The Second Disc is continuing its celebration of 2015's finest with today's column by Ted Frank! Stop, do not pass GO and do not collect 200 dollars if you haven't already read our Sixth Annual Gold Bonus Disc Awards summation of the year's greatest releases. Here, Ted presents his very own, alternative year in review with titles new and old! I make records ... I really don't want to be about singles or anything. -Adele, The Tonight Show In recent years, the download/stream-heavy music
Cherry Red's él Label Offers Rod McKuen, Wally Stott, Bobby Scott Rarities
Cherry Red's él imprint has a trio of recent releases continuing its commitment to truly eclectic sounds of the pre-1964 era. Two of these are musical odes to the big city life of London and New York, from arrangers Wally Stott and Bobby Scott, respectively; the third reissues and expands a compilation from the late Rod McKuen. Singer-songwriter-poet-author-renaissance man McKuen, who died earlier this year, was recently the subject of Varese Vintage's Reflections: The Greatest Songs of Rod
Review: Roy Orbison, "The MGM Years 1965-1973"
The Big O is back with a big box set. The MGM Years 1965-1973, recently arrived from Roy's Boys, LLC and Universal Music Enterprises, chronicles over the course of 13 CDs (or 14 LPs) the least well-known period of the late vocal titan's career. Orbison joined MGM Records riding the crest of the "Oh, Pretty Woman" wave; the composition which he wrote with Bill Dees was a U.S. and U.K. chart-topper at the height of the British Invasion in 1964 for Fred Foster's Monument Records. Enticed by
The Year in Review - The 2015 Gold Bonus Disc Awards, From A to Z
Happy New Year, and welcome to The Second Disc's Sixth 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 an increasingly-challenging 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
Won't You Dance With Me: Real Gone Goes Country with Barbara Mandrell, Ralph Stanley, Marty Robbins and Doug Sahm with Bob Dylan and Others
Real Gone is in a country mood this February, with the majority of their slate devoted to the country and western genre. But that is not all you will find on the label's mix of CDs and vinyl for the month. Kicking things off is collection drawn from Barbara Mandrell's tenure at Columbia Records: This Time I Almost Made It - The Lost Columbia Masters. This CD features liner notes by our very own Joe Marchese based on a fresh interview with Mandrell, and is centered around Mandrell's final
Release Round-Up: Week of December 11
This week's Release Round-Up is slimmer than most of late, but still filled with some ideal stocking stuffers... Joe Cocker, The Life of a Man: Ultimate Hits 1968-2013 (UMe) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon Canada) UMe celebrates the life and career of the late, great Joe Cocker with this new 3-CD, 36-track anthology with greatest hits and deeper cuts including a live version of "With a Little Help from My Friends" never before released in the United States. This set was previously released in
Real Gone Celebrates Christmas With The Soulful Strings, John Gary, Four Seasons
Real Gone Music is this year's source for classic Christmas reissues - including two from our own Second Disc Records imprint! Here, we're taking a look at three more titles from the label's Christmas feast! At first glance, The Soulful Strings might appear to be just another of those ubiquitous sixties instrumental studio outfits, delivering MOR versions of the day's popular hits. Yet, a closer look at Cadet Records' Soulful Strings - and most of its brethren, truth be told - reveals some
Two From Captain Fingers: Robinsongs Reissues Lee Ritenour's "Rit" and "Rit 2"
In a solo career now numbering five decades and counting, California's Lee Ritenour - a.k.a. Captain Fingers - remains one of music's most virtuosic and prolific guitarists. An in-demand session guitarist who has played for artists including Johnny Mathis, Barbra Streisand, Ray Charles and Aretha Franklin, Ritenour released his first recording as a leader in 1975 with First Course; his most recent, A Twist of Rit, was issued earlier this year. Now, Cherry Red's Robinsongs imprint has looked
WE HAVE OUR WINNERS! "CRUISING" SOUNDTRACK SACD FROM AUDIO FIDELITY!
