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,
Soul Masters: BBR Reissues Edwin Starr, Gap Band, Yarbrough and Peoples, Boys Town Gang
For its latest batch of reissues, Big Break Records travels back in time to the days when The Sound of Young America ruled the airwaves with two vintage titles from the late, great Edwin Starr, and returns to the catalogues of two more label favorites - The Gap Band and Yarbrough and Peoples! Ultimately, Edwin Starr (1942-2003) will forever be best-known for his incendiary 1970 recording of Norman Whitfield and Barrett Strong's "War," a scorching protest song that tapped into the growing
Takin' on a New Direction: Tina Turner's 'Private Dancer' Set for 40th Anniversary Box Set
The album that unquestionably coronated Tina Turner as the Queen of Rock and Roll will be celebrated with a new deluxe box set this spring: 1984's blockbuster Private Dancer. Available March 21, the album - featuring the hits "What's Love Got to Do with It," "Better Be Good to Me," the scintillating title track and more - will be reissued as a 5CD/Blu-ray deluxe box packed with rare B-sides, remixes, additional studio material from the Private Dancer era (including the unreleased "Hot for You
Whistlin' Tunes That You Know: Rhino Launches 'Reserves' Audiophile Series with Allen Toussaint and Eddie Hazel
Rhino has announced the launch of new audiophile vinyl series: Rhino Reserves. The series kicks off on January 31, 2025 as part of the label's annual Start Your Ear Off Right campaign available exclusively through Rhino.com and select retail outlets (typically independent record stores and Barnes & Noble locations) with Allen Toussaint's Southern Nights and Eddie Hazel's Game, Dames, and Guitar Thangs. Going forward, each Rhino Reserves title will be pressed locally by the California-based
Review: Faces, "Faces at the BBC: Complete BBC Concert and Session Recordings 1970-1973"
Between the summer of 1969 and the fall of 1975, a joyful noise emerged whenever Faces took the stage. Ronnie Lane (bass), Kenney Jones (drums), and Ian McLagan (keyboards) had emerged from the ashes of pop's Small Faces, while Rod Stewart (vocals) and Ronnie Wood (guitar) were blues-rock veterans of the first iteration of The Jeff Beck Group in which Wood played bass. When they came together, they created a sound unlike either of those earlier groups: rough-and-tumble, raw, ramshackle,
Had Me a Real Good Time: Rhino Announces Box of BBC Sessions from Faces
Ooh-la-la! Following a pair of well-received releases for Record Store Day, Rhino is doing a deep-dive into Faces' BBC sessions on an 8-CD/1-Blu-ray box set due September 6. Faces at The BBC - Complete BBC Concert & Session Recordings 1970-1973 compiles all of the storied group's concerts and surviving studio sessions for the BBC in one package approved by Rod Stewart, Ronnie Wood, and Kenney Jones. The set will be available only via Rhino.com and select retailers including
Get Down with the Philly Jump: Cherry Red, Robinsongs Collect Instant Funk's Salsoul Years
Following its recent albums collection for disco-dance band Skyy, Cherry Red's Robinsongs imprint has turned its attention to another Salsoul Records group: Instant Funk. The 5-CD box, out now, chronicles Instant Funk from 1976's Get Down with the Philly Jump through 1983's Kinky plus a selection of bonus tracks for the first three albums. The Instant Funk story is intertwined with that of Bunny Sigler. The singer-songwriter, producer, and multi-instrumentalist was a mainstay at Kenny
Release Round-Up: Week of June 2
Welcome to this week's Release Round-Up, featuring a selection of the new titles available today. Sylvester, Disco Heat: The Fantasy Years 1977-1981 (Second Disc/Real Gone) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada / Real Gone Music) Disco Heat: The Fantasy Years 1977-1981 celebrates the late disco/dance music pioneer with 26 tracks on two CDs drawn from all six of his albums for the label, as well as the rare 12-inch Disco Versions that kept the dancefloors burning. In addition to
