WE HAVE OUR WINNERS! ROD McKUEN “REFLECTIONS” SECOND DISCMAS GIVEAWAY!
CONGRATULATIONS! The following 15 entrants have won a copy of Varese Vintage’s brand-new Rod McKuen anthology, Reflections: The Greatest Songs of Rod McKuen, on CD! If you entered our contest via Facebook and your name is on the list below, please drop us a line at theseconddisc-at-gmail-dot-com or a Private Message on Facebook with your name and mailing address! If you entered via email, you don’t have to do anything – your CD will be in the mail soon! Watch this space soon for more exciting giveaways! ROBERT PAUL BRADY KATHY FINKELSTEIN ANNE ROBINSON…
Lose That Long Face: “Judy Garland Sings Harold Arlen” Premieres New-to-CD Tracks, Unearths Lost Recording
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 Best of…
Review: Fleetwood Mac, “Tusk: Deluxe Edition”
Can an album that sold four million copies be fairly called a cult classic? If the answer is yes, that album would certainly be Fleetwood Mac’s Tusk. One of the most willfully unconventional albums ever made, the follow-up to Rumours nonetheless went multi-platinum. Nobody expected the band that had already morphed from blues-rock to the epitome of California pop-rock (and everything in between) to defiantly go the “art-rock” route, yet that’s precisely what Mick Fleetwood, John McVie, Lindsey Buckingham, Christine McVie and Stevie Nicks did with Tusk. Now, over ten years after…
Fun, Fun, Fun: Two Unreleased Beach Boys Concerts from 1965 Released from the Vaults
Over the past several years since copyright laws were changed in the EU, it has become a tradition at the end of the year for record labels to release “copyright extension” releases featuring unreleased material from their biggest artists to protect their interests in said material. Hot off the heels of a compilation of Motown unreleased material from 1965 comes another release in this vein from a group who has made this a yearly tradition: The Beach Boys. This last Friday, Capitol put up quietly (as is the norm with these releases) on all…
A SECOND DISCMAS GIVEAWAY: Rod McKuen’s REFLECTIONS From Varese Vintage!
Varese Vintage recently celebrated a singular career when the label released Reflections –The Greatest Songs of Rod McKuen. This definitive overview of McKuen’s work as a singer-songwriter features 24 of his most famous compositions including “If You Go Away,” “Jean,” “Seasons in the Sun,” “A Man Alone” and “Love’s Been Good to Me.” I was proud to pen the liner notes for this collection, and now, Varese and I would like to give you a chance to WIN THIS NEW RELEASE! Though a self-professed loner who often wrote of isolation and solitude, McKuen had an…
Dance Yeah Dance: “Motown Unreleased 1965” Premieres Songs By Stevie Wonder, Spinners, Four Tops, Smokey Robinson
1965 was a key year for The Sound of Young America. In a tumultuous twelve-month period which saw the Selma to Montgomery marches, the United States’ escalation of military forces in South Vietnam, and the assassination of Malcolm X, the music of Motown was a cultural touchstone that spread unifying messages of love and togetherness. Berry Gordy’s label scored five Pop chart-toppers in 1965: The Supremes’ “Stop! In the Name of Love,” “Back in My Arms Again” and “I Hear a Symphony,” The Temptations’ “My Girl,” and The Four Tops’ “I Can’t…
Couldn’t I Just Tell You: Todd Rundgren and Utopia Concert From 1978 Arrives On CD
With unauthorized live releases proliferating in the E.U. drawn from radio broadcasts of variable quality, it’s refreshing to see Cherry Red’s Esoteric Recordings imprint continue its Todd Rundgren Archive Series featuring concert performances in excellent sound. The latest such release, Live at the Old Waldorf, is drawn from Rundgren and Utopia’s Saturday, August 5, 1978 concert at the San Francisco venue. Recorded for KSAN-FM, this release has been remastered from the original ¼-inch stereo master tapes. The 2-CD volume follows last year’s Live at the Electric Ballroom, recorded just a few months…
Release Round-Up: Week of December 11
This week’s Release Round-Up is slimmer than most of late, but still filled with some ideal stocking stuffers… Joe Cocker, The Life of a Man: Ultimate Hits 1968-2013 (UMe) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon Canada) UMe celebrates the life and career of the late, great Joe Cocker with this new 3-CD, 36-track anthology with greatest hits and deeper cuts including a live version of “With a Little Help from My Friends” never before released in the United States. This set was previously released in the U.K. by Sony. Miles Davis, The Last Word…
Into the Void: Rhino Reissues International Black Sabbath Expansions Ahead of Final Tour
As Black Sabbath get ready to bid farewell with their The End Tour in 2016, Rhino will say hello to a set of deluxe Sabbath reissues available in the U.S. for the first time on January 22. The label will reissue the band’s first three albums–Black Sabbath (1970), Paranoid (1970) and Master of Reality (1971)–as deluxe 2CD and 2LP sets, along with the 2002 live collection Past Lives. These collections feature the original albums, as remastered by Rhino in 2012, alongside bonus discs of rare material previously only released in U.K.-exclusive deluxe sets issued by Sanctuary Records in…
Real Gone Celebrates Christmas With The Soulful Strings, John Gary, Four Seasons
Real Gone Music is this year’s source for classic Christmas reissues – including two from our own Second Disc Records imprint! Here, we’re taking a look at three more titles from the label’s Christmas feast! At first glance, The Soulful Strings might appear to be just another of those ubiquitous sixties instrumental studio outfits, delivering MOR versions of the day’s popular hits. Yet, a closer look at Cadet Records’ Soulful Strings – and most of its brethren, truth be told – reveals some of the best musicians of the day, moonlighting from their…
Omnivore Revisits “Christmas Time Again!” With Chris Stamey and Co.!
