Over a long recording career encompassing roughly ten labels and 45 years, “Divine One” Sarah Vaughan (1924-1990) followed her muse wherever it led. That meant she might record an album of poetry by Pope John Paul II one day (1984’s The Planet is Alive...Let It Live!) and bossa nova with Sergio Mendes the nest day (1987’s Brazilian Romance, recently reissued as part of Legacy’s Complete Columbia Albums Collection, or a Beatles anthology (1977’s Songs of the Beatles, belatedly released in 1981)
Review: Tony Bennett, "Live at the Sahara: Las Vegas 1964"
It's been a busy week for Tony Bennett, one of the few artists today for whom "legendary" truly applies. Bennett, 87, supported the release of Live at the Sahara: Las Vegas, 1964 as well as the digital release of his entire Columbia Records catalogue with a "digital day" for the books. Bennett engaged in a HuffPost Live Chat, took questions on Twitter via the hashtag #AskTony, shared videos on Facebook, and even participated in a reddit AMA. Here's to the next 87, Tony! Though named for
And One More For The Road: Frank Sinatra's "Duets" Goes Super Deluxe In November
The way he wore his hat…the way he sipped his tea (or likely, something stronger)…the memory of all that…no, they can’t take that away from us. Frank Sinatra’s influence is still felt every day – in style, in attitude, especially in song. Though 2013 has been a quiet year for the Chairman’s catalogue, that’s about to change on November 19 when Capitol and UMe celebrate the twentieth anniversary of Sinatra’s triple-platinum Duets album with a variety of commemorative reissues including a
La-La Land Unleashes "Dead," "Black Beauty"
La-La Land's soundtrack reissues this week include a title that's perfect for Halloween and an offbeat score by a composer normally responsible for music that's perfect for Halloween. That latter title is the first up this week: in 1994, Danny Elfman - known best for his offbeat scores for Tim Burton (Pee-Wee's Big Adventure, Beetlejuice, Batman, The Nightmare Before Christmas, countless others) - was commissioned to write a soundtrack for Warner Bros.' adaptation of Black Beauty, the acclaimed
Don't Cry for Yesterday: Duran Duran EP to Be Reissued for Record Store Day
While Duran Duran don't appear to be reissuing The Wedding Album for its 20th anniversary like we suggested, they will be celebrating the album's legacy with a special reissue on Record Store Day. Birmingham's favorite pop band will reissue 1993's No Ordinary EP on 10" white vinyl for Record Store Day's Black Friday event in North America. Beyond the success of singles "Ordinary World" and "Come Undone," both Top 10 hits off the band's seventh studio album, Duran Duran - at the time, comprised
Personality Crisis: "Lipstick, Powder and Paint" Reveals New York Dolls' Inspirations
“While I was layin’ in a hospital bed/A rock ‘n’ roll nurse went to my head/She says, ‘Hold out your arm, stick out yo’ tongue/I got some pills, boy, I’m ‘a give you one!” It was no surprise that The New York Dolls – crown princes of debauchery, seventies-style – would include a cover of Bo Diddley’s oddly jaunty 1961 single “Pills” on their 1973 debut album. While The Dolls – lead vocalist David Johansen, rhythm guitarist Sylvain Sylvain, bassist Arthur “Killer” Kane, lead guitarist Johnny
This Time They'll Be Sweeter: SoulMusic Label Reissues Marlena Shaw, Angela Bofill Gems
For two of its most recent releases, Cherry Red’s SoulMusic Records imprint has turned its attention to two soulful divas who have already called the label home. SoulMusic’s reissue series for Marlena Shaw and Angela Bofill have continued with Just a Matter of Time and Intuition, respectively. Whether singing jazz, funk, blues, pop, or some combination thereof, Marlena Shaw has always sounded right at home. Signed to Chess Records in 1967 on the strength of a successful stint performing at
Release Round-Up: Week of October 8
Tony Bennett,
They Shall Be "Released": Bruce Springsteen, Sting, Joni Mitchell, U2, Peter Gabriel, Miles Davis on Amnesty International Box
Since its founding in 1961, Amnesty International has endeavored “to conduct research and generate action to prevent and end grave abuses of human rights, and to demand justice for those whose rights have been violated.” The Nobel Peace Prize-winning international human rights organization has, naturally, attracted a number of high-profile supporters over the years. In 1988, a number of those men and women took the road to spread Amnesty’s message and raise funds via the Human Rights Now!
