It may seem trite and ridiculous to Americans, but across the pond there is one competition that's bigger than any Idol or X-Factor event in the music world: the Eurovision Song Contest. For nearly 60 years, dozens of countries in the European Broadcasting Union send a song and a performer to the live event, and a winner is selected by votes. Despite the immense popularity of the contest, it's interesting how few winners achieve true global superstardom. Sandie Shaw won with her signature
Alice Cooper's "Trash" Gets Another Look From Hear No Evil, Cherry Red
There’s always something slightly disingenuous about the term “comeback album” – especially when an artist has never really left. Such was the case with Alice Cooper’s 1989 Epic Records release Trash. But one certainly sees why the expression would be used to describe Trash. Alice Cooper’s eighteenth studio release, it became his first Top 20 album in the U.S. since 1975’s epochal Welcome to My Nightmare, his biggest-ever U.K. success with a No. 2 peak, and contained his first U.S. Top 10 hit
Review: Blood, Sweat and Tears, "The Complete Columbia Singles"
Blood, Sweat and Tears has much in common with Rodney Dangerfield - they get no respect. Though the band founded by Al Kooper, Steve Katz, Bobby Colomby, Jim Fielder, Dick Halligan, Randy Brecker and Jerry Weiss produced some of the most enduring pop singles of the late 1960s and early 1970s, the group has long lingered in the shadows of rock's back pages. Eclipsed in fame by Columbia Records labelmates Chicago, plagued by a series of acrimonious departures from the ranks, and pilloried for
Jeepers! Kritzerland Scares Up Reissue of "Jeepers Creepers: Great Songs from Horror Films"
It’s not Halloween for a while yet, but the Kritzerland label is scaring up some ghoulish tunes with its brand-new reissue of the 2003 anthology Jeepers Creepers: Great Songs from Horror Films! With a stellar cast of performers drawn from Broadway and Hollywood including Brent Barrett, Alison Fraser, Jason Graae, Juliana Hansen, Katharine Helmond, Judy Kaye, Rebecca Luker, Michelle Nicastro and Christiane Noll, with a special appearance from the “Cool Ghoul” Zacherley (a.k.a. John Zacherle),
Ode to Bob: "Dylan's Gospel" Reissue Due in April, Features Merry Clayton, Gloria Jones, Edna Wright
Light in the Attic is getting ready to spread the Gospel of Bob. Dylan, that is. On April 1, the label returns Ode Records’ 1969 tribute Dylan’s Gospel to print with new CD and LP reissues. Credited to The Brothers and Sisters, Dylan’s Gospel featured the cream of the crop of Los Angeles’ session singers including Merry Clayton, Clydie King, Patrice Holloway, Edna Wright and Shirley Matthews on a variety of Dylan staples, sanctified-style. Producer Lou Adler formed Ode Records after selling
A Goldsmith Grail to Check Off Your "List"
How did you celebrate yesterday, which would have been the 85th birthday of revered film composer Jerry Goldsmith (1929-2004)? Did you play some of the great recent reissues of some of his most classic scores? It's safe to say whatever you did, Varese Sarabande did it one step ahead: yesterday the label announced the long-awaited releases of one of Goldsmith's most enduring and unavailable scores, 1963's The List of Adrian Messenger. Based on a 1959 novel of the same name, Adrian Messenger,
Just the Way You Like It: Hits, Videos Compiled on Tabu Box Set
After more than a year of reissues of the Tabu Records catalogue by Edsel - reissues that have been relatively lavish but particularly divisive for their occasional lapses in audio quality - the label has prepped a thorough career-spanning box set. The Tabu Records Box Set is a 6CD/1DVD affair collecting tracks from all of the label's major releases between 1977 and 1991. Each disc will be broken down by theme; the first focuses on early soul albums by the likes of The S.O.S. Band and
Review: Two From Camper Van Beethoven and Omnivore Recordings
And this here's a government experiment and we're driving like Hell To give some cowboys some acid and to stay in motels We're going to eat up some wide open spaces like it was a cruise on the Nile Take the hands off the clock, we're going to be here a while - Camper Van Beethoven, “Eye of Fatima (Pt. 1)” You can take the band out of the underground, but you can’t take the underground out of the band. California’s Camper Van Beethoven had been making its brand of “surrealist, absurdist folk”
RPM Collects Complete Singles of Beatle Pal Buddy Britten
Who’s that guy holding the guitar with the Buddy Holly glasses? Why, it’s Buddy Britten! Geoffrey David Glover-Wright reinvented himself in the fashion of Buddy Holly after taking in a March 1958 concert, recalling his hero leaping about the stage “like a lunatic” and playing an “extraordinary” guitar. And so Glover-Wright, a.k.a. Britten, joined the ranks of early British rock and rollers. His short but exciting career from Merseybeat to psychedelia has recently been chronicled by RPM, an