What’s that festive sound you’re hearing? If it’s fun, fresh, and a little off the beaten path, it might just be coming from Omnivore Recordings’ recent reissue of The dB’s and Friends’ now-classic holiday party Christmas Time Again! (OVCD-152). Christmas Time first arrived as a holiday vinyl EP from the Chris Stamey Group in 1986. Seven years later, in 1993, the collection was expanded for a new CD release, with the track count jumping from seven to sixteen tunes. In 2006, Collectors Choice Music revived the album once more as Christmas Time…
Two From Captain Fingers: Robinsongs Reissues Lee Ritenour’s “Rit” and “Rit 2”
In a solo career now numbering five decades and counting, California’s Lee Ritenour – a.k.a. Captain Fingers – remains one of music’s most virtuosic and prolific guitarists. An in-demand session guitarist who has played for artists including Johnny Mathis, Barbra Streisand, Ray Charles and Aretha Franklin, Ritenour released his first recording as a leader in 1975 with First Course; his most recent, A Twist of Rit, was issued earlier this year. Now, Cherry Red’s Robinsongs imprint has looked back to Ritenour’s first two albums of the 1980s to combine Rit and Rit…
WE HAVE OUR WINNERS! “CRUISING” SOUNDTRACK SACD FROM AUDIO FIDELITY!
CONGRATULATIONS! The following 5 entrants have won a copy of Audio Fidelity’s brand-new SACD of Cruising: The Original Motion Picture Soundtrack! If you entered our contest via Facebook and your name is on the list below, please drop us a line at theseconddisc-at-gmail-dot-com or a Private Message on Facebook with your name and mailing address! If you entered via email, you don’t have to do anything – your SACD will be in the mail soon! Watch this space soon for more exciting giveaways! ROGER GRODSKY DEAN HARRIS VANCE PHILIP HEDDEREL ROBERT MINICHINI…
Review: “The Classic Christmas Album” Series 2015
Since 2011, Sony’s Legacy Recordings has offered a crop of ideal stocking stuffers with the Classic Christmas Album series. This year’s quartet of releases has a decidedly more modern bent, featuring artists associated with the ’70s (Earth, Wind & Fire), ’80s (a various artists compilation), ’90s (Sarah McLachlan) and 2000s (Celtic Thunder). Three of these titles are actually expanded editions of previously released albums. Earth, Wind and Fire‘s Classic Christmas entry reprises last year’s new studio album Holiday with five added bonus tracks. Then as now, Holiday is an enjoyable assortment of…
Uncommonly Gentle: Intrada Scores with “Scissorhands,” “Double Indemnity,” “Something Wicked” and More
Intrada Records has gone big throughout this year, bringing all four JAWS soundtracks to the surface in definitive forms and adding to the Back to the Future 30th anniversary festivities with a reissue of two of Alan Silvestri’s scores (including the never-before-expanded Part II). How do they close out the year? With a four-title slate that includes a classic composer-director combo, an anthology of ’40s and ’50s noir, an unused score from a Disney cult classic and an epic newer score from a hit Asian film! Exactly 25 years to the day it was first released, Intrada…
“The First Bobby Hart Solo Album” OUT TODAY From 7a Records!
