Melanie Safka, known the world over simply as Melanie, tapped into a deep well of emotion with the powerful anthem "Lay Down (Candles in the Rain)" and skated into listeners' hearts with "Brand New Key." Though the singer-songwriter's U.S. hits dried up by the early 1980s, she continued to write and record in her disarming and often happily quirky style. A voice of the Vietnam generation, Melanie was content to transport audiences back to the Woodstock era while always authentically speaking
Love and Marriage: Stage Door Pop Celebrates "Crossroads Wedding Party" Featuring Noele "Nolly" Gordon
Next month, American PBS stations premiere Nolly, a three-part miniseries written by Russell T. Davies (Doctor Who, It's a Sin) about British television star Noele "Nolly" Gordon (1919-1985), portrayed by Helena Bonham Carter. The 2023 production is presented on PBS by Masterpiece - formerly Masterpiece Theatre - which describes it as "an outrageously fun and wildly entertaining ride through Gordon's most tumultuous years, and a sharp, affectionate, and heartbreaking portrait of a forgotten
Soundtrack Watch: Quartet Reissues 'Cutthroat Island,' Intrada Expands 'Something Wicked'
With Bond back in action at La-La Land Records, some of our favorite soundtrack reissue labels are also starting the new year off with a bang! Quartet Records has just reissued a '90s favorite score on CD, while Intrada has revisited an early classic by James Horner with an all-new approach. The name Cutthroat Island would shiver the timbers of any Hollywood enthusiast in the mid-'90s. The infamous pirate epic, starring Geena Davis, Matthew Modine and Frank Langella and directed by Davis'
No More Mr. Nice Guy: Rhino Expands Alice Cooper's 'Billion Dollar Babies'
Get ready to hit the jackpot: one of Rhino's first big reissues of 2024 is a new expanded edition of Billion Dollar Babies, the 1973 album by glam rockers Alice Cooper. Available March 8 as a 2CD or 3LP set, this Billion Dollar Babies expansion builds upon even the 2001 double-disc edition issued by Rhino back in 2001. Alongside the remastered album, fans will find a bonus disc (two in the vinyl set) featuring a 1973 live set (previously issued in part on that 2001 reissue and in full on
Right Round (Like a Record): Edsel Preps Dead or Alive CD Singles Box
Against all odds, Edsel will release a third deep-dive box set into the career of U.K. hitmakers Dead or Alive - this time focusing on their single mixes. Still Spinnin': The Singles Collection 1983-2021 offers 27 discs of the group's single releases through their entire career, including hits like "Lover Come Back to Me," "Brand New Lover," "My Heart Goes Bang (Get Me to the Doctor)", "Something in My House" - and of course, the international smash "You Spin Me Round (Like a Record)," which
It's Wonderful to Be in Love: Cherry Red Reissues Sandy Posey's "Complete MGM Recordings"
"If you're born a woman, you're born to be hurt..." The stark sentiment expressed by singer Sandy Posey in her 1966 recording of Martha Sharp's "Born a Woman" didn't keep the song from reaching the twelfth spot on the Billboard Hot 100 - effectively launching a career that's continued into the 21st century. Between 1966 and 1968, the Alabama-born songstress recorded four studio albums for MGM Records, all of which blended pop and country sounds in a Brill Building-meets-Memphis style crafted
Don't Look Down: Go West Expand 'Dancing on the Couch' with Remixes and Live Material
It was a pleasant surprise to see British '80s duo Go West get a deluxe edition of their debut album last year. Chrysalis is making lightning strike twice early this year for fans with a follow-up: an 3CD/1DVD expansion of the duo's 1987 release Dancing on the Couch. After Peter Cox and Richard Drummie scored a Top 5 hit in their homeland with "We Close Our Eyes" in 1985, they'd amassed a solid fan base who'd be curious to hear what a follow-up sounded like. Working again with producer Gary
Born to Raise Hell: Motörhead's Live 'Lost Tapes' Collected As CD Box Set
Legendary metal band Motörhead have been steadily unearthing soundboard shows as part of their The Löst Tapes series since 2021. Now, those shows - previously only available on vinyl or digitally - will make their way to CD in a new eight-disc box set. The Löst Tapes - The Collection: Volumes 1-5 collates all the audio heard on various Record Store Day colored vinyl releases from BMG Rights Management, featuring Lemmy Kilmister and his die-hard trio powering their way through some of their
Release Round-Up: Week of January 19
Welcome to this week's Release Round-Up, featuring a selection of the new titles available today. As an Amazon affiliate, we earn from qualifying purchases. Bert Kaempfert, The Bert Kaempfert Decca Collection (Decca) (Amazon U.S. (not yet available) / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada) The Bert Kaempfert Decca Collection collects 24 of the German composer-bandleader's American LPs originally released in the 1960s and 1970s, including the worldwide CD debut of Pete Fountain Plays Bert
Leave Me Breathless: The Corrs' 2001 Compilation Reissued with Christine McVie Tributes
