When Cissy Houston was signed to Private Stock Records in 1977 to record the first of two albums just reissued by the Cherry Pop label, her C.V. spoke for itself. Music practically ran in the veins of the vocalist born Emily Drinkard in Newark, New Jersey, 1933. Cissy first made her mark as a member of The Drinkard Singers, the group said to have recorded the very first major-label gospel album (1959's A Joyful Noise, on RCA Victor). Among Cissy's fellow Drinkard Singers was her sister Lee
Disco Connection: BBR Spins Dance Gold With Latest Reissues
At Big Break Records, no stone has been left unturned in the label’s quest to reissue the best in soul, R&B, dance and disco, as evidenced by five of the Cherry Red imprint’s latest catalogue expansions. 1971’s “Funky Nassau” by The Beginning of the End established the Bahamas as a fertile ground for musical invention when the single on Henry Stone’s Alston label became a Top 15 Pop/Top 10 R&B hit. His interest in the region’s music piqued, Stone signed the quintet T-Connection to his
Death Cab for Cutie to Revisit "Transatlanticism" (with Demos) for 10th Anniversary
Death Cab for Cutie frontman Ben Gibbard has been quite busy in the catalogue world lately, overseeing reissues of his band's early albums on vinyl as well as a 10th anniversary expansion of his acclaimed side project The Postal Service's sole album. This October, he's looking back again to the 10th anniversary of what might be Death Cab's greatest album, Transatlanticism. The band's fourth and final album for Barsuk Records, Transatlanticism - written solely by Gibbard and produced by fellow
Silk 'N Honey: LITA's Lee Hazlewood Archive Series Continues With "Honey Ltd."
Light in the Attic has a taste of Honey for you – Honey Ltd., that is. The latest release in the label’s Lee Hazlewood Archive Series, The Complete LHI Recordings brings together the complete LHI Records output (1968-1969) of the girl group produced by Hazlewood and Mike Post, and arranged by Ian Fairbairn-Smith and Jack Nitzsche. The 13-track anthology is available now. Laura Polkinghorne, Marsha Jo Temmer and sisters Joan and Alexandra Silwin first raised their voices in song at Detroit’s
Review: Sly and the Family Stone, "Higher!"
Sly Stone was a sponge. After leading Bobby "Do You Wanna Dance" Freeman to a hit record with 1965's "C'mon and Swim," the writer-producer-artist formerly known as Sylvester Stewart knew he had hit on a good thing. Hence, "I Just Learned to Swim." Then, "Scat Swim." But on the latter, Stone was already showing off his stylistic diversity, interrupting the beat to "slow it down a little so everybody can swim" and then speeding it back up again. He had soaked up the fertile creative
Madness to Reissue "Take It or Leave It" on DVD
Madness may be all in the mind, but in October it'll be on your TV screens thanks to a new reissue of the band's film, Take It or Leave It, coming from Salvo Music in October. Directed by Stiff Records founder Dave Robinson and released in 1981, Take It or Leave It is a docudrama about the beloved British ska group, combining staged vignettes with live footage and other fun stuff. Released in conjunction with the band's third album, 7, the film features various studio and live versions of songs
Midnight Special: Sweet "Rocky Horror" Reissues on Tap
A toast! A famed box set of music from The Rocky Horror Show is coming back into print, as well as a new reissue of the original film soundtrack on CD and vinyl, 40 years after the show first Time Warped into the hearts of fans. There comes a time in many music and theatre enthusiasts' lives when they encounter The Rocky Horror Show, Richard O'Brien's raucous cult musical, which first premiered in London's West End in the summer of 1973. More than 35 years after it was adapted into The Rocky
Review: The Beach Boys, "Made in California"
If everybody had an ocean... Rarely have five simple words in pop music held such promise. The message at the time was an invitation squarely aimed at teens: “If everybody had an ocean, across the USA/Then everybody’d be surfin’ like Califor-ni-a...” But ultimately, the promise and California dream embodied by Hawthorne, CA’s native sons came to mean so much more than mere surfin’. The sound of The Beach Boys – Brian Wilson, Mike Love, Carl Wilson, Dennis Wilson, Al Jardine, David Marks,
Let Him Sing and We're Happy: Parlophone Readies The "Alternate" Matt Monro
Matt Monro (1930-1985) made one of his first major splashes under the pseudonym of “Fred Flange,” adding the requisite touch of Sinatra to Peter Sellers’ 1959 comedy LP Songs for Swingin’ Sellers. Good as he was at being Sinatra, however, he was even better at being Matt Monro. Producer George Martin picked up on this, and the rest is history. Monro began his tenure at EMI signed (like Sellers) to Parlophone, later became an artist for EMI’s famous U.S. Capitol label, and still later saw
