Here's a fun, surprise soundtrack coming out of the vaults. Counterpoint Records is releasing the first-ever CD of the original soundtrack to Sunset Boulevard, the 1950 Billy Wilder classic with Oscar-winning music from acclaimed composer Franz Waxman. Sunset Boulevard was the fictional tale of Norma Desmond, a silent-film starlet whose time has long passed (played to perfection by Gloria Swanson). The noir tale sees Desmond meeting a struggling screenwriter (William Holden) and attempting to
Reissue Theory: NOW That's What I Call Missing
Welcome to another installment of Reissue Theory, where we reflect on well-known albums of the past and the reissues they could someday see. With another entry in the NOW That's What I Call Music series out in the U.S. today, we reflect on the series' original entries across the pond...and the titles in the series that have yet to appear on CD. Today in the States, a new entry in the NOW That's What I Call Music series was released (the 36th in the main series, not counting specialty
Review: The Monkees, "Head: Deluxe Edition"
Once upon a time, the undisputed king of the box set was Rhino Records. The label gave us a brain in a box, an old phonograph to house the masterworks of Ray Charles, a crate of eight tracks to take us back to a more soulful time, and a hatbox filled with the most effervescent girl group sounds possible, just to name a few. (Shag carpets, coffee beans and a carrying case for 45s figured prominently in a few other such packages.) Of late, these lavish sets haven't appeared with great frequency; I
UPDATE: Helplessly Hoping for Stills DVD-A Remaster?
With its scheduled release date now mere days away, has Rhino U.K. pulled the plug on the CD/DVD-A remaster of Stephen Stills' 1970 solo debut of the same name? As of the morning of September 4, the Amazon U.K. listing was revised to show the set as "Temporarily out of stock," while the release date was baffingly changed to January 1 (!), 2010. By evening, the "DVD-A" of the title had been replaced with "DVD." While the mystery isn't yet solved, it's likely that Stephen Stills won't be shipping
On False Icons
From the very beginning, the compilation record was at once a blind cash grab and an attempt at convenience. After a handful of years buying vinyl singles, what would be the point of buying a selection of those hits? Ah yes, the extra tracks were sometimes dealmakers. And if you'd never bought said hits, it was hard to beat a tightly packed compilation disc. Times have, of course, changed. Compilations should be rendered nearly obsolete by digital downloading; retailers like iTunes and Amazon
Dinah's Dynamic Early Singles Collected on New Box
Another set promised by Harry Weinger in his chat with The Second Disc is ready for order. The Divine Miss D! The Keynote, Decca and Mercury Singles 1943-1953 is the latest project from Hip-o Select, that collates the early songs of Dinah Washington. The Queen of the Blues began her recording career as a singer for Lionel Hampton's big band in 1943, and would earn her crown by recording a long string of singles for Mercury through the next decade. Now, for the first time in the U.S., Hip-o
Rarities Editions, Round Three (UPDATED 11/1)
Remember Universal's Rarities Edition sets? The sets that issue the bonus material of a previously-released Deluxe Edition on its own? A trio of new Rarities Edition titles will street on Tuesday, November 2, and like the last two batches, The Second Disc wants to give a clear perspective to you, the reader, as to whether they're worth getting if you never upgraded to the original Deluxe Edition in the first place. Luckily, unlike the last two batches of Rarities Editions (which had some
Halloween Special Back Tracks: Anthony Perkins
Welcome to a very special edition of Back Tracks! For this week's Friday Feature, Mike took a look back at the music of Psycho. One of the few films still retaining the power to shock and thrill after some 50 years, the repercussions of Alfred Hitchcock's masterpiece are still felt today. And its musical legacy, enhanced via some very controversial sequels and remakes, encompasses some of the greats, with Jerry Goldsmith, Danny Elfman and Carter Burwell all having built on the foundation laid by
Reissue Theory: New Radicals, "Maybe You've Been Brainwashed Too"
Welcome to another installment of Reissue Theory, where we reflect on well-known albums of the past and the reissues they could someday see. A wave of '90s nostalgia leads this column to look back at one of the best one-hit wonders of the latter part of the decade. The presence of The New Radicals on that NOW '90s compilation brought some memories flooding back. Remember the first time you heard "You Get What You Give"? It was insanely poppy, it sounded kind of like a U2 outtake from an era U2
Reissue! Repackage! Repackage! Volume #2: Shinedown Double Their "Madness"
