If you don’t know the name Neal Hefti, you undoubtedly know the man’s music…whether it’s the indelible, insinuating, harpsichord-and-brass theme to The Odd Couple, or the frenetic, groovy Batman theme from the Caped Crusader’s campy television show. And Quincy Jones, the man known as Q, needs no introduction. Like Hefti a veteran of jazz and big band, Jones’ trailblazing productions on landmark albums such as Michael Jackson’s Thriller (to name just one) ensured his place in the pantheon.
Reissue Theory: The Andrea True Connection
Welcome to another installment of Reissue Theory, where we focus on notable albums and the reissues they may someday see. Today, we honor a recently deceased disco queen by telling the story of her unusual brush with chart success. Word crept out last night that former disco diva and adult film actress Andrea True passed away earlier this month. At Second Disc HQ, it certainly prompted a few spins of her signature hit "More, More, More," one of disco's most senseless earworms. It also prompted
Concord Collates "Charlie Brown Christmas"
Christmas time is here! Okay, maybe not yet, but that's not stopping Concord Music Group from releasing another set of holiday-ready discs from the Peanuts universe today. The Charlie Brown Collection is a four-disc set featuring some of the best seasonal music written for Charles M. Schultz's boy named Charlie Brown. Of course, much of that musical credit goes to Vince Guaraldi, the composer of 17 Charlie Brown television specials, including the iconic A Charlie Brown Christmas in 1965.
Soulful and Seductive: Grateful Dead, Glen Campbell, The Roches, Bill Medley, Maynard Ferguson Kick Off Real Gone 2012
Are you ready to get gone, Real Gone, with the new kids on the reissue block? The label founded by Gordon Anderson and Gabby Castellana is following its debut slate (reviews to come!) with an eclectic group of releases for January 2012 that will start the New Year off right! One batch of titles is due January 24, with the remaining releases arriving the following week. Few artists have had a career as legendary as that of Glen Campbell, and few have been as brave in the face of tragedy.
Review: The Cool Revolution Continues - Four From CTI and Kudu
When he established Kudu as an offshoot of his titanic jazz label CTI, Creed Taylor wore his ambitions on his sleeve. The label was named after the long-horned African mammal and its logo adorned with Afro-centric colors, as Taylor intended to do no less than make Kudu a home for releases "indigenous to the black popular music of the United States." Taylor always knew the importance of a visual, and much as CTi releases were recognizable for their striking, provocative cover photographs and
U.K. Joy Division Box Collects Singles (and More) on Vinyl (UPDATED 11/17/2011: and CD)
UPDATE: More than a year after this set came out, a U.K. CD counterpart has been noticed on Amazon with a December 27 street date. Like the original post, this was also first noticed by our friends at Slicing Up Eyeballs. Original post: As reported by Slicing Up Eyeballs, Rhino's U.K. branch is releasing a special collector's box of Joy Division singles in December, to commemorate the 30 years since iconic frontman Ian Curtis died. The vinyl box, +- (Plus Minus), will feature ten 7" records
Reissue Theory: Barry Manilow, "Live at the Troubadour 1975"
Welcome to another installment of Reissue Theory, where we take a look back at notable albums and the reissues they could someday see. Today's column takes a slight departure, looking at an album that never was, but certainly could be. We present Barry Manilow's Live at the Troubadour! Rolling Stone may have famously proclaimed him "the showman of our generation," but when Clive Davis signed Barry Manilow to the fledgling Arista label, he was anything but. Manilow was a longtime accompanist,
When The Saints Go Marchin' In: Louis Armstrong Goes to Storyville in New Box
Louis Armstrong’s going to Storyville! The venerable Copenhagen-based jazz label, founded in the early 1950s by Kurt Emil Knudsen, has just released a new box set that happens to be third major box in 2011 alone for the one and only Louis Armstrong. Following Universal’s Satchmo: Ambassador of Jazz and The Complete Masters, Storyville’s efficiently-titled The Armstrong Box arrived last Tuesday. The 7-CD/1-DVD set falls somewhere between those two projects; Ambassador of Jazz is the first