Release Round-Up: Week of November 11
Welcome to this week's Release Round-Up, featuring a selection of the new titles in stores today. Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gorme, That Holiday Feeling! (Real Gone Music) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada / Real Gone Music) Real Gone Music presents a newly-remastered and expanded edition of Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gorme's 1964 Christmas classic That Holiday Feeling! This new edition adds eight bonus tracks including all three of Steve and Eydie's songs from the 1969 RCA
Release Round-Up: Week of February 4
Welcome to this week's Release Round-Up! B.J. Thomas, In Remembrance: Love Songs and Lost Treasures (Real Gone Music) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada) Real Gone Music remembers the late, great B.J. Thomas with this new collection of rare and previously unreleased material drawn from both Thomas' personal archives and the vaults of Reprise and Warner Bros. Records. In Remembrance: Love Songs and Lost Treasures features 18 tracks, 13 of which are making their debut here,
I Only Have Eyes For You: Real Gone Celebrates Black History Month With Reissues from The Flamingos, William S. Fischer, and Don Julian & The Larks
To commemorate this year's Black History Month, Real Gone is reissuing three albums by African-American artists from the 1950s and 1970s in the doo-wop, jazz and soul genres: Flamingo Serenade by The Flamingos, Circles from William S. Fischer, and Super Slick from Don Julian & The Larks. All of them hit stores tomorrow, February 4. First up is 1959's Flamingo Serenade by the influential doo-wop group, The Flamingos. Founded in Chicago in 1953 by Jacob Carey, Ezekiel Carey, Paul Wilson,
Sweet Season: Real Gone's December Releases Include Final Black Jazz Reissues and Eddie Hazel on Vinyl
Our friends at Real Gone Music have a few jazz and funk reissues on the way, beginning this Friday, December 3. The label is concluding its series of Black Jazz album reissues with sets from Calvin Keys and Doug Carn and also bringing back into print the only solo album from Funkadelic's guitarist Eddie Hazel. First up is guitarist Calvin Keys' Proceed with Caution! from 1974. It was Keys' second album for Black Jazz after 1971's Shawn-Neeq, his debut as a leader. In the 1960s, Keys backed
The Weekend Stream: October 30, 2021
While The Second Disc prides itself on connecting people to reissues and box sets they can keep on their shelves, it's no secret that listening audiences are also digital - catalogue music lovers, too - and our passion is connecting people to music from the past that they might adore. So we've introduced a new feature: The Weekend Stream, which focuses on hidden gems that recently made it to digital channels that might make your playlists a little brighter! The Temptations, Emperors of Soul:
Review: Bob Dylan, "Springtime in New York: The Bootleg Series Vol. 16 (1980-1985)"
Señor, señor/Can you tell me where we're headin'? Only Bob Dylan knew where he was headin'. In the fall of 1980, when Springtime in New York: The Bootleg Series Vol. 16 (1980-1985) opens, Dylan was two-thirds into his so-called "Christian trilogy" comprising Slow Train Coming (1979), Saved (1980), and Shot of Love (1981). He had wrapped up a fiery tour on May 21, 1980 in which he only performed his gospel material. Audiences and critics alike were divided on Dylan's immersion into
You Make a Grown Man Cry: Rolling Stones Celebrate 40th Anniversary of "Tattoo You" with New Multi-Format Release
The old saying goes that necessity is the mother of invention. And when The Rolling Stones needed a new LP to tour behind but didn't have time to write and record, they invented Tattoo You. The 1981 album was primarily assembled from a decade's worth of outtakes, some essentially finished and some nowhere near so; band members eventually made their way into the studio to complete the latter tracks. The gamble paid off and Tattoo You topped the U.S. Billboard 200 and went to No. 2 on the U.K.