Mario Lanza Is "The Toast of Hollywood" On New Set From TCM, Sony
In the 1950 film of the same name, Mario Lanza was anointed The Toast of New Orleans. According to the fine folks at Turner Classic Movies and Sony Masterworks, however, the Pennsylvania-born, Italian-American tenor is also The Toast of Hollywood. TCM and Masterworks are following up their 2012 release of Doris Day’s With a Smile and a Song with a new, similarly-designed 2-CD set dedicated to the late Hollywood singing star Lanza. The rich-voiced singer may have perished in 1959 at just 38
They're Back...: Kritzerland Reissues "Poltergeist II"
Kritzerland Records is releasing a very special title by one of the most beloved soundtrack gurus of the century: a newly-expanded edition of Jerry Goldsmith's score to Poltergeist II: The Other Side. Released in 1986, four years after the Tobe Hooper-directed/Steven Spielberg-produced original (neither were involved on this project), Poltergest II again finds the Freeling family - Steven (Craig T. Nelson), Diane (JoBeth Williams) and their children Robbie (Oliver Robbins) and Carol Anne
Back Tracks: John Mayer
This week saw the release of Paradise Valley, the sixth full-length album by singer/songwriter/guitarist John Mayer. The Connecticut-born performer remains one of the most intriguing figures in pop music since the dawn of the 2000s: educated at the prestigious Berklee College of Music, Mayer was the complete package for a generation - multifaceted in his musical talents (kind of an insane cross between James Taylor and Stevie Ray Vaughan), an unabashed encyclopedia of modern pop - and, as it
It's Been Good to Know Yuh: Woody Guthrie Rarities Collected on New Box Set
In the annals of American history, few singer-songwriters were as incisive about our country as Woody Guthrie (1912-1967). He tirelessly dedicated himself and his songcraft to the hard-working, common man of the country, and was as equally vocal about injustices he saw in his many travels across the nation. And lately, as fans recently celebrated what would have been his 100th birthday, several great products came out in celebration of this milestone. But what many have forgotten about Guthrie
Metal, Rated "XXX": Roadrunner Marks Three-Decade-Plus Mark with Four-Disc Box Set
One of the top labels in straight-up rock and heavy metal, Roadrunner Records, will celebrate their more than 30 years in the business with a new box set, XXX: Three Decades of Roadrunner Records, in October. From its inception in 1980, Roadrunner was often toward the forefront of metal, from traditional heavy and thrash metal in the 1980s and early 1990s to the fast-paced tracks and nu metal stylings of the late '90s. Along the way, they've opened up their roster to all kinds of hard rock,
Take the Midnight Train to Eight New Gladys Knight and the Pips Reissues from FTG
Funkytowngrooves is leaving on the midnight train to Georgia with a series of six expanded reissues from the catalogue of Gladys Knight, both solo and with the Pips. September 16 and 30 are the dates to mark for the label's reissues of four vintage albums originally released on Buddah (Imagination, I Feel a Song, 2nd Anniversary and The One and Only...), one on Bell (In the Beginning) and three on Columbia (Gladys Knight, Visions and Life). It's a good time to be a fan of Gladys' ouevre; the
Favorite Things: Concord Reissues, Expands John Coltrane's "Afro Blue Impressions"
When John Coltrane's Afro Blue Impressions was released on LP by Pablo Records in 1977, it marked the tenth anniversary of the saxophone great's 1967 passing. Capturing his classic quartet in its prime, Afro Blue was recorded live in 1963 in Stockholm and Berlin. Now, on the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of its recording, and the fortieth anniversary of Pablo, Concord Music Group has remastered and expanded Afro Blue Impressions. The roots of Coltrane's great quartet can be traced to
Come On and Love Him: Iconic Lenny Kravitz LP to Be Expanded
Lenny Kravitz's third album, Are You Gonna Go My Way - which spawned a monster hit in the Hendrix-ian/Prince-like title track - is getting the double-disc reissue treatment for its 20th anniversary in September. Are You Gonna Go My Way established Kravitz as a successful R&B-rocker around the world; the title track was not only a No. 1 Mainstream Rock hit in the States, but a Top 5 U.K. hit. Follow-up singles "Believe" and "Heaven Help" were also successful. The deluxe edition of Are You
