Laura Nyro (1947-1997) never became as famous as her songs. In an all-too-short 49 years, Nyro provided major hits for a diverse array of artists from Three Dog Night and Blood, Sweat & Tears to Barbra Streisand and most famously, The Fifth Dimension. Yet her own albums never achieved mainstream success, with audiences largely preferring to hear her compositions performed by others. (In this respect, she could be compared to her contemporary Jimmy Webb.) Perhaps this was just as well for the
"TNG" Box Boldly Goes Where Few Have Gone Before
Film Score Monthly has announced its fifth box set, and like the others, it's quite an undertaking: Star Trek: The Next Generation - The Ron Jones Project collates 14 discs' worth of music from the famous television series plus a heap of other Trek goodies from composer Ron Jones. Jones, best known for some surprisingly notable scores to animated television works (including the Disney cartoons DuckTales and Chip n' Dale Rescue Rangers along with turns on Family Guy), composed scores to 42
New at La La Land: "Gunmen" and a Beach Party
La La Land announced their next batch of titles yesterday (their only two for the month), and they're a pair of appealing titles from the vault. In a bit of a teaser to October's planned box set of music from The X-Files, the label is prepping an offering of TV soundtracks composed by the same man (Mark Snow) for the same producer (Chris Carter). This CD (LLLCD 1135) will feature music from the short-lived X-Files spinoff The Lone Gunmen and the even more short-lived sci-fi series Harsh Realm.
Back Tracks: The Buggles
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hiJ9AnNz47Y] Famed U.K. producer Trevor Horn has done so much in his lengthy career, but his next step looks to be a revisiting of one of his most discreetly influential projects: The Buggles. Horn announced on his Web site that The Buggles - a synth-pop duo consisting of Horn and Geoff Downes - are returning in some capacity on September 28. The announcement may have been best time on August 1, a date which they will be forever identified with; on the
Unreleased Jacko Report Gets Wacko
If you're one of the few dozen people who still reads Rolling Stone's Web site, the late-breaking "exclusive" that a new Michael Jackson compilation of outtakes is due in November sounds like a great bit of news. But oops! Looks like RS got beaten to the punch by a four-month-old press release. But they've got quotes, so it's legit, right? What's that? The quotes were taken from articles from 2009? Oh. Whoops. It's sad that Roger Friedman has to be the closest to a journalistic authority in
Back Tracks: The Cars
The above picture is a bit of a shock, if you haven't seen it yet: all four of the surviving members of The Cars - Ric Ocasek, Elliott Easton, Greg Hawkes and David Robinson - in a recording studio. It was posted to the official Facebook page for the Boston-based rockers on Thursday. No caption, no explanation. Just the members of The Cars, possibly gearing up for some new music. And who'd have thought? Since the band broke up in 1988, chances seemed slim where a reunion was concerned. The
Back Tracks: Burton and Elfman
It turns out the reissue of Batman wasn't the only Danny Elfman-related catalogue news at this year's San Diego Comic-Con: Elfman shared at a panel discussion that Warner Bros. is planning a box set devoted to the composer's longtime collaboration with director Tim Burton. It's not much of a surprise that such a set would happen. Burton and Elfman's collaboration is one of the strongest director-composer bonds in Hollywood. And while neither men are collaborating with the kind of urgently great
More Score to Adore
With no shortage of catalogue film score news and announcements in the past week, The Second Disc adds to that with two releases from Intrada and a few rumblings about La La Land. First, the releases: Lalo Schifrin's score to the newspaper drama The Mean Season and George Delerue's fanciful score to the Glenn Close comedy Maxie, both released in 1985, are getting their first-ever releases as part of Intrada's Special Collection. Both albums feature a new sequencing experiment for the label: big
News Round-Up: New Stage and Screen Releases from Kaper, Loesser and More
There's rarely such a thing as a Monday matinee, but that won't keep The Second Disc from ushering in the week with news of a quintet of reissues from our friends at Film Score Monthly and Sepia Records. These exciting releases are sure to please devotees of both soundtracks and cast albums. Film Score Monthly kicks things off with their new release of BUtterfield 8: Bronislau Kaper at M-G-M, Volume 1 (FSM 1309). Kaper rarely seems to be afforded the acclaim given to many of his contemporaries,
"Batman," "Krull" to Be Expanded by La-La Land
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9AdEHOta-Uc] La-La Land Records has announced its next batch of catalogue soundtrack reissues - and they're two big names to fans of '80s action/fantasy films. Danny Elfman's iconic score to the 1989 film version of Batman and James Horner's music from Krull (1983) are getting lavish expanded releases for the month of July. Batman, part of La-La Land's Expanded Archival Collection series, will feature, for the first time ever, the full score as
Back Tracks: Rupert Holmes
“If you like pina coladas, and getting caught in the rain”…Come on, you know how it goes, sing along…“If you’re not into yoga, if you have half a brain…” So goes the song that got Rupert Holmes into the record books as singer/songwriter of the last No. 1 hit of the 1970s and the first of the 1980s. While it may be the most famous song penned by the idiosyncratic artist/composer/producer (and collaborator of artists ranging from Streisand to Sparks!), it’s merely the tip of the iceberg for Rupert
September Spawns a Monster
From beloved, semi-official Morrissey Web site True to You comes the news that Morrissey's singles compilation Bona Drag (1990) is getting a deluxe reissue for its 20th anniversary with six unreleased vault tracks. Released between Moz's solo debut in 1988 and Kill Uncle in 1991, Bona Drag included some of the ex-Smiths frontman's best early work, including "Suedehead," "Everyday is Like Sunday," "The Last of the Famous International Playboys" and "Disappointed." Six bonus tracks from the the
Dagger for Download
