Though the 50th anniversary of Herb Alpert and Jerry Moss’ A&M Records got some well-deserved attention earlier this year, another unit of Universal Music Group was also celebrating a milestone anniversary. GRP Records, founded by Dave Grusin and Larry Rosen, was founded in 1978, as an imprint of Arista Records known as “Arista/GRP.” This arrangement was similar to Creed Taylor’s CTI label, which first existed as part of A&M. Much as Taylor struck out on his own, so did Grusin and
Honey Don't! Rockstar Records Releases Live Rory Storm and the Hurricanes, But Ringo Says "It's Not Me"
Among the many footnotes in Beatles lore has been Ringo Starr's tenure with Rory Storm and the Hurricanes. The group was one of the most popular acts on the early Merseybeat scene, playing Liverpool and Hamburg, and alternating sets with The Beatles at the Kaiserkeller. Yet there's precious little recorded evidence of the band and even less of Starr's tenure as drummer. An Oriole label single in 1963 yielded "Dr. Feelgood" b/w "I Can Tell." Parlophone released "America" (from West Side
More "Essentials" Arrive From Jefferson Airplane and Starship, Martina, Run-D.M.C., Incubus
Tomorrow might be Halloween, but there’s nothing scary about Legacy Recordings’ four latest additions to the Essential series roster! Today sees the release of career-spanning anthologies from a diverse group of artists: alt-metal rockers Incubus, hip-hop pioneers Run-D.M.C., country queen Martina McBride and ever-evolving Bay Area legends Jefferson Airplane/Jefferson Starship/Starship! All of these double-CD anthologies combine familiar hit singles, album tracks and rarities to create what
What a Feeling: Giorgio Moroder Rarities Due from Repertoire
What could be cooler than the recent news that disco super-producer Giorgio Moroder joined music-sharing site SoundCloud and started posting high-quality rare and unreleased tracks for fans to stream? How about Moroder making not one, but two more accounts holding such audio treasures? But what could be cooler than that for fans of physical discs? Simple: Repertoire Records is releasing a double-disc set of rare gems produced by the man who gave us the greatest hits of Donna Summer, Blondie's
Gems from the Diamond Mine: Blue Rodeo Collect Early Albums, Unreleased Demos on New Box
Fans of Canadian country-rockers Blue Rodeo have something to get excited about, with the recent release of a box set collecting their first five albums with another three discs of unreleased material. Blue Rodeo 1987-1993 celebrates the Northern rockers, who have won 11 Juno Awards in their native Canada and placed 10 singles in the Top 10 of the Canadian charts, including "Try," "Til I Am Myself Again," "Lost Together" and "5 Days in May." Anchored by singer/songwriter/guitarists Jim Cuddy
Real Gone Music Partners with Dusty Groove, Releases Hartford, Mathis and Grateful Dead in December
If you’re in the market for any last-minute holiday gifts, Real Gone Music has got you covered. The reissue specialists have announced their December slate of six titles, including three from an exciting new partnership! As usual for the eclectic Real Goners, the releases cover a wide spectrum of genres, from traditional vocal pop to country, rock and jazz! On December 4, the label will unveil these six titles: Johnny Mathis’ So Nice/Johnny Mathis Sings;John Hartford’s Aereo-Plain/Morning
Verve Goes "Off to the Races" with Remastered Reissue of Rupert Holmes' "Mystery of Edwin Drood"
“I had been over at Barry Manilow’s house, and he said ‘you know Rupert Holmes?’ I said, ‘No,’” recalled Academy Award-winning producer Craig Zadan to author Kenneth Turan. “[Barry] played me his records, and I flipped out. I got all his records, and I made Joe [Papp] and [his wife] Gail listen to them and they fell in love with the work…at one point, Rupert came up with an idea about a show about a recording studio, but it ultimately didn’t jell. But I told him, ‘I believe you’re a great
Something So Strong: Jim Capaldi's "Some Come Running" with Clapton, Harrison, Winwood Reissued
There’s been some heavy Traffic at the record store lately. This month has already seen a 2-CD edition of Steve Winwood’s Arc of a Diver, and it’s recently been joined by Esoteric Recordings’ latest offering from the catalogue of Winwood’s Traffic cohort, the late Jim Capaldi. Following reissues of the songwriter and drummer’s Oh, How We Danced (1972), Whale Meat Again (1974), The Sweet Smell of Success (1980) and Let the Thunder Cry (1981), the Cherry Red Group imprint has turned its
Running Through My Head: Universal Preps 2012's Most Unusual Reissue
