The masterminds at Big Break Records certainly like to keep fans of great soul music on their toes! In addition to the delicious soul-jazz hybrid Reality from Monk Montgomery, the label has recently unveiled another quartet of adventurous soul, dance and R&B reissues. Two of BBR’s latest hail from deep in the Salsoul Records vaults. 1977’s Spring Rain, credited to The Sensuous Sound of Silvetti, was the brainchild of Argentine pianist, composer, arranger and conductor Bebu Silvetti
Hangin' Out with Henry Mancini and Ferrante and Teicher: Intrada, Vocalion Revisit 1970s Gems
For fans of the legendary composer Henry Mancini, these really are the days of wine and roses. The soundtrack specialists at Intrada have just announced the CD release of Mancini's score to the 1974 adventure film The White Dawn for the very first time in a deluxe edition with bonus material. And the U.K.-based Vocalion label is looking to the same decade with the reissue of two of Mancini's never-before-on-CD RCA albums plus another pair from piano duo Arthur Ferrante and Lou
Review: Joanie Sommers, "Come Alive! The Complete Columbia Recordings"
On the opening track of Joanie Sommers' 1966 Columbia LP Come Alive!, the velvet-voiced singer seductively taunted, "You better love me while you may! Tomorrow I may fly away..." True, the Hugh Martin/Timothy Gray tune was originally sung by the late Elvira, a ghost haunting her husband in the musical High Spirits. But it could just as easily have applied to Sommers. Following a string of hit albums and singles for Warner Bros. Records, her home since 1960, the winsome "Pepsi Girl" and
A Match Made In "Hell": Cherry Red Revisits Meat Loaf and Ellen Foley
Ain’t no doubt about it: Ellen Foley achieved classic rock immortality via her role on “Paradise by the Dashboard Light,” opposite Meat Loaf on his 1977 album Bat Out of Hell. Foley was the girl “glowing like the metal on the edge of a knife” in Jim Steinman’s rock opera in miniature, with Meat Loaf as the boy “praying for the end of time” and the end of their time together. All these years later, Foley and the former Marvin Lee Aday are together again - on CD shelves, at least, thanks to two
October Is The Most Wonderful Time of The Year With Real Gone Releases From Andy Williams, Bobby Darin, Patti Page, More
It's not too early to start making that Christmas list! Just ask Real Gone Music. On October 29, the label will release five deluxe holiday-themed collections from some of the most beloved vocalists of all time, in addition to two other titles reflecting the label's usual eclectic tastes. For those who need a little Christmas right this very minute, now's the time to peruse Real Gone's upcoming offerings. The crown jewel comes from Andy Williams, already announced as the subject of a 2013
Along Came Jones (And Robbins, Too): Morello Revives Classic Country from George and Marty
Cherry Red’s busy Morello Records imprint has continued its classic country revival with three recent releases – all available now - from some very legendary names: George Jones, Merle Haggard, Johnny Paycheck and Marty Robbins. George Jones was the first artist to be reissued on the Morello label, and just a few months ago, the two-fer of Jones Country (1983) and You’ve Still Got a Place in My Heart (1984) arrived. Morello’s exploration of Jones’ latter-day work has now brought the reissue on
Pure Serendipity: Now Sounds Uncovers Serendipity Singers' Psych-Pop Treasure
Here’s a prescription for convalescent hippies you oughta know... Webster’s defines serendipity as “the faculty or phenomenon of finding valuable or agreeable things not sought for,” making it an apropos name for The Serendipity Singers. The group was formed in 1963 at the University of Colorado in the days when The New Christy Minstrels could sell one million copies of “Green, Green” and folk music was being happily served to the masses by clean-scrubbed young men and women with a spoonful of
Special Review: Glen Campbell and Jimmy Webb Conjure Old Ghosts On Two New Releases
Since 1967, it’s been difficult to think of Glen Campbell without thinking of Jimmy Webb – and vice versa. When the ace session guitarist interpreted the young songwriter’s “By the Time I Get to Phoenix” on the album of the same name, the result wasn’t just a Grammy-winning hit single, but the beginning of a partnership that’s survived through six decades. Campbell scored successes with a string of Webb’s songs in the late 1960s (“Wichita Lineman,” “Galveston,” “Where’s the Playground, Susie”),
