Laura Nyro's 1966 debut album on Verve Records proclaimed the young singer-songwriter to be More Than a New Discovery, and the title wasn't mere hyperbole. After all, the album introduced one chart-topper for The 5th Dimension, a Top 5 smash for Blood, Sweat and Tears, and a Top 10 hit for Barbra Streisand among its twelve songs. How to top New Discovery? Nyro's major-label debut at Columbia Records, 1968's Eli and the Thirteenth Confession, did just that, as one of the most strikingly
Soul and Inspiration: SoulMusic Collects Vivian Reed's "Epic Years"
Singer-actress Vivian Reed boasts an impressive resume: Juilliard training, two Tony Award nominations, a Drama Desk Award, a Theatre World Award, and credits on Broadway, television, film, and beyond. Cherry Red Group's SoulMusic Records imprint has recently taken a deep look at Reed's small but sublime output for Epic Records on a new collection, Yours Until Tomorrow: The Epic Years. At the label, Reed released one album and eight singles between 1968 and 1971 - some 20 songs, all of which
Ain't Too Proud To Beg: New Digital Releases Premiere Unreleased Beach Boys and Motown Featuring Marvin Gaye, Supremes, Temptations and Many More
As has become commonplace over the past several years due to the copyright laws in the U.K. and Europe, a couple of "copyright extension" releases came out at the end of 2016 to come in right at the deadline for 1966 recordings. While sometimes these collections have taken physical form like the two large Bob Dylan box sets that have been released over the past couple of years, they are more often than not digital-only releases. And in keeping with the traditions of the past several years,
Love You 'Til the Day I Die: Crowded House, 2016's Reissues of the Year
Yesterday, we announced the recipients of the Seventh Annual Gold Bonus Disc Awards! Unsurprisingly, the deluxe reissues from Crowded House were among them! Today, Mike takes an in-depth look at these stellar reissues! Depending on how you look at it, there are anywhere from seven (albums) to 14 (discs) to more than 200 (songs) reasons why Universal Music's Crowded House reissues stand tall in this writer's mind as the best catalog music campaign of 2016. But in the end, all it took was
The Year In Review - The 2016 Gold Bonus Disc Awards, From A to Z
Happy New Year, and welcome to The Second Disc's Seventh Annual Gold Bonus Disc Awards! 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 as many of those labels, producers and artists who make these releases happen in today's unpredictable retail landscape. The labels you'll read about below have, by and large, bucked the trends to prove that there's still a demand for physical
Live at The Paradiso (Soft Purple Vinyl Edition)
Early prog-rock band Soft Machine was formed in 1966 in the U.K. The group opened for Jimi Hendrix on this 1968 North American tour and actually broke up during that time. But they reformed due to contractual obligations to record their second album, Volume 2, released in September 1969. A little earlier than that, in March 1969, they performed at the Paradiso in Amsterdam. That concert has been available before on CD but Real Gone is putting out the first vinyl edition of Live at the
Doin' It: Cherry Red Reissues, Expands Three Fusion Classics From Herbie Hancock
Cherry Red's Robinsongs imprint recently paired Herbie Hancock's 1978 and 1979 albums Sunlight and Feets Don't Fail Me Now on one 2-CD set. Now, Robinsongs has looked back to bring three original Hancock albums for Columbia Records together as one 2-CD package: 1974's Thrust, 1975's Man-Child, and 1976's Secrets. All three of these albums were Jazz No. 1 records; these reissues sweeten the deal by adding rare single versions to the track line-ups. Thrust was the American follow-up to
Never Ending Song of Love: Real Gone's February Slate Includes Delaney & Bonnie, Lesley Gore, Duke Ellington, Lynn Anderson, More
As Christmas approaches and 2016 winds down, we start looking ahead to 2017 and what will be released. We've already told you about the Second Disc Records/Real Gone Music reissue of Thom Bell's all-star soundtrack to The Fish That Saved Pittsburgh due in February, and now we're here to tell you about the rest of Real Gone's killer lineup for that month. First up are two titles with liner notes by our very own Joe Marchese. In 2015, Real Gone reissued Lesley's Gore's Someplace Else Now
Teenage Revolution: Cherry Red Collects Glam Rock From Hello