Curt Was Mayfield - and Now It's Reissued
Here's an under-the-radar catalogue release for your consideration this week: a reissue of Mayfield, a nice little solo album by Curt Smith, one-half of synth-rock legends Tears for Fears. Unless you're a major '80s pop geek, you'd probably be okay with having no idea who made up the membership of Tears for Fears. But most of our readers probably know that singer/guitarist Roland Orzabal and singer/bassist Curt Smith made the nucleus of the band that gave us "Mad World," "Shout," "Everybody
Get Together: The Youngbloods Reissued, Mick Fleetwood Visited By George Harrison, Peter Green On Wounded Bird
Wounded Bird may fly a bit under the radar, but over the past couple of months, the no-frills reissue specialists have recently restored to catalogue well over 30 titles of interest across multiple genres! For jazz fans, Wounded Bird has offerings from George Benson (1976’s compilation Benson Burner), Airto Moreira (1978’s Touching You…Touching Me, which alas, doesn’t have a Neil Diamond cover on it!), Ramsey Lewis (1974’s Solar Wind) and Maynard Ferguson (1981 compilation Maynard). If you’re
Review: Frank Sinatra, "Best of the Best"
There’s simply no getting around it: Frank Sinatra is the voice of the Great American Songbook. That’s not to discount the dozens of other significant voices that brought life to the House That George, Ira, Irving, Cole, Jerome, Richard and Lorenz Built. (Again, just to name a few.) But Frank Sinatra’s voice, as well as his persona, has become such a deeply ingrained part of the American musical fabric that it’s hard to find new ways to present it. The body of work created by Sinatra at
Intrada Has "It," Releases Two Television Scores
Intrada's latest soundtrack releases may be from television projects, but these small screen adventures are sure to be big hits for fans. The latest entry in the Special Collection series is a two-disc presentation of the score to the 1990 adaptation of Stephen King's It. The best-selling book of 1986, It was the story of a group of young friends in 1950s Maine who thwart an interdimensional child-killing monster, only to have it return when the group settles into adulthood. The two-part
Reissue Theory: Ephraim Lewis, "Skin"
Welcome to another installment of Reissue Theory, where we focus on notable albums and the reissues they could someday see. Beautiful pop-soul from an artist that should have had a much longer career is the order of the day; we present a look back at Ephraim Lewis, the best '90s soul singer time forgot. If you use reissues and expanded music titles as tools to uncover an artist's body of work or to shine a light on a forgotten musician, you doubtlessly have plenty of albums you'd like to see
Just a Little Louvin: Classic Country Duo Rediscovered By Light in the Attic
When the time came to fete the Louvin Brothers with a tribute album, the stars came out: James Taylor, Johnny Cash, Glen Campbell, Dolly Parton, Emmylou Harris, Linda Ronstadt, Alison Krauss and Merle Haggard were just some of the artists featured on 2003’s Grammy-winning Livin’, Lovin’, Losin’: Songs of the Louvin Brothers. All of those musicians had openly admitted their debt to Charlie and Ira Louvin, a.k.a. Charlie Elzer Loudermilk (1927-2011) and Ira Lonnie Loudermilk (1924-1965). Though
Toast of the Town: The Rolling Stones Visit Ed Sullivan with Petula, Dusty, Ella, Tom, Louis and More
Long before David Letterman called the former Hammerstein’s Theatre on 50th Street and Broadway in New York City home, the theatre was the showplace of the world, thanks to one Mr. Ed Sullivan. The former gossip columnist on the Broadway beat might have been an unlikely visitor to American homes each Sunday night between 1949 and 1971, but it was thanks to Sullivan that viewers got their first or most significant taste of such performers across the entire spectrum of entertainment. On the
Weekend Wround-Up - Holiday Edition: Dean Martin, Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons, and The Muppets!
