Margaret Whiting was a singer's singer. Possessed of a clarion vocal instrument capable of both great exultation and deep longing, a performance by Whiting guaranteed a path to the heart of a song. It's no wonder that Johnny Mercer, a songwriter of no small stature, made sure that the 18-year old songbird was one of the first artists signed to his fledgling Capitol Records label. Mercer had known Whiting since her childhood as the daughter of his collaborator, composer Richard Whiting, and
I Feel Free: Cream Expand Debut Album In 2017
A half century after it was first released, Fresh Cream, the debut album by super-trio Cream, will get a four-disc expansion in January. One of the first supergroups of the rock era, Cream paired Yardbirds and John Mayall & The Bluesbreakers guitarist Eric Clapton with singer/bassist Jack Bruce and drummer Ginger Baker, former and current members of the Graham Bond Organisation. (The volatile Baker, in fact, was part of why Bruce left Bond's group; the duo fought onstage frequently and
You Know How Good It Is: BBR Expands Vincent Montana's "Goody Goody" For CD
It's that time of year again when radio stations everywhere turn to the sounds of the holiday season. One of the tunes always in frequent rotation is a bit of light swing from The Salsoul Orchestra's 1976 disco classic Christmas Jollies: "Merry Christmas, All." The voice of that perennial belongs to Denise Montana, daughter of its composer-arranger-conductor, the late, great MFSB vibraphonist and Salsoul Orchestra leader Vince Montana. Now, another project uniting Vince and Denise Montana has
Colour My World: Steven Wilson Remix of "Chicago II" Due in January
The second album by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame legends Chicago is coming back to CD in a newly remixed edition. On January 27, Rhino will issue Chicago II: Steven Wilson Remix, featuring an all-new stereo mix of Chicago's classic 1970 double album from the producer-engineer behind acclaimed remixes for progressive bands such as Yes, Jethro Tull, King Crimson, and Emerson, Lake and Palmer. The creativity and innovation of the band formerly known as Chicago Transit Authority surged more
A Groovy Kind of Love: Ace Collects Classical-Inspired Pop Songs on "Classical Gassers"
Classical music has long been a source of inspiration for pop. Just ask Barry Manilow ("Could It Be Magic"), Eric Carmen ("All By Myself," "Never Gonna Fall in Love Again"), Billy Joel ("This Night"), or Walter Murphy ("A Fifth of Beethoven"). Ace Records has recently collected 24 of these classical "crossovers" on the aptly-titled Classical Gassers: Pop Gems Inspired by the Great Composers. These tracks date between 1960 and 1971 and feature such hitmaking artists as Lesley Gore, Jay and the
Mister Magic: Cherry Red Collects Grover Washington Jr.'s "Definitive Collection"
In a career spanning three decades, Grammy-winning saxophonist Grover Washington Jr. recorded roughly 25 albums, earned a No. 2 Pop single with Bill Withers, supported countless other vocalists, and recorded music of genres from funk to opera. (Yes, opera!) Washington passed away in 1999 at the age of 56, but not before having made his mark on the worlds of jazz and pop alike. His legacy has recently been celebrated by Cherry Red's Robinsongs label on the new 2-CD Definitive Collection. This
Review: "Prince 4Ever"
Prince 4Ever (NPG Records/Warner Bros. 558509-2) is not the Prince compilation I imagined. I've had plenty of time to think about it, from the day Prince and Warner Bros. announced the end of their decades-long war with a new catalogue agreement that honest-to-God made me cry, to the day almost exactly two years later where we cried over Prince for a different reason. But even in my wildest dreams, something about a Prince catalogue campaign seemed ephemeral, not entirely knowable--just like
THE SECOND DISC'S 2016 HOLIDAY GIFT GUIDE IS HERE!