Another relatively recent reissue coming down the pipeline: alt-metal band Shinedown will reissue their most recent album, 2008's The Sound of Madness, in a new CD/DVD package that's actually quite heavy on bonus material. The album, which spawned several rock hits including the surprise crossover single "Second Chance," a Top 10 hit in the winter of 2009, will be expanded with nine bonus cuts and a DVD of music videos and live performances. The bonus tracks come from a variety of sources,
Release Round-Up: Week of October 26
And now, here it is: the catalogue titles coming to your local stores this week. Various Artists including James Taylor, Billy Preston and Badfinger, The Apple Records remasters (Apple/EMI) This year's Beatles remasters are remasters of albums on The Beatles' short-lived Apple label. There's a lot of great, varied stuff to be hand across many genres. There's 14 individual remasters plus a new compilation with some other hard-to-find tunes (Come and Get It: The Best of Apple Records), not to
Review: Bob Dylan, "The Bootleg Series Volume 9: The Witmark Demos"
Artie Mogull of Music Publishers' Holding Company believed he may have been among the first people in the music business to hear Bob Dylan sing "Blowin' in the Wind." Before his death in 2004, he recounted that he "flipped" upon hearing "How many ears must one man have before he can hear people cry?" It's not hard to see why. To a melody adapted from the spiritual "No More Auction Block for Me," Dylan succinctly, eloquently and powerfully gave lyrical voice to a generation of youth struggling
Short Takes: Apple Indie Sampler, Collins Goes Gold and Stills in Surround
Even with most of the major holiday product announced (and much, though far from all, of it in stores!), a few new catalogue releases have slipped through the cracks with little fanfare. This Tuesday, Beatles completists (you know who you are!) can check their local indie retailer for a swell little compilation entitled 10 Green Apples; it's a sampler disc for the full EMI/Apple Records reissue campaign (all individual releases hit stores Tuesday, as does an import box set with those 15 discs
Friday Feature: "Alien" and "Aliens"
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ojhGdRSkiUw] With Halloween almost approaching, there's never been a better time to revisit notable horror film scores than with our ongoing series of Friday Features. This week, we cover the first two, multiply-reissued scores in the infamous Alien franchise. Happily, both of the reissues discussed herein are readily available, so if you're inspired to hear the music of these classic films, you don't have to dig particularly deep. Have a read after the
Reissue Theory: Blind Melon
Welcome to another installment of Reissue Theory, where we reflect on well-known albums of the past and the reissues they could someday see. Today, on the anniversary of the death of a well-known alt-rock vocalist, we reflect on his band's first album, which would "bee" a treat if it were reissued. "All I can say is that my life is pretty plain..." Those immortal opening lines to "No Rain," the biggest hit by alternative rock band Blind Melon, couldn't be any further from the truth. The story
Billy's Back
It's true: that upcoming Billy Joel compilation is indeed the tip of the iceberg. Legacy issued a press release late last night promising to burst open the floodgates of Billy Joel catalogue material in 2011. The Hits, the first single-disc compilation of the Piano Man's music, kicks things off, followed by a dozen songs being made available for download on the upcoming Rock Band 3 video game. But next year? The press release promises a live release of the Shea Stadium concerts documented in
Bad Religion Celebrate 30 Years with a Lot of Vinyl
Longtime punk rockers Bad Religion just celebrated their third decade of existence with a new album, last month's The Dissent of Man. Now, they're giving fans an even bigger present: a massive vinyl box set spanning almost their entire discography. Bad Religion 30th Anniversary Box Set gathers 15 studio albums in one spot, from debut LP How Could Hell Be Any Worse in 1981 to The Dissent of Man. This is significant for a number of reasons - it brings together the band's output on original and
Back Tracks: Culture Club
It's safe to say we've given Boy George more than enough time to realize his crime. The beleaguered singer has had more than his share of legal troubles throughout the '90s and 2000s, and that has occasionally overshadowed the music he put out in the 1980s. This is a shame, since Culture Club was one of the better U.K. pop bands of the early '80s. Don't let George's gender-bending look fool you. Heaven knows that's become the primary takeaway for nostalgists, but there's a lot more underneath
Reissue Theory: Chevy Chase
Welcome to another installment of Reissue Theory, where we reflect on well-known albums of the past and the reissues they could someday see. This time around, we shine a light on a few unorthodox musical moments from a comedy legend. "I'm Chevy Chase, and you're not." For the past couple of years, no one would dare be envious of the man once considered one of the greatest comedians of the 1970s and 1980s. Today, however, The Second Disc not only defends him from his detractors but makes a case
Sellout!