A quick note that Experience Hendrix, LLC has put the entire Dagger Records discography up for digital purchase via the Web site of Jimi Hendrix. Since 1998, Dagger has been releasing "official bootleg" material from Hendrix's brief but influential career, from live recordings to outtakes compilations. All of them had been issued through direct-order CDs (although some material had been officially released into stores; the Live at Clark University set was put on vinyl for this year's Record
Another Handful of ZTT
The Zang Tuum Tumb label, which gave us some of the most experimental but accessible pop from the U.K., has been going strong all year with reissuing material from 808 State to Frankie Goes to Hollywood. Here are a few of their latest vault offerings ready to go, in case you've missed them. The synth-pop pioneers Propaganda will see a 25th anniversary edition of their debut LP, A Secret Wish. This two disc set includes the original album plus rare and unreleased remixes. (Thanks as always to
Aretha on the Quad
Apparently Rhino's reissue of Chicago's debut LP in quadraphonic stereo was a success, because the label has commissioned another title for the same deluxe treatment: the 1973 compilation The Best of Aretha Franklin. This set features some of The Queen of Soul's biggest hits for Atlantic, including "Respect," "(You Make Me Feel Like a) Natural Woman" and "I Say a Little Prayer." A few rarities abound, as well: "Rock Steady" is presented in an extended form exclusive only to the quadraphonic
Come Back When You Grow Up: Lost Bobby Vee Tracks to See Release
The early 1960s could be thought of as the era of the Bobbys: Darin, Rydell, Vee. Despite rising to prominence in the unfairly-derided period between the birth of rock & roll and the British Invasion, these post-Elvis pop stars all stormed the charts and left behind great recorded legacies. Darin was a multi-faceted entertainer who touched on pop, standards and folk-rock with equal ability before passing away at a too-young age, Rydell waxed some of the most indelible pop confections out of
Apple, Cored
A quick, relatively inconsequential bit from gossipy gadfly Roger Friedman: he's apparently getting word that EMI/Capitol is planning to start overhauling the much-in-need-of-overhauling catalogue of Apple Records. As any Beatlemaniac can tell you, Apple Records was The Beatles' own label, created in 1968 (part and parcel of the whole Apple Corps unit The Fab Four had spearheaded). Although the band broke up not long after its creation, Apple would be the home to several notable names through
So Much News
Apologies if The Second Disc is flooding your Web space with posts today. I, for one, am thrilled; it's nice to see great news getting us catalogue enthusiasts through the week. And here are three little briefs to further your excitement for all things reissues: Steven Van Zandt recently talked to a U.K. radio station about the long-in-development reissue of Bruce Springsteen's Darkness on the Edge of Town (1978). It looks like it might follow the format of this year's Exile on Main St.
A Catalogue to Last, Always and Forever
Here's some under-the-radar, in-case-you-missed-it news concerning the discography of Heatwave, the multi-national soul/disco group famed for killer cuts like "Boogie Nights" and "Always and Forever." It looks like these records are getting their due on CD thanks to two indie labels, with one title already available and another few on the way. First up, Edsel U.K. has combined and released a double-disc set comprising their first two LPs, Too Hot to Handle (1976) and Central Heating (1978).
News Round-up: A Soulful Tuesday
Soul music enthusiasts have had a lot to cheer about this year, with boutique labels (Reel Music, Cherry Red’s Big Break and Super-Bird) and majors (Hip-O Select) alike delivering the goods with deluxe reissues of many classic albums. Soulmusic.com is offering two new releases this week, one on its own label and one coming from Expansion Records. Thelma Houston’s 1969 LP Sunshower (Dunhill 50054) was previously available on CD as an expensive Japanese import, but Soulmusic.com brings it to the
Take Them On...Later
Another quick update on a catalogue reissue: Rhino has pushed back the shipping date of the upcoming Deluxe Editions of a-ha's Hunting High and Low and Scoundrel Days to July 6 in the U.S. and August 6 in the U.K. All together now: noooooooooooo.
Back Tracks: WHAM!
The great thing about most reissues over the past few years is that labels seem to want to follow one rule: if they can reissue it, they will do their best. Of course there are people out there who like, say, Cutting Crew or a-ha - but who could have seriously predicted that labels would be open to the idea of reissuing those records with bonus cuts and all that? Of course, this rule makes some of the great bands without reissues - Prince, The Go-Gos, that one Buckingham Nicks album - look like
Our Castle and Our Keep
After yesterday's Miles Davis pricing madness, The Second Disc brings you some much more appreciable madness, through another set of reissues by Madness, one of the best-known ska acts of the '80s. Continuing the band's ongoing reissue project, Salvo and Union Square Music has prepped the band's fourth and fifth LPs, The Rise & Fall (1982) and Keep Moving (1984), as double-disc deluxe reissues. Both sets will feature various remixes, B-sides and promo videos to boot. It's notable that The
The Trend
When The Second Disc's Exile on Main St. poll was posted, I mentioned that I had noticed a rather unusual trend in the purchase of the various deluxe sets that were available. As a member of the electronics/entertainment staff at a Target store, I was able to track a few of the big sets, some of which were only available through our retailers. Target was the only place to get the bonus disc of the deluxe edition (that is, the Rarities Edition), as well as the fan pack which bundled a t-shirt
Weekend Release Round-Up: SRV, Jayhawks, Sum 41 and More
This was a busy week for catalogue fans, what with the Elvis revelation from the other day and reactions to the new Exile on Main St. sets. Here, to close out the week, are a few announcements that fell through the cracks. The long-planned Legacy Edition of Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble's 1985 sophomore LP Couldn't Stand the Weather now has a release date: July 27. The set will feature bonus tracks from the original recording sessions and a previously-unreleased live show on Disc 2.