Folks, we've seen a lot of strange things since starting The Second Disc almost three years ago. Plenty of surprising reissues and disappointing reissues and unexpected compilations and the like. But even in an age where catalogue product seems not to be surviving but thriving, I think I've seen it all: Universal is planning a deluxe 10th anniversary edition of 200 km/h in the Wrong Lane, the 2002 debut album by t.A.T.u. Yes, that t.A.T.u. Okay, perhaps you don't remember the bizarre Russian
Cherry Red Rebuilds The House of Love on Three-Disc Expansion
One of London's most preeminent indie bands of the 1980s, The House of Love, are partnering with Cherry Red for a triple-disc reissue of their first album in November. The House of Love, originally released on Creation Records in 1988 after a clutch of critically-acclaimed singles, will now feature two discs of additional material culled from various singles and compilations, as well as 23 unreleased cuts, including live tracks, demos and alternate mixes. During their tenure with Creation
Review: Every Mothers' Son, "Come On Down: The Complete MGM Recordings"
It may not have been the strangest story ever told in pop music, not by a long shot. But it had to be right up there: a fella is smitten with the fisherman’s daughter, but her overprotective daddy apparently never lets her out of his sight. It seems she’s tied to the dock, and can’t get free: “Fish all day and sleep all night/Father never lets her out of his sight/Soon I’m gonna have to get my knife and cut that rope!” This offbeat little tale of love conquering all shot all the way up to a
Review: Five from The Steve Miller Band (1968-1970), Reissued on Edsel
The 1968 debut of the Steve Miller Band begins with a shattering cacophony, followed by an acoustic strum emerging like a beacon of light amidst the darkness and clatter. The album's title track "Children of the Future" is far removed from the ironic detachment of "The Joker" or the sleek majesty of "Fly Like an Eagle," later hits that proved the group could go "pop" while still showing off their versatility and impeccable musicianship. Edsel Records has just afforded listeners the opportunity
Review: Peter Gabriel, “So: Immersion Box Set” – Part 2: This is the Picture
In yesterday's first part of the So box set review, we discussed the original album proper and the accompanying So DNA bonus disc. Part 2 continues with a look at a live show, some visual content and more. If there's a major mistake on the So box set, it's keeping the So DNA disc exclusive to a $100+ box set. As much as it replicates the original album (with a different spin, naturally), it feels closer to the mothership than the great but best-taken-separately experience of Live in Athens
"Die Hard 2," "Enemy Mine" Lead Off New Varese Batch
Like a sleeping giant, soundtrack reissue Varese Sarabande wakes only periodically and deliberately to release film and television scores from the vaults through their famed Soundtrack Club. In recent years, fans have bemoaned the lack of "Silver Age" scores - that is, more recent music from blockbuster films. That trend looks to change with the latest solid batch of limited edition reissues from Varese. First up, following Varese's own limited edition of Michael Kamen's score to Die Hard in
The Kids Are Alright: The Who's "My Generation" Reissued on CD
“Belgravia, a rich neighbourhood where women in fur coats shoved me out of line as if I didn’t exist, only made more starkly apparent the generational divide I was trying to describe…The feeling that began to settle in me was not so much resentment towards those Establishment types all around my flat in Belgravia as fear that their disease might be contagious,” Pete Townshend writes in his new memoir, Who I Am, about the song “My Generation.” He continues, “What was that disease? It was
Can You Surry, Can You Picnic? Ace, Legacy Celebrate the Songs of Laura Nyro
In Wendy Wasserstein’s play Third, a professor is sitting at her desk, cigarette in hand, listening to “Wedding Bell Blues.” Her student enters, and recognizes the tune: “Is that the 5th Dimension?” The professor sharply replies, “Not in my office!” Beat. “It’s Laura Nyro. She wrote it.” He replies, “Cool. Does she have anything new out?” Professor Nancy Gordon answers, “She died of ovarian cancer a few years ago,” and changes the subject. Cancer would take Wendy Wasserstein, too, like
Review: Peter Gabriel, "So: Immersion Box Set" - Part 1: Let There Be No Doubt About It
When Peter Gabriel's So hit stores in the spring of 1986, it wouldn't be unfair to call almost everything about the ex-Genesis' fifth record a complete surprise. For one, the record had a title, boldly marked in the upper left corner as if a challenge to the reader. Moreover, the album sleeve showed not a Hipgnosis-created aberration of Gabriel - obscured by raindrops, jagged scratches, or photo manipulation that seemed to melt half his face off - but a Peter Saville-crafted black-and-white
