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 notably in the 1997…
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 Diego Comic-Con – and we all know how that turned out last…
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.
From “Walter Mitty” to “Inner City”: Masterworks Broadway Reissues Due
Sony’s Masterworks Broadway division continues its dig through the vaults of the Columbia and RCA Records labels with three new titles, to be released as CD-Rs exclusively through Arkiv Music or as digital downloads. Today, January 18, sees the reissue of Originals – Musical Comedy 1909-1935, an RCA compilation dating from 1968. This collection remains one of the best ever to anthologize the sound of musical comedy in its earliest days, and is a “Who’s Who” of that golden era. The vaudeville period is represented by some of its all-time biggest stars,…
Release Round-Up: Week of January 18
The Jayhawks, Hollywood Town Hall: Expanded Edition / Tomorrow the Green Grass: Legacy Edition (Columbia/Legacy) After months of waiting, alt-country fans get expanded versions of two Jayhawks LPs, including a deluxe set of Tomorrow the Green Grass with a host of previously unreleased demos. (Official site) Pearl Jam, Live on Ten Legs (Monkeywrench) The first volley in the iconic band’s PJ20 campaign honoring their 20th anniversary is a self-released chronicle of their live tours from 2003 to 2010. (Official site)
Reissue Theory: Stevie Wonder, “Hotter Than July”
Welcome to another installment of Reissue Theory, here we reflect on well-known albums of the past and the reissues they could someday see. With today being a national holiday in honor of an iconic civil rights leader, we take a look at an album with a song written to make that holiday a reality. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FchMuPQOBwA] Today is a day off for many people in the United States, in observation of the birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., the great civil rights leader born on January 15, 1929. It was King’s methodology…
Short Takes: 40s Aplenty, Kinks Konfusion, QotSA Date Change and Big Star Reissue Due
The magic numbers for reissues this year looks to be 40: we have no less than three different 40th anniversary sets with release dates in March. We’ve already mentioned the CD/DVD edition Bridge Over Troubled Water (1971) on that date. And the same day will see the release of the promised new deluxe editions of Derek and The Dominos’ Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs (a remaster, a double-disc deluxe edition, a double vinyl edition, and a 4 CD/2 LP/1 DVD super deluxe box). And Amazon is listing Japanese imports for the same…
Soundgarden Go Vintage to Release First-Ever Live Album
Recently-reunited grunge rockers Soundgarden did well with last year’s Telephantasm compilation, which shipped platinum thanks to being included with every copy of the latest Guitar Hero game. Now, the band is going back to the vaults to release their first live album. Live on I-5 consists of 17 performances taken from the band’s final tour, in support of 1996’s Down on the Upside. (True to its name, all the performances were taken from venues along the West Coast, near the band’s native Seattle.) Happily, the track list (available, as always, after the…
Be Their Baby: Legacy Preps Releases for Crystals, Ronettes and Darlene Love (UPDATED 1/17)
When Sony announced in September 2009 that rights had been acquired from EMI Music Publishing to reissue Phil Spector’s Philles catalogue after years of neglect from the ABKCO label, great anticipation was in the air. A major campaign was planned by Sony’s Legacy division with projects in development including “Artist’s Playlists, Best-of collections, and first-ever releases of Philles studio rarities – as well as facsimile reproductions of original singles and albums,” but since that heady announcement, no product has materialized other than a remastered, straight reissue of 1963’s classic A Christmas Gift…
Fit for a Queen: Legacy Planning Massive Aretha Box
As if news of Aretha Franklin’s improved health wasn’t good news enough, Columbia and Legacy have told the Associated Press that there’s going to be a massive box set of her works for the label coming this spring. Take a Look: Aretha Franklin Complete on Columbia is going to be a 12-disc set – 11 CDs and a DVD – chronicling this oft-overlooked early phase of the Queen of Soul’s career. Franklin signed to the label in 1960 at the young age of 18, and spent several years releasing albums and singles…
