Bee Gees, The Warner Bros. Years 1987-1991 (Warner Bros./Rhino) A new five-disc box collates the Bee Gees' E.S.P. (1987), One (1989) and High Civilization (1991) - the first two of which have bonus tracks - and 1991's One for All live concert, released for the first time on CD. (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.) Nas, Illmatic XX (Columbia/Legacy) Queens' favorite MC celebrates his landmark debut with a newly-expanded edition of the 1994 album with a bonus disc of rare remixes and unreleased
Hey Hey! They're Boyce and Hart - And You Can Help Complete Their Documentary!
For a few years in the halcyon days of the sixties, Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart were on top of the world. Singers, songwriters and producers, Boyce and Hart - individually or collectively - were behind some of the most enduring hits of that era or any other: "Last Train to Clarksville," "(I'm Not Your) Stepping Stone," "Come a Little Bit Closer," "Hurt So Bad," "I Wanna Be Free," "Valleri," "Pretty Little Angel Eyes," and of course, the immortal "Theme from The Monkees." As if turning out hits
Big Break's Big Round-Up: Label "Phreeks" Out with Patti LaBelle, Isaac Hayes, Gwen McCrae, More
One of the busiest labels on the reissue front is undoubtedly Cherry Red Group’s Big Break Records imprint. We’ve just turned the spotlight on BBR’s releases from Donna Summer and John Barry, and Leon Haywood and Carl Carlton, and The Salsoul Orchestra and Loleatta Holloway. Coming up, we have reviews and features planned on titles from The Hues Corporation, Odyssey, and more. But today, we’re taking a look at another handful of the busy BBR label’s most recent offerings – from top-tier
"Weird Scenes Inside" Rhino's Record Store Day Slate
With April 19's Record Store Day a little more than a week away, it might be time to start making those checklists! We've already filled you in on exciting releases from Legacy Recordings, Real Gone Music, Sundazed, Omnivore Recordings, Varese Sarabande and many others, but today it's all about Rhino! The Warner Music Group catalogue arm has a bumper crop of more than 25 exclusive offerings from some of the biggest names classic rock, vintage R&B and beyond - including The Doors, Grateful
Review: Linda Ronstadt, "Duets"
Tonight, Linda Ronstadt receives her long-overdue recognition into The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. But rock and roll, of course, played only a small - if key - role in Ronstadt's career. The breadth of that career is revealed on Rhino's new release of Linda Ronstadt - Duets (Rhino R2 542161), containing fourteen tracks originally released between 1974 and 2006 plus one previously unreleased performance. While there are no duets here from Ronstadt's Tony-nominated turn in Gilbert and Sullivan's
Ain't No Stopping Them Now: Sony Acquires Entire Philadelphia International Catalogue, Box Set Coming Soon [UPDATED]
UPDATED 4/9 WITH NEW INFORMATION, LINKS AND IMAGES: The love train is pulling back into the station. Kenneth Gamble and Leon Huff’s Philadelphia International Records, distributed by CBS Records, began life in 1971 with the release of Billy Paul’s Going East on LP and The Ebonys’ “You’re the Reason Why” on 45. (Trivia fans, take note: Gideon Smith’s single “Arkansaw Wife” – yes, you read that right – has an earlier catalogue number, but the quintessentially Philly track by The Ebonys appears
Masterworks Premieres Lost Album By Shirley Jones and Jack Cassidy, Brings Rare Richard Rodgers and Ed Ames To CD
Sony's Masterworks Broadway division has announced its spring slate, and it's filled with surprises. The label is kicking it off with next week's first-ever release of a shelved album from Shirley Jones and Jack Cassidy recorded in 1959 and unreleased until now, and following that in May with the first-ever reissue of a "lost" Richard Rodgers score written for television. That gem, Androcles and the Lion, will be followed in June by a pair of albums from one of its stars: Ed Ames, formerly of
Would You Believe: Three Records From The Hollies' Allan Clarke Collected By RPM
RPM Records, an imprint of Cherry Red Group, continues to leave no stone unturned in its explorations of every corner of the British pop-rock map with three recent collections from Hollies leader Allan Clarke, “Pied Piper” Crispian St. Peters and beat combo The Scorpions. Today, the spotlight is on Sideshow from Allan Clarke, who began singing in Manchester as a youth with his pal Graham Nash and never looked back. Sideshow: Solo Recordings 1973-1976 collects three early solo albums from Allan
You Must Remember This: TCM, Masterworks Compile "Classic Sound of Hollywood" From Mancini, Williams, Morricone, More
