If you're a voracious reader of pop liner notes, there's a good chance you might have come across the name Franke Previte. If not, you're about to have a chance to reconnect with the man and his music. Previte was the lead singer of Franke & The Knockouts, a New Jersey band whose best-known song, "Sweetheart," went to No. 10 in 1981. Of course, like so many other bands, they're probably best known for what they did after splitting up; the band's second drummer, Tico Torres, went on to sit
Where Are All The "Magic Colors": Lesley Gore's Lost Album Arrives on CD
Lesley Gore epitomized the sound of American pop in the early-to-mid 1960s with hits like "It's My Party" and its answer/follow-up, "Judy's Turn to Cry." For my money, there may never have been a greater one-two punch in pop than that pair, produced by Quincy Jones and arranged by Claus Ogerman. But where was the teen pop queen by the Summer of Love? The U.K.'s Ace label answers that question with the June release of Magic Colors: The Lost Album with Bonus Tracks 1967-1969, unearthing a lost
BREAKING NEWS! Why Pink Floyd? Prepare for Discovery, Immersion and Experience!
UPDATE: Thanks to reader Alan for passing along the track listings for these sets! You can read them after the jump. ORIGINAL POST: Why Pink Floyd? Why not? Whatever the answer, though, Why Pink Floyd is the name of the major new catalogue intiative for the legendary band, and while matters have sometimes been contentious between band members, they appear to be in perfect harmony for the launch of this campaign! The expansive collection is a three-tiered celebration of the work of Syd Barrett,
UMe Declares WAR
You probably knew this already, based on the presence of an ICON title for the legendary funk group WAR, but Universal Music Enterprises has acquired the rights to their back catalogue. And it looks like they may be gearing up to do some stuff with it. The label issued a press release last week in honor of the band's 40th anniversary year, detailing a few notable bits of info about the band's plans to celebrate. While the band will be touring and working on a new album - their first since
Are You Hangin' on the Edge of Your Seat? Second Round of Queen Remasters Have Track Lists
With all the excitement in and out of Second Disc HQ, we couldn't dare let the revelation of confirmed bonus content on the second wave of Queen reissues pass you by. The track lists for each bonus EP for the next batch of remasters - News of the World, Jazz, The Game, Flash Gordon and Hot Space - were posted to Queen's website Thursday. And they're pretty much what you might expect, with a little bit of what you might not. Once again, each EP has about five or six tracks, drawing from either
More McCartney: "The Family Way" Soundtrack Coming From Varese
"The directors, the Boulting Brothers, actually approached me, one of them, Roy, and he was interested in some of the music we've been writing. He said, 'Would you be interested in actually writing something for film?' I said, 'Wow, great honour.' And they're very good directors, quite famous English directors, so I knew they'd be good and the film would be good, and a very good cast with John Mills and Hayley Mills and Hywell Bennett. So I said, 'Yeah, okay!'" So told Paul McCartney to
Beware! La-La Land Expands "The Blob" Remake Score
It can fill up a room in seconds, gets unexplainably bigger every day and can consume anything it touches. No, not your music collection - The Blob! The ectoplasmic entity - as remade in 1988 - is the latest expanded soundtrack to come from La-La Land Records today. A remake of the classic 1958 sci-fi/horror flick, The Blob finds the titular monster consuming the helpless population of a California town - but rather than some space creature, this blob is a military bio-weapon gone horribly
Musicals Are Busting Out All Over: Masterworks Announces Next Wave of Vintage Releases
Sony's Masterworks Broadway label has announced the next three titles it will rescue from the vaults of Columbia and RCA Victor, and the albums have one person in common: Richard Rodgers. Still one of the most-recorded composers of all time (Rodgers' "My Funny Valentine," co-written by Lorenz Hart, was the third most-covered song of 2010 according to ASCAP, no small feat considering the song was written in 1937!), Rodgers' collaborations with both Hart and Oscar Hammerstein II are represented in
Review: Aretha Franklin, "Take a Look: Aretha Franklin Complete on Columbia"