It Ain't Hard to Tell: Nas' "Illmatic" Celebrated for Its 20th Anniversary
In recent years, Long Island City at the westernmost edge of the New York City borough of Queens has become a hotbed of arts-related activities. But before gentrification hit Long Island City, the neighborhood was already hosting an artistic renaissance in the form of rap. One of the most acclaimed rappers to come out of the scene is Nas, or Nasir bin Olu Dara Jones. Born in 1973, the son of jazz trumpeter Olu Dara made his album debut with 1994’s Columbia Records release Illmatic. Now,
Feeling Good: Rare Albums From Henry Mancini, Anthony Newley Arrive From Vocalion
The U.K.’s Vocalion label is dedicated to exploring the corners of music catalogue too often overlooked by other labels: dance bands, big bands, “personalities,” “easy, light and Latin,” soundtracks, and classical titles, per its website. A new batch of rare and new-to-CD titles (including “easy listening” releases from Peter Nero, Floyd Cramer, Paul Mauriat and George Melachrino) is highlighted by a two-fer containing two rare Henry Mancini LPs, and another two-fer drawn from Anthony Newley’s
Review: Michael Bloomfield, "From His Head to His Heart to His Hands"
“I think we’ve exploited you enough. I just want you to know I’m signing you!” With those words, spoken by John Hammond Sr. and heard on the first disc of Legacy Recordings’ new 3-CD/1-DVD box set From His Head to His Heart to His Hands, Michael Bloomfield became a Columbia Records recording artist. Though he died in 1981 at the age of 37, the blues guitarist extraordinaire left behind a substantial body of work in a variety of musical settings. Perhaps he never fulfilled the entirety of his
Cherry Red Turns Up the Heat with Any Trouble's "Complete Stiff Recordings"
When the band Any Trouble made its debut on Stiff Records in 1979 with the single “Yesterday’s Love” b/w “Nice Girls,” the label had already survived the defection of co-founder Jake Riviera and, with him, artists including Elvis Costello and Nick Lowe. Any Trouble was one of the headliners of the 1980 “Son of Stiff” tour, alongside Ten Pole Tudor, Dirty Looks, Joe “King” Carrasco and The Crowns, and The Equators, and made their LP debut that year with Where Are All the Nice Girls? Produced by
Release Round-Up: Week of February 4
Burt Bacharach, Together? — Original Soundtrack Recording / Toomorrow: From the Harry Saltzman-Don Kirshner Film “Toomorrow” — Original Soundtrack Recording / The Mamas and the Papas, A Gathering of Flowers / Brotherhood, The Complete Recordings / Smith, A Group Called Smith/Minus-Plus / Troyka, Troyka / Jim Reeves, A Beautiful Life — Songs of Inspiration / The Grateful Dead, Dick’s Picks Vol. 20 — Capital Centre, Landover, MD 9/25/76 — Onondaga County War Memorial, Syracuse, NY 9/28/76 (Real
Sweeter Than Wine: "This Magic Moment" Compiles Brill Building Nuggets
Today, 1619 Broadway in the heart of New York City’s theatre district doesn’t particularly stand out. Despite the building’s ornate façade, 1619 appears to be just another office building on a busy thoroughfare populated with every kind of attention-grabbing signage. But this building – along with its neighbor to the north, 1650 Broadway – is as much a part of rock and roll history as Sun Studios or Abbey Road. 1650 is the one and only Brill Building, incubator to some of the finest songs in
Dance a Little Bit Closer with Charo and The Salsoul Orchestra, Loleatta Holloway
Cuchi-cuchi! Charo, or María del Rosario Mercedes Pilar Martínez Molina Baeza, burst onto the cultural radar with her goofy, slightly suggestive catchphrase during the late-sixties run of the television phenomenon Rowan and Martin’s Laugh-In. Once a frequent passenger on The Love Boat, the comedienne-bombshell still is a familiar face today on television (Dancing with the Stars, RuPaul’s Drag University) and onstage – on land and on sea, even on the good ship Disney Magic. In 1977, Charo
Say Hello, Hello: UMe Pays Lavish Tribute to Elton John's "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road"
It's an odd irony that Elton John began his seventh and most ambitious studio album with a piece he imagined would play in the event of his death. The singer-songwriter-pianist was one of the most alive rockers on the planet at that point; with a dazzlingly theatrical stage presence, a cracking live band and an increasing string of successes (his most recent album at that point, Don't Shoot Me I'm Only The Piano Player, was released at the top of 1973 and was both his second No. 1 album in the
