That's the feeling with which Hip-o Select presents its latest title: a look at some of the last, still-great years of jazz legend Louis Armstrong. The new two-disc set, Hello, Louis! The Hit Years 1963-1969, compiles some of Satchmo's best-known and best-loved works, including the chart-topping show tune "Hello Dolly!" (which booted The Beatles' "Can't Buy Me Love" from the top slot), the endearing "What a Wonderful World" and the gorgeous "We Have All the Time in the World," the theme to the
You Got It: Orbison's Final Concert Due on CD
Thanks to MusicTAP for the tip-off to this one: Eagle Rock has set an August 10 release date for Roy Orbison: The Last Concert, a CD version of Orbison's final show. Recorded at the Front Row Theater in Highland Heights, Ohio on December 4, 1988 - two days before Orbison died of a heart attack at the too-young age of 52 - the set shows Orbison at the height of his mid-'80s resurgence, with a set leaning heavily on his early solo hits. The Last Concert was first released in 2008 on iTunes, to
Dear Apple, Your Track Lists Are Showing
Our resident Beatles/Apple sage Phil Cohen noted The Second Disc that there was some preliminary info on the track lists for the upcoming Apple reissues. To quote him, from a comment on our Back Tracks post on previous issues of these albums (Part 2 is due very soon - we promise - and will cover previous reissues of all the other material on Apple, including The Beatles-oriented stuff): Some preliminary info about the Apple releases is available via a link at The Beatles official website. There
Less Silence, More Lucidity: Queensrÿche's "Empire" to Be Reissued
EMI has announced a deluxe edition of Queensrÿche's Empire for the album's 20th anniversary. The LP, the band's most successful in the U.S. thanks to Top 10 hit "Silent Lucidity," will feature three B-sides (previously included on a remastered edition in 2003) and a bonus disc of unreleased material recorded live at London's Hammersmith Odeon in 1990. Like many of EMI's recent reissues, the set will be packed in a lidded box with some extra collectible cards and posters inside. This set is to
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
Does EMI Stand for "Every Mastering Insignificant"?
Immense praise to Slicing Up Eyeballs for bringing this story to our attention: EMI have released a statement regarding the mastering of the last two entries in the ongoing Duran Duran remaster series. And it ain't pretty. If you've been following this story at all, through ICE or Amazon or even our own review of the first album, here's how it goes: the new reissues of Duran Duran (1981) and Seven and the Ragged Tiger (1983), while stuffed with some great bonus content, suffer thanks to
Back Tracks: R.E.M. - The I.R.S. Years
Today, the 25th anniversary reissue of R.E.M.'s Fables of the Reconstruction hits stores. Athens, Georgia's favorite rock band has spent the past five years or so establishing their place in the pop-rock firmament: since 2006, the band's early recordings for I.R.S. Records - a six-year span between 1982 and 1987 - have been the center of much catalogue attention from EMI and Universal (each has a piece of the I.R.S. catalogue). The four members of the band - vocalist Michael Stipe, guitarist
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
Back Tracks: The Apple Tree, Part I
The news of the Apple Records catalogue getting a new remastering and reissuing is one of the many catalogue stories one should file under "cautious optimism." It is awesome to have these classic, underappreciated records from luminaries like Badfinger, James Taylor and Billy Preston back into local record shops, bearing fresh digital remasters by the team that did a pretty darn good job on last year's Beatles remasters. But there are things we have to remember as fans. First, pretty much all
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
Score Round-Up: Intrada Goes to Washington and La-La Land is the Judge
The week (or post-holiday part of the week) kicks off few release notes from around the soundtrack catalogue labels. Intrada has two releases - one which celebrates another hero of the early days of the U.S.A. - and La-La Land has a two-fer dealing with the films of a biting American satirist. Intrada's releases are The Black Bird - Jerry Fielding's 1976 score to the goofy semi-sequel to The Maltese Falcon - and Laurence Rosenthal's score to the 1984 miniseries George Washington (the label
Rick Nelson Box Set Raves On
A hat tip to MusicTAP for pointing this one out: Bear Family, the inimitable German catalogue label specializing in reissues from the early days of rock, is issuing the last in a series of career-spanning box sets from the late, great Rick Nelson. In 1957, Ricky Nelson, the heartthrob co-star of The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet (which starred his parents), began to develop a rock 'n' roll career that thrived throughout the rest of the decade. Next to Elvis Presley and Pat Boone, there was no
Friday Feature - "Jaws: The Revenge"
Let's get the facts out of the way first: Jaws: The Revenge (1987), the third sequel to one of the best horror films of all time, is terrible. It is quite possibly the worst movie ever made. It is so bad that I once watched the film with a friend and we ended up taking a break (with the film, not with our friendship, though that could have just as easily happened). The plot is ludicrous: Ellen Brody (Lorraine Gary), the widow of Roy Scheider's heroic police chief from the first two Jaws films,
The Finer-er Things
As many of our readers know, Island released a new-ish Steve Winwood box set, Revolutions: The Very Best of Steve Winwood. I say "new-ish" because the offerings weren't terribly different from the last expansive anthology of Winwood material, 1995's The Finer Things. Predictably, the set didn't do terribly well - a shame because Winwood is a solid, enjoyable performer to listen to, but simultaneously not a shame since it doesn't offer enough new stuff for catalogue enthusiasts to savor. But the
They'll Be Compiled, in a Week or Two
The a-ha reissue/compilation frenzy continues. The band's official Web site just announced another compilation from Rhino Records, just months after last compilation The Singles 1984-2004 got a domestic release. This new set, 25, features two discs' worth of hits and favorite album tracks from every one of the band's albums, including the new farewell single "Butterfly, Butterfly (The Last Hurrah)." Pretty much everything that's on The Singles 1984-2004 (and reaching a bit further, the 1991
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.
