While Ric and Ron Records were not the first little labels to make big noises out of New Orleans, Louisiana, they certainly were among the most influential. Between 1958 and 1963, Joe Ruffino’s labels boasted some of the Crescent City’s greatest artists – Professor Longhair, Irma Thomas, Chris Kenner, Eddie Bo, and Johnny Adams, to name a few. The U.K.’s Ace Records label has recently begun a new series chronicling The Ric and Ron Story, kicking off with Volume 1, You Talk Too Much. The
It's The Time Of The Season For The Zombies' Lost Album "R.I.P."
It’s the time for The Zombies – no, not the flesh-eating, reanimated monstrosities of The Walking Dead, but the British band famed for the hits “Time of the Season,” “Tell Her No” and “She’s Not There.” Varese Vintage has previously revisited the group’s catalogue including on this year’s Record Store Day vinyl reissue of the key 1968 album Odessey and Oracle. This week, the label has a real treat with the first-ever legitimate CD issue of The Zombies’ “lost” album, R.I.P., as it was intended to
That's Amore: "Arrivederci Italy" Features Jerry Vale, Dean Martin, Rita Pavone, Nino Rota, Ennio Morricone
IN MEMORIAM: JERRY VALE (1930-2014) : While readying the following article for publication, we learned of the passing of Jerry Vale on May 18, 2014 at the age of 83. Jerry was one of the last great gentlemen of song, and a mainstay of the Columbia Records roster for many years. He notched 18 singles on the Hot 10o between 1953 and 1967, and 27 on the Adult Contemporary chart through 1971, including the AC chart-topper "Have You Looked Into Your Heart" in 1964. Though best-known for his
Near Wild Heaven: R.E.M. Bundle Warner-Era B-Sides for Digital Box
No sooner did R.E.M. plan a generous digital equivalent of a two-disc set collating nearly all of their B-sides and rarities for I.R.S. Records have the departed Athens quartet - or label Warner Bros., anyway - planned a massive digital bundle of their B-sides for their major label era. Complete Warner Bros. Rarities 1988-2011 features a similar packaging scheme as its I.R.S. comparison, but the scope of time certainly allows for more material - 131 tracks, in fact. The complete claim is not
Review: Bee Gees, "The Warner Bros. Years: 1987-1991"
Tonight, Barry Gibb’s Mythology tour continues making its way through the United States, as the surviving member of The Bee Gees celebrates his family’s legacy in song. From humble beginnings in Australia (1965’s The Bee Gees Sing and Play 14 Barry Gibb Songs) through international stardom and a final studio farewell (2001’s This is Where I Came In), Barry, Robin and Maurice Gibb mastered an ever-shifting array of styles. Baroque, lightly psychedelic pop/rock ceded to tough funk-infused R&B,
Like To Get To Know Them: Real Gone's July Features Spanky and Our Gang, Lulu, Peggy Lipton, Grateful Dead and More
Tuesday – July 1, that is – will never be the same, thanks to Real Gone Music’s slate spotlighting a quartet of famous sixties girls! But that’s not all. The label is also dipping its toes into tropicalia, anthologizing an unsung country-pop hero, going both punk and disco, and returning to the venerable Grateful Dead catalogue! Complete Singles Collections have become a specialty of Real Gone’s, and the label continues with a new title featuring every Mercury single released by Spanky
Dark Shadows Over Transylvania: Robert Cobert's Score to "Dan Curtis' Dracula" Arrives On CD
Since Bram Stoker introduced Count Dracula in 1897, the Transylvanian vampire has captivated audiences in every medium conceivable. Of course, the visceral possibilities of film has allowed the nightmarish character to leave his mark on generation after generation, most famously in 1931’s Bela Lugosi-starring film. Much as Universal Pictures produced a string of films following its original, Hammer Films launched its own series of Dracula pictures with 1958’s adaptation starring Christopher
More Than a Band of Gold: Complete Holland-Dozier-Holland Singles Collected On New Box Set
The legacy of Brian Holland, Lamont Dozier and Eddie Holland is filled with some of the most popular songs ever written: “Stop! In the Name of Love,” “How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved by You),” “Baby, I Need Your Loving,” “You Can’t Hurry Love,” “You Keep Me Hangin’ On,” among them. All of those songs, and so many other indelible hit records, were written under the aegis of Hitsville, USA, a.k.a. Berry Gordy’s Motown empire. But by 1967, the relationship between the label chief and his star
The Salsoul Orchestra Goes "High," "Up the Yellow Brick Road"