Release Round-Up: Week of October 22
Peter Gabriel, So: 25th Anniversary Edition (3CD Deluxe Edition: U.S./U.K.; 4CD/2DVD/2LP Box Set: U.S./U.K.; Classic Albums: So DVD (U.S./U.K.)/BD (U.S./U.K.)) (Real World) A year late for the actual 25th anniversary (PG never was one for deadlines), So sledgehammers record shops with a variety of expanded formats, including one of many mega box sets released this year. The Beatles, Love Me Do (50th Anniversary Single) (U.S./U.K.) (Capitol/EMI) Originally bungled due to a mispressing, The Fab
Masterworks Broadway Says "Willkommen" to Dench in "Cabaret," Broadway's "Seventeen"
Masterworks Broadway is reopening the vaults for the latest two titles in its series of made-on-demand cast recording reissues, and proving that there truly is nothing like a Dame – one Dame Judi Dench, to be exact. Dench, about to be seen on the big screen in the latest 007 epic Skyfall, headlines the long out-of-print 1968 London Cast Recording of John Kander and Fred Ebb’s Cabaret, due from Masterworks and Arkiv Music on November 13, just days following the U.S. release of Skyfall. Cabaret
Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin': Sony Masterworks Boxes "Complete Rodgers and Hammerstein"
Back on September 10, we reported on Sony Masterworks’ Broadway in a Box, a 25-CD primer on the impressive musical theatre catalogue of Columbia, RCA Victor and associated labels. Contemplating Masterworks’ vast library, we opined, “A deluxe Rodgers and Hammerstein box could represent each of the duo’s stage musicals (save the posthumous adaptation of State Fair) with a disc from the Columbia and RCA Victor archives.” Well, such a deluxe box set is here, much sooner than we anticipated! On
Soundtrack Corner: We Will Always Love "The Bodyguard" Plus Jerry Lewis Goes "Geisha" and Les Baxter for Halloween
Though the 1992 soundtrack to Mick Jackson's film The Bodyguard is the best-selling soundtrack album of all time, its success was largely on the strength of star Whitney Houston's performances of "I Will Always Love You," "I Have Nothing" and "I'm Every Woman." Featured on just one track was the work of Alan Silvestri, the composer of Back to the Future and Who Framed Roger Rabbit who provided the film's original score. The under-three minute snippet featured on the Grammy-winning Arista album
Review: David Sanborn, "Then Again: The Anthology"
Even if you don’t know David Sanborn, chances are you know his saxophone on David Bowie’s “Young Americans.” Or James Taylor’s “How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved by You).” Or Bruce Springsteen’s “Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out,” on which he joined Clarence Clemons and the Brecker Brothers. Though Sanborn is considered a leading light in the “smooth jazz” movement, his background is much more varied. He played the blues with Paul Butterfield at Woodstock, pure jazz with Gil Evans, and R&B with James
From Manhattan to Memphis: Ace, Kent Collect Classic Soulful Sides on Three New Releases
Though they're located across the pond, the team at Ace Records literally has the entire map of the U.S. covered when it comes to celebrating classic soul sounds. Among the numerous titles recently issued by the Ace family are three geographically-attuned sets sure to pique your ears and interest. Ace's journey begins in the American northeast, and specifically in New York City, with a second volume of Manhattan Soul. Like the first volume in the series, it's drawn from the considerable
In The Shadow of The Shadows: Songwriter Jerry Lordan Remembered on "All My Own Work"
Just who the heck was Jerry Lordan anyway? The English singer, songwriter, actor and comedian (1934-1995) provided hit records for Dale Hawkins, Anthony Newley, The Shadows and Jet Harris, but Lordan has never gotten his due in the CD era. Because most of his work came in the pre-Beatles era of British pop, too many of Jerry Lordan's songs are all but forgotten. RPM Records, an imprint of Cherry Red, has come to right that wrong with the comprehensive All My Own Work, combining Lordan's
GNP Crescendo Boldly Goes Again with New "Trek" Reissue
If you thought the Star Trek reissue renaissance couldn't get any better this year, there's at least one more release to bring your ears into maximum warp: GNP Crescendo, longtime Trek soundtrack label, announced yesterday an expanded edition of the score to 1994's Star Trek: Generations. Generations came to theaters months after the end of Star Trek: The Next Generation, an excellent program which rekindled interest in Gene Roddenberry's space franchise. It was no surprise that Patrick
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