For many veteran artists, disco was simply a mountain that couldn’t be climbed….not that they didn’t try. The Beach Boys, Grateful Dead, Elton John and so many others – even Frank Sinatra! – flirted with the genre only to find that that those sultry disco grooves weren’t as easy to emulate as they may have appeared to be. Barry, Robin and Maurice Gibb not only climbed the mountain, but conquered it. The brothers had already amassed a back catalogue of some of the richest, most melodic and
Love Is Everywhere: Anita Harris' Trip to "Jumbleland" Is Revisited By Cherry Red Label
Trivia: Which British songbird, in 1965, introduced “London Life,” Burt Bacharach and Hal David’s ode to Swingin’ London? Hint: It’s not Dusty Springfield, Petula Clark or Cilla Black! The answer is Anita Harris, an actress and singer who, for a short period, seemed to poised to share the charts with those illustrious names. Harris charted a quartet of hits in the U.K. in 1967-1968, most notably Tom Springfield’s “Just Loving You” (No. 6) and “The Anniversary Waltz” (No. 21). Ultimately, her
Margaret Whiting and George Shearing's "Lost Jazz Sessions" Found
With her straightforward, emotionally honest and vocally pristine style, it's no wonder why Margaret Whiting became one of the foremost interpreters of the body of work known today as The Great American Songbook. One of the earliest signings to Johnny Mercer's fledgling Capitol label, Whiting scored approximately 50 chart hits in the 1940s and 1950s, popularized now-standard songs including "My Funny Valentine," "It Might as Well Be Spring," "Moonlight in Vermont" and "Baby, It's Cold Outside,"
Review: George Jones and Tammy Wynette, "Songs of Inspiration"
When George Jones met Tammy Wynette, sparks flew. So, apparently, did dishes, utensils and glasses, when Jones interceded in an argument between the younger country starlet and her then-husband. It wasn’t long before Jones and Wynette were married, and dubbed “Mr. and Mrs. Country Music” by their adoring public. While maintaining separate recording careers, they also scored hits as a duo, joining the ranks of other famous country pairs – both married and platonic – like Porter and Dolly, Conway
"Mathis Is..." Coming In TWO WEEKS From Second Disc Records and Real Gone Music!
Mathis Is… It’s a difficult statement to complete. How to describe one of the most remarkable voices in popular music? Johnny Mathis continues to enjoy a singularly wonderful, wonderful career - one spanning seven decades, over 350 million records sold, more than eighty albums, and a host of million-selling singles including “Misty,” “Chances Are” and “Too Much, Too Little, Too Late.” Longtime readers of The Second Disc can no doubt imagine how privileged we feel to be able to inaugurate
Review: Bob Dylan, "Shadows in the Night"
How does it feel, to be on your own, with no direction home, like a complete unknown, like a rolling stone? Chances are it feels much like the milieu of Bob Dylan’s newest studio album, Shadows in the Night. The characters that emerge from these Shadows have all pulled up stools at the last chance saloon, a room filled with strangers and lost souls, where idylls of romance vanish into the air as quickly as the omnipresent wisps of cigarette smoke. Regrets, they’ve had a few. The songs on
In Memoriam: Rod McKuen (1933-2015) - A Second Disc Encore Review
On January 29, 2015, we lost a true American original with the passing of Rod McKuen, 81. Poet, composer, lyricist, singer, author, artist; there were few mountains that McKuen didn't climb to great success. An Oscar and Pulitzer nominee, and a Grammy winner, McKuen also was among the earliest to champion the works of Jacques Brel, and was a longtime advocate for gay rights. "It doesn't matter who you love, or how you love, but that you love," McKuen once said. In his own recordings and
Sunshine Special: Now Sounds Collects "The Best of The GoldeBriars"
Late in 1963, The GoldeBriars recorded “Sunshine Special,” the group’s adaptation of the traditional train song. Curt Boettcher – the male vocalist in the line-up and also its major creative leader – would later make sunshine a specialty; his shimmering California-pop productions for the likes of The Millennium, The Ballroom and Sagittarius have all gone on to attain cult status. There’s not much of that baroque psych-pop sound on Now Sounds’ Walkin’ Down the Line: The Best of The GoldeBriars
Release Round-Up: Weeks of December 23 and December 30
Well, these are incredibly light weeks for new releases! Thankfully, the Kritzerland and Audio Fidelity labels have stepped up with a quartet of titles to close out 2014 on a high note! Cy Coleman, John Kander, Harvey Schmidt and Charles Strouse, Classical Broadway (Kritzerland) (available for pre-order now) Kritzerland remasters this 1992 album (originally released on the Bay Cities label) featuring classical compositions from four of Broadway's most legendary composers including Cy
