It’s a shame the way The Spinners’ Motown catalogue has been overlooked in the CD era, and quite frankly, for all time. The group exploded in popularity under the aegis of producer/arranger/composer Thom Bell at Atlantic Records in 1972, with their first three singles all hitting No. 1 R&B and Top 20 Pop (two went Top 10 Pop). But The Spinners had been making sweet music since 1954 and recording since at least 1961, and made Motown their home since the folding of Harvey Fuqua’s Tri-Phi
Let's Fall in Love with New Jackson 5 Rarities Set from Hip-O Select
If hearing Bad-era demos and live material aren't enough of a Michael Jackson fix for you next month, the fine vaultkeepers at Motown have a set for you: 32 previously-unreleased tunes by The Jackson 5 are coming from Hip-O Select. Come and Get It: Rare Pearls champions Michael, Jermaine, Tito, Jackie and Marlon throughout their seven-year tenure on the Motown label; arguably, the last of the great pure pop groups to be signed by the Detroit label (which, within several years of The Jackson 5's
The Beatles' "Magical Mystery Tour" Is Coming to Take You Away
The Magical Mystery Tour is coming to take you away on October 9 when The Beatles’ 1967 feature film arrives on DVD and Blu-ray in a completely restored new edition! Initially aired on BBC1 television in December, 1967, The Beatles starred in the film opposite a motley crew of performers including Ivor Cutler, Victor Spinetti, Jessie Robins, Nat Jackley, Derek Royle, and the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band. Both the DVD and Blu-ray will sport a fully remixed soundtrack (5.1 and stereo) as well as
Saturday Night Special: Lynyrd Skynyrd "Ultimate Collection" Offers New 5.1 Surround DVD-Audio
Lynyrd Skynyrd's thirteenth studio album, Last of a Dyin' Breed, arrived in stores just yesterday, but another recent release may have fans of the Southern rock legends even more excited. Southern Surroundings: The Ultimate Skynyrd Collection is a Wal-Mart-exclusive 1-CD/2-DVD set, selling at the retail giant's locations for just $11.88. (That is, if you can find it; your author visited four locations before procuring a copy!) Of its three discs, the third is the most unique, and it's also
Lipstick Traces (On a New CD): Benny Spellman's "Fortune Teller" Rounds Up New Orleans Singles
The name on the new CD is that of Benny Spellman, but Fortune Teller: A Singles Collection might as well have been co-credited to Allen Toussaint, the writer or co-writer of 24 of this new anthology’s 30 tracks. The recently released collection from Cherry Red’s Shout! label brings together singles from Spellman’s illustrious career dating between 1960 and 1967, accurately subtitled “New Orleans Hits and Northern Soul Gems,” and you might just find each song to truly be a gem. It’s hands-down
Reviews: Real, Real Gone with Sanford and Townsend, Jimmy Griffin and Jackie Gleason
Long before Barry White, a rather different music maker was providing the soundtrack for a romantic rendezvous in the moonlight, but his name might be surprising to some: Jackie Gleason. Even if one can’t readily picture Ralph Kramden seducing Alice with its lush accompaniment, the American record buying public had no such reservations. The Great One’s 1952 Music for Lovers Only sold over half a million copies, and spent a still-unbeaten record of 153 (!) weeks in the U.S. Top 10 album chart.