UPDATED 12/7: The 7a Records label made a big splash earlier this year with its first-ever release. The MGM Singles Collection brought together Micky Dolenz’s rare MGM Records sides in a lavishly designed and annotated presentation that was a fan and collector’s dream. Now, we’re thrilled to report that the Monkees specialists at 7a have turned their attention to another key figure in Monkees lore with the first-ever CD release today of 1980’s aptly-titled The First Bobby Hart Solo Album. There was little Bobby Hart and his partner Tommy Boyce couldn’t accomplish. Subjects of the recent…
Made For Walkin’: Lee Hazlewood’s MGM Albums Are Newly Reissued By Light in the Attic
Since 2012, the Light in the Attic label has been mining producer-creative maverick Lee Hazlewood’s LHI label for gems recorded by Hazlewood himself as well as artists like Honey Ltd. and The Kitchen Cinq. A 2013 reissue turned its attention to Hazlewood’ 1963 cult-classic Mercury LP Trouble is a Lonesome Town, and now, LITA is looking in the direction of his MGM recordings originally released between 1966 and 1968. The label has just reissued all three of Hazlewood’s MGM Records albums on CD and vinyl. The Very Special World of Lee Hazlewood, Lee…
Still On “The Cutting Edge”: Over 200 Live Bob Dylan Tracks Gifted To Purchasers Of 18-CD Box Set
Did you happen to order this year’s most talked-about big box set? By that, I mean the complete 18-CD edition of Bob Dylan’s The Cutting Edge 1965-1966: The Bootleg Series Volume 12? If you did, I’d advise you to sit down while reading this and start checking your email now! The folks at Columbia Records have a very special Christmas present for those who purchased the big Bob box: a free digital download of an additional 208 tracks from the period chronicled in the box set. Yes, that’s 208 tracks and more than…
Release Round-Up: Week of December 4
Well, this is it – the final big release week of the year! While next week will see releases slow to a trickle, this week is packed with exciting box sets and much more! Bruce Springsteen, The Ties That Bind: The River Collection (Columbia) 4-CD/3-DVD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon Canada 4-CD/2-BD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon Canada This 4-CD/3-DVD or 4-CD/2-BD set celebrating The Boss’ seminal album The River features a treasure trove of previously unreleased material across its 53 audio tracks plus four hours of never-before-seen video footage. Read the full track…
Dreaming of a Supremes Christmas: Expanded “Merry Christmas” Available NOW!
Christmas came early in 1965 for fans of The Supremes. In November of that year, Motown released not one, but two albums from the beloved trio of Diana Ross, Mary Wilson and Florence Ballard: The Supremes at the Copa and Merry Christmas. Both of these LPs would not only score on the Billboard charts but become truly sparkling additions to the Supremes’ discography. Still perennial favorites, both Copa and Merry Christmas showcase the group’s tremendous versatility, vibrancy and dynamism. Now, 50 years later, Motown once again is bringing Christmas early! Last Friday saw the first-ever…
One Of A Kind (Love Affair): Big Break Reissues, Expands “Spinners”
When The Spinners left Motown Records after nearly a decade, the vocal group had never scored a Top 10 Pop hit. They’d come this close in 1970 with the irresistible, Stevie Wonder-penned “It’s a Shame” (No. 14) – one of many fine tracks recorded for Berry Gordy’s empire that, for one reason or another, never crossed The Spinners over to major stardom. That all changed when Thom Bell – the multi-hyphenate musician, producer, songwriter, arranger and conductor – declared that he wished to produce the group at its new home of Atlantic…
This Is The Love (I’ve Been Waiting For): Ace Releases “More Motown Girls”
Rarely is the sequel ever the equal – but Ace Records has handily disproved that with Love and Affection: More Motown Girls, a recent trawl through the vaults of Hitsville, USA. And not only is this follow-up to 2013’s Finders Keepers – Motown Girls the equal of its predecessor, it might be its better. Whereas that volume featured both previously unreleased music and rarities, every one of the 25 tracks on Love and Affection is never-before-heard (save for five songs culled from last year’s digital-only Motown Unreleased 1964 collection, all of which are new to…
Make a List, Make a Wish: Elemental Music Uncovers Live Art Pepper
Art Pepper would have turned 90 on September 1 of this year. Though the great alto saxophonist passed away in 1982, aged just 56, his legacy lives on. Elemental Music has most recently celebrated Pepper’s enduring influence on jazz with the new release of Live at Fat Tuesday’s by The Art Pepper Quartet. This new five-song set preserves the performances of Pepper (alto sax), Milcho Leviev (piano), George Mraz (bass) and Al Foster (drums) at the New York nightspot on the evening of April 15, 1981. (Omnivore Recordings’ three-volume series Neon Art also drew…
RPM Label Collects Rare British Jazz On “Turtle Records” Box Set
Though jazz may be one of the most quintessentially American art forms, its influence and power naturally spread around the world in various forms. In Great Britain, the popular Dixieland-inspired “trad jazz” (or “traditional jazz”) boom – epitomized by artists including The Three Bs: Mr. Acker Bilk, Chris Barber and Kenny Ball – was followed by a period of intense experimentation among jazz musicians concurrent with the rhythm and blues and rock revolutions. Rock and R&B artists, too, reciprocated as they incorporated jazz-based improvisation techniques into their own music. Progressive jazz sounds…
Audio Fidelity Brings “Cruising” with Hiatt, DeVille, Germs to SACD – And YOU CAN WIN!
Director William Friedkin (The Exorcist, The French Connection) was never one to shy away from controversy. And so was the case with his 1980 film Cruising. Al Pacino starred as NYPD Officer Steve Burns, tasked with tracking down a serial killer targeting gay men. Inspired by the novel of the same name by New York Times reporter Gerald Walker, Cruising earned largely negative reviews and protests upon its initial release, criticized both for its depiction of the gay community and for lackluster storytelling and character development. As so often happens, Cruising has…