“Elvis is Back” is Back
Elvis Presley’s Elvis is Back!, it was previously reported, will be released as a Legacy Edition on March 1. We now have a track list to go with that title. The two-disc set will combine Elvis is Back!, Presley’s 1960 LP and the first the King recorded after returning from the Army, with Something for Everyone, an album from the following year. Each will be expanded with relevant non-LP single sides, some of which rank highly in Elvis’ discography (“Are You Lonesome Tonight?,” “It’s Now or Never” and “(Marie’s the Name) His…
In Case You Missed It: Slayer on Vinyl
Oddly, Slayer’s The Vinyl Conflict box, which came out in November, sort of flew under The Second Disc’s radar. But today, we have a very special reason to make sure that doesn’t happen again. This 11-LP box features all of the iconic metal band’s albums for Def Jam (yes, this was toward the end of Rick Rubin’s tenure with his label) and American Recordings (the label Rubin subsequently created), from 1983’s Reign in Blood to 2009’s World Painted Blood. All are remastered and pressed on heavyweight vinyl with all original art work…
Jack Johnson’s “Brushfire Fairytales” to Be Remastered
Singer-songwriter Jack Johnson’s first album is slated for remastering and reissue this spring. Brushfire Fairytales was the Hawaiian musician/surfer/environmentalist’s first release, on the label Enjoy Records in 2001. Enjoy – now known as Everloving – licensed the album to Universal, Johnson’s home since then, with the stipulation that the master tape return to their possession after 10 years. With that time now passed, Everloving has enlisted Bernie Grundman to remaster the record for release on CD and vinyl. The vinyl version will be released February 8, while the remastered CD comes out…
Friday Feature: “Casino Royale” (1967, 2006)
“The dry riffle of the cards and the soft whirr of the roulette wheel, the sharp call of the croupiers and the feverish mutter of a crowded casino hide the thick voice at Bond’s ear which says, ‘I will count up to ten.’” So read the blurb on the jacket of the original printing of Ian Fleming’s 1953 novel Casino Royale, which introduced Agent 007 to the world. Fleming’s novel set the tone for those that followed, introducing the “Bond girl” (Vesper Lynd), the larger-than-life villain (Le Chiffre, agent of SMERSH) and…
FSM Fetches Classic Canine Scores
Film Score Monthly’s first release of 2011 is a whopper: five discs’ worth of dog-related film scores, anchored mostly around the lovable star Lassie. Created by writer Eric Knight in a short story that was expanded into a 1940 novel, Lassie was a loyal collie who treks across Depression-era Yorkshire, England to reunite with his young owner. The film spawned several sequels and spin-offs, most notably a long-running American television show that ran from 1954 to 1973. The dog is one of only three (and one of a handful of fictional characters)…
Back Tracks: Queen, Part I
This week’s remaster and reissue of Queen’s first two greatest hits LPs in the U.K. (on new home Island Records) is the start of what promises to be a massive reissue campaign for the band’s 40th anniversary. The band’s first five LPs are slated to be expanded and released in March, with additional batches to follow through 2011. Of course, this isn’t the first time the Queen catalogue has been rolled out on CD. While British audiences got straight CD transfers throughout the late ’80s, Americans got slight expanded versions when the…
Lowe’s “Labour” Not Lost: Reissue Due in March
Nick Lowe never was lacking in confidence. The former Brinsley Schwarz bassist/vocalist had already defined pub-rock as a member of that band, and did much the same for the burgeoning punk movement as producer of Elvis Costello’s first albums. Now he was in the forefront of the so-called “new wave” vanguard, and Lowe realized there was little he couldn’t do. Armed with hubris but with tongue firmly planted in cheek, he named his 1978 Radar Records (U.K.) debut Jesus of Cool. Its artwork depicted him in various musical get-ups: hippie, folkie, greaser….
