Encouraged by his publisher to pen a song for a Norman Wisdom film in pre-production, teenager Tony Hatch wrote "Follow a Star." Though the beloved British comedian passed on it, the tune found its way into a B-movie called Circus of Horrors with a new title: "Look for a Star." The same week in June 1960, four recordings of the pretty little tune entered the Billboard Hot 100 across the pond. Dean Hawley reached No. 29, Billy Vaughn made it to No. 19, Garry Miles hit No. 16, and the original
Vikki Carr's "Love Again: The Lost Columbia Masters" Unearths Never-Before-Heard Recordings
I recently had the great pleasure of providing the liner notes for Real Gone Music’s first-ever CD reissue of Vikki Carr’s Columbia Records album The First Time Ever (I Saw Your Face). That title arrived in stores last week joined by a collection of previously unreleased material from the great vocalist. Love Again: The Lost Columbia Masters is a major find for fans of Carr and in large part presents her voice in a new, contemporary country setting.- JM Have forty years really passed since
Bad Medicine is What You Need: Bon Jovi Expands "New Jersey"
With the summer fast approaching, New Jersey stalwarts Bon Jovi are celebrating their 30th anniversary by, 25 years later, revisiting one of their biggest hits: fourth album New Jersey. Released in the fall of 1988, New Jersey was the follow-up to 1986's Slippery When Wet, the band's commercial breakthrough which spun off the No. 1 hits "You Give Love a Bad Name" and "Livin' on a Prayer," plus the Top 10 stadium classic "Wanted Dead or Alive." Working again with producer Bruce Fairbairn and
I Knew A Man, Bojangles: Raven Reissues Early Jerry Jeff Walker
"It's about a guy I met in a jail cell in New Orleans. We were both in the drunk tank over a long weekend. He told stories, and to me he was the 'eyes of age.' I never saw him again." From such inauspicious roots came Jerry Jeff Walker's unlikely but enduring standard "Mr. Bojangles." The song gave the title to the singer-songwriter's 1968 Atco Records debut which has just been reissued by Raven Records as a three-for-one edition also containing his two Atco follow-ups, Five Years Gone and Bein'
Review: The Grass Roots, "The Complete Dunhill/ABC Hit Singles"
The tale of The Grass Roots is a convoluted one, involving a couple of bands, a pair of auteur songwriter-producers, and a handful of famed session men. But if the behind-the-scenes story is one with numerous twists and turns, the appeal of the music recorded under The Grass Roots’ name is blissfully simple: great songs, great productions, great performances. 24 polished nuggets from the Los Angeles pop-rockers – many of which still remain in rotation on oldies radio today - have been collected
Life Is A Dance: BBR Reissues Chaka Khan, Silver Convention, Instant Funk
Chaka Khan announced her solo freedom with "I'm Every Woman," the euphoric opening track on 1978's Chaka. At 25 years old, Khan was already a veteran of the funk-rock band Rufus with whom she had recorded landmark hits like "Tell Me Something Good" and "Sweet Thing," but Chaka took her passionate style in a new, mainstream R&B direction. The Warner Bros. album, produced by the legendarily versatile Arif Mardin (Dusty Springfield, Bette Midler, The Bee Gees), placed Khan's powerful voice
UPDATE 6/2: Meet The Beatles, Japan-Style: New Box Set Collects Fabs' Original Japanese Albums, U.S. Edition Coming In July
UPDATE 6/2: It now appears that Capitol Records will be releasing this box set in the U.S. on July 15! See below for updated Amazon links and more! ORIGINAL POST (5/5/14): Attn: Beatle collectors – you know who you are! On June 25, Universal Music Japan is extending an invitation to Meet the Beatles as you would have fifty years ago in that country. The new Meet the Beatles box set presents mini-LP CD replicas of five albums released by the Fab Four in Japan in 1964 and 1965. As with the
Review: Vanilla Fudge, "The Complete Atco Singles"
It’s hard to believe that Real Gone Music’s The Complete Atco Singles (RGM-0239, 2014) is the first such overview for Vanilla Fudge. Between 1966 and 1970, the Long Island quartet delivered heavy riff-rock that bridged the gap between psychedelia and the nascent hard rock form that would come to be known as heavy metal, transforming popular songs with a raw, visceral, punch-in-the-gut sound. This tasty, single-disc collection brings together every one of the 18 sides released on the Atco label
He Wants YOU To Have His Baby: "Paternity" Premieres On CD, Plus Two By Leigh Harline
