In 1977, James Taylor jumped ship from Warner Bros. Records, his home between 1970 and 1976, for the greener pastures of Columbia. His longtime producer Peter Asher joined him, and JT marked their first effort at the new label. Taylor was rapidly rewarded, as JT spawned the hit singles "Your Smiling Face" and "Handy Man," the latter of which snagged the singer a Grammy Award. It was his highest-charting album since 1971's Mud Slide Slim and the Blue Horizon, but Taylor took his time for a
Judas Priest Prep Singles Box
Judas Priest may be heading toward the finish line, at least as live performances go, with their current Epitaph World Tour (though sadly without founding guitarist K.K. Downing, who elected to retire a bit early), but they still have plenty of irons in the fire - including a neat catalogue set for hardcore collectors. The band announced the impending release of Single Cuts: The Complete U.K. Singles Collection, a 20-disc set replicating every one of the band's British singles, right down to
Tony Bennett's Improv Years Revisited By Concord For Crooner's 85th Birthday
In 1975, Tony Bennett was without a record label and at a crossroads. He had turned down numerous entreaties to return to Columbia Records, the label that launched him to stardom in 1950 but refused to give him the creative freedom he deserved. (See our special feature on Tony Sings the Great Hits of Today for more on that!) He had finished a two-album tenure at MGM Records and felt the time was right to strike out on his own. And so Improv Records was born. And although the label only
La-La Land Bows Basil and Baxter Archival Releases
La-La Land Records has a great slate of archival soundtrack titles up for order today. First up is a big one: the score to Breakdown, a 1997 thriller written and directed by Jonathan Mostow (who would later become a moderately successful action director with films like U-571 (2000), Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (2003) and Surrogates (2009)). It starred Kurt Russell as a husband whose wife is abducted in a small midwestern town en route to California. The score, previously , was composed
Review: Frank Sinatra, "Ring-a-Ding Ding!: Expanded Edition"
Ring-a-ding ding! It can be used as an adjective or an interjection. But when Frank Sinatra chose the expression to title his very first album for his very own label, it was simply an ecstatic expression of pure joy. Sinatra was no longer tethered to Capitol Records, the label at which he'd made history with a series of "concept" albums. He had the freedom to make some new history, his way, when he launched Reprise. And Ring-a-Ding Ding!, now reissued and remastered for its 50th anniversary
Lalo Schifrin Score To Gene Roddenberry Flick Arrives From FSM
Argentinian composer Lalo Schifrin has never been one to be boxed into any single genre. He created one of the most memorable television themes of all time with his “Mission: Impossible,” recorded jazz albums for labels like Verve and Creed Taylor’s CTI, and scored innumerable films, racking up six Oscar nominations in the process. Now, after the recent release by Quartet Records of Schifrin’s score to Pussycat, Pussycat, I Love You, another one of living legend Schifrin’s most unknown scores
Les Baxter's "Marco Polo" Follows "Black Sunday" and "House of Usher" To CD Release
Rory Calhoun as Marco Polo? The California-born star of films like How to Marry a Millionaire and camp cult classic Motel Hell was cast in the title role of 1962's freewheeling Italian historical epic (shot in CinemaScope, no less!) Marco Polo. When the film was picked up for release in America, it was courtesy the wild ones at American-International Pictures! This Marco Polo was directed by Hugo Fregonese and featured a multi-cultural cast with Calhoun playing opposite Yoko Tani. And like
UPDATED 6/6: Some Trouble in Meat Loaf's "Neighbourhood" As Error Found On Deluxe Edition Disc
Whether quarreling with Gary Busey on The Celebrity Apprentice or taking the stage beneath a giant bat, Meat Loaf has never done anything in a small way. So it’s not surprising that EMI’s just-announced 2-CD/1-DVD deluxe reissue of 1995’s Welcome to the Neighborhood looks to be a weighty package! It’s due in the U.K. on June 6, and the original 12-track line-up has been augmented with some choice bonus material. Four bonus tracks have been added to the original album on Disc 1, plus another
Jethro Tull's "Aqualung" Turns 40, Gets Deluxe Edition From EMI
First Quadrophenia, now Aqualung! Yes, in advance of an official announcement, remix producer Steven Wilson has spilled the beans on an upcoming deluxe reissue of Jethro Tull’s Aqualung! (Big thanks to our friends at MusicTAP for passing the news on!) The British band’s fourth album, Aqualung remains Jethro Tull’s all-time biggest seller, not to mention one of the most beloved rock albums of all time. It’s tentatively scheduled for September release from struggling juggernaut EMI, and like
Another British Invasion From RPM: Ian and the Zodiacs, Katch-22 Reissued