We wouldn't want you to be left out in the cold for Cyber Monday, so we're proud to present our annual Holiday Gift Guide featuring more than 50 essential selections for the music enthusiast in your life! We've filled the guide with box sets (such as the popular David Bowie title to your left!) as well as archival releases and holiday music favorites that make great stocking stuffers. So Just click here to access this year's top picks! You'll notice that the Gift Guide is in the same
Good Times! The Second Disc's Essential RSD Black Friday 2016 Release Guide
From all of us here at Second Disc HQ to all of you, we hope you're enjoying a wonderful Thanksgiving in the company of family and friends. Of course, from this day which conjures nostalgic and warm feelings comes a celebration of a different kind with this year's annual Black Friday - the day for consumers to start off the holiday shopping season on a mad, frenetic note. But 2016 is just in the latest year in which numerous retailers in the U.S. have made headlines by blackening Thursday, or
Release Round-Up: Week of November 25
Happy Thanksgiving! Welcome to this week's Release Round-Up! Prince, Prince 4Ever (Warner Bros.) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada) This release actually came out on Tuesday, but it's worth a reminder here: this first posthumous collection from the late, great artist premieres one previously unreleased track, and includes a number of single versions making their CD debuts. Prince 4Ever is a 40-track summary of The Artist's major works from his first album, 1978's For You, to
Hold On To Your Precious Love: Edsel Reissues Percy Sledge's Atlantic Recordings On Three Volumes
"Percy Sledge is the most dynamic new soul singer to arrive on the record scene in years," wrote Bob Rolontz on the original liner notes to the artist's 1966 Atlantic debut When a Man Loves a Woman. That LP, of course, was titled for the song that took the balladeer to No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and R&B charts right out of the gate and yielded him the No. 20 record of the year, sandwiched between Tommy James and the Shondells and The Rolling Stones. Though Percy Sledge (1940-2015)
Wonderful Words of Life: The Inspirational Recordings
Pioneering African-American pop-jazz quartet The Mills Brothers has had a long and storied career, getting their professional start all the way back in 1928. They recorded over 2000 songs and had hits over several decades, including the #2 "Glow Worm" in 1952. While concentrating mostly on The Great American Songbook, the group did record some gospel numbers. The 16-track Wonderful Words of Life - The Inspirational Recordings anthologizes this aspect of their recording career. It features
Live at The Old Waldorf
Todd Rundgren & Utopia's Live at the Old Waldorf was released on CD last year by Cherry Red as part of Rundgren's ongoing series of concert releases but it makes its vinyl debut here from Real Gone Music. Recorded on August 5, 1978, this concert was part of the Back to the Bars tour. Several concerts from that tour have been released and a couple of shows formed the basis of a live album. This August 5th show features the classic Utopia of Rundgren (guitar/vocals), Willie Wilcox
The Grateful Dead: 50th Anniversary Deluxe Edition
2-CD (Original Album and Bonus Disc): Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. Picture Disc (Original Album Only): Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. The Grateful Dead: 50th Anniversary Deluxe Edition presents the original 1967 album on Disc 1 and an unreleased concert from July 29, 1966 in Vancouver, Canada on Disc 2. The first disc has been remastered from the original tapes by David Glasser and restored via Plangent Processes (a tape transfer technique which has been used on other Dead projects). The second
That Same Old Feeling: RPM Collects Pickettywitch, Polly Brown On New Anthology
If Pickettywitch is remembered today, it's for "That Same Old Feeling" - the 1970 single penned by the hitmaking team of Tony Macaulay and John MacLeod that reached No. 5 on the U.K. Pop chart. Yet that tune was far from the only slice of upbeat, light and cheerful pop recorded by the Polly Brown-fronted group. Cherry Red's RPM imprint has recently collected the recordings of Pickettywitch along with a solo LP from Polly, plus Polly and Tony Jackson's album as Sweet Dreams, on a new set. That
Good Time Music: Cherry Red Reissues Two From Ronnie James Dio's Elf
"We played it hot, hard and heavy at the Carolina County ball/And we sang 'Ooooo'/On a boogie-woogie Friday night..." Ronnie James Dio's early band Elf played it hot, hard and (pretty) heavy throughout its relatively short lifespan. Elf released three studio albums between 1972 and 1975 before going to superstardom with Rainbow (the core of which was actually built from Elf), Black Sabbath, and Dio. Last year, Cherry Red released a reissue of 1972's debut Elf; now, the label has turned its
Start Down The Golden Road: Rhino Reissues Grateful Dead's Debut to Launch 50th Anniversary Campaign