Review: Dionne Warwick, "We Need to Go Back: The Unissued Warner Bros. Masters"
We need to go back to the songs we used to sing... - Nickolas Ashford and Valarie Simpson, “We Need to Go Back” What’s remarkable about the 19 outtakes on Dionne Warwick’s We Need to Go Back: The Unissued Warner Bros. Masters (Real Gone Music RGM-0170) is that they’re every bit as good as – and in many cases, superior to - the music actually released during Warwick’s stormy five-year stay at the label. Every one of the soulful stylist’s Warner albums is represented with outtakes save 1972’s
Review: Dionne Warwick, "The Complete Warner Bros. Singles"
Dionne Warwick’s 1972-1977 tenure at Warner Bros. Records has long been a subject of much confusion. Why couldn’t the Burbank giant yield any hit records with the superstar artist after signing her to a record-breaking deal? Sure, the “triangle marriage” of Warwick, Burt Bacharach and Hal David was breaking up, but Warner paired her with some of the most famed names in soul music: Holland-Dozier-Holland, Jerry Ragovoy, and Thom Bell among them. Bell scored a hit for Warwick with “Then Came
Somewhere Only They Know: Keane Announce Greatest Hits Compilation in Various Formats
British pop-rockers Keane are set to commemorate a decade of releases with a new greatest hits compilation in November. While most knowledge of the Sussex band begins and ends with 2004's radio-ready, piano-led ballad "Somewhere Only We Know" (a modest No. 50 on the Billboard Hot 100), Keane have become quite a driving force in U.K. pop/rock. All four of their studio albums (and one extended EP) have topped the British charts, and they've amassed 10 Top 40 hits, including Top 10s "Everybody's
From Perry to Post-Punk: Real Gone Unearths Lords of the New Church, Perry Como, Patti Page, Grateful Dead, Billy Preston Rarities
Just a bit more than a week after the arrival of autumn, Real Gone music will deliver a slate of releases that might put you in an appropriately reflective mood. On September 30, two late vocal legends, Patti Page and Perry Como, get the Real Gone treatment complete with numerous previously unissued performances. A bona fide rock and R&B legend, Billy Preston, sees an early classic reissued alongside another concert rescued from the Grateful Dead's vault. And the batch is rounded out by
Chilton Illuminates New York in Unearthed 1997 Show
Yesterday marked the 10th anniversary of that famous blackout that hit New York and parts of the Eastern seaboard for much of the afternoon and evening. How ironic, then, that we turn your attention today toward the impending release of a previously-unreleased live concert from the late Alex Chilton, recorded under similar circumstances. Electricity by Candlelight showcases an unbelievable set by the Big Star frontman on the floor of New York's Knitting Factory on February 13, 1997. Chilton was
Ace Boldly Goes To "Outer Space" and The Bay Area On Two New Themed Collections
Ace Records is Going Wild!…not just with a rip-roaring rock-and-roll compilation of that name, but with a journey to the farthest reaches of the galaxy! Yes, the London-based label is travelling from the Bay Area to the Milky Way with two of its latest releases: Greatest Hits from Outer Space and Going Wild! Music City Rock 'n' Roll. Based on the 24 tracks of Ace’s Greatest Hits from Outer Space, the final frontier engaged a wide variety of artists in every conceivable musical genre. On this
Review: "The Muppet Movie: Original Soundtrack Recording"
I'm a pretty sensitive person, but there are few things that trigger my emotions easier than The Muppets. Searching through Muppet clips yields almost a 100% guarantee on being moved to tears; just finding the link to this ciip from the 1990 special The Muppets Celebrate Jim Henson made me start tearing up, and my last trip to Walt Disney World began with me leaving the plane to Orlando, choking back my emotions over a screening of 2011's The Muppets. (For the record, this is the scene that made
Saint Etienne Hosts "A Central Park Picnic" With Phil Spector, Burt Bacharach, Dion, The Drifters
For the inaugural release of his new Cherry Red imprint Croydon Municipal, Saint Etienne’s Bob Stanley has curated a collection of Songs for a Central Park Picnic. Songwriter/producer Stanley’s label is an extension of his Croydon Municipal blog, in which he holds forth on subjects as diverse as Barbra Streisand and Barry Gibb’s Guilty, the evolution of Britpop, and the fortunes of HMV. Like Stanley’s blog, his new CD compilation reflects his eclectic musical passions. Saint Etienne Presents
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