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”
The Second Disc Interview #4: Talking Soundtracks with MV Gerhard of La La Land Records
The wide berth of reissues, box sets and compilations across major and independent labels the world over, means some releases can fall through the cracks at times. At The Second Disc, it was always an early mission to make sure the labels handling catalogue soundtrack reissues did not suffer this fate. Intrada, Film Score Monthly, Kritzerland, Varese Sarabande - all are essentials for the catalogue music fan with a taste for soundtracks, and their work is hard to ignore. La La Land Records,
Full "Vs.," "Vitalogy" Reissue Details Announced
Pearl Jam fans will have a few more black (silver?) circles to spin when Vs. and Vitalogy are reissued this March - and now we've got full details on the sets, including deluxe formats. We mentioned a few days ago that Amazon had shown track listings for each album that had three bonus tracks apiece. It was also assumed that there would be a box combining both expanded albums with additional swag, not unlike 2009's Ten monolith. And now we have details on all that and more. First of all, in
Review: Tim Buckley, "Tim Buckley"
When Tim Buckley is discussed today, it's most often in the context of his son Jeff, and the eerie similarities between the lives of father and son, both of whom died at tragically young ages. So Rhino Handmade's expanded two-CD remaster of Tim Buckley's debut (Rhino Handmade RHM2 526087, 2011) isn't just a celebration of a folk-rock classic, but a stunning reminder of his talent on its own considerable merits. Tim Buckley's eponymous debut remains a haunting work by a haunted man. Yet like
Review: George Michael, "Faith: Legacy Edition"
It won't make any sense in today's media-saturated world, but in 1987 and 1988, George Michael was inescapable. The idea that one single artist could grab multiple genders, races, cliques and generations by the shoulders with his or her music is all but impossible today, but the man born Georgios Kyriacos Panayiotou did just that. Faith, released by Epic Records in the fall of 1987, put six tracks in Billboard's Top 5 (two-thirds of them No. 1 hits), netted him a Grammy Award for Album of the
Dionne, Natalie, Nancy Reissues Coming from Soulmusic Label
Cherry Red's got soul. Mike and I reported last week on the impressive slate planned by Cherry Red's Big Break Records label. A smaller yet equally rich line-up is on the way from another Cherry Red division, Soulmusic.com Records.On February 14 in the U.K. and one week later stateside, the label will reissue five classic albums from a trio of accomplished vocalists: Nancy Wilson, Dionne Warwick and Natalie Cole. Perhaps most exciting is the two-on-one CD release of Wilson's 1974 Capitol
Release Round-Up: Week of February 1
George Michael, Faith: Legacy Edition (Epic/Legacy) There's going to be a review of the two-disc/one-DVD edition of this album (also available as a deluxe box set) coming up later today, but let me say right now: Damn. If you forgot how good this record was - how it makes a lot of '80s pop look temporarily flawed and full of effort - go buy this immediately. I'll wait. (Official site) Bob Marley and The Wailers, Live Forever: September 23, 1980 - The Stanley Theatre, Pittsburgh, PA (Tuff
Review: "The Very Best of The Rat Pack"
What do we know about The Rat Pack, that famed group of celebrity rogues and rapscallions that defined American cool in the early '60s? You might not know that only a third of the classic members of the group were initially included; The Rat Pack was initially made up of actor friends of Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall, including Frank Sinatra but not Dean Martin or Sammy Davis, Jr. But after Bogart's death and the subsequent release of Ocean's 11 in 1960, the classic image of The Rat Pack -
Intrada Partially Finds Missing "Link"
It's always a cause for celebration in the soundtrack community when a Jerry Goldsmith score is put into print. Today is no different; one of Goldsmith's scores from the 1980s is one of the two new releases from Intrada. Link was a strange 1986 horror film from England in which Elisabeth Shue and Terence Stamp were pitted against a super-intelligent orangutan. Goldsmith was in his typical '80s form - orchestra augmented with synthesized instruments, not unlike another favorite at Second Disc HQ
Billy Joel's Shea Play on Its Way to Disc in March
The Billy Joel floodgates are about to burst open with the release of Live at Shea Stadium: The Concert, an audio scrapbook of the Piano Man's show-stopping concerts at Shea Stadium, the last major events held at the iconic sporting arena before its closure and demolition. Already documented in Last Play at Shea - a multifaceted documentary on the longtime home of the New York Mets and the Long Island-raised rocker who performed there (to be released on DVD next month) - Columbia/Legacy will
Release Round-Up: Week of January 25
Thin Lizzy, Jailbreak / Johnny the Fox / Live and Dangerous: Deluxe Editions (Universal) A trio of long-awaited deluxe editions from the U.K., featuring bonus tracks, non-LP sides and (in the case of Live and Dangerous) a DVD. (Amazon U.K.) Santana, The Swing of Delight / Zebop! / Shango: 30th Anniversary Editions (Friday Music) Though only one of them is truly a 30th anniversary edition (each album dates back from 1980, 1981 and 1982, respectively), these remasters are more than welcome for
Review: The Jayhawks, "Hollywood Town Hall" and "Tomorrow the Green Grass"
"Please don't call it 'alt-country!'," pleads The Jayhawks' archivist P.D. Larson in the liner notes to the new Legacy Edition of the band's fourth album, 1995's Tomorrow the Green Grass. But whatever you call it, the uniquely American music of the Jayhawks has endured, and is currently being celebrated by American Recordings and Sony/Legacy with two deluxe reissues produced by Larson and John Jackson. The band's major label debut from 1992, Hollywood Town Hall, has been expanded with a clutch
Upcoming Slate from Big Break Includes Edwin Starr, Patti LaBelle and More
Cherry Red's Big Break Records imprint has been the busiest arm of the U.K. reissue label group's roster by far. Joe filled you in on the expanded edition of Melba Moore's first album for Epic in 1978, but there are 11, count 'em, 11! new reissues on the slate between now and March. Of the artists covered in the latest batch, Patti LaBelle and Jon Lucien each have the most - two albums each - being reissued. For LaBelle, it's her first and third solo albums originally released on Epic, 1977's
FTD to Release Vintage Elvis Show in Vegas
The King has returned: Follow That Dream, Sony's "official bootleg" label for Elvis Presley catalogue projects, has announced its two newest titles for February, a live set and a vinyl reissue. First up is White Knight in Vegas, a 1969 performance at Las Vegas' International Hotel, the biggest showroom on the strip at the time. Fresh off the iconic NBC comeback special some nine months prior, Presley began his stint at the venue in late July, and this show captures Elvis at his showiest.