Hello! Cherry Red's 7Ts imprint has recently released a new box set for the teenage glam rockers Hello. At 4 CDs and 74 songs, The Albums boasts the group's 1976 debut Keeps Us Off the Streets, the Japan-only Shine On Silver Light album, 1978's farewell Hello Again, and a disc's worth of rare and previously unreleased cuts. The first and third albums were previously issued separately in expanded editions by 7Ts. The quartet of Keith Marshall, Bob Bradbury, Jeff Allen, and Vic Faulkner
Jeff Larson Returns To "Heart of the Valley" On New Reissue
When singer-songwriter Jeff Larson premiered his album Heart of the Valley in 2009, the album was rightly lauded as an immaculately produced collection of laid-back, polished pop. It conjured a time when rich emotions and real instruments ruled pop radio. Today, it's just as relevant, as proven by a newly-expanded reissue on Japan's Vivid Sound label (VSCD 3944, 2016). The artist indicates in his new liner notes that "the concept for Heart of the Valley was loosely based on the Nilsson Sings
Cooking with Gas: Sub Pop Reissues Tad Discography
If you're looking for some reissues for the hardcore Seattle fan in your life, Sub Pop Records has recently released the early discography of the group Tad. Named for singer/guitarist Tad Doyle, Tad were one of Sub Pop's first artists, and while their music sounded less punk and more metal (think Alice in Chains without quite as many hooks), they were a crucial force for the label. They opened for Nirvana on a European tour, and shared many of their studio collaborators (Jack Endino produced
And Now...The Anita Kerr Orchestra and Singers Celebrated On New Box Set
Earlier this year, Cherry Red's él imprint collected Anita Kerr and Rod McKuen's classic "mood music" trilogy The Sea/The Earth/The Sky in one compact box set. Now, él has turned its attention to another set of engaging albums from the vast Anita Kerr discography. The Five Classic Warner Brothers Albums 1966-1968 brings together The Anita Kerr Orchestra's 1966 And Now...The Anita Kerr Orchestra! and The Anita Kerr Singers' four subsequent Warner LPs in one package. Memphis native Anita
Now Sounds Reissues Paul Revere and The Raiders' "Spirit of '67" In Mono/Stereo Edition
Last year, Now Sounds brought Paul Revere and the Raiders' 1967 Revolution! to CD in a deluxe, expanded mono/stereo edition. Now, the Cherry Red imprint has turned the clock back to 1966 just in time to deliver a 50th anniversary edition of that album's immediate predecessor, The Spirit of '67. This sparkling remastered reissue does full justice to the LP which marked the final collective work of the classic band line-up of Paul Revere, Mark Lindsay, Phil "Fang" Volk, Drake "The Kid" Levin and
Holiday Gift Guide Review: A Vinyl Christmas From Presley, Cash and More
As the vinyl revolution continues, it's no surprise that numerous classic Christmas albums have been reissued in the format, while newer holiday recordings have gotten the 33-1/3 treatment as well. Legacy Recordings, rather than continuing its Classic Christmas Album series in CD form this year, has brought a number of titles to vinyl including new collections from Elvis Presley and Johnny Cash, and a Classic Christmas volume dedicated to the big band sound. Of course, Elvis Presley has been
Release Round-Up: Week of December 9
Welcome to this week's Release Round-Up! Randy Newman, The Randy Newman Songbook (Nonesuch) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada) The Randy Newman Songbook box set marks the first-ever combined release of all three of the legendary songwriter's piano-and-voice Songbook albums (including the new Vol. 3) recorded in 2003 and 2010 with producers Mitchell Froom and Lenny Waronker. All songs have been resequenced as one cohesive, thematically-linked listening experience spread over 4
Acting Naturally: Omnivore Collects Buck Owens' Capitol Singles, Anthologizes Don Rich
Buck Owens changed the face of country music, and all he had to do was "Act Naturally." With his back-to-basics, honky-tonk approach, Alvis Edgar Owens defined the Bakersfield Sound, an antidote to the slick, guitar-and-choir-laden style coming out of Nashville in the 1960s. Omnivore Recordings, the label home of a number of stellar Owens-related projects, is about to issue a definitive 2-CD collection from his prime era - The Complete Capitol Singles 1957-1966 - as well as a compilation
Holiday Gift Guide Review: Frank Sinatra, "World on a String"
Leave it to Noel Coward to sum it all up. In his introduction to Frank Sinatra's June 14, 1958 performance at the Sporting Club in Monte Carlo, the famous British playwright-actor-songwriter-raconteur observed of his American friend's on-screen performances, "I've never yet known him to strike a false note." As Coward undoubtedly knew, the same was true of Sinatra's musical recordings, sung with the emotional honesty and unvarnished directness of a great actor and communicator. From his