Always Grateful: Garcia and Saunders' "Keystone Companions" Coming from Concord, Rhino Readies "Spring 1990" Dead Box
2012 marked what would have been Jerry Garcia’s 70th birthday year. The favorite son of San Francisco is being celebrated this fall with two monumental new box sets: one chronicling a renowned stand with The Grateful Dead, of course, and another turning the spotlight onto his less-heralded collaboration with keyboardist Merl Saunders. Keystone Companions: The Complete 1973 Fantasy Recordings is the most complete edition of the yet of the concerts recorded on July 10 and 11, 1973 at Berkeley,
Of Romance, Ghouls, Shoes, Wanderers and The Dead: Real Gone Announces October Line-Up
Summer’s still underway, but Real Gone Music is looking to October with the announcement of a new batch of reissues due for the month that gives us Halloween and the World Series. Returning favorites will take their place alongside artists new to the label, and a certain ghoulish host is even getting involved! On October 2, the Real Goners will collect, for the very first time, The Complete Laurie Singles of Dion DiMucci. This 2-CD, 36-track comp offers the crème of the Dion crop, including
While You See a Chance: Universal Expands Steve Winwood's "Arc of a Diver" as 2-CD Set
When Steve Winwood sees a chance for a deluxe reissue, he takes it! Arc of a Diver, first released on New Year’s Eve 1980, marked the solo commercial breakthrough for the former Spencer Davis Group, Traffic and Blind Faith member, peaking in the U.S. at an impressive No. 3 on the Billboard 200 and spawning the hit single “When You See a Chance,” which earned a No. 7 placement on the Hot 100. Due on September 24 in the U.K. from Universal/Island, the 2-CD deluxe Arc of a Diver comes a couple of
And I Want You For All Time: Glen Campbell, Jimmy Webb Reunite For Vintage "Session"
What makes for the perfect marriage of songwriter and singer? The magic is nearly indefinable when composer and lyricist meet a voice to serve as a muse; when two or three people, each with an inimitable gift, find themselves on a perfect, sympathetic and transcendent wavelength to bring each other’s music to life. There have been many such marriages across all genes of music: Dionne Warwick with Burt Bacharach and Hal David, Frank Sinatra with Sammy Cahn and Jimmy Van Heusen; Petula Clark
Don't Fear the Complete Columbia Albums Box for Blue Öyster Cult
All our times have come/Here but now they're gone/Seasons don't fear the reaper/Nor do the wind, the sun or the rain/We can be like they are/Come on, baby...don't fear the reaper… It might be considered ironic that a song about death, and its inevitability, would help lend Blue Öyster Cult continuous life. The band from Long Island, New York, recorded its first album for Columbia Records in 1972, beginning an association which lasted for more than fifteen years. BÖC fused aggressive
Contest Central: ENTER HERE FOR OUR GREAT GIVEAWAYS!
Here at Contest Central, you'll find all the details on the great prizes we're offering at any given time! Check back here frequently, because you never know what's coming next... CURRENT CONTESTS: CONGRATULATIONS TO OUR WINNERS! IF YOU SEE YOUR NAME ON THIS LIST AND HAVEN’T YET SENT US YOUR MAILING ADDRESS, PLEASE DO SO RIGHT NOW AT theseconddisc-at-gmail-dot-com! Steve Berne Brian Brick Joseph Arellano Robert Olivier Brian Stettin Ron Lavery Rob Goodman Tim Vogt Neal
Golden Age Noir: Miklos Rózsa Score to "Strange Love" Premieres On CD
Had Miklós Rózsa only composed the Academy Award-winning score to 1959’s epic Ben-Hur, his place in the cinema pantheon would likely have been assured. But Ben-Hur was just one of three Rózsa scores to win Oscars in a career that spanned from 1937’s Knight Without Armour through 1982’s Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid. Rózsa, who also maintained a career as a composer of concert works, often employed a rich, sweeping orchestral style, and though he famously crafted “big” scores, he was also an
Smoke on the Water, Redux : Deep Purple's "Machine Head" Goes Super Deluxe in October for 40th Anniversary
So...the super deluxe box sets just keep on coming! The latest addition to the growing array of titles is a 40th anniversary of Deep Purple’s 1972 Machine Head album. EMI promises to explore every nook and cranny of this stone-cold hard rock classic, considered by many as a benchmark in the development of the metal genre. It remains the British band’s most successful album, having topped the charts in the U.K. and reached a Top 10 placing in the U.S., and introduced the hit single “Smoke on
Details Revealed for Gabriel's Big Time "So" Box (UPDATED WITH TRACK LIST)
The 1986 release of Peter Gabriel's So was, arguably, the apex of an iconic frontman's idiosyncratic career. Here was an artist taking everything he had offered the audience to date - introspective slice-of-life balladeering, cutting-edge dance-rock, polyrhythmic world music influences - and spinning it into a slickly produced tour de force that caught on with MTV-addled youths as well as an older, more mature generation familiar with his work, either solo or as the original frontman for
Party Time: Andrew W.K.'s Wild Debut to Be Expanded for 10th Anniversary