Derek, Eric and "Layla": Details Announced for 40th Anniversary Set
Prepare to be on your knees: details have been released for UMe's upcoming 40th anniversary editions of Derek & The Dominos' Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs, due out March 8. The result of a searing, bluesy collaboration between Eric Clapton, members of Delaney & Bonnie's touring outfit and Duane Allman, Layla was a critical success but sold only moderately until the title track shot to the Top 10 some two years after the album was released. It became a multigenerational hit in the
More of Melba: Moore's Epic Debut Due from BBR
By 1978, Melba Moore had already established herself as a multifaceted musical force. After making her Broadway debut as Dionne ("White Boys") in the original Broadway company of Hair, she picked up a Tony Award in 1970 for her performance in Purlie, where she introduced the showstopping "I Got Love." In 1978, she was starring in New York opposite the legendary Eartha Kitt in Timbuktu! and ready to resume her solo recording career. With stints on the Mercury and Buddah labels behind her, she
Back Tracks: Aerosmith Part I - The Columbia Years
Aerosmith isn't dead, but it may as well be. Frontman Steven Tyler was preposterous in his first televised appearance as a judge on American Idol (though there was some very funny writing about the whole ordeal), and if you're like me, you wish Tyler had stepped away from such ridiculous duties and went on to perform with what many have called America's greatest rock and roll band - even if it sounded more like their recent, pop-oriented rock instead of their bluesy, pre-metal days. To
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
Back Tracks: Queen, Part II
We continue our coverage of Queen's previous reissues - in anticipation of the band's forthcoming remasters on new U.K. home Island Records - with a look at Queen during most of the '80s, where they went increasingly pop-friendly before returning to their rock roots in the 1990s, losing their iconic frontman and becoming anthologized in nearly a dozen or so compilations. The show must go on, after the jump.
From "Walter Mitty" to "Inner City": Masterworks Broadway Reissues Due
Sony’s Masterworks Broadway division continues its dig through the vaults of the Columbia and RCA Records labels with three new titles, to be released as CD-Rs exclusively through Arkiv Music or as digital downloads. Today, January 18, sees the reissue of Originals – Musical Comedy 1909-1935, an RCA compilation dating from 1968. This collection remains one of the best ever to anthologize the sound of musical comedy in its earliest days, and is a “Who’s Who” of that golden era. The vaudeville
Reissue Theory: Stevie Wonder, "Hotter Than July"
Welcome to another installment of Reissue Theory, here we reflect on well-known albums of the past and the reissues they could someday see. With today being a national holiday in honor of an iconic civil rights leader, we take a look at an album with a song written to make that holiday a reality. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FchMuPQOBwA] Today is a day off for many people in the United States, in observation of the birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., the great civil rights
Short Takes: 40s Aplenty, Kinks Konfusion, QotSA Date Change and Big Star Reissue Due
The magic numbers for reissues this year looks to be 40: we have no less than three different 40th anniversary sets with release dates in March. We've already mentioned the CD/DVD edition Bridge Over Troubled Water (1971) on that date. And the same day will see the release of the promised new deluxe editions of Derek and The Dominos' Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs (a remaster, a double-disc deluxe edition, a double vinyl edition, and a 4 CD/2 LP/1 DVD super deluxe box). And Amazon is
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
One is Not the Loneliest Number
Exactly one year ago today, The Second Disc uploaded its first post, an assessment of the best reissues of the prior year. It was taken from my personal Facebook page, which I'd been posting thoughts on music and pop culture here and there for some time. I was a college graduate working in a part-time job I was not particularly fond of, in dire need of something to fill time. After some deliberating over what a blog about reissues and box sets - my favorite kind of music - should be called
Fela! In a Box!
Fans of Nigerian musical maverick Fela Kuti have something to celebrate: a whole bunch of Fela-related reissues are coming in the next few weeks from Knitting Factory Records. The blog Altered States reports that a multi-LP vinyl box set will street on February 1. Consisting of six of Fela's albums - 1975's Everything Scatter and Expensive Shit, 1977's Fear Not for Man and Sorrow Tears and Blood, Teacher Don't Teach Me Nonsense (1986) and Beasts of No Nation (1989) - in reproductions of their
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