WIN! WIN! WIN! Varese Reissues "City Heat" with Al Jarreau, Irene Cara, Eloise Laws, Joe Williams
In recent months, the fine folks at Varese Vintage have been on a roll with a number of soundtrack releases including Foul Play, Roots, The Champ, The Electric Horseman, and most recently for Record Store Day Black Friday, Harry Nilsson's Popeye and Charles Fox and Bob Crewe's Barbarella. Now, the label has just reissued for the first time on CD the soundtrack to the 1984 crime drama City Heat, featuring music by Lennie Niehaus and performances by Al Jarreau, Eloise Laws, Irene Cara, Joe
You Know How Good It Is: BBR Expands Vincent Montana's "Goody Goody" For CD
It's that time of year again when radio stations everywhere turn to the sounds of the holiday season. One of the tunes always in frequent rotation is a bit of light swing from The Salsoul Orchestra's 1976 disco classic Christmas Jollies: "Merry Christmas, All." The voice of that perennial belongs to Denise Montana, daughter of its composer-arranger-conductor, the late, great MFSB vibraphonist and Salsoul Orchestra leader Vince Montana. Now, another project uniting Vince and Denise Montana has
Never Say Goodbye: Bon Jovi Vinyl Box Planned
More than 30 years after their debut, New Jersey's Bon Jovi are still going strong, and to commemorate that strength, they're releasing a heavy-hitting vinyl box set next year. The Albums includes all 14 of the group's studio efforts, from 1984's blistering-glam self-titled debut to the just-released This House is Not for Sale, the first original album without longtime guitarist Richie Sambora. Eleven of these albums have hit the Billboard Top 10 since 1986's chart-topping breakthrough
Start Down The Golden Road: Rhino Reissues Grateful Dead's Debut to Launch 50th Anniversary Campaign
2015 marked the 50th anniversary of the formation of the Grateful Dead and there were many projects to celebrate the occasion: concerts, CD anthologies and boxsets, documentaries, DVDs/Blu-rays, and more. But the Dead did not release their first studio album until 1967 and Rhino is celebrating that anniversary with a new 2-disc version of The Grateful Dead on January 20, 2017. And Rhino promises that this release is just the start of a massive new reissue campaign focused on the band. The
Release Round-Up: Week of November 18
Welcome to this week's Release Round-Up - the last of the major release weeks for 2016! The Beatles, Eight Days a Week (DVD or BD) (Apple/Capitol) 2-Disc Blu-ray: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada 2-Disc DVD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada Standard Edition Blu-ray: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada Standard Edition DVD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada Ron Howard's acclaimed 2016 documentary chronicling Beatlemania, Eight Days a Week, hits DVD
Beyond "The Year 2525": Tune In Collects Zager and Evans' RCA Recordings
In the annals of one-hit wonders, few are as well-remembered as the duo Zager and Evans. Rick Evans and Denny Zager, both of Lincoln, Nebraska, hit it big in 1969 with their dark, apocalyptic single "In the Year 2525." But the duo never scored another Hot 100 hit despite the fact that "2525" topped the Pop and AC charts in the United States and also went to the top in the United Kingdom. Now, their recordings for RCA have been collected by Cherry Red's Tune In imprint as In the
The Ultimate Collection
The Ultimate Collection features, on six vinyl albums, Evanescence's full studio discography on 180-gram vinyl. In addition to Fallen, The Open Door (a double LP) and Evanescence, the box features the first wide release of Origin, a 2000 self-released demo collection; plus Lost Whispers, a rarities disc featuring four unreleased tracks, including a new version of Origin's "Even In Death." A 52-page book of handwritten lyrics, artwork and photos rounds out this deluxe package.
Review: Bob Dylan, "The 1966 Live Recordings"
I. Play a song for me... Bob Dylan saw a very different future for folk music. His fifth studio album, Bringing It All Back Home, was released in March 1965, featuring one traditional acoustic side and one electric side. Underscoring the fact that his embrace of (gasp!) electric rock-and-roll was no fluke, Dylan plugged in at the Newport Folk Festival on July 25. From some appalled audience members came a chorus of boos. Others cheered. Dylan had electrified not only his own act, but
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