While The Second Disc continues to champion physical media, we recognize that some labels have begun to issue digital-only releases that bring together rarities from the vault or spotlight long-out-of-print albums. From annual copyright extension releases to vault-clearing initiatives, we figured our readers would like to know about some of the treasures that have been released online and on streaming services. So, from time to time, we will shed some light on the best of these digital
In the Mood for Love: Cherry Red Collects Early Blossom Dearie in New Box Set
This past weekend - April 28, to be exact - would have marked the 95th birthday of Blossom Dearie. The singer-pianist-songwriter with the recognizably wispy, coquettish voice recorded over 30 albums for labels including Verve, Capitol, and Fontana, and collaborated with talents including Johnny Mercer, Michel Legrand, and Bob Dorough. Cherry Red's El label has just celebrated Dearie's early years with a new 3-CD set, The Adorable Blossom Dearie (superseding the label's previous single-disc
The Wayfarer: Bruce Springsteen Returns With New Long-Player, "Western Stars"
Yesterday, Bruce Springsteen announced the release of his highly anticipated new solo album, Western Stars, which marks his first studio work since High Hopes in 2014. Due on June 14 from Columbia, Western Stars marks a return to "character driven songs and sweeping, cinematic orchestral arrangement[s]," as Springsteen described it in a statement. According to the press release, the album is partly inspired by classic Southern California pop of the '60s and '70s, and Springsteen has
Go While We Can: Real Gone Reissuing Grateful Dead's Fillmore East 1970 Concert
Real Gone Music is continuing its trip through the Grateful Dead's Road Trips series, bringing each volume to general retail for the first time in reverse order. Next up is Road Trips Vol. 3 No. 3 - Fillmore East 5-15-70, due on June 14. That date is the 49th anniversary of Workingman's Dead, the classic album that this volume of Road Trips is meant to commemorate. Originally released in 2010 in honor of Workingman's Dead's 40th anniversary, this 3-CD release features material from the
Ground Control to Major Tom: David Bowie's "Mercury Demos" Arriving In June
Parlophone is continuing its series of David Bowie demo releases this June with a new volume, The Mercury Demos. Arriving on June 28, The Mercury Demos follows the recent Spying Through A Keyhole and upcoming Clareville Grove Demos (due on May 17). An LP rather than a collection of singles, it presents ten early, one-take recordings from the future superstar, recorded on a Revox reel-to-reel tape machine in Bowie's flat in spring 1969, with accompaniment from his friend and collaborator John
Step Inside Love: Cherry Red, SFE Expand Four More Cilla Black Albums in May
Cherry Red's Strike Force Entertainment imprint is continuing its series celebrating the life and legacy of Cilla Black with the May 10 arrival of another pair of remastered and expanded 2-CD, 2-album collections. First up is her debut album Cilla (1965) with In My Life (1974), the latter of which is making its premiere on CD in full; also released that day is Sher-oo! (1968) with another long-anticipated, new-to-CD title, Modern Priscilla (1978). All of the previously released digital bonus
Return To West Grand Boulevard: 'Motown: The Complete No. 1s' Box Gets Expanded Reissue
For its 60th anniversary year, Universal Music Enterprises has begun reminding fans that "Motown Did It First"; now, the label that launched The Sound Of Young America is revisiting a box set that was released in celebration of its 50th anniversary a decade ago. Motown: The Complete No. 1s is being reissued and expanded on June 28. Motown: The Complete No. 1s featured more than 200 international chart-toppers, plus a handful of bonus masters that went to No. 1 through cover versions or
Release Round-Up: Week of April 19
Welcome to this week's Release Round-Up! The Rolling Stones, HONK [Various Formats] (Interscope) 1-CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada 3-CD deluxe: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada 2-LP standard: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada 2-LP Target-exclusive blue vinyl: Target.com 4-LP deluxe color vinyl: The Rolling Stones' Online Shop Various music/apparel bundles: The Rolling Stones' Online Shop Honk is a new compilation album from The Rolling Stones that
Release Round-Up: The Second Disc's 2019 Record Store Day Must-Haves