Some legends are repeated so often that they’ve come to be accepted as the truth. One such legend has it that the suits at Columbia Records, circa 1960-1965, were a chain of fools who kept Aretha Franklin from reaching her potential. After all, the record states that one year and one record after being released from Columbia, a superstar was born. But what if that notion was completely incorrect, and Aretha Franklin’s talent was already fully formed and on display at Columbia? Listen to the
Reissue Theory: Aretha Franklin at Arista
The music industry is littered with careers that crashed after a second chance at the spotlight. This could have easily befallen even a legend like Aretha Franklin; the Queen of Soul had in fact risen on a second chance at Atlantic after a largely unsuccessful career with Columbia, but by the late 1970s, Aretha's attempts to fall in with the trends of rhythm and blues were frequently derided, and ultimately she would sever her ties with the label. Against all odds - not counting the fact that
Reissue Theory: Aretha Franklin, "Sweet Passion: The Lost Atlantic Years"
Welcome to another installment of Reissue Theory, where we reflect on great albums and the reissues they could someday see. Aretha Franklin began her groundbreaking stint at Atlantic Records in 1967 and it wasn’t long before a legendary star was in the ascendant. Yet the final chapter of Aretha’s Atlantic story has been all but forgotten. Today’s Reissue Theory takes us back to 1974 as we revisit the “lost albums” of Aretha Franklin. There are plenty of adjectives that can be used to describe
Rare Cinema Treasures from Barry, Addison and Sarde Coming Soon
Film score collectors are among the most insatiable music purchasers, but luckily, there’s frequently a steady stream of releases. Three new and exciting titles have just been announced. Direct from Los Angeles on the estimable Kritzerland label comes Phillipe Sarde’s score to Roman Polanski’s 1986 film Pirates. A continent away in Spain, the Quartet Records label has been growing an impressive library of soundtracks, and the label has recently announced two new additions: John Barry’s 1965
Happy Birthday, Lady Soul: Aretha Franklin Turns 69 Today!
Today, March 25, is Aretha Franklin’s birthday, and she’s celebrating in high style. After being treated in November for an undisclosed ailment, the newly-trim Queen of Soul has announced a May 19 return to performing at the Chicago Theatre. This announcement came on the heels of Tuesday’s release of Legacy’s lavish 12-disc box set, Take a Look: Aretha Franklin Complete on Columbia, collecting all of her pre-Atlantic recordings for the storied label. We couldn’t allow Franklin’s birthday to go
Short Takes: The Kinks are Koming Stateside, B.A.D. Reissues Planned, MBV Insanity, More Live Dead
Those upcoming deluxe reissues of the first three Kinks LPs in the U.K. this April are coming to American record stores too! They've been set for April 12, one week after the British release date. (Thanks to MusicTAP for the tip!) Buried at the bottom of a press release touting the forthcoming Big Audio Dynamite reunion tour - no doubt spurred on in part by last year's pretty great deluxe reissue of their first album - there's a mention that Legacy is working with B.A.D. on more Legacy Editions
Rare Alfred Newman Score to "Counterfeit Traitor" Debuts from Kritzerland
It's not too great an exaggeration to state that without Alfred Newman, we probably wouldn't be discussing film music here at The Second Disc, or anywhere else. In a career spanning 40 years and some 200 films, Newman played an integral, early role in the art of composing original music for cinema. He was rewarded with a whopping 45 Academy Award nominations and nine wins, and even made music the family business. Brothers Lionel and Emil had impressive careers, while sons Thomas and David
Are Two Discs Better Than One for Pearl Jam Live Show?
The reissue conundrum of the week was figuring out how many discs of bonus material were going to figure into Pearl Jam's upcoming reissues of Vs. and Vitalogy. The deluxe edition combines both albums with a much-requested live set at Boston's Orpheum Theater in 1994; that set is also featured on CD and vinyl in the inevitable super-deluxe box. But the deluxe edition listed three CDs worth of additional material, while the super-deluxe box listed four. And the deluxe CD, when pre-ordered on the
When Matt Met Hoagy: Rare Monro LP Reissued in U.K.
