Billy Joel turns 70 on Thursday, May 9, and is celebrating with a birthday concert at Madison Square Garden, where he's currently headlining an unprecedented years-long residency of monthly concerts. While the piano man hasn't released an album of original songs since 1993's River of Dreams, he's hardly been idle these past 26 years and remains a top concert draw. Columbia Records and Legacy Recordings are commemorating Joel the live performer with a new streaming playlist available
Digital Round-Up: Week of May 3
While The Second Disc continues to champion physical media, we recognize that some labels have begun to issue digital-only releases that bring together rarities from the vault or spotlight long-out-of-print albums. From annual copyright extension releases to vault-clearing initiatives, we figured our readers would like to know about some of the treasures that have been released online and on streaming services. So, from time to time, we will shed some light on the best of these digital
Jazz Fest: The New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival
To celebrate the fiftieth year of The New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, Smithsonian Folkways Recordings has announced the May 10 release of the new box set, Jazz Fest: The New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival. The 5-disc set is presented as a large-format, 12"x12" book. Inside its 136 pages are numerous photos spanning the festival's history, plus many essays and discographical annotations. There's a forward from festival founder George Wein, as well as notes from Jeff Place and Huib
One Night Only: Smithsonian Folkways Celebrates 50 Years of "Jazz Fest: The New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival," Box Set Due in May
The New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, or simply "Jazz Fest," as it's become known, is more than a gathering of musicians performing for a crowd. Since its founding, it's become a cultural event; an annual celebration of the unique music, art, food, and people of New Orleans and beyond, with acts ranging from jazz, rock, pop, country, blues, and more. To celebrate the festival's fiftieth year, Smithsonian Folkways Recordings has announced the May 10 release of Jazz Fest: The New Orleans
Light My Fire: Legacy Brings Unheard José Feliciano Concert to Digital and Streaming with "Live 1967"
Over the last several months, Legacy Recordings has been quietly releasing gems from the vault and reissuing overlooked titles from the Columbia, RCA Victor, Arista, Bang, Monument, Ode, and Epic vaults as part of a digital music series. While our primary focus at The Second Disc remains with physical media, periodically we will shed some light on the best of these digital compilations and reissues, such as this previously unreleased live recording from one of the best guitarists and
You're the Man [LP and Digital]
Following the landmark release of What's Going On, Marvin Gaye returned with the song "You're The Man," written about presidential candidate George McGovern. When that track failed to reach mainstream audiences, Gaye went back to the studio and recorded an album's worth of material, producing himself and writing with the likes of Willie Hutch; Hal Davis; Pam Sawyer and Gloria Jones; and Freddie Perren and Fonce Mizell. Apart from the "You're The Man" single, none of that material was released
30 and Life: Skid Row's Debut Gets Digital Expansion With Unreleased Live Show
Rhino's celebrating the 30th anniversary of hair-metal group Skid Row's breakthrough debut album with a new digital expanded edition. The Toms River, NJ-based band, fronted by the inimitable Sebastian Bach, spent 1989 taking over the charts with their first album, supported with memorable music videos and a carefully-honed live act, serving as opening act for Bon Jovi, Aerosmith and Mötley Crüe that year. Featuring sharp production by Michael Wagener (Dokken, White Lion), Skid Row has gone
Invitation: John Coltrane's First Year Celebrated With "Coltrane '58: The Prestige Recordings"
The year 1958 was a breakout one for saxophone legend John Coltrane. It marked the year when Coltrane - already well-established as a talented sideman - began to make a name for himself as a solo musician and developed his signature "sheets of sound" style while exploring many other routes. Now, to mark the 70th anniversary of the Prestige label, Coltrane's 1958 recordings will be celebrated on a new box set from Craft Recordings. Due for release on March 29, Coltrane '58: The Prestige
Don't You Lose Heart: Bruce Springsteen's Digital Live Series Continues With "Songs of Friendship"
In December, Legacy Recordings surprised Bruce Springsteen fans with a digital album of live rarities called The Live Series: Songs of the Road. Now, The Live Series continues with Songs of Friendship, which brings even more rarities to digital and streaming for the first time ever. Culled from Springsteen's extensive vault of live material that was previously only available from the Nugs.net on-demand site, the 15-track set spotlights iconic tracks about the unbreakable bonds of
Sunny Day: Warner Licenses Sesame Street Catalog for Digital, Streaming, and Future Physical Reissues
Warner Music Group and Sesame Workshop have recently announced a joint effort that marks the relaunch of Sesame Street Records, the label that released over 60 classic originalSesame Street albums from 1970 to 1984. To celebrate 50 years since the program first aired, the extensive Sesame Street music catalog, including original titles and newer collections from Golden Music, Koch and Sony Wonder, has finally joined the streaming age. As of this writing, a whopping 119 titles--many previously
Gone So Fast: Omnivore Brings Unicorn's Lost, Gilmour-Produced Folk-Rock Gems to CD, LP, and Digital
The '70s folk-rock group Unicorn released three albums for EMI during the decade. The recordings were produced by Pink Floyd's David Gilmour and highlighted the band's talent for laid-back folk-rock. Their smooth, Eagles-like sound, Crosby & Nash-esque harmonies, and slick, professional production value could have won them critical acclaim, but history has largely forgotten their lush original material. (Cherry Red's Esoteric imprint has recently taken a look at their core discography.)