On April 1, Sony’s Masterworks division and Turner Classic Movies marked the cable network’s twentieth anniversary with a new 2-CD collection of vintage Hollywood movie themes. Play It Again: The Classic Sound of Hollywood continues the Masterworks/TCM series that has previously encompassed archival releases from Doris Day, Mario Lanza and Fred Astaire. Composers represented include Bernard Herrmann, Max Steiner, Maurice Jarre, Elmer Bernstein, Erich Wolfgang Korngold, Henry Mancini, Ennio
Nils Lofgren "Faces the Music" with Massive, Career-Spanning 10-Disc Box Set
This Thursday evening, Nils Lofgren joins the esteemed ranks of Rock and Roll Hall of Famers when he’s inducted into the institution as a member of The E Street Band. But Lofgren’s work as one of Bruce Springsteen’s resident axemen is only one facet of his exhilarating 45-year career in music. On May 27, 2014, Fantasy Records will deliver the ultimate celebration of Lofgren’s creativity and longevity with Face the Music. This definitive 9-CD/1-DVD box set contains 169 tracks drawn from Lofgren’s
Release Round-Up: Week of April 8
ABBA, Waterloo: 40th Anniversary Deluxe Edition / ABBA Gold: Greatest Hits - 40th Anniversary Edition (Polar/UMC) In celebration of the Swedish quartet's breakthrough single (and Eurovision contest winner), here are two of many planned ABBA catalogue projects for the year - a CD/DVD expansion of the band's 1974 album with plenty of rare video footage, and a triple-disc set featuring the band's best-selling 1992 compilation, a 1993 sequel, More Gold: More ABBA Hits and a new disc of single
Henry Mancini's "Once is Not Enough," Sol Kaplan's "Spy Who Came in from the Cold" Premiere on CD from Intrada
Thanks to the Intrada label, it was a swinging March for film soundtrack fans. Intrada has just recently released the world premiere of one of Henry Mancini’s finest scores together with a deluxe expanded edition of a spy classic from composer Sol Kaplan. Mancini penned the score to the 1975 film adaptation of Once is Not Enough, the deliciously trashy 1973 novel by Jacqueline Susann of Valley of the Dolls fame. Though it’s positively bursting with melodies both bright and haunting from the
Love Never Felt So Good: Epic Readies Michael Jackson's Posthumous "XSCAPE"
Roughly three-and-a-half years following the 2010 release of Michael, Epic Records and the Michael Jackson Estate have announced the second posthumous collection of unheard music from the King of Pop. Xscape, due on May 13, will feature eight previously unissued Jackson tracks including the Invincible outtake which lends the album its title. While the standard edition will feature “contemporized” productions employing Jackson’s original vocals, a deluxe edition will also boast the original,
UPDATE - Bring On Your "Wrecking Ball": Emmylou Harris Classic Revisited By Nonesuch Label As 2-CD/1-DVD Set
Before Bruce Springsteen unleashed his Wrecking Ball or Miley Cyrus her “Wrecking Ball,” Emmylou Harris gave her 1995 studio album, produced by Daniel Lanois (U2, Bob Dylan) that title after a Neil Young composition. Harris’ Wrecking Ball embraced a more explicitly cutting-edge “rock” sound than many of her past traditional country efforts, and earned the artist a 1996 Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Folk Recording. On April 8, Nonesuch Records (sister label to Elektra/Asylum, the original
Review: Johnny Cash, "Out Among The Stars"
“It’s midnight at a liquor store in Texas, closing time, another day is done when a boy walks in the door and points a pistol/He can’t find a job, but Lord, he’s found a gun...” Talk about an introduction! Listening to the “new” 2013 Johnny Cash album Out Among the Stars, it doesn’t take long to realize you’re in good hands. Cash’s robust, reassuring storyteller’s voice is firmly authoritative on the ironically jaunty opening track, yet filled with empathy for the “many weary
Little Esther, All Grown Up: Raven Collects Esther Phillips' First CTI Albums
As the premier vocalist on CTI Records' Kudu imprint, Esther Phillips (1935-1984) played a key role in producer Creed Taylor's "Cool Revolution" at CTI. A gifted vocalist, Phillips nonetheless struggled with personal demons throughout her too-short life. The former "Little Esther" had her first taste of success in 1949, just fourteen years old, and a taste of heroin not long after; stories of her mercurial behavior have entered into legend. But her talent was never in doubt. CTI recorded
Release Round-Up: Week of April 1
Cyndi Lauper, She’s So Unusual: A 30th Anniversary Celebration (Portrait/Epic/Legacy) One of MTV's first queens wears the crown anew on this deluxe set featuring new remixes, rarities from the vault, rare photographs and a fun expanded package with a diorama and reusable sticker set. Amazon U.S.: 1CD / 2CD / LP Amazon U.K.: 1CD / 2CD / LP Real Gone slate: Doris Day, Music, Movies & Memories / Doris Day, Sings Her Great Movie Hits / Patti LaBelle and the Bluebelles, The Complete Atlantic
