The Second Disc has always meant to be a source of decently-reported news and discussion on the goings-on of the music catalogue world, as well as a resource to the new fan on what catalogue product is out there. With that in mind, today introduces a new feature that looks at one of the most common catalogue items: the greatest hits collection. It's perhaps been outmoded by the ability to pick and choose tracks to download online, but when you're a new fan of an artist, the compilation is
It's a Bird! It's a Plane! It's a "Smallville" Score Compilation
This Friday is a momentous occasion for fans of Superman: after a decade on the air, the television drama Smallville - which focuses on a teenaged Clark Kent's transition into adulthood, bringing him closer to his destiny as the Man of Steel - will complete its run with an extended series finale that will likely finally see actor Tom Welling wearing the blue tights and red cape (even if for a brief moment). Though some have certainly reacted with bemused shock that Smallville is still on the
What's New, Pussycat? Classic Burt Bacharach and Lalo Schifrin Soundtracks Reissued
Burt Bacharach turns 83 today on May 12, 2011, and we've got some news to celebrate! "Pussycat, pussycat, I love you..." Chances are you can sing along to the hip-swiveling melody of those lyrics, sung by Tom Jones and written by Burt Bacharach and Hal David for the 1965 film comedy What's New Pussycat?. But raise your hand now if you remember the sequel! Five years after the success of the original film, United Artists released Pussycat, Pussycat, I Love You, a half-sequel, half-remake moving
The Seventies Preservation Society: Audio Fidelity Revisits Bad Company and Ten Years After
Audio Fidelity is getting back to the basics of classic rock with two upcoming 24k Gold CD reissues scheduled for May 24. Mastering engineer Steve Hoffman will work the controls for both 1971's A Space in Time from Ten Years After and 1975's Straight Shooter from Bad Company. While these two albums may not share much on the surface, both albums represent a return to back-to-basics blues-rock from two successful British bands. 1971's A Space in Time was the seventh album by Ten Years After,and
A Quartet of Broadway Classics Coming From Masterworks
Back on April 5, we filled you in on the latest slate of reissues from Sony's Masterworks Broadway division, available as digital downloads or discs-on-demand from Arkiv Music. Next week, May 17, sees release of RCA Victor's 1964 Music Theater of Lincoln Center Recording of Franz Lehar's The Merry Widow, making its very first appearance in the CD age. The classic operetta is joined by four new releases returning to print: the Original Broadway Cast Recordings of Irving Berlin’s Mr. President and
BREAKING NEWS! Why Pink Floyd? Prepare for Discovery, Immersion and Experience!
UPDATE: Thanks to reader Alan for passing along the track listings for these sets! You can read them after the jump. ORIGINAL POST: Why Pink Floyd? Why not? Whatever the answer, though, Why Pink Floyd is the name of the major new catalogue intiative for the legendary band, and while matters have sometimes been contentious between band members, they appear to be in perfect harmony for the launch of this campaign! The expansive collection is a three-tiered celebration of the work of Syd Barrett,
Superman and Green Lantern Still Ain't Got Nothin' On Him: Donovan Preps Expanded "Sunshine Superman"
It wasn’t easy for Donovan (real name: Donovan Philips Leitch) to shake the early accusation that he was merely a Scottish-born clone of Bob Dylan. Surely songs like 1965’s “Catch the Wind” did nothing to dispel the myth. Donovan himself acknowledged the debt in 2001, confessing “I sounded like him for five minutes” while pointing out the musical heroes referenced by both artists. But any Dylan comparisons were passé by the time Donovan released Sunshine Superman, one of the first truly
The Box is Out There: "X-Files" Compilation Due Today from La-La Land
UPDATE: This set's now ready to ship. Order here and hit the jump for the track list. ORIGINAL POST: Just a quick reminder that today, after months and months of anticipation from the soundtrack community, La-La Land Records will release the first-ever box set of music from the popular sci-fi series The X-Files. From 1993 to 2002, composer Mark Snow was the go-to composer for the hit FOX series starring Gillian Anderson and David Duchovny as two FBI agents following a myriad of paranormal
INXS Catalogue Expansion Due in U.K. - America Needs This Tonight