Review: Pablo 40th Anniversary Series with Gillespie, Ellington, Tatum, Peterson, Grappelli and Sims
When impresario Norman Granz founded the Pablo label in 1973, fusion, funk and Latin sounds were at the forefront of jazz. Granz, founder of the Verve, Norgran and Clef labels, initially launched Pablo as a platform for his management clients Ella Fitzgerald, Oscar Peterson and Joe Pass, but soon its roster was filled out with the equally starry likes of Duke Ellington, Count Basie and Sarah Vaughan. Granz’ new label was an instant success and a safe haven for traditional jazz in this period
Review: The Paley Brothers, "The Complete Recordings"
If The Brill Building had survived as the fulcrum of pop songwriting activity through the 1970s, chances are that Andy and Jonathan Paley would have been found in a cubicle there, turning out one infectious pop nugget after another like “Come Out and Play” and “Here Comes My Baby.” As it turned out, the category-defying Paley Brothers were men out of time. Singers as well as songwriters, they were signed to the Sire Records roster between the Ramones and Talking Heads, and managed to bridge
Interview: Going Full Circle with Richard Barone of The Bongos
Richard Barone, frontman for New Jersey-based power-pop act The Bongos, describes his career as centered around the theme of "full circle." This year, Barone has revisited a lot of captivating and familiar territory from his lengthy career. The Bongos were the closing act at legendary Hoboken club Maxwell's in July, having (as members of the band "a") been the venue's first act. Onstage, they announced the release of a "lost" Bongos album, Phantom Train, recorded primarily at Compass Point
Review: The Alan Parsons Project, "I Robot: Legacy Edition"
How to follow an art-rock concept album based on the macabre tales of nineteenth-century author Edgar Allan Poe? For The Alan Parsons Project, the answer was apparently a simple one: look forward rather than back. So the second album by the progressive-rock "group" - in actuality producer-engineer Parsons, chief songwriter-executive producer Eric Woolfson, and a rotating cast of musicians and vocalists - was inspired by the writing of Isaac Asimov and explored artificial intelligence in a
Morello Reissues The Electric Prunes' "Mass" and "Oath" On One CD
Cherry Red’s Morello label has taken a break from its usual diet of classic country – think: the legendary likes of George Jones, Marty Robbins and Charley Pride – to bring two titles from the psych-rockers The Electric Prunes back into print. The label has paired The Prunes’ 1968 David Axelrod-produced albums Mass in F Minor and Release of an Oath on one CD which is now available. Composed and arranged by the maverick Axelrod – on loan from Capitol Records – Mass in F Minor is perhaps
Review: Claudia Lennear, "Phew!"
Claudia Lennear might have spent much of her career 20 Feet from Stardom, as per the acclaimed documentary of that title. But on her 1973 Warner Bros. solo debut album, the onetime background singer and member of Leon Russell’s Shelter People was front and center. That LP was titled Phew!, perhaps not the most likely name for a heady brew of funk, rock and soul by the striking singer who gave inspiration to both David Bowie and Mick Jagger. But “Phew!” is an accurate expression of relief now
The Discs (Are Out Tonight): Bowie's Newest LP Expanded to Three-Disc Set
Of all the comeback stories in 2013, perhaps none may have been more intriguing than the master of comebacks, David Bowie. The legendary rocker kicked off his 66th year with a surprise announcement: his first album of new material in a decade. Recorded in secret over a two-year period with producer Tony Visconti, The Next Day was met with critical acclaim - our own Joe Marchese called it "an angry, electric exploration of where he is now, where he was then, and where he will likely be...not a
Back to Ocean Boulevard: Eric Clapton's "Give Me Strength: The '74/'75 Recordings" Expands Three Vintage Albums
What’s better than one deluxe edition of an Eric Clapton album? How about three? And how about if they’re housed in one package? On November 26 December 10, Universal Music Group will unveil the 5-CD/1-Blu-ray box Eric Clapton – Give Me Strength: The '74/'75 Recordings, featuring remastered and expanded versions of 461 Ocean Boulevard, There’s One in Every Crowd and E.C. Was Here, plus additional material and a Blu-ray of surround mixes. Housed in a hardbound 60-page book, the box set is an
It's a New Reissue, Charlie Brown! Classic Christmas LP Expanded Again (and Reissued Again!)