Reissue Theory: Solo Folds
Could this man have been the heir to Randy Newman's hysterically biting throne? The Second Disc's coverage of Randy Newman's reissues from last week got your catalogue correspondent thinking about the possibilities lately that Folds - the definitive indie-pop pianist and one-time leader of Ben Folds Five, one of the best acts of the 1990s - should have ascended to that same jaunty position Newman commanded in the prime of his pop career. Sadly, this didn't happen - and admittedly, it isn't hard
EMI to Give Us Some Truth
Whether you're more of a John Lennon or Paul McCartney fan, it's hard to overstate the contributions these two made to the pop-rock world, first as the principle songwriters of The Beatles and then as solo artists in their own right. Last year, of course, saw The Beatles' discography get remastered for the first time since the original releases of the records on CD in 1987. The McCartney catalogue is slated to come back out on CD through Paul's new homebase, Concord Records, starting with a new
Rhino Handmade Redux: Introducing Tartare
One would think Collectors' Choice Music would have had its hands full with July's release of the complete Allan Sherman catalog. Not so. The fine folks at Collectors' Choice have joined forces with Warner Music Group to introduce a new label designed to reissue LPs so rare, even WMG's Rhino Handmade wouldn't tackle them. With that in mind, the new label is named Tartare, and its first 10 releases are all due to ship on July 6. Any new reissue label is cause for readers of The Second Disc to
It is Spartacus
Confirming months of rumor and speculation, Varese Sarabande Records has announced the full specifications for a lavish box set version of the music to Alex North's score to the classic sword-and-sandal epic Spartacus. The honchos at Varese weren't kidding; the venerable score label's latest limited release (the 1000th to be produced by longtime producer Robert Townson) is easily the largest set ever devoted to a single film score. A jaw-dropping six CDs and a DVD make up the set, featuring the
Review: The Jackson 5, "Live at The Forum"
One of the oddest takeaways from watching Michael Jackson perform live was always the screaming. Watch almost anything Jackson ever commissioned for live release - snippets from Moonwalker, the Bucharest concert recorded during the Dangerous tour - and you'll see an increasingly disturbing parade of young people, sweating, screaming, crying, hyperventilating and fainting at the mere notion of a glance, point or step from the King of Pop - their king, their idol, an undying figure that law, fame
Back Tracks: Michael Jackson Part 2 - The Epic Years and Beyond
After poring through Michael Jackson's Motown years, we commemorate the year anniversary of his passing with a look at the material he recorded as an adult for Epic Records. If the J5 material was platinum, much of this stuff is uncut diamond - and the world is eagerly waiting to see what Sony will do with this material for catalogue purposes. (A multi-album deal has been struck, with the first batch of material likely due for the holidays, alongside a new video game based on Jackson's
Friday Feature: "Grease"
Quick, name a late '70s blockbuster with a propulsive, lasting soundtrack! Okay, now name one that wasn't written by John Williams. Chances are you've got two films atop your list: Saturday Night Fever and Grease. Both were classics of their time, full of dancing, John Travolta and the influence of one or more Brothers Gibb. But it's the latter we're going to look at to definitively cap our look at summer reissues. Even 32 years after its release, Grease still seems to be the word - the film,
Back Tracks: Michael Jackson Part 1 - The Motown Years
With Friday being the year anniversary of Michael Jackson's death, The Second Disc would be at fault for not commemorating The King of Pop's recording career and its representation through catalogue preservation. But to quote a dusty outtake from The Jackson 5, we're gonna change our style. Your humble correspondent cannot possibly say anything about Jackson's career that hasn't already been said in the year since he passed away. There are plenty of other resources for such a thing - I
Tracking You Down
A little early-afternoon treat to readers of The Second Disc: another poll! The last one, drafted during the Exile on Main St. reissue bonanza, was pretty darn successful, and this one's going to get things moving with a pretty simple question we've never asked before. What sort of bonus tracks get you to buy a reissue or deluxe title? It's a simple question, but one that can spark a myriad of discussion. Of course, it can be a case-by-case query. Prince fans are probably looking more for
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