There are some acts that don't get their due even at the points one would imagine they'd have earned it. The painful loss of Michael Hutchence, lead singer of INXS, didn't give the Australian pop-rockers the posthumous respect they deserved; the remaining members did that whole reality show thing and Rhino reissued a few of the band's albums in the U.S., and that was it. This year, however, with a new album full of guest vocalists, it's a pretty fair-sized year for INXS. And Universal Music
Release Round-Up: Week of May 10
Aerosmith, Tough Love: Best of the Ballads (Geffen/UMe) Geffen augments the craziness of American Idol host/Aerosmith frontman Steven Tyler (who has a solo single out today) by putting out a compilation of the band's Geffen-era ballads hits ("Love in an Elevator" isn't a ballad in any configuration). Apparently it's only available at Target, so if you visit a local indie store you should be fine. (Official site) Booker T. & The MG's, McLemore Avenue / The Staple Singers, Be Altitude:
Back Tracks, In Memoriam: The Musical Legacy of Arthur Laurents
The late Arthur Laurents wrote many of the most beloved musicals and films in entertainment history including West Side Story, Gypsy, The Way We Were and Alfred Hitchcock’s Rope. He passed away on May 5, but today’s special Back Tracks celebrates this great writer’s legacy in music. “If you have a good strong finish, they’ll forgive anything!” So implores stage mother Madame Rose to her daughter Louise, the future Gypsy Rose Lee, in the 1959 musical Gypsy. Rose’s bon mot was one of many
Twisted Sister Goes Back "Under the Blade"
For years, fans of Twisted Sister have rightfully complained about the less-than-ideal treatment of the band's catalogue on CD. Rhino Records, who'd have first crack at the band's output for Atlantic Records, largely stayed away even after a great 25th anniversary deluxe edition of the band's classic Stay Hungry, which yielded the metal-pop classics "I Wanna Rock" and "We're Not Gonna Take It." And recent releases through Eagle Rock Entertainment have been nothing more than straight
UMe Declares WAR
You probably knew this already, based on the presence of an ICON title for the legendary funk group WAR, but Universal Music Enterprises has acquired the rights to their back catalogue. And it looks like they may be gearing up to do some stuff with it. The label issued a press release last week in honor of the band's 40th anniversary year, detailing a few notable bits of info about the band's plans to celebrate. While the band will be touring and working on a new album - their first since
Another Chance to Visit Dave Grusin's "Mulholland Falls"
One year before Curtis Hanson made film noir hip again with LA Confidential, director Lee Tamahori and screenwriter Pete Dexter proved that there was still a lot of life in the old form. They assembled an all-star cast led by Nick Nolte, Chazz Palminteri, Jennifer Connelly and John Malkovich for Mulholland Falls. The production was top-notch, with the legendary Haskell Wexler (In the Heat of the Night, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, The Thomas Crown Affair) signed as cinematographer, and
Weekend News Round-Up: Doobies, Peter Gabriel, Stax and Kansas
It was such a busy week that reporting has spilled over into the weekend! Enjoy these tidbits from around the rest of the catalogue music world. Eagle Rock is releasing a vintage live CD/DVD by The Doobie Brothers, from their 1982 farewell tour. Live at the Greek 1982 sees a lineup that included sole original member Patrick Simmons on guitar, longtime co-drummer Keith Knudsen (who shared the kit with Chet McCracken, a member since 1980's One Step Closer), guitarist/violinist John McFee,
UPDATE: REO Speedwagon Will Keep on Loving You
Way back in July 2010, we reported on some rumblings of an expanded reissue of REO Speedwagon's 1980 Hi Infidelity. Better late than never! Thanks to the good people at MusicTAP for passing along the long-awaited news! The 30th Anniversary Edition of the nine-times-platinum album which spawned "Keep On Loving You" and "Take It on the Run" is finally set for release! Frontman Kevin Cronin has kept to his word, as he told Billboard last year that the band recently found old
Wainwright Family Tree: Anna and Kate McGarrigle, Reissued and Expanded
When Kate McGarrigle succumbed to cancer in February 2010, the music world lost one of its brightest lights. The wife of Loudon Wainwright III and mother of Rufus Wainwright, Kate proved herself a keen observer of the world as both a songwriter and a performer, most often with her older sister Anna. The very same week Loudon’s long career was celebrated with the release of a career-spanning box set, Nonesuch released a three-disc collection devoted to Kate and Anna McGarrigle. Tell My Sister