The RPM arm of the U.K.'s mighty Cherry Red empire has had a busy 2011, recently highlighted by the first-ever collection of the young Dusty Springfield's recordings with The Lana Sisters. The label's latest titles shed light on two largely-overlooked bands to come out of England in the 1960s, Ian and the Zodiacs and Katch 22. The Best of Ian and the Zodiacs: Wade in the Water and Major Catastrophe: The Katch 22 Story are both in stores now, and have much to offer fans of Merseybeat, mod,
Universal Recites Oldfield's "Incantations" on Three Discs
We have another Mike Oldfield record getting the deluxe treatment from Universal in the U.K. this summer. Following expansive CD/DVD editions of Oldfield's prog-instrumental masterpiece Tubular Bells and follow-ups Hergest Ridge and Ommadawn in 2009 and 2010, Oldfield's Incantations, originally released on Virgin in 1979, will get the expanded treatment. The four-movement piece, each of which took up a side of vinyl in its original release, will feature a bonus CD of single material and newly
MoWest Legacy Celebrated on New Compilation
Indie label Light in the Attic Records has prepped an interesting catalogue compilation for release: an overview of one of Motown's oft-overlooked divisions: MoWest Records. By the 1970s, Berry Gordy had a grander vision for Motown than ever before - one that extended from music into the film industry. To do that, of course, he needed a base of operations in Los Angeles, and the label's L.A. offices went from becoming a branch to the central nervous system of the company in 1972. (It's this
A Compilation to Leave You Speechless
Here at The Second Disc, it's always about the music. The team at Eric Records takes this mission seriously, too: its newest release provides three discs of nothing but music, with nary a lyric to be found. Complete Pop Instrumental Hits of the Sixties, Volume 1 collates, for the first time on three CDs, every instrumental track that hit the Billboard Hot 100 in 1960. Some of them are chartbusters that we all know and love - Percy Faith's "Theme from 'A Summer Place'," The Ventures' "Walk -
"House of Rufus" Has Lots of Furnishings
Just in case you were waiting on a track list to buy Rufus Wainwright's mega-box House of Rufus, the wait is over. The 19-disc box set, which encompasses all the albums and DVDs the baroque-pop tunesmith has released in his career, is packed with some intriguing extras, too. Many of the CDs are augmented with some sort of bonus tracks, either extra songs that were released as retail exclusives, old or new live performances and outtake material. And there are another four discs of rarities as
New Reissues Fit Hip-o Select to a "Tee"
After a few days of shuttering their website for some repairs, Hip-o Select is back with a bang, announcing four new titles ready for order. The first three we already knew about per our chat with Harry Weinger in May: a trio of titles devoted to the late soul queen Teena Marie. Her second and third albums, Lady T and Irons in the Fire, both released in 1980, are being remastered and expanded by Select. Featuring production from Teena herself as well as Richard Rudolph, husband and songwriting
Beatles' "Anthology" Receives a Very Digital Remaster
So here's some good news for Beatlemaniacs: the Anthology series, the three-volume clearinghouse of Beatles outtakes and vault material released in 1995-1996, is getting digitally remastered. The bad news? You're not going to find it in your local record shop. This new remaster of each two-disc set is actually going to be an iTunes exclusive - quite a difference from years ago, when no Beatles material was sold digitally. Not only did Apple Computer crack the code for Apple Records, they also
Miles Davis' "Tutu" Is Expanded and Remastered By Warner Jazz
1986's Tutu marked a rebirth for Miles Davis. It was his first album after nearly 30 years as a Columbia Records recording artist, and appeared on the Warner Bros. label. Producer Marcus Miller was Davis' chief foil, composing nearly every track and playing multiple instruments, while Jason Miles, George Duke, Paulinho da Costa and Michal Urbaniak all made appearances. Duke's "Backyard Ritual" was covered on the album as well as pop group Scritti Politti's "Perfect Way." Tutu was very much a
School's Out, Alice Cooper Box is In
We've got less than a month until the new Alice Cooper mega box set starts shipping, so now's as good a time as any to take a look at the track list for the set. As previously reported, Old School 1964-1974 encompasses four CDs and a vinyl LP and single, each of which chronicles Vincent Furnier's time as the frontman for Alice Cooper, the band which gave him his stage name. (Beginning in 1975 with Welcome to My Nightmare, Cooper's albums were largely solo efforts.) Only about three of these
"Masada"! Intrada! Another Soundtrack Holy Grail Comes to CD
One word describes a television movie event that harkened back to epics like Ben-Hur and The Ten Commandments. That same word is the title of a soundtrack from one of film's great musical legends that's become one of the most-desired archival releases. And now, the wait is over: Intrada Records today announced the release of the complete original score to Masada (1981). Masada was based on the siege of the titular Jewish citadel in Israel in A.D. 73. The defenders of the citadel held bravely
Memorial Day Special: The Andrews Sisters and the Sherman Brothers, "Over Here!"
