Way back in the fall of 2013, our very own Mike Duquette reported on the release of Mike + the Mechanics’ The Singles 1985-2014, a two-disc compendium for the band founded by Genesis’ Mike Rutherford. He teased, “This set has been pushed back to January 20, 2014…to better coincide with some more Mike + The Mechanics events in the coming year, including a U.K. tour in the winter of 2014, a forthcoming memoir from Rutherford and a planned reissue of Living Years for its 25th anniversary.”
The Cryan' Shames' "Sugar and Spice" Goes Mono In Now Sounds' Expanded Reissue
When the venerable Goddard Lieberson, President of Columbia Records, announced the ascendancy of Clive Davis to a veep position at the label in 1965, the promotion of the younger man heralded for a new sound at Columbia. Lieberson had made Columbia the leader in the fields of classical and Broadway cast recordings, and was looking to position the label at the vanguard of rock, too. A number of new signings followed. Among those acts signed to the industry leader was The Cryan’ Shames, favorites
Wonderful World of Disney: "The Legacy Collection: Fantasia" Coming Soon
When considering the history of Walt Disney Studios, Mickey Mouse is always front and center. Lovably scrappy Mickey became a breakout smash with 1928’s Steamboat Willie, setting the company on the path to becoming the all-encompassing entertainment conglomerate it is today. The character himself, however, has had several ups and downs over the years. One of these down periods was during the late 1930s when Walt Disney felt that Mickey wasn’t reaching the same heights of popularity he had
Return To The "Freedom Highway": Staple Singers Classic Is Reissued and Expanded
For almost 50 years, between 1948 and 1994, The Staple Singers stood at the crossroads of gospel and soul, preaching messages of peace and positivity through music. In April 1965, The Staples - "Pops," Mavis, Yvonne and Pervis - were joined by drummer Al Duncan and bassist Phil Upchurch at Chicago's New Nazareth Church to record the album that became Freedom Highway. The LP, originally released on Epic Records, recognized that year's historic civil rights marches from Montgomery to Selma,
Driving Through Kashmir: Led Zeppelin's "Physical Graffiti" Turns 40, Arrives In Deluxe Formats Next Month
The series of expanded and remastered reissues from Led Zeppelin is getting into the home stretch. Following the 2014 deluxe releases of the band’s first five albums, 1975’s Physical Graffiti – the band’s sixth of nine studio albums - will arrive in a variety of formats on February 24, 2015 – exactly forty years after the original album was first unveiled. The hotly-anticipated Physical Graffiti was released almost two years after Led Zeppelin’s last album, Houses of the Holy, and was also the
Reviews: Two From Omnivore - Big Star, "Live in Memphis" and Roger Taylor, "The Best"
Welcome to Part One of our two-part review round-up featuring some of Omnivore Recordings’ releases from late 2014! Just when one thinks the Big Star well has run dry, Omnivore Recordings surprises with a treat of the magnitude of Live in Memphis (OVCD-107). On October 29, 1994 at Memphis’ New Daisy Theatre, Big Star founding members Alex Chilton and Jody Stephens, were joined by Jon Auer and Ken Stringfellow of The Posies for an overflowing set of Big Star classics and covers in front of an
Just Don't Want To Be Lonely: SoulMusic Reissues, Expands Ronnie Dyson's Debut
SoulMusic Records has certainly shown a lot of love for Ronnie Dyson (1950-1990) this year. Following its U.S. release in conjunction with Real Gone Music of the late soul man's two final albums for Cotillion Records, the label is turning back the clock to Dyson's very first recordings for Columbia Records. Lady In Red: The Columbia Sides Plus, from SoulMusic and the U.K.'s Cherry Red Group, is in actuality an expanded edition of Dyson's 1970 debut album (If You Let Me Make Love to You Then) Why
Release Round-Up: Week of January 6
Jackie Moore, The Complete Atlantic Recordings (2-CD Release) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.) / Alejandro Jodorowsky’s The Holy Mountain: Original Soundtrack Gatefold Double-LP (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.) or CD (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.) / Alejandro Jodorowsky’s The Dance of Reality: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack LP (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.) or CD (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.) Real Gone Music kicks off the new year right with a slate filled with vintage R&B, classic rock and beyond
Closing Time: Morello Reissues Lacy J. Dalton’s Final Two Columbia Albums
Continuing its reissue series drawn from her catalogue, Cherry Red’s Morello Records has recently released a twofer collecting Lacy J. Dalton’s Highway Diner and Blue Eyed Blues. Dalton’s tenure at Columbia spanned eight albums and two greatest hits compilation between 1980 and 1987. Morello has previously collected Dalton’s middle period at the label with twofer of Takin' It Easy and 16th Avenue (Morello Records CD MRLL33). This release closes out her time at the label with her final two
Let's Pretend: Edsel Unveils Deluxe Multi-Disc Reissues For Pretenders' Catalogue
Edsel isn’t just playing pretend. On February 16, 2015, the Demon Music Group label will reissue all eight albums from The Pretenders as originally released by the Warner Bros. family of labels between 1979 and 1999 as deluxe editions. (Or: that’s to say 8/10, or 4/5, of the entire Pretenders discography! Only two albums have arrived since 1999, in 2002 and 2008.) Every one of the eight titles is housed in a digipak, with six of the titles as 2-CD/1-DVD sets and two as 1-CD/1-DVD