Dean Martin only recorded two Christmas albums in his career, one for Capitol (1959’s A Winter Romance) and one for Reprise (1966’s The Dean Martin Christmas Album). Yet every year, Martin’s holiday catalogue from both labels is usually reconfigured for a new release, often with songs added (singles, alternate takes, remixes), dropped or otherwise altered. 2011 is no exception, so completists might want to be on the lookout for this year’s edition of My Kind of Christmas on the Hip-o Records
Cherry Pop Laces Up Dancing Shoes with Compilation of Rare '80s, Motown Mixes
Cherry Pop Records has a major treat next week for British club junkies of the '80s: a double-disc set of rare and unreleased remixes by noted engineer Phil Harding. If you're a British pop junkie who came of age in the '80s, you're doubtlessly familiar with three names: Mike Stock, Matt Aitken and Pete Waterman. The trio of producers hit it big with Hi-NRG pop, all clean beats and shimmering synths, from Bananarama's "Venus" to Rick Astley's "Never Gonna Give You Up." All told, the trio racked
The Wonderful World of Elvis: Follow That Dream Offers New Releases For Fall and Winter
Since its establishment in 1999, the Follow That Dream label has been a collector’s dream for fans of Elvis Presley. Taking its name from Presley’s 1962 film of the same name, Follow That Dream has operated as an authorized “bootleg series,” reissuing Elvis titles of varying origins (soundtracks, studio albums, live gigs) in expanded editions with an emphasis on previously unreleased session material, alternate takes and unheard performances. These titles are available exclusively through
Dreams Stay With You: Big Country's Debut to Be Expanded With Archival Demos
It looks like we've got the first deluxe edition of 2012 locked down - at least across the pond. Scottish band Big Country today announced the details for a new expansion of their fantastic debut, The Crossing, to coincide with a 30th anniversary tour across the United Kingdom. (The band reunited first in 2007 and again in 2010, both times with new vocalist Mike Peters of The Alarm, replacing late lead singer/guitarist Stuart Adamson, who died in 2001.) Released in 1983, The Crossing was a
Hell Yeah: "The Very Best of Neil Diamond" Set For December
Neil Diamond announced himself to the world in 1966 with the lyrics to his song “Solitary Man." He sang with both defiance and resignation, “I’ll be what I am, a solitary man…” At no time, then, was that more evident than Diamond’s induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in March 2010. His old friend Paul Simon pointed out in his introduction that Diamond had first been eligible for the Rock Hall in 1991 and asked, "What took so long?" Simon then, a bit devilishly, answered his own
Hip-o Select Gets on the Good Foot with Lost Fred Wesley Album
Hip-o Select's James Brown singles sets may be done with the recent release of Volume 11, but the Godfather of Soul's catalogue has a lot of uncovered treasures, and a new release from the boutique label continues to uncover the legend of Brown and his crack team of musicians - in particular one Fred Wesley. Wesley, Brown's longtime trombonist, arranger and musical director in the 1960s and 1970s, is best known to casual J.B. fans as the credited force behind the funky No. 1 soul single "Doing
Of Dead and Downloads: Grateful Dead's "30 Days of Dead" Free Program Returns
The long, strange journey continues! The 2011 calendar has been dotted with plenty of releases to sate even the most voracious Deadhead, with live concerts preserved in the recently-concluded Road Trips series and the Blu-Ray debut of The Grateful Dead Movie, the massive Europe ’72 box set and some vinyl exclusives, like a Record Store Day release for Black Friday and Dick’s Picks LPs arriving through Gordon Anderson and Gabby Castellana’s newly-launched Real Gone Music. As a “token of our
Soundtrack Round-Up: Intrada Cuts to "The Core," Music Box Goes "Overboard," FSM Inches Toward the Finish Line
With the release of another major holy grail in the world of soundtrack collecting yesterday, it's worth pointing out another four awesome archival titles that may have been lost in the shuffle this past week. First, Intrada's latest batch of catalogue soundtrack releases, announced Monday, bring to light two underrated gems from two very different composers. First up, after years of waiting, is an official release to the score to the 2003 sci-fi cult-classic The Core. Composer Christopher
A Dream Goes On Forever: Rundgren's Live "Todd" Comes To CD and DVD
Who's that on the racks again? A portrait of a crazy man, trying to make a living off an elpee's worth of toons! Well, the man in question was Todd Rundgren, the year was 1974, and he was appearing on the record racks with his fifth LP (elpee?) simply entitled Todd. The name was the only simple aspect of the album, however! Though Rundgren was, in fact, making a living as a prolific songwriter, artist, arranger and producer, the restlessly creative polymath wasn’t taking things easy. Todd
New Diana Ross Compilation "Coming Out" in the U.K.
Miss Diana Ross - arguably the Queen of Motown both with The Supremes and on her own, varied solo ventures - easily has one hit for every one of her 67 years on Earth. A new U.K. compilation, The Greatest, packs 44 tracks onto two discs, providing the market with a new way to discover her. The Greatest brings together just about all the facets of Ross' career: ten tracks from The Supremes, the Motown label's white-hot girl group supreme, a healthy helping of tracks from Diana's solo years on
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