Bad Side of the Moon: Cherry Red, Esoteric Reissue Toe Fat's Complete Rare Earth/EMI Recordings
Motown's Rare Earth imprint intended to bring the sound of rock to the home of The Supremes, The Miracles, Martha and The Vandellas, The Temptations, and Four Tops. The imprint was named after a white rock band from Detroit and its artists were both home-grown and licensed from other parties. In the latter category was Toe Fat, a U.K. psych-rock band built around the talents of Cliff Bennett, formerly of the beat group Cliff Bennett and The Rebel Rousers. Both of Toe Fat's albums - issued on
Takin' Care of Business: Dutton Vocalion Reissues Bachman-Turner Overdrive, Burton Cummings, Mott the Hoople, Leonard Bernstein, More in Quadraphonic
The Dutton Vocalion label has announced its first batch of hybrid SACD releases (playable on all CD players) for 2021 including another group of long-out-of-print quadraphonic surround mixes. First up is a three-for-one release from Ian Hunter and Mott the Hoople. The first disc of this 2-SACD set presents 1974's The Hoople (the band's highest charting album in the U.S.) in stereo and quadraphonic; followed by a stereo-only presentation of 1972's All the Young Dudes (featuring David Bowie's
The Year In Review: The 2020 Gold Bonus Disc Awards, From A to Z
Happy 2021 and welcome to The Second Disc's 11th Annual Gold Bonus Disc Awards! The past year has presented any number of unprecedented challenges. But music has filled a more important role than ever, providing solace, comfort, and escape in a time unlike any other. With that spirit in mind, The Second Disc once again wishes to recognize 2020's cream of the catalogue music crop - those exemplary reissues and box sets big and small that proved to be truly outstanding for music lovers
The Rill Thing: Omnivore Returns Little Richard's Reprise Albums to CD in New Expanded Editions
Rock and roll lost a founding father this year with the passing of Richard Penniman, a.k.a. Little Richard. Now, the outrageous, charismatic, and ahead-of-his-time piano-pounder is being celebrated by Omnivore Recordings with the reissue of his first two Reprise albums originally released in 1970 and 1971. Both titles are due in expanded editions on September 18. The 1960s saw the peripatetic Richard moving from label to label (and genre to genre) including Mercury, Atlantic, Specialty, Vee
Keep the Customer Satisfied: Ace Celebrates Paul Simon, Teddy Randazzo, Van McCoy On New Collections
Today, we're taking a look at three recent, stellar additions to Ace Records' long-running Songwriter Series! Teddy Randazzo (1935-2003) might have not attained the same "household name" status as some of his peers, but the prodigiously gifted composer-arranger-producer-artist nonetheless left behind a remarkable body of work in a career spanning over five decades. Ace's Yesterday Has Gone: The Songs of Teddy Randazzo is the first-ever anthology of his output, concentrating on the mid-1960s -
Groove and Move: Cherry Red, SoulMusic Collect Jr. Walker and The All-Stars' "Motown '70s Studio Albums"
"Shotgun," "What Does It Take (To Win Your Love)," and "(I'm A) Road Runner" alone would have guaranteed Autry DeWalt Mixon, Jr., a.k.a. Oscar G. Mixon, a.k.a. Junior Walker, a spot in the Motown Records firmament. But between 1962 and 1978, the saxophonist-singer charted over 20 hits on the Billboard Hot 100 and recorded more than a dozen albums with his group The All-Stars and a further three as a solo artist. Yet, curiously, none of Walker's 1970s albums for Motown's Soul imprint had ever
Swinging Doors: Grateful Dead, Emmylou, Dolly, Dino, More Celebrate "The Merle Haggard Songbook"
Along with Buck Owens - with whom he shared a musical history and a wife - Merle Haggard (1937-2016) defined The Bakersfield Sound of country music: authentic, raw, rooted in honky-tonks. But unlike the Texas-born and Arizona-raised Owens, Haggard was actually born in Bakersfield and raised just across the river from that California town. "Hag," as he preferred to be known, rocketed to superstardom thanks to "Okie from Muskogee," his controversial 1969 song that was either a scathing
Digital Round-Up: Week of May 3
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
Shake Some Action: Cherry Red Revisits The Mod Sound of The Action
Periodically this month, we'll be looking at titles released in the latter part of 2018 that we either didn't cover, or only covered briefly, the first time around! We hope you enjoy this look at "some nice things we've missed"... Cherry Red's Grapefruit Records imprint knows where The Action is. The label has collected the complete 1964-1968 recordings of the British mod group on a splendid 4-CD box set including original masters, alternate takes, outtakes, and more - adding up to every
Yesterday's Dreams: UMe Releases "Motown Unreleased: 1968" and "In Loving Memory: Expanded Edition" Copyright Extension Collections
In a winter tradition that's as reliable as any, UMe has released the latest in the annual copyright extension series, entitled Motown Unreleased: 1968. The two-part compilation will arrive to digital download and streaming services today, December 14. Between the two volumes, there's a whopping 88 tantalizing, previously unreleased gems from the Motown vault! Motown heavy-hitters, soul superstars, and fan favorites abound on these two collections. There's a wealth of Stevie Wonder rarities,