Kritzerland is back this month with a pair of new releases premiering three film scores on CD for the very first time! First up is the music from the 1981 Burt Reynolds comedy Paternity, composed by David Shire. No stranger to stage (Closer Than Ever, Big) or screen (Norma Rae, The Taking of Pelham One Two Three), Shire supplied director David Steinberg’s film (also starring Beverly D’Angelo, Paul Dooley, Norman Fell, Lauren Hutton and Elizabeth Ashley) with charming, light and romantic
It's Carnival Time At Ace With "The Ric and Ron Story Volume 1"
While Ric and Ron Records were not the first little labels to make big noises out of New Orleans, Louisiana, they certainly were among the most influential. Between 1958 and 1963, Joe Ruffino’s labels boasted some of the Crescent City’s greatest artists – Professor Longhair, Irma Thomas, Chris Kenner, Eddie Bo, and Johnny Adams, to name a few. The U.K.’s Ace Records label has recently begun a new series chronicling The Ric and Ron Story, kicking off with Volume 1, You Talk Too Much. The
Every Little Thing's Gonna Be Alright: Classic Bob Marley Set Remixed in Surround
The biggest reggae album of all time is getting bigger - 5.1 channels bigger. Island/Tuff Gong/UMe will reissue Bob Marley & The Wailers' Legend for its 30th anniversary. The posthumous compilation album (Marley had died of cancer three years earlier at only 36) has been a stalwart of catalogue music since its release in 1984, becoming the highest-selling reggae album of all time (15 million copies certified shipped by the RIAA alone, and some 27 million worldwide) and spending 992
It's The Time Of The Season For The Zombies' Lost Album "R.I.P."
It’s the time for The Zombies – no, not the flesh-eating, reanimated monstrosities of The Walking Dead, but the British band famed for the hits “Time of the Season,” “Tell Her No” and “She’s Not There.” Varese Vintage has previously revisited the group’s catalogue including on this year’s Record Store Day vinyl reissue of the key 1968 album Odessey and Oracle. This week, the label has a real treat with the first-ever legitimate CD issue of The Zombies’ “lost” album, R.I.P., as it was intended to
That's Amore: "Arrivederci Italy" Features Jerry Vale, Dean Martin, Rita Pavone, Nino Rota, Ennio Morricone
IN MEMORIAM: JERRY VALE (1930-2014) : While readying the following article for publication, we learned of the passing of Jerry Vale on May 18, 2014 at the age of 83. Jerry was one of the last great gentlemen of song, and a mainstay of the Columbia Records roster for many years. He notched 18 singles on the Hot 10o between 1953 and 1967, and 27 on the Adult Contemporary chart through 1971, including the AC chart-topper "Have You Looked Into Your Heart" in 1964. Though best-known for his
Near Wild Heaven: R.E.M. Bundle Warner-Era B-Sides for Digital Box
No sooner did R.E.M. plan a generous digital equivalent of a two-disc set collating nearly all of their B-sides and rarities for I.R.S. Records have the departed Athens quartet - or label Warner Bros., anyway - planned a massive digital bundle of their B-sides for their major label era. Complete Warner Bros. Rarities 1988-2011 features a similar packaging scheme as its I.R.S. comparison, but the scope of time certainly allows for more material - 131 tracks, in fact. The complete claim is not
Review: Bee Gees, "The Warner Bros. Years: 1987-1991"
Tonight, Barry Gibb’s Mythology tour continues making its way through the United States, as the surviving member of The Bee Gees celebrates his family’s legacy in song. From humble beginnings in Australia (1965’s The Bee Gees Sing and Play 14 Barry Gibb Songs) through international stardom and a final studio farewell (2001’s This is Where I Came In), Barry, Robin and Maurice Gibb mastered an ever-shifting array of styles. Baroque, lightly psychedelic pop/rock ceded to tough funk-infused R&B,
Like To Get To Know Them: Real Gone's July Features Spanky and Our Gang, Lulu, Peggy Lipton, Grateful Dead and More
Tuesday – July 1, that is – will never be the same, thanks to Real Gone Music’s slate spotlighting a quartet of famous sixties girls! But that’s not all. The label is also dipping its toes into tropicalia, anthologizing an unsung country-pop hero, going both punk and disco, and returning to the venerable Grateful Dead catalogue! Complete Singles Collections have become a specialty of Real Gone’s, and the label continues with a new title featuring every Mercury single released by Spanky
This One Goes Out: R.E.M.'s Early B-Sides Collected on Digital Set
On Tuesday, May 19, the same day that Warner Bros. Records issues R.E.M.’s 2-CD Unplugged 1991/2001: The Complete Sessions, UMe will offer a digital-only package for fans of the Athens, Georgia band’s earliest days. Complete Rarities: I.R.S. 1982-1987 collects 50 previously released odds and ends from Michael Stipe, Peter Buck, Mike Mills and Bill Berry. These rarities have been culled from such releases as the 1987 Dead Letter Office (originally released in the wake of the success of Lifes