CONGRATULATIONS! The following 5 entrants have won a copy of Audio Fidelity's brand-new SACD of Cruising: The Original Motion Picture Soundtrack! If you entered our contest via Facebook and your name is on the list below, please drop us a line at theseconddisc-at-gmail-dot-com or a Private Message on Facebook with your name and mailing address! If you entered via email, you don't have to do anything - your SACD will be in the mail soon! Watch this space soon for more exciting
Review: "The Classic Christmas Album" Series 2015
Since 2011, Sony's Legacy Recordings has offered a crop of ideal stocking stuffers with the Classic Christmas Album series. This year's quartet of releases has a decidedly more modern bent, featuring artists associated with the '70s (Earth, Wind & Fire), '80s (a various artists compilation), '90s (Sarah McLachlan) and 2000s (Celtic Thunder). Three of these titles are actually expanded editions of previously released albums. Earth, Wind and Fire's Classic Christmas entry reprises last
"The First Bobby Hart Solo Album" OUT TODAY From 7a Records!
UPDATED 12/7: The 7a Records label made a big splash earlier this year with its first-ever release. The MGM Singles Collection brought together Micky Dolenz's rare MGM Records sides in a lavishly designed and annotated presentation that was a fan and collector's dream. Now, we're thrilled to report that the Monkees specialists at 7a have turned their attention to another key figure in Monkees lore with the first-ever CD release today of 1980's aptly-titled The First Bobby Hart Solo
Release Round-Up: Week of December 4
Well, this is it - the final big release week of the year! While next week will see releases slow to a trickle, this week is packed with exciting box sets and much more! Bruce Springsteen, The Ties That Bind: The River Collection (Columbia) 4-CD/3-DVD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon Canada 4-CD/2-BD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon Canada This 4-CD/3-DVD or 4-CD/2-BD set celebrating The Boss' seminal album The River features a treasure trove of previously unreleased material across its 53 audio tracks
One Of A Kind (Love Affair): Big Break Reissues, Expands "Spinners"
When The Spinners left Motown Records after nearly a decade, the vocal group had never scored a Top 10 Pop hit. They'd come this close in 1970 with the irresistible, Stevie Wonder-penned "It's a Shame" (No. 14) - one of many fine tracks recorded for Berry Gordy's empire that, for one reason or another, never crossed The Spinners over to major stardom. That all changed when Thom Bell - the multi-hyphenate musician, producer, songwriter, arranger and conductor - declared that he wished to
Man in Black: Live in Denmark 1971
In 1971, Johnny Cash took the stage in Denmark, bringing his singular brand of what's now called Americana to that country. His revue was an expansive one - featuring his friend Carl Perkins, The Tennessee Three (Marshall Grant, W.S. "Fluke" Holland and Bob Wootton), The Carter Family (Mother Maybelle, Helen, Anita and of course, June) and The Statler Brothers (Harold Reid, Don Reed, Phil Balsley and Lew DeWitt). The setlist drew on The Man in Black's recent country and pop favorites (such as
Audio Fidelity Brings "Cruising" with Hiatt, DeVille, Germs to SACD - And YOU CAN WIN!
Director William Friedkin (The Exorcist, The French Connection) was never one to shy away from controversy. And so was the case with his 1980 film Cruising. Al Pacino starred as NYPD Officer Steve Burns, tasked with tracking down a serial killer targeting gay men. Inspired by the novel of the same name by New York Times reporter Gerald Walker, Cruising earned largely negative reviews and protests upon its initial release, criticized both for its depiction of the gay community and for lackluster
Release Round-Up: Week of November 27
To our U.S. readers, today is the day of shopping known as Black Friday - but happily, the diverse slate of releases due in stores today should lift your spirits - no matter where you're located! Love, Reel to Real: Expanded Edition (High Moon Records) (Amazon U.S.) High Moon Records has the premiere reissue of Arthur Lee and Love's 1974 album Reel to Real as a newly-expanded Deluxe Edition boasting a color, 32-page booklet. A vinyl edition will follow early next year. Read more
Say, Say, Say! The Second Disc's Essential RSD Black Friday 2015 Release Guide
From all of us here at Second Disc HQ to all of you, we hope you're enjoying a wonderful Thanksgiving in the company of family and friends. Of course, from this day which conjures nostalgic and warm feelings comes a celebration of a different kind with this year's annual Black Friday - the day for consumers to start off the holiday shopping season on a mad, frenetic note. But 2015 is just in the latest year in which numerous retailers in the U.S. have made headlines by blackening Thursday, or