Looking for our usual Release Round-Up? Alas, there's not much new in the way of catalogue music this Friday (and we've already filled you in on Billy Paul and Leon Russell!), but for a very good reason: tomorrow sees releases a-plenty as part of Record Store Day! Without further ado, welcome to our annual rundown of Must-Haves for this year's RSD event! Once you're through reading, let us know what you're most looking forward to picking up tomorrow at your favorite local independent
Review: Nat "King" Cole, "Ultimate Nat King Cole" and "International Nat King Cole" [UPDATED]
March 17, 2019 would have been Nat "King" Cole's 100th birthday. While the man born Nathaniel Adams Coles only lived to the age of 45, he more than earned his royal moniker over his three decades of performing. He paved the way for African-American artists as the first black man to host a nationwide television variety show, and quietly but devotedly crusaded for civil rights. At the time of his death, at the height of Beatlemania, he was selling some seven million records a year. The Cole
It's A Good Thing: Cherry Red Collects The Complete Plastic Penny with Future Elton John Drummer Nigel Olsson
Nowadays, drummer extraordinaire Nigel Olsson can be found behind the kit for Elton John's Farewell Yellow Brick Road tour, supporting the same superstar artist with whom he's been associated for nearly fifty years. Before his association with Elton, however, Nigel was plying his trade as one-fifth of Plastic Penny, a group which briefly straddled the worlds of pop, R&B, and underground psychedelia. The band also boasted future members of UFO, Cochise, and The Troggs. Cherry Red's
Don't Wait Till Tomorrow: Blixa Sounds Collects Robin Lane and the Chartbusters' Complete Recordings on "Many Years Ago"
Since its founding last year, Blixa Sounds has championed the rare and hard-to-find, with reissues of material by the likes of Robbie Dupree, Stephen Bishop, Linda Clifford, and Chris Darrow & Max Buda (see our coverage of the latter here!) Now, the label has compiled a one-stop-shop collection of tracks by Robin Lane & The Chartbusters with Many Years Ago: The Complete Robin Lane & The Chartbusters Collection. The 3-CD set brings together a whopping 52 tracks, spanning all of the
Many Years Ago: The Complete Robin Lane & The Chartbusters Collection
Blixa Sounds has compiled a one-stop-shop collection of tracks by Robin Lane & The Chartbusters with Many Years Ago: The Complete Robin Lane & The Chartbusters Collection. The 3-CD set is released on March 1 and brings together a whopping 52 tracks, spanning all of the group's official albums, as well as demos, rare singles and EP tracks, and unreleased session takes. The result is the most comprehensive compilation of classic Robin Lane tracks thus far! Robin Lane got her start as a
Sugar and Spice: Cherry Red Collects The Searchers' "Complete Pye Recordings" On New Box
Last year, John McNally and Frank Allen of The Searchers announced that the Merseybeat band would be retiring in 2019, some 60 years after McNally co-founded the group and 55 years after Allen first joined up. The Searchers will play their final show on Sunday in Milton Keynes, about 50 miles northwest of London. But the music lives on, and today, Cherry Red's Grapefruit label releases an impressive tribute to the band's body of work with When You Walk in the Room: The Complete Pye Recordings
Doin' That Rag: Rhino Expands Grateful Dead's "Aoxomoxoa" for 50th Anniversary
Rhino has just announced the third title in Grateful Dead's ongoing series of 50th anniversary reissues. Like all the albums in this ongoing series including the previous releases of The Grateful Dead (2017) and Anthem of the Sun (2018), Aoxomoxoa will be released approximately 50 years after its anniversary date as a 2-CD deluxe edition that includes the newly-remastered original album plus a bonus disc of previously unreleased live recordings. Aoxomoxoa will also be reissued as a 12-inch
Revolutionary Songs: Cherry Red Reissues David Bowie Curio, "Just a Gigolo"
David Bowie followed up his otherworldly performance in 1976's The Man Who Fell to Earth with a decidedly more grounded role, that of Paul Ambrosius von Przygodski, a Prussian officer-turned-gigolo, in the 1978 film Just a Gigolo. Unlike The Man Who Fell to Earth, Bowie did contribute to the soundtrack of director David Hemmings' movie; now, that soundtrack has finally come to CD in expanded form from Cherry Red Records. The West German comedy-drama's story began in 1918. The picture
In Memoriam: Scott Walker (1943-2019) - Back Tracks: Part II (1975-2018)
"Imagine Andy Williams reinventing himself as Stockhausen," The Guardian once wrote of the amazing journey of Scott Walker. The pop idol turned crooner turned shocking avant-garde auteur died this week at age 76, but not before leaving behind one of the most fascinating catalogues of the rock era. An American and child actor on Broadway who found his success in England as one third of The Walker Brothers, Scott could have been content reliving his glory days of "The Sun Ain't Gonna Shine