If you were paying attention to alternative rock in the early 2000s, the name "Andrew W.K." likely stirs up a boatload of emotions. Was he a fun-loving, hard-living, one man party machine? Was he a corporate construction? Was he a darker type of fraud, as suggested by producer "Steev Mike" (link NSFW and relatively nuts) who may actually just be W.K. playing a prank on his delightfully bewildered audience? Whatever the case may be, Andrew W.K. is celebrating the recent 10th anniversary of his
He'd Like to Teach the World to Sing (In Perfect Harmony): RPM Reissues Famed Songwriter Roger Cook's "Study"
Even if you don't know the name of Roger Cook, chances are you do know his songs: "You've Got Your Troubles," "I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing," "My Baby Loves Lovin'," "Long Cool Woman in a Black Dress," just to name a few. But like so many of his contemporaries, the songwriter harbored aspirations of a solo career, too. This wasn't so far-fetched; as half of the duo David and Jonathan (with Roger Greenaway, co-writer of all those aforementioned songs), Cook was already a bona fide
A Budget Box Fit for a King or Queen (UPDATED)
UPDATE (8/8 - 3:21 p.m.): Rats! Eagle-eyed reader Jason Michael points out that the Amazon U.K. listing now offers for you to "sign up to learn when this title will be available." When it comes back, here's hoping the price is as good as it was! Original post: Here's an incredibly interesting deal from Sony's U.K. budget arm: a rather thorough box set celebrating classic albums from merry old England! It's been a good year for queen and country. There was the Silver Jubilee in spring. This
Let It Snow! Omnivore Celebrates Christmas with Comedienne, Actress and Singer Edie Adams
Let it snow! It may only be August, but the annual spate of holiday-themed releases is just around the corner. And we're pleased as punch (or egg nog!) to inaugurate our coverage of this year's crop with the announcement of the all-new, yet all-vintage, Edie Adams Christmas Album! It's arriving on October 9 from our busy friends at Omnivore Recordings, the label fresh off the first-time release of Ernie Kovacs' Percy Dovetonsils Thpeaks! Kovacs, of course, was Adams' co-star and husband
Turn You "Inside Out": Omnivore to Premiere "Athens, GA" Soundtrack on CD
They called it "the Liverpool of the South," and for good reason. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, Athens, GA became an overnight hotbed for some of the quirkiest rock and roll music in the country. The creation of local hangout The 40 Watt Club, a bustling scene of professionals who were as much fans as they were musicians and some huge would-be world conquerors and local heroes like The B-52's, Pylon, Love Tractor and R.E.M. all made the Athens scene a killer destination alongside the
Who's Bad? Epic, Legacy Celebrate 25th Anniversary of Michael Jackson Milestone (UPDATED WITH TRACK LIST)
Following the colossal success of Thriller, Michael Jackson waited roughly five years before releasing another album. Rumors swirled around the album that became known as Bad, which would turn out to be the third and final collaboration between Jackson and producer Quincy Jones. Bad marked the end of an era, too, as Jackson's final album designed to the constraints of standard LP length; future projects would become more sprawling. Bad, however, was tightly packed with wall-to-wall hits and
The Baja Marimbas Get a "New Deal" with "Lazy Days" and "Junior High School"
There’s been a lot of talk around these parts about A&M Records’ 50th anniversary celebration, and why not? The label founded by Herb Alpert and Jerry Moss virtually defined the sound of AM radio in the 1960s before embracing cutting-edge new wave , rock and R&B sounds in the ensuing decades. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. When one thinks of the A&M Sound, however, those bright and breezy sixties pop songs just might be the defining style. With the phenomenal success of
The Man on Lincoln's Nose: Intrada Expands Hitchcock Classic on CD
What's that sound? Is that...a plane buzzing low overhead? Not this time: it's the sound of Bernard Herrmann's classic score to Alfred Hitchcock's North by Northwest, the benefactor of a beautiful new expansion by Intrada! The 1959 thriller, written by Ernest Lehman as "the Hitchcock picture to end all Hitchcock pictures," stars Cary Grant as an ad exec entangled in an incredible espionage plot, full of misdirection, mistaken identity, beauty (courtesy of Eva Marie Saint as the femme fatale), a
In Memoriam: Marvin Hamlisch (1944-2012)
I only met Marvin Hamlisch once. It was late in September 2010, on the campus of Los Angeles' UCLA, where the esteemed composer had been working on a revised production of his 1979 musical They're Playing Our Song. He and I were both on our cell phones in the lobby a few minutes before the show was about to start. As if by serendipity, we hung up at the same time. As we both were headed back into the auditorium, I couldn't resist the opportunity to extend my hand to one of the men whose
Welcome to Paradise: Green Day Box Up Discography in Advance of New LPs
Pop-punk legends Green Day are looking forward thrice over for the rest of the year, releasing three albums (¡Uno!, ¡Dos! and ¡Tré!) in September, November and January. But before they put those out, they're releasing a box set to get new fans up to speed in one fell swoop. The trio are releasing The Studio Albums 1990-2009 later this month around the world (and in September in the U.S., as a Best Buy exclusive). It's a pretty simple set, including all eight of the band's studio efforts, from
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