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The late, great Donny Hathaway was rather beautifully celebrated by Rhino France some time ago with the release of a career-spanning box set. While U.S. audiences had no such luck with a similar compilation, Shout! Factory is picking up the slack and releasing a two-disc set containing both of the soul legend's long out-of-print live albums. Hathaway had recorded two sensational studio albums when Live was released in 1972. Very little of those albums are replicated here, save for "The Ghetto"

Before Elaine Paige, before Patti LuPone, there was Julie Covington.  The singer/actress was the first to sing the role of Evita in the Andrew Lloyd Webber/Tim Rice musical, introducing “Don’t Cry For Me, Argentina” on the 1976 concept album and scoring a No. 1 single in the U.K. the following year with the song.  Musical theatre aficionados might also know Covington from her roles in Godspell and Guys and Dolls or even another concept album, War of the Worlds.  But Covington also recorded some

Singer, actress, model, mogul - Jennifer Lopez has done all of these things in a surprisingly short span of time. And now, she's taking a look back at part of her career with her first ever greatest hits compilation, Dance Again...The Hits, to be released in July. From her early days as one of the "Fly Girls" dancing on FOX's In Living Color, Jennifer Lopez had quite the personality and the following. The Bronx-born performer gained critical and commercial acclaim with early film roles opposite

Turn on an American oldies radio station today and it shouldn’t be too long before you hear The American Breed’s “Bend Me, Shape Me,” a Top 5 hit in 1968. Across the pond, however, the song unequivocally belongs to Amen Corner. The Welsh outfit didn’t last long, but in a jam-packed two year period, Amen Corner produced six hits and three albums on two labels: Deram and Immediate. The Deram years have just been collected in full on RPM’s new Round Amen Corner: The Complete Deram Recordings. The

When it was first released in 1995, Liquid Swords, the acclaimed solo album from GZA of the immortal rap collective Wu-Tang Clan, was credited to its maker as "Genius/GZA." Nearly two decades later, with a deluxe edition forthcoming from specialty label Get On Down, it's hard to argue that. Liquid Swords came at a time when the Wu-Tang Clan, who'd turned many a head with their patchwork lyrical style, idiosyncratic sense of humor and straightforward look at urban life. Enter the Wu-Tang (36

In the late '80s and early '90s, They Might Be Giants earned a sterling reputation as one of the quirkiest bands around, creating hook-filled pop garnished with out-there lyrics and intricate, often unexpected arrangements. But as time goes on, how does one extend their musical legacy beyond the loyal fan base? John Linnell and John Flansburgh figured out a most intriguing way of doing so ten years ago this month: they released No!, an album of original songs written with children in mind. (The

The past few years has seen a flurry of catalogue activity from iconic U.K. label Zang Tuum Tumb. The ongoing Element Series, distributed by England's Salvo Music imprint, has seen artists from 808 State and Propaganda to Frankie Goes to Hollywood and The Art of Noise expanded and remastered in lavish double-disc packages. This summer, ZTT adds to the Element Series a compilation of rarities from the short but intricate discography of Frankie Goes to Hollywood. The quartet's "Relax" was one of

It’s inevitable that Billy Paul will be best remembered for that thing he had going on with a certain Mrs. Jones.  But that ode to a steamy extramarital affair hardly told the whole story of Billy Paul.  “A lot of people don’t even know I’m a jazz singer.  That’s what I want to be known for,” Paul tells Andy Kellman in the liner notes to Big Break Records’ must-have reissue of the singer’s second album, Ebony Woman.  Though produced by Kenneth Gamble and Leon Huff, Ebony Woman wasn’t issued on

The numbers and dates may have changed, but we can now finally confirm the news that has long been circulating, both here and elsewhere, that Frank Zappa's catalogue is headed to Universal Music Enterprises (UMe).  According to the Zappa Family Trust's press release, a global license and distribution deal will see the reissue of 60 Zappa albums, beginning with a group of 12 (not 18, as previously believed) that will roll out on July 31. Throughout a long career that produced more than 60 albums