Welcome to another installment of Reissue Theory, where we focus on great albums and the reissues they could someday see. As we welcome one of our favorite ladies in rock back to her famous band, we remember their last album altogether and the pop success it enjoyed. One of the best pieces of classic rock news to come out of this nascent year is easily the announcement of singer/keyboardist Christine McVie returning to Fleetwood Mac. McVie retired from the band (and touring in general) after
Rhino Gives The Royal Treatment To The King and Queen of Soul with New Otis Redding, Aretha Franklin Box Sets
Rhino is kicking off February’s Black History Month in a big way – with two new box sets dedicated to undisputed R&B royalty, Aretha Franklin and Otis Redding. On February 4, the label will release the 4-CD collections The King of Soul and The Queen of Soul, and despite the wealth of sublime soul music on these sets, both titles are priced with an eye to the budget-conscious. As of this writing, the Otis set is available at Amazon U.S. for $33.62, and the Aretha set for $34.05...or less
If You've Got It, Flaunt It: Stage Door Records Brings "Privates on Parade" To CD
Reviewing The Michael Grandage Company’s 2012 production of Peter Nichols’ play with music Privates on Parade, critic Charles Spencer summed up the feelings of many of his colleagues when he called the production “gloriously entertaining and often deeply touching.” Nichols’ semi-autobiographical 1977 play drew on his own experiences as a young British serviceman with Combined Services Entertainment, providing song and dance to the country’s Armed Forces. Now, Stage Door Records is bringing the
Rhino Rediscovery: Wounded Bird to Reissue Handmade Titles As Budget Sets
Rhino Handmade is back! Sort of. Reissue label Wounded Bird Records will release this week seven titles originally released on Warner Music's boutique label in the early to mid-2000s. These sets were originally handsome vault-clearing exercises for a diverse crop of artists who were on the Warner, Atlantic or Reprise labels at some point in their careers, including works by Doug Sahm of Sir Douglas Quintet, blues legend Taj Mahal, rockabilly-punk outfit The Blasters, singer-songwriter Danny
BBR "Heats It Up" with Salsoul Orchestra, Joe Bataan, Herbie Mann, Chris Jasper
As Big Break Records' first releases for 2014 hit stores in the U.K. today (more on those shortly!), the time is right to take a look at more from the label's closing slate of 2013. This eclectic roster - from legendary Latin music artist Joe Bataan, the post-Vince Montana iteration of The Salsoul Orchestra, jazz flautist Herbie Mann and soul man Chris Jasper - is doubtless one of BBR's strongest. So influential was Joe Bataan's 1974 Mericana Records release Salsoul that it literally
Only the Strong Survive: Ace Reissues, Remasters Vintage Southern Soul from Stax, Fame
The mighty Stax Records catalogue got a lot of much-deserved respect in 2013, from a new book exploring the label's history (Robert Gordon's Respect Yourself: Stax Records and the Soul Explosion) to a variety of catalogue projects, many from the venerable Ace Records label. Ace has recently followed up its reissues of classic albums by The Staple Singers, David Porter and Bettye Crutcher with further Stax discoveries from Darrell Banks and The Newcomers. And not to be outdone, Ace has
SoulMusic Goes "Loco" with Expanded Reissues From Dee Dee Warwick, The Four Tops
Dee Dee Warwick signed with Mercury Records’ Blue Rock imprint in 1964, the same year her sister Dionne solidified her place in the upper reaches of the charts with songs like “Walk on By,” “Reach Out for Me” and “You’ll Never Get to Heaven (If You Break My Heart).” Though Dee Dee never saw the same kind of commercial success as Dionne, she carved out a unique vocal identity with her dark, bluesy and intense tone. At Mercury, Dee Dee recorded two albums and a number of singles. In 2012, Soul