We interrupt our regularly-scheduled Memorial Day hiatus to bring you this surprise holiday feature! It was 1972, but 1959 was all the rage. Grease was the word then, as it is now. The little musical from Chicago’s Kingston Mines Theatre had opened on Broadway where it would garner seven Tony Award nominations, run for a then- record-breaking 3,388 performances and spawn a massively successful film version. Grease was the toast of New York, launching the careers of Adrienne Barbeau, Barry
Miss Peggy Lee's Capitol Catalogue Goes Digital
Norma Deloris Egstrom of Jamestown, North Dakota, was born in 1920, but as Peggy Lee she blazed a trail like few others in American popular music. A triple threat singer/songwriter/actress, Lee had a long recording career spanning over fifty years. Her first No. 1 was scored in 1942 and her final track was released in 1995, seven years before her death in 2002. She was an Academy Award-nominated actress (Pete Kelly's Blues) and a talented songwriter whose collaborators included Harold Arlen,
Review: Rosanne Cash, "The Essential Rosanne Cash"
It should come as no surprise to fans of Rosanne Cash that she believes “at the heart of all country music lies family, lies a devotion to exploring the boundaries of blood ties, both in performance and songwriting.” In her revealing 2010 memoir Composed, Cash acutely puts her finger on the qualities missing from modern country, finding it lacking in “desperate loss” with even the stories of family fading from sight. Where are the stories of grievous loss, dead babies, even dead dogs that
Carly Simon Goes For The Gold: "No Secrets" Coming In 24K
Only yesterday, we shared the speculation of our good buddies at MusicTAP that big things might be in store for the catalogue of Carly Simon. Well, we've got a start, just one day later! On June 21, Audio Fidelity will drop a remastered, limited 24K Gold edition of the songstress' third - and some say, best - album, No Secrets. 1971's Carly Simon announced a major new talent, offerings songs like the epic and hauntingly personal "That's The Way I've Always Heard It Should Be," the folk-rock
Cherry Red Has Ace in Their Hand
Some time ago, we reported on Cherry Red's new reissue of an Ace compilation and subsequent intention to reissue all of the band's back catalogue later in the year. Now, the U.K. reissue label has revealed their titles for June, and all three Ace LPs are slated for release this summer, each greatly expanded with bonus material. The Sheffield pub-rockers - best known, of course, for the U.S. Top 5 hit "How Long" and the kickstarting of vocalist Paul Carrack's career (he'd later join Roxy Music,
More Kinks to Kronikle in Second Wave of U.K. Deluxe Reissues
This year's deluxe reissues of The Kinks' first three LPs were among the more surprising and better-received catalogue projects in 2011. And the second wave of deluxe editions is on its way from Universal U.K.! Expansions of the band's Face to Face (1966), Something Else by The Kinks (1967) and Arthur (or the Decline and Fall of the British Empire) (1969) are due out June 20 with the usual features (mono and stereo mixes, non-LP singles, BBC sessions and other rare and unreleased goodies). Of
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