Croydon Municipal, Saint Etienne Enter Christmas Land With "Songs For a London Winter"
As Bob Stanley writes in his liner notes to the new collection Songs for a London Winter, “Christmas has always been a special time in Saint Etienne’s world. We’ve release singles, EPs, covered Cliff Richard songs, played at the Palladium, thrown a few parties and sunk a few whisky macs. We love it. But this is the first time we’ve had the opportunity to put together a Christmas compilation of other people’s songs.” Songs for a London Winter, on Stanley’s Croydon Municipal imprint of Cherry Red,
Holiday Gift Guide Review: Judy Garland, "The Garland Variations: Songs She Recorded More Than Once"
Judy Garland opens JSP Records’ new 5-CD box set The Garland Variations: Songs She Recorded More Than Once (JSP 975) with “Everybody Sing,” the kind of rousing showstopper she was practically born to sing. Sessions for the song from MGM’s Broadway Melody of 1938 began when Garland was on the cusp of just fifteen years old, but the power of her vocal instrument was already in place. But even when belting with a force to rival the mighty Merman, there was always something unfailingly intimate – or
Holiday Gift Guide Review: "International Pop Overthrow: Volume 17"
We'd like to extend a big welcome to the newest member of our Second Disc family, author Ted Frank. Ted, a self-described "power pop-a-holic," kicks off his contributions to The Second Disc with a review of the latest collection from the fine folks at The International Pop Overthrow Festival. The Festival's seventeenth volume (yes, seventeenth - congratulations, IPO!) of pure pop for now people is just the latest in a smashing line of releases designed to introduce you to the best bands you've
Holiday Gift Guide Review: Johnny Mathis, "The Complete Global Albums Collection"
In two short years, Johnny Mathis will likely celebrate his 60th anniversary with Columbia Records, a towering achievement by any standard. But even the strongest marriages must sometimes weather separations, as was the case when the vocalist jumped ship to rival Mercury Records for the period between 1963 and 1967. At Mercury, Mathis formed Global Productions to administer his master recordings, and recorded some eleven albums (only ten of which were originally released) under its aegis. Upon
Review: The Shirelles, "Happy and in Love/Shirelles"
It's an early "Happy New Year" from Real Gone Music, as the label has just announced its January 6 slate! Look for a full rundown soon on a super slate featuring two classic RCA albums from The Main Ingredient, the complete Atlantic recordings of Jackie Moore (Sweet Charlie Babe), a hilarious (and need we say profane?) comedy classic from Redd Foxx, a vintage 1981 Grateful Dead concert, and two soundtracks from the films of auteur Alejandro Jodorowsky! Full details are coming up, but we're first
Back Tracks: Scott Walker, Part 2 (1975-2014)
Where Part 1 of our Back Tracks feature left Scott Walker, he was in a creatively barren period, cranking out albums of AM pop and country, a far cry from the Brel songs and even the Brill Building tearjerkers that characterized his best work. Having left the sublime pop symphonies and edgy chansons behind, he found inspiration in the unlikeliest of places. In 1975, The Walker Brothers reformed, much to the surprise of many. The group recorded the LP No Regrets, which they followed up with
Back Tracks: Scott Walker, Part 1 (1967-1974)
This week, Scott Walker released his latest studio album, Soused, a predictably unpredictable collaboration with drone-metal band Sunn O))). To mark the occasion, we’re reviewing the musical iconoclast’s complete discography in this two-part Back Tracks series originally presented in June 2010 and freshly updated! The music business is famous for hyperbole, but it’s no exaggeration to say that few have had a career anything like that of Scott Walker. An American who skyrocketed to fame on
A Little Love In Her Heart: "She Did It" Spotlights Songs of Jackie DeShannon
That Jackie DeShannon is one of the most gifted singer-songwriters in popular music should come as no surprise to anybody reading this. Equally skilled at interpreting her own songs as well as those of others, the multi-talented Miss DeShannon was the concerned yet optimistic voice of “What the World Needs Now is Love,” the flower-power spokeswoman who implored you to “Put a Little Love in Your Heart,” one of the first Ladies of the Canyon, and one-half of the songwriting team behind the
Review: Pugwash, "A Rose in a Garden of Weeds" (Or: The Best Band You Never Heard?)