Reissue Theory: Sting, Compiled (UPDATED 1/12)
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 installment concerns a former Police man and his lack of decent compilations over the past few decades. There’s something disconcerting when an artist gets to the point where they’re comfortable enough to do whatever they want, but that “whatever they want” just doesn’t count toward reissues, box sets or the like. One such example I’ve been thinking of lately is Sting, the erstwhile frontman of The Police and…
Back Tracks, In Memoriam: Margaret Whiting (1924-2011)
In 1997, a musical revue came and went at Broadway’s Royale Theatre. The revue, Dream, was a mostly unexceptional journey through the music and lyrics of the legendary Johnny Mercer. Why the “mostly,” then? Dream had one very exceptional living link to Mercer, and that was the resplendent Margaret Whiting, who passed away on Tuesday at the age of 86 in Englewood, New Jersey. When Mercer (along with Buddy DeSylva and Glenn Wallichs) started Capitol Records in 1942, one of the first artists he signed was 18-year old Margaret, daughter of composer…
“Isn’t Anything” Sacred? Another MBV Release Date Change
It’s unsurprising and a bit morbidly hilarious to report, as Slicing Up Eyeballs did the other day, that reissues of My Bloody Valentine’s shoegaze masterpieces Isn’t Anything and Loveless have been delayed once again. The straight remastered discs are slated for release on March 14, pushed back from a prior date in January, itself part of a long line of releases that stretch back to June of 2008. These things better sound flawless. Veteran collectors: what other reissue/remaster/box set delays can you remember as long as or longer than this wait? Sound…
One is Not the Loneliest Number
Exactly one year ago today, The Second Disc uploaded its first post, an assessment of the best reissues of the prior year. It was taken from my personal Facebook page, which I’d been posting thoughts on music and pop culture here and there for some time. I was a college graduate working in a part-time job I was not particularly fond of, in dire need of something to fill time. After some deliberating over what a blog about reissues and box sets – my favorite kind of music – should be called…
Getz Set for New Box from Hip-o Select
Hip-o Select kicks off 2011 with a new set of early works by Stan Getz. Quintets: The Clef & Norgran Albums is three discs of Getz in his first recordings for Verve founder Norman Granz’s earliest labels. Five 10″ LPs are represented here, alongside some single and EP tracks and three previously unreleased alternate takes. If you can believe it, the set marks the CD debut of much of this material as well. Order the set from the label now and have a look at the track lists after the jump.
The Dead Go to Meadowlands in New “Road Trips” Set
The first entry in The Grateful Dead’s Road Trips series for the new year has been announced. Road Trips Vol. 4, No. 2: April Fools ’88 is only the second Dead show ever released from that year, a year which was preceded by highlights on either side of the calendar. (The previous year saw the release of the band’s Top 10 hit “Touch of Grey” and a tour with Bob Dylan; the next year saw a flurry of officially released live material.) This set captures, over three discs, the band’s April 1,…
Release Round-Up: Week of January 11
Queen, Greatest Hits / Greatest Hits II (Island/UMe) Queen’s 40th anniversary celebration kicks in the U.K. off with a new remaster of the band’s first two greatest hits compilations on the band’s new label in England, Island Records. (The music of Queen is still licensed by Disney’s Hollywood Records in the U.S.) Remastered and expanded studio albums will follow later in the year, which American fans will also have to import. (Official site) Tim Buckley, Tim Buckley: Deluxe Edition (Elektra/Rhino Handmade) This classic, folky debut is presented in an expanded set that…
Smokey Robinson, Live from Cracker Barrel
Great music often turns up in the darnedest places. In addition to eating a hearty meal and browsing a selection of rustic tchotchkes at your local Cracker Barrel, you now can pick up a new CD by none other than Motown legend and the man Bob Dylan once called “America’s greatest living poet,” Smokey Robinson. Cracker Barrel has long carried a selection of exclusive music; new CDs have been offered from artists like Dolly Parton (who provided Cracker Barrel with an expanded edition of her 2008 Backwoods Barbie album) while the catalogues of…