Something Bad On Her Mind: Rare and Unreleased Timi Yuro Arrives From Cherry Red
There was only one Timi Yuro. The late, Chicago-born Italian-American vocalist was signed to Liberty Records as a teenager, bringing jazz and R&B influences into her emotional, heart-on-its-sleeve blue-eyed soul style. After having spent the first portion of her career at Liberty, Yuro departed the label in 1963. She was dubbed The Amazing Timi Yuro by Mercury Records for her Quincy Jones-produced LP debut there in 1964, but Mercury never followed it up with another long-player, opting
Esoteric Offers Up Live Barclay James Harvest, Rarities From Tea and Symphony, Third World War
With a trio of recent releases, Cherry Red Group's Esoteric Recordings imprint continues to dig through the archives to reissue some of the most intriguing offerings from the prog-rock era and beyond. John Lees founded Barclay James Harvest in 1966 with Les Holroyd, Mel Pritchard and Stuart "Wooly" Wolstenholme. After one single for EMI's Parlophone imprint in 1968, the progressive four-piece was moved over to the Harvest imprint. Barclay James Harvest remained on Harvest for four LPs, but
In Memoriam: P.F. Sloan (1945-2015)
Take a moment to consider a number of the songs written or co-written by Philip "P.F." Sloan: "Secret Agent Man," "Eve of Destruction," "Let Me Be," "Where Were You When I Needed You," "You Baby," "A Must to Avoid," "Another Day, Another Heartache." Yet the songwriter, who died on November 15 at the age of 70, may be best known for the bittersweet, elegiac ode penned by his colleague and admirer, Jimmy Webb. "I have been seeking P.F. Sloan," Webb's song begins. "But no one knows where he has
John Williams' Original "JAWS" Score Gets Deluxe, Expanded Edition From Intrada
Only shortly after their expansion of the score to JAWS 2, Intrada gives fans of the great white shark franchise a true reason to need a bigger boat, announcing a deluxe edition of John Williams' iconic, Academy Award-winning soundtrack to Steven Spielberg's JAWS. We've told the story behind the music before, in a Friday Feature from 2012. What's important now is what fans can expect from this new release, the third issue of JAWS score on CD. According to Intrada's product description, the
Sweetness and Light: Lush Prepare Career Box Set
Part shoegaze, part Britpop, Lush were one of the most interesting bands to come out of England in the 1990s--and with a reunion imminent, they've readied the definitive box set of their discography. The five-disc Chorus, available December 4, gathers all of Lush's studio output in one set. The EP collection Gala (1990); studio albums Spooky (1992), Split (1994) and Lovelife (1996); and B-sides compilation Topolino (1996) will all be appended with additional material, including 16 unreleased
Release Round-Up: Week of November 13
It may be Friday the 13th, but today's choice releases are hardly scary, with box sets, archival releases, new music from veteran artists, and much, much more! Aretha Franklin, The Atlantic Albums Collection (Atlantic/Rhino) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.) This 19-CD box set brings together 16 of the Queen of Soul's Atlantic albums as previously released on CD including the deluxe 2-CD Live at Fillmore East, the 2-CD Rare & Unreleased Recordings From The Golden Reign Of The Queen Of
Hurt So Bad: 7a Records Rescues "The First Bobby Hart Solo Album" With Expanded CD Reissue
The 7a Records label made a big splash earlier this year with its first-ever release. The MGM Singles Collection brought together Micky Dolenz's rare MGM Records sides in a lavishly designed and annotated presentation that was a fan and collector's dream. Now, we're thrilled to report that the Monkees specialists at 7a are turning their attention to another key figure in Monkees lore with the first-ever CD release on December 7 of 1980's aptly-titled The First Bobby Hart Solo Album. There
Jump To The Beat! BBR Reissues Dancefloor Classics By Stacy Lattisaw, Karen Young
With a quartet of recent releases, Big Break Records continues to deliver to the highest standard in deluxe, remastered and generously expanded editions of R&B classics. Today, we turn the spotlight on two of those titles, from Stacy Lattisaw and Karen Young! Stacy Lattisaw was just 12 - yes, 12! - years old when she made her major label debut on Atlantic Records' Cotillion imprint with Young and in Love. One of the final projects produced by Van McCoy before his untimely death, the
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