Pugwash is currently wrapping up its first-ever U.S. tour with two more performances scheduled in Los Angeles: this Sunday, October 19, on a bill alongside Wings' great guitarist Laurence Juber and Now Sounds' musical guru and all-around renaissance man Steve Stanley; and next Friday, October 24, with Love Revisited! If you're in the area, you just might want to check the lads out! The first track on the first-ever North American release by Irish band Pugwash implores “Take Me Away,” but
Swinging On A Star: November Is Bing Crosby Month With Deluxe CD, DVD, BD Releases Coming
It can be fairly said that any singer today owes a debt to Bing Crosby. The late vocalist was among the first performers to conversationally and intimately sing as an extension of speech; he also pioneered the technique of the microphone so a singer wouldn’t have to belt to the rafters. In his lifetime, Crosby was at the vanguard of recording techniques. He left behind over 2,000 commercial recordings, and introduced countless standards including the yearly radio perennial “White Christmas,”
Review: Spanky and Our Gang, "The Complete Mercury Singles"
Between 1966 and 1970, Spanky and Our Gang released three studio albums, one greatest-hits collection, one live set and 21 single sides. Though the gang was, in Spanky McFarlane’ s words, “eclectic as hell”– they covered John Denver and The Music Man on their first LP alone – they’re best remembered for three AM radio staples released in 1967 and 1968: “Sunday Will Never Be the Same,” “Lazy Day” and “Like to Get to Know You.” These three tunes are inextricably tied to the period in which they
In Memoriam: Paul Revere (1938-2014)
The official website of Paul Revere and the Raiders has just confirmed the passing of group leader Paul Revere at the age of 76. Today, we remember Revere for the timeless music he created with Mark Lindsay, Phil "Fang" Volk, Mike "Smitty" Smith, Drake "The Kid" Levin, Freddy Weller, Joe Correro, Jr. and Keith Allison - songs like "Kicks," "Hungry," "Just Like Me," "Good Thing" and so many others, all of which reminded listeners besotted with the British Invasion that Americans still knew a
All The Way To Paradise: BBR Revisits Stephanie Mills, Burt Bacharach, Hal David's Motown Gem "For The First Time"
Following the commercial failure of the big-budget 1973 movie musical Lost Horizon, Burt Bacharach retreated. Tension over the film had led to a split with his longtime songwriting partner Hal David, and their split had in turn led to a breakup of their “triangle marriage” with singer Dionne Warwick. Lawsuits ensued. Only one new Bacharach song emerged in 1974, Gladys Knight and the Pips’ “Seconds,” co-written with playwright Neil Simon for a proposed movie version of the 1968
Review: Big Star, "#1 Record" and "Radio City"
Our mini-Power Pop Festival begins here! Next, look for our reviews of new reissues from The Posies and Game Theory! O My Soul! Big Star is back! Despite an amazingly small catalogue – four studio albums, a handful of live releases, an even bigger handful of compilations, a key soundtrack, and one stunning box set – there never seems to be a shortage of releases for the biggest band that never was. Two of the most recent have arrived from Stax Records and Concord Music Group, and they’re
Splish Splash! Bobby Darin's "The Milk Shows" Premieres Two Discs of Never-Before-Heard Recordings
Bobby Darin knew he was in a race with time. If it was a race he would inevitably lose as a result of the heart condition he fought for his 37 years, Darin accomplished more in that short period of time than many artists who lived twice as long. A master of reinvention, Darin successfully transformed himself from teen idol to sophisticated hipster to folk troubadour and back again before his death in 1973. He also left behind a catalogue of impressive size at Atlantic, Capitol, Motown and his
Review: Real Gone Goes Soulful With Patti LaBelle and the Bluebelles, Irma Thomas
During its mid- to late-sixties heyday, Atlantic had two “girl groups” on its roster: The Sweet Inspirations and Patti LaBelle and the Bluebelles. It’s appropriate, then, that SoulMusic and Real Gone has a companion release to The Sweet Inspirations’ singles anthology with Patti LaBelle and the Bluebelles’ 2-CD set The Complete Atlantic Sides Plus (RGM-0237/OPCD-8839) featuring Patti LaBelle, Nona Hendryx, Sarah Dash and Cindy Birdsong. Like The Sweet Inspirations and Irma Thomas collections,
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