"Catch the Love Parade" With Second Volume of Now Sounds' "Book a Trip"
Between 1965 and 1970, Los Angeles’ Capitol Tower – standing then, as it does now, near the intersection of Hollywood and Vine - was the place to be. Capitol Records had The Beatles, and the Beach Boys, too. But the label that Nancy Wilson and The Lettermen called home also hosted a number of bands with groovy names like The Tuneful Trolley, The Sugar Shoppe, The Pink Cloud, The New Kick and (my personal favorite) The Unforscene. These happening acts, and many more, take the spotlight on Book
Walk Out to Winter: Aztec Camera's Debut Expanded for 30th Anniversary
More than a year after Edsel expanded and reissued the Aztec Camera catalogue, the Scottish outfit's first album for Rough Trade will be reissued once again by Domino Records for its 30th anniversary. High Land, Hard Rain, originally released on the Rough Trade label in the U.K. and Sire Records in the U.S., is the first full-length to feature frontman Roddy Frame's prodigious gift as a sophisticated, dramatic pop writer, with tracks like "Oblivious" and "Walk Out to Winter" rich with evocative
Meet the Inspiration Behind "Llewyn Davis" with Dave Van Ronk LP Reissue
When this year’s Golden Globe nominations were announced, three of the coveted nods went to Joel and Ethan Coen’s Inside Llewyn Davis, a vibrant portrayal of the heady days of New York’s Greenwich Village when anyone with a guitar and a dream had a chance to be heard and perhaps “make it big.” Oscar Isaac, a nominee for Best Performance by an Actor – Comedy or Musical, portrays the titular character, a misanthropic, nomadic folkie (and former Merchant Marine) with a proclivity for misplacing
Simply the Best: Romantic New Tina Turner Compilation Announced
Tina Turner knows plenty about love and loss, both on and offstage. The legendary performer shook up the '60s with her husband Ike and their relentlessly soulful revue, culminating with the Phil Spector-produced "River Deep - Mountain High" and an opening slot for The Rolling Stones on tour. But Ike's substance (and marital) abuse led Tina to divorce him in 1976 and struggled to make a name for herself as a solo artist. Of course, less than a decade later, 1984's iconic Private Dancer put her
From Brigadoon to Dogpatch, USA: Masterworks' Slate Features Robert Goulet Musicals, "Li'l Abner," "Virginia Woolf"
It might be a typical day in Dogpatch, USA, but it’s far from a typical one around these parts, for Sony’s Masterworks Broadway imprint has unveiled its first three releases of 2014 – each one a rare album never previously available in the compact disc/digital era. Next Tuesday, January 14, Masterworks will reissue the Original Motion Picture Soundtrack to the movie musical Li’l Abner, arranged and conducted by Nelson Riddle. Next month, on February 18, comes the spoken-word Original Broadway
Shall We Dance: Fred Astaire's "Early Days at RKO" Collects Vintage Sides On 2 CDs
Today, more than 25 years after his passing, the name of Fred Astaire still instantly conjures up a world of top hat, white tie and tails; of sheer elegance, easygoing charm and abundant grace. His enduring talents have recently been celebrated by Sony’s Masterworks label and Turner Classic Movies on the latest in their series of joint CD releases, Fred Astaire: The Early Years at RKO. (Previous titles have been dedicated to Doris Day and Mario Lanza.) This 2-CD, 37-song anthology spans the
Come Into Their World: Dance Classics From The Emotions, Foxy Arrive On BBR
We have plenty of news coming your way from Big Break Records as the Cherry Red soul specialists have closed out 2013 and already announced plans for 2014 in a big way. Before we dive into recent releases from Joe Bataan, The Salsoul Orchestra, Chris Jasper and Herbie Mann, we wouldn’t want you to miss two recent disco-flavored releases from The Emotions and Foxy! The BBR label welcomes The Emotions, appropriately enough, with the R&B girl group’s 1979 album entitled Come Into Our World.