You're Gonna Hear From Her: Dory Previn's Debut Album Reissued on CD
When songwriter Dory Previn died in 2012, The Los Angeles Times noted one of the contradictions inherent in her life and art: “Although she was an Oscar-nominated songwriter, Dory Previn was better known for ballads that spoke to wounded souls.” Truth to tell, even her early film music was often believably personal, intense, and filled with emotion. It’s no wonder that vocalists including Judy Garland, Dionne Warwick, Frank Sinatra, Rosemary Clooney, Bobby Darin, Barbra Streisand, Matt Monro,
It's About That Time: Complete Concerts On "Miles at the Fillmore" Box Set Chronicle Davis' Rock Revolution
Between June 17 and 20, 1970, the fresh musical possibilities of a new decade were on vivid display in New York City’s East Village when the bill at the Fillmore East was shared by two titanic talents on the Columbia Records roster – Miles Davis and Laura Nyro. Though the pairing might seem an incongruous one, both Davis and Nyro shared an affinity for pushing the envelope and synthesizing various genres into a singular style of music that was easily identifiable as their own. Davis’ stand as
Status Quo Deliver Expanded "Piledriver" in March
To commemorate the forthcoming live dates from Status Quo's "Frantic Four" reunion, the British boogie-rockers' first release for Vertigo Records, Piledriver, is getting reissued and expanded in March. The classic lineup of Status Quo - guitarist/vocalists Francis Rossi and Rick Parfitt, bassist Alan Lancaster and drummer John Coghlan had existed in one shape or another since 1967, five years after schoolmates Rossi and Lancaster decided to start a band. Their first three albums, which included
Review: Tower of Power, "Hipper Than Hip: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow - Live on the Air and In the Studio"
What is hip? Based on the evidence of Tower of Power’s Hipper Than Hip: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow - Live on the Air and in the Studio (RGM-0208), the Bay Area band certainly qualifies. Real Gone Music’s crackling first-time release of a 1974 concert recorded for radio is a potent reminder of why Tower of Power’s rip-roaring horns have enlivened a host of recordings from artists as diverse as Elton John, Grateful Dead, Poison, Neil Diamond, Santana, and Aerosmith. Tower of Power scored its
New Box Set Explores The "Love, Poetry and Revolution" of '60s British Psychedelia
It's only appropriate that "a journey through the British psychedelic and underground scenes" would remain one of the best-kept secrets of late 2013. Love, Poetry and Revolution is the name of the recent box set from Grapefruit, the Cherry Red Group's dedicated U.K. psych imprint. (Grapefruit is also responsible for the new John's Children anthology featuring Marc Bolan.) Over nearly four hours, this 3-CD set surveys the fertile, creative period in the U.K. musical underground between 1966
Hello Hooray: Audio Fidelity Preps SACDs for Alice Cooper, Peter, Paul and Mary, Yes' Jon Anderson and Heart
This February, the Audio Fidelity label continues to grow its collection of stereo hybrid SACDs with four new releases that touch upon classic rock, progressive rock, and vintage folk. Jon Anderson's debut solo album Olias Of Sunhillow was released in the summer of 1976 and climbed the charts to the U.S. Top 50 as well as to an even more impressive No. 8 in Anderson’s U.K. home. The Yes frontman and multi-instrumentalist utilized a variety of synthesizers, tape loops, unexpected instruments
Short Takes: Digital Updates on Billy Joel, Black Sabbath and More
When not releasing intriguing physical products, sometimes labels like to do neat things to spice up their digital offerings, making complete discographies available or taking advantage of Apple's "Mastered for iTunes" initiative. Here's a few notable digital-oriented stories we've caught wind of in recent days! He's a living legend, a multiplatinum bestseller, a Kennedy Center honoree and - in 2014 - the first musical franchise at New York's Madison Square Garden. This week, Legacy
Cherry Pop Revives Hazell Dean's Rare Burt Bacharach LP, Weather Girls' Second Album
The sound of Hazell Dean has long been associated with the sound of Hi-NRG, the dance-pop genre in which she scored hits like "Searchin' (I Gotta Find a Man)," "Whatever I Do (Wherever I Go)" and "Who's Leaving Who." But thanks to Cherry Pop, fans can discover another side of Hazell Dean on The Sound of Bacharach and David. This ultra-rare promotional LP, originally issued in 1981, was commercially released for the first time on CD this week in the U.K.; it hits U.S. stores next
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