Lonely Boy No More: Edsel Honors Andrew Gold with Complete Albums Set
If you've been looking for a simple way to acquaint yourself with the soft rock stylings of the late Andrew Gold, Edsel may have just the set for you: a triple-disc, bonus-laden compilation of Gold's four albums for Asylum Records. The singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist enjoyed his greatest successes as one of the pre-eminent smooth pop tunesmiths of the late '70s. "Lonely Boy" was a Top 10 hit in 1977, while follow-ups "Thank You for Being a Friend" and "Never Let Her Slip Away" enjoyed
Review: Marilyn McCoo and Billy Davis, Jr., "The Two of Us" and "Marilyn & Billy"
When Marilyn McCoo and Billy Davis, Jr. departed The 5th Dimension following the release of 1975's Earthbound, their commercial success as a duo was far from a sure thing. Despite being a worthy follow-up to the 5th Dimension's magnum opus The Magic Garden and a reunion with that album's composer-lyricist-producer Jimmy Webb, Earthbound didn't rekindle the group's fortunes. But McCoo and Davis knew they had one thing going for them: their union, one which is still going strong today. That
Cherry Pop "Thinks It Over" With Two Reissues From Cissy Houston
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
Hot Stuff: Donna Summer's Legacy Celebrated with New Remix Album
The sudden passing of Donna Summer in 2012 had fans old and new flocking to her music to hear some of the finest disco music imaginable. This fall, Verve Records will bring that legacy into a new era with Love to Love You Donna, a set featuring new remixes of her most enduring tracks. Happily, Love to Love You Donna features more than its share of enduring remixers to give Summer's hits the respect they deserve. Electronic funk duo Chromeo tackles her 1982 hit "Love is in Control (Finger on
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
Review: Bob Dylan, "The Bootleg Series Vol. 10: Another Self Portrait"
Who is Bob Dylan? Today, he might identify himself as “a song and dance man,” a noble profession if there ever was one. But for decades, the man born Robert Zimmerman has been much, much more. Resistant though he might have been to the tag of “spokesman of a generation,” said generation could have done much worse. To describe Dylan’s role in the 1960s is certainly to paint with broad brushstrokes. But it can be said with some measure of truth that Dylan liberated popular music from the
"The Bells Ring," Again: New Wave Outfit Swimming Pool Q's Reissue A&M Works on Deluxe Compilation
Here's a surprising treat from earlier in the summer: New Wave outfit The Swimming Pool Q's recently re-released their two albums for A&M Records with a host of bonus content. The Atlanta-based quintet - anchored by multi-instrumentalist Jeff Calder and guitarist Bob Elsey (the band's principal songwriters) and singer/keyboardist Anne Richmond Boston - enjoyed local success on the DB Records label (alongside acts like Pylon and Love Tractor) before making the jump to the majors with their
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,
Review: The Monkees, "The Monkees Present: Deluxe Edition"
And then there were three. Peter Tork had departed The Monkees in December 1968, just a couple of months prior to the February 1969 release of the band’s seventh studio album, Instant Replay. The remaining trio of Davy Jones, Micky Dolenz and Mike Nesmith soldiered on, though, cutting numerous new tracks and updating old ones for an eighth effort. Issued by Colgems in October 1969 on the heels of an unsuccessful greatest-hits album, it was The Monkees Present and emphasized the slimmer group
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
SoulMusic Records Delivers the Love with Phyllis Hyman's "Buddah Years"
SoulMusic Records, an imprint of the Cherry Red Group, continues its non-chronological tour through the catalogue of the late Phyllis Hyman with the release of The Buddah Years. Despite the compilation title, this 13-track CD is actually a straight reissue of Hyman’s very first solo album, recorded for Buddah Records, plus four bonus tracks. Though she had previously recorded a single for Private Stock Records, the statuesque soul singer’s first major splash came as guest vocalist for
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
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
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