It's no longer a snarky term to throw at indie bands that sign to a major label. Right now, "sellout" makes this author think of The Complete Elvis Presley Masters, Legacy's massive 30-disc box set devoted to The King of Rock and Roll. Several days ago, it was confirmed to have sold all 1,000 copies - a monumental achievement, if not a surprising one. Readers, we've seen a growing number of limited sets finding their way into our collective catalogue consciousness. The soundtrack world has been
I Wanna Rock! Eagle Rock Reissues Twisted Sister Reunion Show, Latter-Day Albums
As rock fans sit about and wonder if and when the Twisted Sister discography is ever going to be remastered and expanded in full, Eagle Rock Entertainment attempts to satiate TS fans' appetites by reissuing Live at Wacken: The Reunion (2006). Recorded at the Wacken Open Air Festival in 2003, the set was one of the biggest venues Dee Snider, Eddie Ojeda, Jay Jay French, Mark Mendoza and A.J. Pero had performed at since intermittently reuniting the seminal '80s glam metal band with all of its
Heaven 17's Debut to Be Reissued with Lots of Demos
Awhile back, the super-fantastic folks at Slicing Up Eyeballs had a chat with Martyn Ware of synthpop band Heaven 17, in which Ware discussed a series of recently unearthed demos of tunes from the band's debut album, 1980's Penthouse and Pavement. That set will be available on November 22 from EMI Music. The demos, Ware said in the interview, were recorded on an Ampex 1" tape machine - of which only one allegedly still exists, at Abbey Road Studios. The tapes feature early sketches of songs
Review: David Bowie, "Station to Station" (2010)
There are box sets, and then there are box sets. EMI's hulking, monster of a box dedicated to David Bowie's 1976 Station to Station (EMI BOWSTSD2010) is one such box set. It's even more massive than The John Lennon Signature Box, itself a lavish and large affair containing 11 discs. The multi-disc box celebrating a single album isn't a new concept, although in the past such offerings were largely based upon session material. The format has proliferated in recent times as record labels have
UB40's "Signing Off" Celebrates 30 Years with Deluxe Reissue
Another '80s reissue from EMI - who'd have thought? This time, it's an expansion of Signing Off, the seminal debut LP from British reggae band UB40. Though UB40 are best known in America for their reggae-infused covers of standards like Neil Diamond's "Red Red Wine" and Elvis Presley's "Can't Help Falling in Love," their musical roots involve fusing that reggae sound to socially conscious lyrics about poverty, famine and race relations. (The band's name in fact comes from one of the forms
Back Tracks: Michael Jackson's Video HIStory
It pains me to report on unsubstantiated news from the reissue world, but this one needs to be addressed in some way: TMZ reported last weekend that Sony was prepping a compilation of Michael Jackson's music videos (allegedly titled Vision) for the Christmas rush. Yeah, it's TMZ, not a known source of catalogue info, but they did prove their mettle in covering Michael Jackson's death (for better or for worse), so let's at least serve the news to you with more than a dash of salt. But let's say,
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