The Year In Reissues: The 2014 Gold Bonus Disc Awards
Welcome to The Second Disc’s Fifth Annual Gold Bonus Disc Awards! As with every year’s awards, our goals are simple: to recognize as many of the year’s most essential reissues and catalogue titles as possible, and to celebrate as many of those labels, producers and artists who make these releases happen in an increasingly-challenging retail landscape. The labels you’ll read about below have, by and large, bucked the trends to prove that there’s still a demand for physical catalogue music
Second Disc Records
Welcome to Second Disc Records! As The Second Disc enters its fifth year as your go-to destination for classic music news and reviews, we're excited to announce a partnership with one of our favorite labels, Real Gone Music, to create Second Disc Records. Since its founding in 2011, Real Gone has rescued music that might otherwise have languished in a dusty vault or relegated to digital download - music that lives up to the label's name - in splendidly remastered and generously expanded
Now Available
Happy Holidays From The Second Disc
It’s that time of the year again. ‘Twas the night before Christmas, and all through the house, not a creature was stirring…not even The Second Disc. This Christmas Eve, we hope you’ll be heading home for the holidays, spending time with family and friends, enjoying a bounty of food and love, and reflecting on the good times you shared in 2014. This was a very special year for us, especially when it came to the holiday season. I had the great pleasure of revisiting favorite Christmas
Holiday Gift Guide Review: Captain Beefheart, "SUN ZOOM SPARK 1970 to 1972"
“Art is rearranging and grouping mistakes.” So the late Don Van Vliet, a.k.a. Captain Beefheart, is quoted on the cover of the fourth disc of Rhino’s new box set SUN ZOOM SPARK: 1970 to 1972. It’s appropriate and ironic that the aphorism is featured on the sleeve of that disc, a collection of never-before-heard outtakes from the Captain and his Magic Band. But the tracks are far from mistakes; instead, they offer a window onto the process with which Van Vliet created his unmistakable brand of
Holiday Gift Guide Review: Wilco, "What's Your 20? Essential Tracks 1994-2014"
We’d like to welcome back Ted Frank for today’s Holiday Gift Guide review! Ted is taking a look at the new two-CD anthology What’s Your 20? Essential Tracks 1994-2014 from alt-rock greats Wilco. (Since 2004, the line-up has consisted of vocalist/guitarist Jeff Tweedy, bassist John Stirratt, guitarist Nels Cline, multi-instrumentalist Pat Sansone, keyboardist Mikael Jorgensen and drummer Glenn Kotche.) This first-ever retrospective of the Grammy Award-winning band has been produced for the
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: Suzi Quatro, "The Girl from Detroit City"
Susan Kay Quatro, a.k.a. Suzi Quatro, has sold 55 million singles and LPs, scored five U.K. Top 10s and twelve Top 50s including two chart-toppers, followed in the footsteps of Ethel Merman onstage, appeared on television’s Happy Days, and influenced a “Who’s Who” including Joan Jett and The Go-Go’s. Quatro is billed as The Girl from Detroit City on her first-ever retrospective box set which has been recently released by Cherry Red Records. This 4-CD, 82-song book-style box is packed with
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: Simon and Garfunkel, "The Complete Albums Collection"
Queens Boys Make Good, a headline might have read of young Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel when “The Sound of Silence,” a bleakly beautiful, acoustic snapshot of disillusionment and isolation, sat atop the Billboard Hot 100 on New Year’s Day 1966. Simon and Garfunkel were unlikely candidates for pop stardom. Neither English major Simon nor fine arts (later architecture) major Garfunkel hid their cerebral, intellectual tendencies. As the era of the singer-songwriter blossomed in the wake of Bob
Holiday Gift Guide Review: Joni Mitchell, "Love Has Many Faces"
Joni Mitchell wasn't yet 25 when she first gifted the world her song "Both Sides Now." Judy Collins made its first commercially-released recording; soon artists were lining up to record it, including Frank Sinatra. The 25-year old Mitchell herself released it in 1969. In what might be her most famous song, she asserted, "I really don't know love at all." Flash-forward to the present day, and the 71-year old singer-songwriter-artist seems well-acquainted with the vagaries of that most universal
To Everything There Is A Season: Raven Reissues "The Byrds"
When the album simply entitled Byrds arrived on David Geffen’s Asylum label in 1973, it had been only about a year-and-a-half since the last record from the California folk-rock heroes. But the original line-up of Gene Clark, David Crosby, Roger McGuinn, Chris Hillman and Michael Clarke hadn’t recorded a complete album together since 1965. Byrds would be the group’s first long-player for a label other than Columbia Records – and the final Byrds album to date. Australia’s Raven Records label has
Holiday Gift Guide Review: A Folk and Country Christmas with The Kingston Trio, The Brothers Four and the Statler Brothers
The cover of The Kingston Trio’s 1960 Capitol release The Last Month of the Year depicts the three young folksingers in suits and ties, each loaded with a bundle of Christmas gifts. With a cover like that, one could be forgiven for having expected the group to deliver a jovial set of holiday favorites. Instead, The Trio created an album of rare beauty but considerable darkness. As such, it’s hardly your typical holiday fare but Real Gone Music’s reissue (RGM-0312) is a worthwhile inclusion on
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