"Star Trek," "Abyss" Surface in Surprise Varese Club Batch
Varese Sarabande has opened up a new batch of CD Club limited edition soundtrack reissues for the holidays. Beginning in 2014, six titles - including two deluxe editions - will start shipping from the long-running soundtrack label. First up, a milestone from the final frontier: Varese expands the soundtrack to 2002's Star Trek: Nemesis. This time, the USS Enterprise encounters a dangerous foe from within the Romulan Empire: a villainous clone of Captain Jean-Luc Picard (played by a then-unknown
Todd's Blues: Rundgren's Live "Johnson" Captured On CD/DVD Set
When Todd Rundgren’s Johnson was released in April 2011, the singer-songwriter’s longtime fans were forgiven for greeting the album with surprise. While Toddheads have been trained to expect the unexpected, Johnson was a departure from even the artist’s most outré projects. It was Rundgren’s first-ever all-covers album, and its subject wasn’t a songwriter whose influence was readily apparent in Rundgren’s own music. (At various points in his career, a tribute to Laura Nyro or Kenneth Gamble,
Atlantic Goes for the Gold with New Grammy Compilation
To cap off a relatively all-over-the-place year in pop music for 2013, January 26 sees the 56th annual Grammy Awards, broadcast live as always from Los Angeles' Staples Center. The competition is particularly heavy with nominations for rappers, both veterans (Jay-Z) and upstarts (Kendrick Lamar, indie sensations Macklemore & Ryan Lewis, who continue to self-release their work without a major label behind them), but there's a little something for everyone on the 2014 Grammy Nominees album,
High Moon Rising: Reissues From Gene Clark and Arthur Lee's Love Now Available For Pre-Order
At long last, High Moon is rising. Yesterday, on January 2, the long-aborning record label revealed on its Facebook page that pre-orders were being taken for the label's CD releases of Gene Clark's Two Sides to Every Story and Love's Black Beauty. We've closely followed the High Moon story here at The Second Disc, from the label's initial announcements in Spring 2011 through an optimistic status update almost two years ago on January 30, 2012. Deluxe, 180-gram vinyl LPs arrived for both titles
Here They Come! Complete Paul Revere & The Raiders Catalogue Now Available Digitally
Back to work today? Take your mind off the daily grind and enjoy a great soundtrack, with this week's surprise premiere digital release of the entire Columbia Records discography of Paul Revere & The Raiders. Previously only officially represented through several compilations, including the band's entry in Legacy Recordings' Essential series and 2010's triple-disc Complete Columbia Singles (originally released on the Collector's Choice label), fans can now stream and download the baker's
Here's to a "Brand New Year"
As I write this, we're one day closer to ending our fourth - fourth! - year of posting catalogue news and views on The Second Disc. To think a year or so ago people were worried the CD would cease to exist as a unit of transporting music to your ears; this year has seen one of the best box sets I have ever had the pleasure of hearing, with so many other wonderful treasures along the way. (And already we have a ton of heavy hitters to anticipate in 2014, including great new Omnivore reissues,
The Year in Reissues: The 2013 Gold Bonus Disc Awards
Welcome to The Second Disc’s Fourth Annual Gold Bonus Disc Awards! Though this is a slow time of year for news, it’s the perfect time to look at the year in review. As with every year’s awards, our goals are simple: to recognize as many of the year’s most essential reissues and catalogue titles as possible, and to celebrate those labels, producers and artists who make these releases possible in what many might deem an increasingly-challenging retail landscape. These labels have bucked the
Happy Holidays From The Second Disc
‘Twas the night before Christmas, and all through the house, not a creature was stirring…not even The Second Disc. It’s that time of year, folks, where we hope you’ll be spending time with your loved ones, looking back on the events of the past twelve months, and looking forward to a happy, healthy and fulfilling 2014. Watch this space for some special surprises coming up soon…and rest assured that we’ll be back on a regular posting schedule in the first full week of the New Year with even
Holiday Gift Guide Review: Various Artists, "The South Side of Soul Street"
The trusty musical archaeologists at the Omnivore label have the perfect stocking stuffer for those looking for a little bit of southern soul hung by the chimney with care. The 2-CD anthology The South Side of Soul Street (OVCD-68, 2013), collecting the A- and B-sides of 20 singles released by the Minaret label between 1967 and 1976, makes the argument that Valparaiso, Florida’s Playground Recording Studio deserves to be spoken of in the same breath as Muscle Shoals, American Sound, Stax and
Holiday Gift Guide Review: Matt Monro, "The Rarities Collection" and "Alternate Monro"
How lovely to sit here in the shade, with none of the woes of man and maid/I’m glad I’m not young anymore! The rivals that don’t exist at all, the feeling you’re only two feet tall/I’m glad I’m not young anymore! Matt Monro recorded those Alan Jay Lerner lyrics in January 1973 at just 42 years of age. But by that point, the golden-voiced singer had already acquired enough experience to interpret them with supreme confidence and natural charm. Monro’s reassuring, crisply impeccable tone
Eric Clapton Goes to the "Crossroads" and Brings Friends On New CD, DVD, BD
Eric Clapton is big on giving back. The guitar god founded Antigua’s Crossroads Centre for the treatment of alcoholism and drug addiction in 1998, and in 2004, spearheaded the creation of the Crossroads Eric Clapton Guitar Festival to benefit the facility of the same name. Since that first ’04 fest, Crossroads Festivals have taken place every three years, in 2007, 2010 and 2013. Highlights from the 2013 shows, which took place on April 12 and 13 at New York’s famed Madison Square Garden, are
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