2015 marked the 50th anniversary of the formation of the Grateful Dead and there were many projects to celebrate the occasion: concerts, CD anthologies and boxsets, documentaries, DVDs/Blu-rays, and more. But the Dead did not release their first studio album until 1967 and Rhino is celebrating that anniversary with a new 2-disc version of The Grateful Dead on January 20, 2017. And Rhino promises that this release is just the start of a massive new reissue campaign focused on the band. The
Double-O-Love: SoulMusic, Cherry Red Reissue Dan Hartman's "Instant Replay"
It's Instant Replay for Cherry Red's SoulMusic Records imprint with the recent reissue of Dan Hartman's 1978 disco classic of the same name. The album featuring the Disco chart-topper has been expanded with four bonus singles for this new edition. It's difficult to pigeonhole Dan Hartman. The late musician-songwriter-producer-artist had begun his musical career as a member of psychedelic rock outfit The Legends before backing Johnny Winter and then, crucially, Johnny's brother Edgar. As a
Release Round-Up: Week of November 18
Welcome to this week's Release Round-Up - the last of the major release weeks for 2016! The Beatles, Eight Days a Week (DVD or BD) (Apple/Capitol) 2-Disc Blu-ray: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada 2-Disc DVD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada Standard Edition Blu-ray: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada Standard Edition DVD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada Ron Howard's acclaimed 2016 documentary chronicling Beatlemania, Eight Days a Week, hits DVD
And All That Jazz: Liza Minnelli, Petula Clark, Michael Crawford Featured On "Elaine Paige Presents The Musicals"
Elaine Paige is lending her name to a new 3-CD collection of musical theatre favorites. Elaine Paige Presents The Musicals is due on November 25 from Union Square Music, with 58 tracks and over three hours of music. Elaine Paige Presents the Musicals is licensed from various labels, making for a cross-section of recordings. You'll find familiar names from the worlds of theatre, movies and pop, including Michael Ball ("Love Changes Everything" from Aspects of Love, "Falling Slowly" from
Reach for the Sky: Social Distortion to Release "The Independent Years" on Vinyl
Punk icons Social Distortion are rounding up four of their albums for your turntable in a new vinyl box set out this fall. The Independent Years 1983-2004 fills in the gaps on either side of their major-label tenure from 1990 to 1996. Founded in southern California in 1978 and led since then by singer/guitarist Mike Ness, Social D's first album, Mommy's Little Monster, was self-released in 1983. Five years later, after Ness kicked a drug habit and reorganized the band after a hiatus, Prison
He's Returned: Glenn Tilbrook Shares Final Volume of Squeeze Demos
Squeeze songwriter Glenn Tilbrook is going back to the band's first end for his final entry in a series of demo releases. Tilbrook, the man behind the voice, guitar and music of England's most underrated rock band, began a five-part clearing of the vaults almost 10 years ago, when Squeeze, the band he formed with lyricist/vocalist Chris Difford in the 1970s, began their third distinct iteration as a band. As Difford, Tilbrook, bassist John Bentley (with the group from 1980 to 1982) and
Beyond "The Year 2525": Tune In Collects Zager and Evans' RCA Recordings
In the annals of one-hit wonders, few are as well-remembered as the duo Zager and Evans. Rick Evans and Denny Zager, both of Lincoln, Nebraska, hit it big in 1969 with their dark, apocalyptic single "In the Year 2525." But the duo never scored another Hot 100 hit despite the fact that "2525" topped the Pop and AC charts in the United States and also went to the top in the United Kingdom. Now, their recordings for RCA have been collected by Cherry Red's Tune In imprint as In the
They're On Their Way: "Dick Tracy," "Blue Lagoon" Expansions Due from Intrada
Intrada has added two scores from very popular composers to their Special Collection line: Basil Poledouris' soundtrack to 1980's romantic drama The Blue Lagoon, and Danny Elfman's ambitious score to Disney's 1990 adaptation of Dick Tracy. Based on the 1908 novel of the same name, The Blue Lagoon starred Brooke Shields and Christopher Atkins as two cousins shipwrecked on a South Pacific island, living (and loving) in a faraway paradise. The R-rated antics of the couple caused a stir, as
Cowboy in Sweden (Various Editions)
CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada LP: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada Blue Vinyl LP/DVD Set: Light in the Attic Store Light in the Attic's reissue of maverick singer-songwriter-producer Lee Hazlewood's 1970 album has been remastered from the original tapes and expands the original LHI Records LP with three bonus tracks: the outtake "Me and the Wine and the City Lights," and alternate versions of "Easy and Me" and "Pray Them Bars Away." LITA has Cowboy in Sweden
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