Big Break Records' non-chronological series of remastered and expanded reissues for The Salsoul Orchestra has already taken listeners from 1975's eponymous debut to 1982's farewell release Heat It Up. With the recent releases of 1978's Up the Yellow Brick Road and 1979's How High, the label has filled in the gaps of its lavishly produced program of the Orchestra's classic non-holiday studio albums. (No fear, however - there are other collaborative albums and even a collection credited to The
Review: Rod Stewart, "Live 1976-1998: Tonight's the Night"
After more than a decade mining the Great American Songbook, seventies rock, vintage soul and Christmas carols, Rod Stewart returned to original rock material with the 2013 release of Time. And while much of the titular subject had indeed passed since his last album of new songs, Stewart’s distinctive voice and joie de vivre were happily intact. The spirit that has kept Stewart a superstar is fully on display in the new 4-CD box set Tonight’s the Night – Live 1976-1998. Over its four discs and
Review: Real Gone Offers Temptations From David Ruffin and Eddie Kendricks
Three recent releases from the team at Real Gone Music feature the solo music of David Ruffin and Eddie Kendricks, two-fifths of the original Temptations line-up. The label has reissued Ruffin's first four albums on two single CDs, two to each CD, and has premiered Kendricks' post-Motown LP Love Keys, for Atlantic Records, on CD. David Ruffin had departed The Temptations after the April 1968 release of the Wish It Would Rain album, with Dennis Edwards officially joining the group onstage in
Ain't That The Shames! Now Sounds Reissues, Expands The Cryan' Shames' Psych-Pop LP "A Scratch In The Sky"
Put “California Girls” in a blender with “Cherish” and you might well wind up with something like “A Carol for Lorelei,” the bright, harmony-drenched pop nugget that opens The Cryan’ Shames’ sophomore album, 1968’s A Scratch in the Sky. Though the Chicago band recorded the LP in New York City, the good vibrations of the Summer of Love were clearly in the air back east for the Columbia Records artists. Whereas the band’s debut album Sugar and Spice was a blast of energetic rock and roll by way of
Henry Mancini's "Who Is Killing The Great Chefs of Europe?" Inaugurates New Vintage Soundtrack Series From Varese
The 1978 film Who is Killing the Great Chefs of Europe? billed itself as "a delicious mystery." Naturally, a delicious mystery would require a delicious score. To accompany the film's recipe of drama, suspense, comedy and action, director Ted Kotcheff turned to "top chef" Henry Mancini. No stranger to all of those genres and more, composer-arranger-conductor Mancini crafted a score that became one of the film's most memorable assets. The long out-of-print soundtrack album, originally
Can You Feel The Love Tonight: 2-CD Expanded Edition of "The Lion King" Kicks Off Disney Legacy Collection
With Walt Disney Records’ juggernaut soundtrack to Frozen preparing to enjoy its thirteenth week at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 – becoming one of only 39 albums in the history of the chart to have spent at least 13 weeks at pole position – the time has never been better for the record label to revisit the studio’s classic animated film library. Today, Walt Disney Records announced what’s arguably its most ambitious reissue program ever. The Legacy Collection will mark the anniversaries of
Still Here: Elaine Paige Celebrates Career On New "Ultimate Collection" With Previously Unreleased Songs and Rare Singles
Though her appearances on the Broadway stage have been rare, Elaine Paige remains one of the reigning first ladies of musical theatre around the world. Paige has been a fixture in London's West End since her debut there in the 1968 production of Hair, rising to fame as the first actress to portray Eva Peron onstage in Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice's Evita in 1978. Paige went on to introduce the role of Grizabella and the song "Memory" in Cats, and subsequently starred in such musicals as
Folk Heroes: Omnivore Celebrates Hank Williams and Dave Van Ronk
This month, Omnivore Recordings turns its attention to two singer-songwriters who could be said to embody the spirit of American music, Hank Williams and Dave Van Ronk. Though he died just aged 29 in 1953, Hank Williams remains a towering figure in country-and-western music. The likes of "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry," "Your Cheatin' Heart," "Cold, Cold Heart," "Jambalaya (On the Bayou)" and "Hey Good Lookin'" have been recorded countless times in country, pop, R&B and rock renditions by
From Brazil to Ireland, Él Releases Grab-Bag of Jazz, Vocals, Soundtracks and Bossa Nova
Fans of vintage jazz can thank Cherry Red's él label for a number of recent reissues from such artists as Cal Tjader, Dave Lambert and Jon Hendricks, Herbie Mann and Antonio Carlos Jobim. In a Latin Bag and Saturday Night/Sunday Night at the Blackhawk combines two albums on one CD from Latin jazz pioneer Cal Tjader. The vibraphonist/percussionist recorded these long out-of-print albums in 1961 and 1962, respectively, at Verve under the aegis of future CTI chief Creed Taylor. By the time he
