eagerly-awaited Blu-ray box set of the classic television show is due on April 29. Today, Rhino and Micky Dolenz took to Rolling Stone to confirm more big news: the first new Monkees album in 20 years. June 10 is the date for Good…
Release Round-Up: Week of February 5
Welcome to February’s first Release Round-Up! Elton John, Wonderful Crazy Night (Island/UMe) Deluxe Edition CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada Standard Edition CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada Vinyl: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada Box Set: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada Sir Elton returns with his 32nd studio album! Featuring his longtime band and production by T Bone Burnett, Wonderful Crazy Night returns Elton to his upbeat, piano and guitar-heavy 1970s sound. Available on standard CD (10 tracks), Deluxe Edition CD (12…
Feelin’ Groovy: Now Sounds Collects Harpers Bizarre’s “Complete Singles”
Now Sounds is back with its first release of 2016, and with it, the label is spreading some California sunshine. Harpers Bizarre’s The Complete Singles Collection 1965-1970 compiles all 26 sides issued on 45 RPM singles by Warner Bros. Records, including tracks from the group’s early incarnation as The Tikis and numerous mono mixes never before available on CD. The resulting release, which follows Now Sounds’ reissues of Harpers’ Feelin’ Groovy and Anything Goes albums, is a refreshing journey through some of the most inventive, happily frothy and sun-flecked pop music of…
Omnivore Readies New Releases From Soul Man Winfield Parker, Jazz Great Maynard Ferguson
Omnivore Recordings continues to heat up winter 2016 with releases coming from R&B titan Winfield Parker and late jazz giant Maynard Ferguson. Throughout his long career which happily continues to this day, Winfield Parker has shared stages with the illustrious likes of James Brown, The Temptations, The Four Tops, Little Richard, Etta James, Carla Thomas and Lloyd Price. Parker began his singing career at Baltimore’s Ru-Jac label, one of America’s first African-American-owned record labels (active from the early 1960s through the early 1970s). In 2015, Omnivore acquired the pioneering Ru-Jac label and…
Mint Audio, H&H, Voice Masters Offer New Stereo Recordings From Sinatra, Presley
Good news for those who enjoyed last year’s releases from Mint Audio featuring Rosemary Clooney and Jim Reeves. The U.K.-based label, also responsible for a wonderful concert release from Matt Monro, has added Elvis Presley’s The New Sessions to its release slate, while a companion title – Frank Sinatra’s The New Recordings – has arrived courtesy of H&H Music. Like the Clooney and Reeves sets, both of these (produced in association with Voice Masters) marry the artists’ original vocals to newly-created, full backing tracks. Sinatra’s The New Recordings draws on the artist’s late Columbia…
RPM Collects Mod-Rockers The Mickey Finn, Reissues Two Albums From Tim Rose
Cherry Red’s RPM label closed out 2015 on a high note with a couple of releases in today’s spotlight, from mod rockers The Mickey Finn and singer-songwriter Tim Rose. The Mickey Finn traveled in the same circles as The Rolling Stones and The Pretty Things, but despite some very close calls, the band never hit the big time. Garden of My Mind: The Complete Recordings collects The Mickey Finn’s 1964-1967 Blue Beat, Oriole, Columbia, Polydor and Direction singles along with previously unreleased demo recordings to paint a full portrait of the cult-favorite…
Popsicles, Icicles and More: Ace Collects The Best of The Murmaids
Ace Records has recently made quite a splash with the first-ever comprehensive compendium from one-hit wonder girl group The Murmaids. But as the collection so accurately titled A Few of the Things We Love reveals, the girls had more to offer than just “Popsicles and Icicles.” This collection is pure girl group manna! That nostalgic composition by the young David Gates, pre-“Make It with You” and “Baby I’m a-Want You” fame, of course kicks off this 21-track anthology comprising The Murmaids’ recordings for the Chattahoochee and Liberty labels. The 1963 No. 3…
Heat It Up: Groove Line Tells “The Salsoul Orchestra Story: 40th Anniversary Collection”
The title of The Salsoul Orchestra’s second album said it all – Nice ‘n’ Naasty. The soul-disco orchestra, originally under the baton of MFSB alumnus Vincent Montana Jr., could serve up nice, shimmering and lushly elegant soundscapes…and naasty floor-filling grooves that practically demanded you hit the dancefloor! Happily, the group has recently received a lavish tribute in the form of a sizzling 3-CD collection from Groove Line Records (the label responsible for the recent, definitive Change anthology). The Salsoul Orchestra Story: 40th Anniversary Collection chronicles the group via 37 ebullient tracks drawing…
What About Now: Daughtry Announces Hits Compilation
The idea of a greatest hits album seems to get smaller and smaller as the music business does, so it’s always noteworthy when a newer artist releases one. Such is the case for Chris Daughtry, the American Idol runner-up who remained a consistent pop-rocker after his time on the show had ended. The forthcoming It’s Not Over…The Hits So Far chronicles that decade in one succinct package. Daughtry, who finished the singing competition in fourth place behind winner Taylor Hicks and runner-up Katherine McPhee, quickly turned down an offer to front the post-grunge group Fuel, instead…