Welcome to this week's Release Round-Up! Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers, The Best of Everything (Geffen/UMe) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada) On the heels of the release of the acclaimed rarities box set An American Treasure, a new career-spanning anthology arrives from the late Tom Petty. The Best of Everything is subtitled The Definitive Career-Spanning Hits Collection 1976-2016 and features 38 tracks from the soulful rock-and-roller, including two previously unreleased
SoulMusic Records Round-Up: Spotlight on Thelma Houston, Carrie Lucas, Tower of Power
Periodically this month, we'll be looking at titles released in the latter part of 2018 that we either didn't cover, or only covered briefly, the first time around! We hope you enjoy this look at "some nice things we've missed"... Cherry Red's SoulMusic imprint has kept busy with an eclectic roster of releases drawn from labels including Motown, Solar, and Columbia. First up is a set of four albums from the "Don't Leave Me This Way" soul queen Thelma Houston, all originally released on
30 and Life: Skid Row's Debut Gets Digital Expansion With Unreleased Live Show
Rhino's celebrating the 30th anniversary of hair-metal group Skid Row's breakthrough debut album with a new digital expanded edition. The Toms River, NJ-based band, fronted by the inimitable Sebastian Bach, spent 1989 taking over the charts with their first album, supported with memorable music videos and a carefully-honed live act, serving as opening act for Bon Jovi, Aerosmith and Mötley Crüe that year. Featuring sharp production by Michael Wagener (Dokken, White Lion), Skid Row has gone
Backroads, Rivers and Memories: The Rare and Unreleased John Hartford
When he wasn't playing sidekick to Glen Campbell on TV's Good Time Hour or appearing on The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, "Gentle On My Mind" songwriter John Hartford was also an in-demand, banjo-picking sideman. He appeared for acts like James Taylor, Delaney & Bonnie, Seals & Crofts, and The Byrds. His unique, Flatt and Scruggs-inspired style started him on his music sojourn that found him embracing conventional country, classic bluegrass stylings, and Dylan-inspired introspection.
Self Made Man: Real Gone Collects John Hartford Rarities on "Backroads, Rivers, and Memories," Due in March
John Hartford may be best known as the writer of the classic hit "Gentle On My Mind," but the legacy of the talented singer, musician, and tunesmith reaches beyond that iconic track. When he wasn't playing sidekick to "Gentle" singer Glen Campbell on TV's Good Time Hour or appearing on The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, Hartford was also an in-demand, banjo-picking performer. He appeared for acts like James Taylor, Delaney & Bonnie, Seals & Crofts, and The Byrds. His unique, Flatt and
La-La Land's Wondrous World: Soundtrack Giant Plans 'Potter,' 'Bond' and More Archival Releases
Hours of unreleased soundtrack music? Oft-requested titles from favorite composers and popular film series? It's definitely Black Friday season at La-La Land Records! The venerable soundtrack label closed the book on 2018 with five brand-new film and television score expansions - a total of 18 discs' worth of material, including three works involving one of the most successful living soundtrack composers and projects related to two world-renowned franchises. First up, La-La Land's successful
A Sunday Feeling: Jethro Tull's Debut "This Was" Expanded For Its 50th Anniversary with New Stereo and Surround Mixes
As Jethro Tull celebrates their 50th anniversary this year, the band has already give their fans several reissues beginning with a deluxe version of Heavy Horses in February and a pair of compilations in May. But that's not all, because Parlophone/Rhino has just announced a new 3-CD/1-DVD deluxe edition of the group's debut album This Was, due on November 9. After playing their first show under the name Jethro Tull in February, 1968, the group got into the studio to record their first album
The Demon Unearthed: Gene Simmons Plans Massive Box Set
Gene Simmons has never shied away from theatrics--and his newly-announced solo box set is a testament to the power and excess of rock and roll. The Gene Simmons Vault is absolutely what it claims to be: an actual safe (38 pounds!) including the deepest possible dive into the KISS bassist's personal archives, from his first songwriting efforts as a teenager in 1966 to recordings made last year. The set, three years in the making, promises 150 recordings over 10 discs, including "songs I've
Review: Pink Floyd, "1970 DEVI/ATION"