"I Hunger For Your Touch" Collects 31 Recordings of "Unchained Melody" From Elvis, The Righteous Brothers, Many More
It began life as the theme to a 1955 B-movie that asked, “No locks! No walls! In the prison without bars! What keeps men like these from crashing out?” The film was Unchained, and the song was “Unchained Melody” with music by Alex North (A Streetcar Named Desire, Spartacus) and lyrics by Hy Zaret (“Dedicated to You”). Though the movie - in which just a brief snippet of the song was sung by Porgy and Bess’ original Porgy, Todd Duncan – is hardly remembered today, the intensely romantic
Do It Again: JSP's "The Garland Variations" Box Set Collects Multiple Recordings of Judy Garland Songs
Like so many of the great vocalists of her day, Judy Garland frequently revisited repertoire over the years. An arrangement might vary, in great or small ways, and so, of course, would the interpretation. Garland’s unparalleled interpretive gifts, apt for wringing as much authentic emotion out of a song as possible, are front and center on the latest box set of the late artist’s recordings from JSP Records. The Garland Variations – Songs She Recorded More Than Once is a new 5-CD collection, set
Release Round-Up: Week of April 29
Grace Jones, Nightclubbing: Deluxe Edition (Island/UMe) Pull back up to the bumper with a generously expanded version of the almighty Jones' most beloved album. 2CD: Amazon U.K. 1CD: Amazon U.S. 2LP: Amazon U.K. / Amazon U.S. Blu-Ray Audio: Amazon U.K. / Amazon U.S. Diana Ross & The Supremes, Sing and Perform Funny Girl: Expanded Edition (Motown Select) A digital-only expansion of The Supremes' 1968 album of the Jule Styne-Bob Merrill musical, featuring the original LP alongside a
Special Review: Jack Bruce, "Silver Rails"
As bassist, songwriter and singer for the power trio Cream, Jack Bruce ensured his place in the classic rock pantheon. Yet in a career spanning over 50 years, Bruce’s time in Cream was incredibly brief: 1966-1968, with two very brief reunions thereafter. That Cream existed for such a short time seems almost unbelievable in light of how influential the band’s music became. But both B.C. and A.C. – Before Cream and After Cream – Jack Bruce has been a working musician. His first studio album since
BBR Embarks On An Odyssey With "Native New Yorker" Group and The Hues Corporation
Cherry Red’s Big Break Records imprint has rocked the boat with a batch of recent reissues from the RCA vaults – one seminal title from The Hues Corporation and a trio from “Native New Yorker” group Odyssey. When “Rock the Boat” reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in July 1974, it wasn’t exactly new. It had first appeared almost a year earlier on the August 1973 release of Freedom for the Stallion, The Hues Corporation’s debut album for RCA. “One lovely lady” and “two bright young men” is
The (Motown) Music That Makes Me Dance: The Supremes' "Funny Girl" Gets Expansion
I'm the greatest star/I am by far! But no one knows it... - Fanny Brice, Funny Girl Back in 2012, while reviewing Hip-o Select's splendidly expanded edition of The Supremes at the Copa, I wrote of the "altogether enjoyable [and] still inexplicably not on CD" album The Supremes Sing and Perform Funny Girl. Indeed, that 1968 LP, featuring Motown's greatest stars tackling the showstoppers from Jule Styne and Bob Merrill's score, has long been one of the rarest and most-requested titles in the
Burn, Baby, Burn! Career-Spanning Anthology Arrives For The Dictators
Who will save rock and roll? The Dictators posed the question on their 2011 reunion album D.F.F.D. (that’s “Dictators Forever, Forever Dictators,” in case you were wondering), but many listening might have felt that The Dictators themselves could have been the saviors. Yet despite recording three well-received albums between 1975 and 1978, and gaining such high-profile fans as Bruce Springsteen and Little Steven Van Zandt, The Dictators’ anarchic, acerbic brand of rock-and-roll never garnered
Hold On to Your Friends: Morrissey's "Vauxhall and I" to Be Expanded
On June 3, Morrissey is picking up where he left off. Parlophone Records will follow the February CD/DVD reissue of 1992’s Your Arsenal with the next album in his considerable catalogue, 1994’s Vauxhall and I. Like Your Arsenal, the remastered CD of Vauxhall will be packaged with a previously unreleased live concert performance, this time also on CD. Vauxhall and I was a very different animal than its predecessor. Since the release of Arsenal, the artist had suffered the loss of that album’s
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