In Memoriam: Scott Walker (1943-2019) - Back Tracks: Part I (1967-1974)
"Imagine Andy Williams reinventing himself as Stockhausen," The Guardian once wrote of the amazing journey of Scott Walker. The pop idol turned crooner turned shocking avant-garde auteur died this week at age 76, but not before leaving behind one of the most fascinating catalogues of the rock era. An American and child actor on Broadway who found his success in England as one third of The Walker Brothers, Scott could have been content reliving his glory days of "The Sun Ain't Gonna Shine
Review: Kate Bush, "Remastered in Vinyl" Boxes 3 and 4, CD Box 2
When Kate Bush returned to music in 2005 after a 12-year absence, about all that could be expected was the unexpected...and the sonic auteur, naturally, delivered. Her 21st century work and assorted ephemera has been collected by Parlophone as one box of remastered CDs and two box sets of remastered vinyl LPs. Aerial opens Parlophone's CD Box 2, and Remastered in Vinyl Box 3. The record was conceived as two halves, one on each disc. The first, A Sea of Honey, is a collection of
Alone Together: Real Gone To Reissue Dorothy Ashby, Frank Wess and "Cleopatra Jones" on Vinyl in April
Real Gone has announced a pair of vinyl reissues due on April 26, and we've got the detail for you right here. First up is a new edition of Dorothy Ashby and Frank Wess' Minor Groove album from 1958. Ashby was a jazz harpist who made her first headlining album the year before on the Regent label. For her third album (now on the New Jazz label), she was joined by flautist Wess who was a member of Count Basie's band and who had made several solo recordings himself. Here is how Real Gone
Review: Nat "King" Cole, "Ultimate Nat King Cole"
Yesterday, March 17, 2019, would have been Nat "King" Cole's 100th birthday. While the man born Nathaniel Adams Coles only lived to the age of 45, he more than earned his royal moniker over his three decades of performing. He paved the way for African-American artists as the first black man to host a nationwide television variety show, and quietly but devotedly crusaded for civil rights. At the time of his death, at the height of Beatlemania, he was selling some seven million records a
Review: Vanessa Daou, "Zipless"
When Vanessa Daou's debut album Zipless: Songs From the Works of Erica Jong was first released in 1994, it garnered acclaim across the industry for its other-worldly production, sex-positive lyrics, and, of course, for Daou's impressive vocal delivery. Time called it an exquisite album, Slant listed it among the 100 Best Albums of the '90s, and even Rush's Alex Lifeson commended its cross-genre blend. It's since become a landmark album in electronic music, though to simply call it electronic
Take Me To The Pilot: Elton, Lennon, Queen Among Universal's Record Store Day 2019 Offerings
Record Store Day 2019 is just under five weeks away. In anticipation of the April 13th celebration of vinyl, The Second Disc presents a round-up of Universal Music Group's RSD selections! The Charlatans, Us and Us Only - LP, clear vinyl - 1,000 copies Originally released in 1999, Us and Us Only was the British alt-rock group's sixth album. It will be reissued for the first time ever for Record Store Day, pressed on limited-edition transparent vinyl. Charlie Parker, Charlie Parker With
Ease On Down: Pat Boone and Family Celebrate Springtime and Easter on New DVD
Last November, MPI Home Video celebrated the holiday season with pop, film, and television star Pat Boone and his family with the release of a double feature DVD: Pat Boone & Famlly - Christmas and Thanksgiving Specials. Now, MPI is continuing the series with the Boones' Springtime and Easter Specials. When Pat began his series of specials for ABC-TV under the aegis of executive producer Jerry Weintraub in 1978, his daughter Debby had recently ascended to superstar status with the
In Memoriam: Hal Blaine (1929-2019)
You may not know the name, but you know the sound. The sound of Hal Blaine was one of jubilance, energy, drama, power, ferocity, and swagger, ever deployed solely in service of the song. Upon his death yesterday at the age of 90, Brian Wilson deemed him "the greatest drummer ever." Few could argue with that description, as Blaine was Los Angeles' first-call drummer during perhaps the greatest period of pop invention in the latter half of the twentieth century. From 1966 to 1971, Blaine
- « Previous Page
- 1
- …
- 52
- 53
- 54
- 55
- 56
- …
- 137
- Next Page »