For some fans, Pink Floyd begins with Dark Side of the Moon, the band's 1973 opus. But in reality, that classic was the culmination of roughly eight years of musical experimentation. Last year's massive box set The Early Years traced the evolution of the Floyd up through DSOTM through CDs, DVDs, Blu-rays, vinyl singles, and printed memorabilia reproductions. Now, Pink Floyd Records and Sony have released six of that giant collection's seven components into individual book-style releases (one
You Got to Funkifize: SoulMusic, Cherry Red Reissue Tower of Power, Graham Central Station, Starpoint
Over the years, Tower of Power's rip-roaring horns have enlivened a host of recordings from artists as diverse as Elton John, Grateful Dead, Poison, Neil Diamond, Santana, and Aerosmith, but the group also has had a long career as one of the most smoking outfits in R&B. Now, Bump City and Tower of Power, the group's first two Warner Bros. Records releases, have been collected as one expanded 2-CD set from SoulMusic Records and Cherry Red. 1972's Bump City marked the Warner debut of the
Rock and Roll, Hoochie Koo: Cherry Red Collects Derringer, Hawkwind Albums on New Box Sets
Cherry Red Records has recently continued its series of "complete albums"-style box sets with a set from Derringer on its Hear No Evil Recordings imprint, and a continuation of the Hawkwind story from its Atomhenge imprint. Guitarist/songwriter/producer Rick Derringer has one of the most enviable C.V.s in all of rock and roll - as lead singer of The McCoys' classic oldie "Hang On, Sloopy," as writer of the hit "Rock 'n' Roll Hoochie Koo," as producer of "Weird Al" Yankovic's beloved parodies
Reissue Theory: Danny Wilson
Reissue Theory, where we focus on great albums and the reissues they could someday see, is back! Today, we're proud to welcome Mike as he takes a look at two albums from Gary Clark's underrated pop trio Danny Wilson! If you're a Netflix subscriber and you love old fashioned pop music, you really can't do much better than Sing Street, which was recently added to the service. Set in Ireland in the 1980s, it's a delightful coming-of-age story about a boy who escapes his youthful troubles (and
Groovin' Down A Crowded Avenue: Real Gone March Slate Features The Rascals, Southside Johnny, Artful Dodger, Ann-Margret
Official word has just come out about Real Gone's titles for March and, as usual, the line-up boasts an eclectic group of releases including a number of comprehensive double-CD sets! First up is a compilation featuring liner notes from our very own Joe Marchese. The Definitive Collection from Ann-Margret features 30 of the flame-haired singer/actress's songs from her 1961-1966 tenure on RCA Records and includes standards, pop, soundtrack recordings and collaborations with Al Hirt and Elvis
At The Groovy Cellar: RPM Reveals "Another Splash of Colour: New Psychedelia in Britain 1980-1985"
Mention psychedelia and chances are you're transported to a certain patchouli-scented period in the late 1960s, a hazy period of high times and boundary-breaking musical creativity. The spirit of psychedelia didn't die with the advent of glam, hard rock or disco, however, though it may have been submerged for a time. In 1981, the 13-track album A Splash of Colour chronicled Great Britain's "New Psychedelia" with '60s-influenced cuts from The Mood Six, Miles Over Matter, The High Tide, The
Review: Robin Gibb, "Saved by the Bell: The Collected Works 1968-1970"
Give me a smile! With the new release of Robin Gibb's Saved by the Bell: The Collected Works of Robin Gibb 1968-1970 (R2 549315), Rhino/Reprise has unveiled the most significant archival collection related to The Bee Gees in nearly a decade. Not since 2006's The Studio Albums 1967-1968 has the vault door been opened to reveal such a remarkable wealth of pop treasure from an artist with the surname of Gibb - in this case, the late Robin. This three-CD set, produced with stunning attention to
Give Me a Smile: Reprise to Release Long-Lost Robin Gibb Recordings
A few weeks ago, Rhino released Bee Gees: 1974-1979 which followed from last year’s Bee Gees: The Warner Bros. Years 1987-1991. Both boxes contained the complete studio albums from those periods plus some bonus material. Now, fans of the Bee Gees and the Gibb brothers should have more to look forward to as Rhino’s sister label Reprise has just announced a new set chronicling the recordings of one of the band’s members during a two year period: Saved By the Bell: The Collected Works of Robin
Soul Deep: Raven Collects The Box Tops' Complete Studio Albums
For Alex Chilton, coping with the legacy of The Box Tops wasn’t always easy. As the band’s frontman – and future cult hero as leader of Big Star – once ruminated to the San Francisco Chronicle, “I guess my life has been a series of flukes in the record business. The first thing I ever did was the biggest record that I’ll ever have.” He was, of course, speaking of “The Letter,” the Wayne Carson Thompson song that opens Raven Records’ new 2-CD collection The Original Albums 1967-1969 containing