UPDATE (9/27/2013): If you missed this remaster of A Charlie Brown Christmas (which we later reviewed) last year, fear not: it's being released again - same disc, same master - with special "Snoopy Doghouse" packaging on October 22, 2013. That version can be bought by clicking the image above. ORIGINAL POST (8/23/2012): Around Second Disc HQ, it's hardly a Christmas season without good friends and family, beautiful decorations, and classic holiday music. For this holiday, a new CD edition of
Review: Harry Nilsson, "Flash Harry"
When Harry Nilsson's The RCA Albums Collection was finally unveiled earlier this year by Legacy Recordings, many finally stood up and took notice of the gifted singer-songwriter whose art deftly blended the high and the low, the angelic and the devilish, the euphoric and the melancholy. That astounding box set included each one of Nilsson's albums for the RCA label - in other words, his entire solo discography save one album. And now, that final missing link is finally here, on CD to join its
ELP "Works" Hard on Vintage Live Set from Shout! Factory, "Boys Club" Set Makes CD Debut
Fans of Emerson, Lake & Palmer - not to mention fans of Keith Emerson's live work with Marc Bonilla and Deep Purple's Glenn Hughes - have got two new sets to look forward to this season. Shout! Factory will release Live in Montreal 1977 on November 12. Recorded in support of Works Volume 1 - a double album which featured Emerson, Greg Lake and Carl Palmer each taking the reins on writing and production on three sides and two lengthy tracks ("Fanfare for the Common Man," "Pirates") on the
RPM Rescues "The Sixties Sounds of Tim Andrews" On New Anthology
Will the real Chris Andrews please stand up? Well, that’s easier said than done. Singer/songwriter Chris Andrews is known for penning hits such as Sandie Shaw’s “Girl Don’t Come” and “Long Live Love,” but there’s another Chris Andrews who rose to prominence during the same era – and also did so in Swingin’ London. This man of the same name recorded with The Gremlins and The Fleur de Lys, and sang the lead on the 1967 hit U.K. single “Reflections of Charles Brown,” issued under the name of
Everything is (More Than) Everything: Unreleased Donny Hathaway Works Compiled on New Box Set (UPDATED 9/26)
UPDATE (9/26/2013): After initially posting this was to be released in France, we were pleased to receive confirmation that this box, in fact, will be released stateside as well! We have amended the release date and pre-order links accordingly. AMENDED POST (9/23/2013): Several years after a great career-spanning box set from France, Rhino is releasing another new box by the late soul legend Donny Hathaway, with two discs of unreleased studio and live content. Never My Love: The Anthology
TLC Celebrate 20 Years with New Compilation
More than two decades after their breakout success, and in advance of a new TV movie about the short-lived but incredibly popular group, Epic Records will release a new compilation of hits by R&B trio TLC. Of course, 20 is kind of a misnomer on several counts: the group's first album, Ooooooohhh... On the TLC Tip, was released in 1992. And the set only includes 14 tracks, including the group's new single "Meant for Me." But it's as good a time as any to remember the successes enjoyed by
East Meets West on Kritzerland's Reissue of "Rising Sun"
Kritzerland's latest soundtrack reissue marks the full release of the underrated score to 1992's Rising Sun by legendary Japanese composer Toru Takemitsu - his first and only assignment for an American film. Part murder mystery, part diplomatic treatise, Rising Sun was the first novel released by bestselling author Michael Crichton after the blockbuster release of Jurassic Park in 1990. The film version, starring Sean Connery and Wesley Snipes as two cops investigating the brutal death of an
Short Takes, Christmas Edition: Glen Campbell, Judy Collins, Al Hirt Bring Holiday Cheer
At long last - Capitol Records has That Christmas Feeling. Glen Campbell’s first Christmas album, from 1968, has long been absent from CD, but the label has rectified that with the new release of Campbell’s ICON Christmas. Though retitled and with new artwork, ICON Christmas is, in fact, That Christmas Feeling as newly remastered by Mike Jones at Universal Mastering. (The previous, now-hard-to-find CD issue, from the Netherlands, also presented the album with new art.) Produced by Al De Lory
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