Action in the Streets: Bruce Springsteen Concert Vault Mined for Digital Album "The Live Series: Songs of the Road"
In the last few months, Legacy Recordings has launched an extensive digital campaign with the aim of releasing Bruce Springsteen to the streaming age. This May saw the digital debut of 17 rare singles and EPs, as well as the new compilation, Spare Parts, which collected highlights from those releases. Now, Legacy has teamed up with Nugs.net on a new compilation, The Live Series: Songs of the Road that celebrates The Boss's incendiary concert performances and his music's association with the
Everything Your Heart Desires: Legacy Unleashes Rare Hall & Oates Mixes To Digital Channels
Whoa-oh, here they come! On Friday, Legacy Recordings reissued a treasure trove of rare remixes from the enduring rock 'n' soul duo of Daryl Hall and John Oates onto all digital platforms, including two new collections and three EPs. Single Mixes scoops up 16 alternate versions of some of Hall and Oates' greatest hits, including the U.K.-only mix of the 1981 chart-topper "Private Eyes," the seven-inch remixes of "I Can't Go for That (No Can Do)" (No. 1, 1981) and "One on One" (No. 7, 1983),
Spare Parts: Rarities Abound On Nine Springsteen Digital EPs
To coincide with today's release of Bruce Springsteen's second Album Collection, Sony/Legacy and Columbia Records are releasing nine rare Springsteen EPs on digital platforms. These are part of Legacy's ongoing vault series which sees digital release of rare music from artists in a wide variety of eras and genres. The EPs are mostly international releases and span the years from 1987-2012. Two were originally released in Japan. The first, Live Collection, rounds up four concert
Holiday Gift Guide Review: America, "Heritage: Home Recordings/Demos 1970-1973"
It must have taken a great deal of gumption, not to mention youthful hubris, for Gerry Beckley, Dewey Bunnell, and Dan Peek to name their band America - as if three teenaged army brats abroad in England could have possibly captured the spirit of their home country in all its complexities. Yet, capture that spirit the trio did, and today, some 47 years after they first entered the studio, America is still making music. Yet Beckley and Bunnell have happily been looking back on recent releases
More "Sunshine Tomorrow": Beach Boys Release Digital Compilations Celebrating 1967 Featuring 7 Concerts, Studio Rarities Including Unreleased Songs
Back in June, Capitol/UMe released 1967 - Sunshine Tomorrow, a 2-CD set looking at that year in Beach Boys history - a year in which they gave up on SMiLE, released two very different albums, and recorded a third. Sunshine Tomorrow featured the first true stereo mix of the album Wild Honey, studio tracks recorded for the abandoned "live" album Lei'd In Hawaii, and session outtakes from the Smiley Smile recording dates. In total, it premiered 54 previously unreleased tracks. But, as has often
The Boss: Diana Ross Celebrated with New Digital Compilation
Usually it takes 60 years to get to a diamond anniversary, but what's a few years early to celebrate Diana Ross! The R&B legend will be honored with a lifetime achievement award at the American Music Awards on November 19, and a new digital compilation will be released that weekend (Friday, November 17) to get the celebration started. Diamond Diana: The Legacy Collection is a breezy 15-track non-chronological trip through Miss Ross' unprecedented career. Focusing primarily on her solo
You Turned My Head Around: LITA Expands Three Lee Hazlewood Classics, Including Ann-Margret LP
Light in the Attic is continuing its long-running Lee Hazlewood Archive Series. On November 3, the label will release newly remastered and expanded CD and LP editions of three classics from the maverick singer-songwriter/producer: Forty (1969), Requiem for an Almost Lady (1971), and the Ann-Margret collaboration The Cowboy and the Lady (1969). To mark his 40th birthday, Hazlewood recorded a different kind of album, appropriately entitled Forty. It was recorded in England with producer Shel
Heritage: Home Recordings/Demos 1970-1973
America's Heritage: Home Recordings/Demos 1970-1973 boasts sixteen tracks from the band's early days, ten of which are previously unreleased, from the original trio of Gerry Beckley, Dewey Bunnell, and Dan Peek.