Tony Joe White, George Jones and Tammy Wynette, Ray Kennedy Highlight Real Gone's February
From The Apollo to the swamps of Louisiana, Real Gone Music has a whirlwind musical tour planned for its February 3, 2015 slate! The centerpiece of the February batch just might be the first-ever complete collection of Louisiana man Tony Joe White's Warner Bros. recordings! Singer-songwriter White ("Willie and Laura Mae Jones," "Polk Salad Annie") has one of the most distinctive voices in southern soul, and Real Gone's new collection celebrates a major period his career with a new 2-CD set
Shine Her Light: "The Midnight Special" Box Set Arrives In September with Fleetwood Mac, Bee Gees, ELO, More
Between August 1972 and May 1981, late night television was a little more rockin'. Producer Burt Sugarman's The Midnight Special followed Johnny Carson's Tonight Show on Friday evenings, welcoming viewers with Johnny Rivers' rousing rendition of the traditional tune (a Top 20 hit for Rivers in 1965). Over the course of 450 episodes, The Midnight Special presented a staggering array of music's top talent on network television with most songs performed live for the majority of its run. The
Smashing Pumpkins Give Fans Something to "Adore"
The next installment in The Smashing Pumpkins' ongoing catalogue campaign has been announced - and in traditional Smashing Pumpkins fashion, it's accompanied by a typically Billy Corgan moment. Released in 1998, the follow-up to the band's acclaimed double album Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness, Adore found the Pumpkins enduring some structural and personal changes: drummer Jimmy Chamberlain was out, and frontman Corgan endured a divorce, the death of his mother, and a shift in musical
Of Ghosts, Panthers and Ronettes: Legacy Unveils Record Store Day 2014 Slate
Today’s the day! This morning, Los Angeles’ vinyl mecca Amoeba Music hosted the “Official List Launch” for Record Store Day, with simultaneous unveilings of the extensive RSD ’14 line-up occurring in Nashville and across the pond in London. We’ve already filled you in on some of the exciting titles arriving on Saturday, April 19 from many of our favorite labels (Real Gone Music, Omnivore Recordings) and artists alike (Creedence Clearwater Revival, Devo, Neil Young, R.E.M. ), and there’s plenty
Alice Cooper's "Trash" Gets Another Look From Hear No Evil, Cherry Red
There’s always something slightly disingenuous about the term “comeback album” – especially when an artist has never really left. Such was the case with Alice Cooper’s 1989 Epic Records release Trash. But one certainly sees why the expression would be used to describe Trash. Alice Cooper’s eighteenth studio release, it became his first Top 20 album in the U.S. since 1975’s epochal Welcome to My Nightmare, his biggest-ever U.K. success with a No. 2 peak, and contained his first U.S. Top 10 hit
Review: Tower of Power, "Hipper Than Hip: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow - Live on the Air and In the Studio"
What is hip? Based on the evidence of Tower of Power’s Hipper Than Hip: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow - Live on the Air and in the Studio (RGM-0208), the Bay Area band certainly qualifies. Real Gone Music’s crackling first-time release of a 1974 concert recorded for radio is a potent reminder of why Tower of Power’s rip-roaring horns have enlivened a host of recordings from artists as diverse as Elton John, Grateful Dead, Poison, Neil Diamond, Santana, and Aerosmith. Tower of Power scored its
Winter's Coming: Legacy's "True to the Blues" Boxes Johnny Winter
Johnny Winter is turning 70 on February 23, 2014, and Columbia Records and Legacy Recordings aren’t about to let the occasion pass without celebration. Two days later, on February 25, the label will release True to the Blues: The Johnny Winter Story. This new 4-CD box set includes 56 tracks spanning Winter’s entire major-label career from 1968 to the present day (his most recent album having been released in 2011). Though the two-time Grammy Award nominee is looking back with this
The Best That He Could Do: John Mellencamp Collects Albums for New Box
While the 1980s have become synonymous with pop/rock music that allegedly valued image, craft and style above the emotional rush of the music itself, one of the decade's most popular entertainers had an image as rough-hewn and rugged as they could come: John Mellencamp. The Indiana-bred musician earned his keep making tuneful rock steeped in the traditions of the genre as well as the vision of the average, working-class middle American. And with a list of hits that includes "Jack and Diane,"