Dark Shadows Over Transylvania: Robert Cobert's Score to "Dan Curtis' Dracula" Arrives On CD
Since Bram Stoker introduced Count Dracula in 1897, the Transylvanian vampire has captivated audiences in every medium conceivable. Of course, the visceral possibilities of film has allowed the nightmarish character to leave his mark on generation after generation, most famously in 1931’s Bela Lugosi-starring film. Much as Universal Pictures produced a string of films following its original, Hammer Films launched its own series of Dracula pictures with 1958’s adaptation starring Christopher
More Than a Band of Gold: Complete Holland-Dozier-Holland Singles Collected On New Box Set
The legacy of Brian Holland, Lamont Dozier and Eddie Holland is filled with some of the most popular songs ever written: “Stop! In the Name of Love,” “How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved by You),” “Baby, I Need Your Loving,” “You Can’t Hurry Love,” “You Keep Me Hangin’ On,” among them. All of those songs, and so many other indelible hit records, were written under the aegis of Hitsville, USA, a.k.a. Berry Gordy’s Motown empire. But by 1967, the relationship between the label chief and his star
Get It Up For Ned Doheny: Numero Sheds Light On Southern California Troubadour, Premieres Demos with Henley and Frey
Despite the history behind it, singer/songwriter Ned Doheny's last name might be the least interesting thing about him. Yes, Los Angeles native Doheny is descended from the family for whom Doheny Drive is named, a family marked by triumph (patriarch Edward L. Doheny was at one time the second richest oil tycoon in America, second only to John D. Rockefeller) and tragedy (Edward's son, the first Ned Doheny, died in a headline-making murder-suicide). But Ned Doheny, the musician, has blazed a
Review: Rod Stewart, "Live 1976-1998: Tonight's the Night"
After more than a decade mining the Great American Songbook, seventies rock, vintage soul and Christmas carols, Rod Stewart returned to original rock material with the 2013 release of Time. And while much of the titular subject had indeed passed since his last album of new songs, Stewart’s distinctive voice and joie de vivre were happily intact. The spirit that has kept Stewart a superstar is fully on display in the new 4-CD box set Tonight’s the Night – Live 1976-1998. Over its four discs and
Eat, Drink and Be Merry: Dave Matthews Band's Debut Makes Vinyl Premiere
For many, it’s just not summer without a Dave Matthews Band tour, and on May 16, the favorite sons of Charlottesville, Virginia will kick off their latest U.S. trek on which fans can expect to hear band favorites in freshly improvised style. While the tour will likely feature contemporary and vintage material, the group will revisit where it all began on June 17 with the Bama Rags/RCA/Legacy Recordings expanded reissue of Remember Two Things. The 1993 album, primarily consisting of music
Review: Real Gone Offers Temptations From David Ruffin and Eddie Kendricks
Three recent releases from the team at Real Gone Music feature the solo music of David Ruffin and Eddie Kendricks, two-fifths of the original Temptations line-up. The label has reissued Ruffin's first four albums on two single CDs, two to each CD, and has premiered Kendricks' post-Motown LP Love Keys, for Atlantic Records, on CD. David Ruffin had departed The Temptations after the April 1968 release of the Wish It Would Rain album, with Dennis Edwards officially joining the group onstage in
Ain't That The Shames! Now Sounds Reissues, Expands The Cryan' Shames' Psych-Pop LP "A Scratch In The Sky"
Put “California Girls” in a blender with “Cherish” and you might well wind up with something like “A Carol for Lorelei,” the bright, harmony-drenched pop nugget that opens The Cryan’ Shames’ sophomore album, 1968’s A Scratch in the Sky. Though the Chicago band recorded the LP in New York City, the good vibrations of the Summer of Love were clearly in the air back east for the Columbia Records artists. Whereas the band’s debut album Sugar and Spice was a blast of energetic rock and roll by way of
Henry Mancini's "Who Is Killing The Great Chefs of Europe?" Inaugurates New Vintage Soundtrack Series From Varese
The 1978 film Who is Killing the Great Chefs of Europe? billed itself as "a delicious mystery." Naturally, a delicious mystery would require a delicious score. To accompany the film's recipe of drama, suspense, comedy and action, director Ted Kotcheff turned to "top chef" Henry Mancini. No stranger to all of those genres and more, composer-arranger-conductor Mancini crafted a score that became one of the film's most memorable assets. The long out-of-print soundtrack album, originally
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