Been Through the Desert: Omnivore Collects Early, Unreleased America on "Heritage"
Omnivore Recordings is heading down Ventura Highway this fall with the November 17 release on CD of a new archival collection from America. Heritage: Home Recordings/Demos 1970-1973 boasts sixteen tracks from the band's early days, ten of which are previously unreleased, from the original trio of Gerry Beckley, Dewey Bunnell, and Dan Peek. Heritage comprises demos, home recordings, alternate versions, and outtakes from the era of the first three America albums: 1971's self-titled release,
Higher and Higher: Real Gone's June Slate Features Rita Coolidge, Kris Kristofferson, Doris Day, Larry Coryell, Jesse Ed Davis and More
As we get further into the spring season, we've begun to hear about releases that will be coming out more towards summer. Among these are the new announcements of titles from Real Gone Music due on June 2. As always, they are an eclectic group featuring CDs and vinyl reissues. First up are two titles from Rita Coolidge featuring liner notes from our very own Joe Marchese. 1973's Full Moon was the first duet album Coolidge made with her then-husband Kris Kristofferson. It was the first of
The Man Who Changed Guitar Forever
Manifesto has a 12-CD box set celebrating the influential if underrated guitar hero (Soft Machine, Gong). Holdsworth has inspired a generation of players of rock, jazz, prog, and even metal; the box has all of his solo albums (including a live set) from 1982-2003 plus a 40-page booklet putting his career in perspective.
Cool It Now: New Edition Digital Reissues (And More) Unveiled
Ahead of an officially-sanctioned TV biopic of the lives and careers of New Edition, Universal Music Enterprises has digitally expanded four of the group's studio albums plus an additional four spin-off projects. The band's classic-era output for MCA Records, New Edition (1984), All for Love (1985), Heart Break (1988) and the reunion album Home Again (1996), as well as Bobby Brown's Don't Be Cruel (1988), Bell Biv DeVoe's Poison (1990) and 1990 solo albums by members Johnny Gill and Ralph
I Like It: Croydon Municipal's "Britain's Finest Thespians Sing" and "Doo Wop Soda Shop" Collect Rarities
Bob Stanley's Croydon Municipal label closed out 2016 with a pair of releases continuing the Cherry Red imprint's mission of excavating some of the most rare and well-done pop music inside and outside of Great Britain. And This is Me might be thought of as a kind of Golden Throats precursor. Subtitled Britain's Finest Thespians Sing, this 24-track compendium features a host of the finest actors, comedians, and personalities from pre-Beatles Great Britain's golden age of entertainment across
The Big D: Guitar Hero Dennis Coffey's Detroit Soul Released On "Hot Coffey In The D"
Dennis Coffey's credits are too numerous to mention. As a session guitarist, he brought a rock edge to numerous Motown hits including The Temptations' psychedelic soul favorites like "Cloud Nine" and "Ball of Confusion." As a producer, he helmed Gallery's soft-pop hit "Nice to Be with You" and "Sugar Man" Sixto Rodriguez's acclaimed debut album. As a solo artist, he charted with the instrumental "Scorpio," and crafted guitar-driven disco soul at Westbound Records. Now, the Resonance Records
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