The success story of Matt Monro is one unlike any other. The singer, born Terence Edward Parsons in London in 1930, had recorded for both Decca and Fontana, and sang regularly on the BBC, but the brass ring eluded him. Then, in 1960, EMI producer George Martin was seeking a voice to spoof Frank Sinatra’s on a Peter Sellers comedy album cheekily titled Songs for Swinging Sellers. Martin hired Matt Monro, and billed him under the very Sellers-esque pseudonym of “Fred Flange.” Well, the “Flange”
How Killer Are the Queen Reissue Track Lists?
I see a little silhouetto of the track lists of the forthcoming U.K. Queen remasters, as released on the band's official site today. There was a track list posted on the Steve Hoffman forums that was taken from a Japanese Web site and perhaps too heavily devoted to the remixes from The eYe (that odd 1998 computer game with five discs' worth of remixes and instrumental tracks built into the CD-ROMs and suitable for ripping to one's iPod). Those track lists were mostly wrong, thankfully. So what
Aretha Opens "The Great American Songbook"
Can't wait for that massive 11-CD/1-DVD box set, Take a Look: Aretha Franklin Complete on Columbia? Or maybe you're just looking for the perfect Valentine's Day gift? Either way, Legacy may have the disc for you. Next Tuesday, February 1, will see the under-the-radar release of Aretha Franklin's The Great American Songbook from Columbia/Legacy, compiling 18 of the tracks from that massive box set on one CD. Oddly, this release features the same cover art as the upcoming box, not due for
Kinks Reissues Get Klearer
The other day we'd mentioned that The Kinks' first three U.K. albums were being expanded across the pond. Amazon's U.K. pages had track listings for the double-disc sets, but there wasn't much in the way of annotations. If a song popped up twice, was it an alternate mix? A live version? A demo? We didn't know, so we didn't say much. Now, U.K. site Spin CDs has put up track listings for Kinks, Kinda Kinks and The Kink Kontroversy, and while there's still a small bit of speculation to be had, the
Fit for a Queen: Legacy Planning Massive Aretha Box
As if news of Aretha Franklin's improved health wasn't good news enough, Columbia and Legacy have told the Associated Press that there's going to be a massive box set of her works for the label coming this spring. Take a Look: Aretha Franklin Complete on Columbia is going to be a 12-disc set - 11 CDs and a DVD - chronicling this oft-overlooked early phase of the Queen of Soul's career. Franklin signed to the label in 1960 at the young age of 18, and spent several years releasing albums and
Back Tracks, In Memoriam: Margaret Whiting (1924-2011)
In 1997, a musical revue came and went at Broadway's Royale Theatre. The revue, Dream, was a mostly unexceptional journey through the music and lyrics of the legendary Johnny Mercer. Why the "mostly," then? Dream had one very exceptional living link to Mercer, and that was the resplendent Margaret Whiting, who passed away on Tuesday at the age of 86 in Englewood, New Jersey. When Mercer (along with Buddy DeSylva and Glenn Wallichs) started Capitol Records in 1942, one of the first artists he
And the Nominees Are...
The Grammys are happening! On February 13! As usual - well, at least since the 1990s - there will be a CD compiling the highest-profile nominees. It now has a track list and cover art. It's a pretty solid cross-section of the best-known artists, songs and nominations. Of course, there are some hilarious questions to ask about the track list. Why are nine of these songs from 2009? (That's probably due to eligibility requirements.) Did we really need to put the censored version of Cee-Lo's catchy
La La Land's Year-End Releases Are a Really Big Deal
It's not Hook, but La La Land Records has another title of John Williams' from the same part of the alphabet in their last batch, as well as several other hotly-requested titles from some of the most beloved composers of the modern age. A full rundown is after the jump!
Varese's Vault Yields Several Treasures
A heads-up to soundtrack enthusiasts who read The Second Disc: this week is your week. No less than three of the major indie labels will be releasing product this week; tonight we will see two new titles from Intrada (one of which is more or less confirmed to be an unlimited deluxe edition of Jerry Goldsmith's score to First Blood), and La La Land will announce four titles on Black Friday. This morning, though, Varese Sarabande released their final batch of CD Club titles for the year. And
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