Reviews: Real Gone Goes R&B with Bettye Swann and Samuel Jonathan Johnson
Shreveport, Louisiana-born Bettye Swann never liked her birth name of Betty Jean Champion, yet when it came to soul music, Swann was certainly a champion. Her debut single for Money Records, 1965’s “Don’t Wait Too Long,” became a Top 30 R&B hit, and two years later, “Make Me Yours” went all the way to the No. 1 spot on that chart. It was inevitable that bigger labels than Money would come calling, and sure enough, Swann recorded two country-flavored LPs in 1969 and 1970 for Capitol. Rick
The Animals' Alan Price Leads Musical "Andy Capp" From Stage Door Records
When the musical Andy Capp premiered at London's Aldwych Theatre (current home to Andrew Lloyd Webber's Stephen Ward) in September 1982, cartoonist Reg Smythe's beloved character took his place alongside Little Orphan Annie, Snoopy and Li'l Abner as comic strip creations-turned-musical heroes. The frequently inebriated, cap-wearing, chronically unemployed ne'er-do-well made his debut in The Daily Mirror on August 5, 1957 and readers quickly became engrossed in the daily gags featuring Andy, his
Review: Elvis Presley, "Recorded Live on Stage in Memphis"
Lord a-mighty, do you feel your temperature rising? Okay, "Burning Love" isn't among the songs on the new 2-CD Legacy Edition of Elvis Presley's 1974 Recorded Live on Stage in Memphis, but there's nonetheless plenty to get the pulse pounding and the pelvis swiveling. The original Memphis LP preserved The King's hometown show of March 20, 1974, and this reissue adds a live concert from two nights earlier in Richmond, Virginia plus five bonus tracks from an in-studio rehearsal session. Memphis
You Got It: Legacy to Expand Roy Orbison's Final Album with Unheard Audiovisual Content
Roy Orbison, a.k.a. The Big O, a.k.a. Lefty Wilbury, a.k.a. “the Caruso of Rock,” never did anything small. His big, booming voice gave life to a series of painfully heartbreaking yet irresistible ballads that sounded like nothing else in rock and roll or pop. Orbison brought an authenticity and urgency to the dramatic songs he wrote and recorded, but when he cut loose on an “Ooby Dooby” or “Oh, Pretty Woman,” his voice could also be the sound of freedom and lust and excitement. With the
She's The Greatest Star: Barbra Streisand's Broadway "Funny Girl" Goes Super Deluxe For 50th Anniversary
Attention people who need people! Funny Girl is turning 50, and that’s no laughing matter. To commemorate the 50th anniversary of the classic Broadway musical that launched Barbra Streisand to superstardom, Capitol/UMe is releasing a CD/LP super deluxe edition of the original cast album of Funny Girl on April 29th. The musical by librettist Isobel Lennart, composer Jule Styne (Gypsy, Bells Are Ringing) and lyricist Bob Merrill (Carnival, New Girl in Town) depicted the rise to fame of
Review: Eric Carmen, "The Essential Eric Carmen"
The first track on Legacy Recordings' new double-disc anthology The Essential Eric Carmen (Arista/Legacy 88883745522) is titled, appropriately enough, "Get the Message." And the message relayed by its 30 nuggets comes through loud and clear: whether as power pop prince, classically-inspired MOR balladeer or nostalgic yet contemporary eighties rocker, Eric Carmen had the goods. Young lust never sounded as thrilling, as exuberant, or as pretty as it did in the hands of The Raspberries. Over
Release Round-Up: Week of March 25
Johnny Cash, Out Among the Stars (Columbia/Legacy) This new album of newly-discovered mid-'80s outtakes is perhaps better than what was released at the time. Gorgeous and, at times, haunting, the way Johnny Cash albums should be. CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. LP: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. Elton John, Goodbye Yellow Brick Road: 40th Anniversary Edition (Mercury/Rocket/UMe) Elton's classic double album comes back to glorious life with several lavish editions, featuring new covers of songs from
Review: Elton John, "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road: 40th Anniversary Edition," Part One
“When are you gonna come down? When are you going to land?” It looked like Elton John would never come down. When Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, Elton John’s seventh album and first double-LP set, arrived in October 1973, it followed six straight Top 10 albums. The last two of those had gone all the way to No. 1. Five of John’s singles had also reached the Top 10 of the Hot 100, including one chart-topper. The former Reg Dwight was at the top of the world. Where does one go from there? The answer,
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