Long Live Rock and Roll! Dio Compilation Due in U.K. This May
Ronnie James Dio passed away in 2010, but his spirit has lived on rather nicely in the world of reissues. In recent years, Universal in the U.K. has released expansive deluxe editions of the vocalist's work with Black Sabbath and Rainbow, not to mention a few archival releases through his own estate's Niji Entertainment Group. Now, Universal Music Catalogue will add another compilation to the mix for U.K. fans - one which covers, in two discs, all of the artist's major-label acts. Mightier Than
Motown Treasures Coming From "Josie and the Pussycats" Star Patrice Holloway
Though her fame was eclipsed by older sister Brenda, the late Patrice Holloway is still well-remembered by legions of Motown fans worldwide. The co-writer of "You've Made Me So Very Happy" and a voice for Hanna-Barbera’s cartoon stars Josie and the Pussycats, Patrice receives her first-ever CD anthology courtesy of Ace's Kent label. Love and Desire: The Patrice Holloway Anthology was originally slated to coincide with Kent's release of Brenda Holloway's The Early Years in 2009, which collected
In Case You Missed It: A Full Spectrum of U.K. Compilations in May
The Spectrum family of labels in the U.K., which includes the catalogues of what Americans count toward Universal Music Group, have a few affordable compilations on the market in the coming month from a diverse crop of artists. On May 23, the label will release compilations from Styx as well as both Fleetwood Mac and Rod Stewart. (The latter two artists, whose catalogues reside with Warner Music Group in the U.S., will focus on each act's "early years.") It's also worth noting that Spectrum has
"Lifes Rich Pageant" Gets Richer for 25th Anniversary
It's always good to see a band focusing on their catalogue while they're still putting out fresh, new music. This year, R.E.M. is one of the acts to have a foot in both camps, releasing their 15th studio album, Collapse Into Now, in March, and will release another 25th anniversary edition of an album this summer, with Lifes Rich Pageant (1986) getting the deluxe treatment from EMI/Capitol. R.E.M.'s fourth LP, which was produced by Don Gehman (producer of John Mellencamp's '80s hit records), was
Review: Loudon Wainwright III, "40 Odd Years"
Lucky for us, Loudon Wainwright III is only "so damn happy" on an infrequent basis. The singer-songwriter-humorist-satirist-actor (is that enough of a multi-hyphenate for you?) posited the question "Is it necessary to feel like shit in order to be creative?" He arrived at the final answer "yes!" but prefaced it with "unless you're J.S. Bach." Over the course of 91 songs on four CDs and another 38-plus on DVD, Shout! Factory's new box set 40 Odd Years (82663-12189, 2011) - dig the double
More Intrada Obscurities Arrive
This week's soundtrack reissues from Intrada are an underrated '70s soundtrack album making its CD debut and the premiere of a '50s World War II score. First up, the score to Sleuth, a 1972 film adaptation of the Tony-winning play by Anthony Shaffer. The British playwright adapted his own work for the screen, and All About Eve director Joseph L. Mankiewicz was at the helm, with a stellar cast anchored by Laurence Olivier and Michael Caine, both of whom were nominated for Oscars for their
UPDATE: Don't "Walk Away": Left Banke Reissues Coming from Sundazed on June 28
Today, The Left Banke is probably best known for "Walk Away Renee." A No. 5 pop hit in 1966, the song has been recorded by The Four Tops, Frankie Valli, Linda Ronstadt and Eric Carmen, to name a few, and remains a staple of oldies radio today. But was The Left Banke a mere flash in the pan, just a one-hit wonder? Far from it. Yet things have been stacked against the group for quite a while now: neither of their two original Smash LPs has ever seen CD release in America, and the definitive CD-era
Six John Barry Scores Boxed Digitally By Silva Screen
John Barry may have passed away in January, but the film score titan has hardly been forgotten. Kritzerland just scored a quick sell-out on its new edition of Barry's score to Until September, while Quartet Records has reissued The Knack...and How to Get It on CD. The Classic Brit Awards has announced that Barry will be the first-ever posthumous recipient of an award, while a June 20 concert at London's Royal Albert Hall will celebrate his legacy with performances and remembrances from Sir
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