Originally released in 2001, The Corrs' first greatest-hits collection - The Best of The Corrs - became one of the most beloved and most successful releases in their catalogue. Tomorrow, Rhino is re-releasing the collection with three bonus tracks, all celebrating the late Christine McVie and extending The Corrs' relationship with one of their favorite bands, Fleetwood Mac. Siblings Jim Corr, Sharon Corr, Caroline Corr, and Andrea Corr of Dundalk, County Louth, Ireland came together in the
Make Your Own Sweet Sunshine: 7a Records Preps Davy Jones' "The Bell Records Story"
Less than a year and a half after Davy Jones and Micky Dolenz brought The Monkees' original discography to a close with the release of Changes, actor-singer Jones was back on Bell Records with a new studio album. His second solo LP, 1971's Davy Jones, was in a sunshine pop-meets-bubblegum vein, but it carried on the spirit of the early Monkees with strong tunes including some from songwriters who had written for the group (David Gates, Neil Sedaka). On February 23, 7a Records will release Davy
The Year In Review: The 2023 Gold Bonus Disc Awards, From A to Z - Part Two
Happy 2024! Welcome, friends, to Part Two of The Second Disc's 14th Annual Gold Bonus Disc Awards! As we yet again look to a new year with optimism and a hopeful spirit, we recognize the many roles music has played in our lives. With that spirit in mind, The Second Disc wishes to recognize 2023's cream of the catalogue music crop - those exemplary reissues and box sets, big and small, that proved to be truly outstanding for music lovers worldwide. After much deliberation, we're excited
The Year In Review: The 2023 Gold Bonus Disc Awards, From A to Z - Part One
Happy 2024! Welcome, friends, to The Second Disc's 14th Annual Gold Bonus Disc Awards! As we yet again look to a new year with optimism and a hopeful spirit, we recognize the many roles music has played in our lives. With that spirit in mind, The Second Disc wishes to recognize 2023's cream of the catalogue music crop - those exemplary reissues and box sets, big and small, that proved to be truly outstanding for music lovers worldwide. After much deliberation, we're excited to unveil our
The Weekend Stream: January 13, 2024
Welcome to another edition of The Weekend Stream, The Second Disc's review of notable catalogue titles making digital debuts. Our first streaming round-up of the year has surprises from INXS, a '00s U.K. hit going viral, and some '90s alt-rock goodness! INXS, Selections from All Juiced Up Volume 2 (Petrol/Atlantic) "I'm Only Looking" (Morales Bad Yard Mix): iTunes / Amazon "Bitter Tears" (Lorimer 12" Mix): iTunes / Amazon "Need You Tonight" (Liebrand 12" Mix): iTunes / Amazon "Listen
Look Hear: 10cc Box Set Compiles Two Decades of Albums and B-Sides
10cc were one of the most formidable pop/rock bands to come out of England in the 1970s. A forthcoming box set from Edsel/Demon Music Group will put their output under a microscope. 20 Years: 1972-1982, due out January 26, offers 14 discs of the beloved group: all 11 studio albums issued on the UK, Mercury and Polydor labels between 1973 and 1992, the rare 1977 double live album Live and Let Live, and two collections of 33 additional B-sides, single versions and alternate mixes released
Release Round-Up: Week of January 12
Happy New Year, and welcome to our first Release Round-Up of 2024, featuring a selection of the new titles in stores today! As an Amazon affiliate, we earn from qualifying purchases. Lou Reed, Hudson River Wind Meditations (Light in the Attic) CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada LP: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada Lou Reed's twentieth solo album (and penultimate studio record) returns from Light in the Attic in CD and LP editions. Featuring meditative music
A Second Disc Interview: Mixing It Up with John Luongo
John Luongo is a good liar. Well, maybe he's good at being tongue-in-cheek. "I'm bashful," he says at the start of our interview back in October. "You're gonna have to really drag these things outta me, 'cause I'm a little shy!" What follows is about 100 minutes of captivating stories and thoughtful, enthusiastic lessons from one of the most notable names in dance music. The Boston-born DJ and mix engineer made a name for himself transforming dozens of soul and pop tracks for disco 12"
I've Been in Love Before: Cutting Crew's Albums Get Box Set Treatment from Cherry Pop
Second Disc HQ is always fascinated by British acts - and there were a few of these in the '80s - whose commercial success is far greater outside their home country. Cutting Crew, the rock combo led by singer/songwriter Nick Van Eede, were a classic example of this phenomenon, scoring a U.S. chart-topper with the emotional "(I Just) Died in Your Arms" and the Top 10 ballad "I've Been in Love Before"; next month, Cherry Red will expand the group's first three albums in a new 3CD package. All
Death Warmed Up: Esoteric Collects Proto-Metal Band High Tide's "Complete Liberty Recordings"
Cherry Red's Esoteric Recordings imprint has recently celebrated the recordings of prog-rock band High Tide on a lavish new 3-CD box set. The Complete Liberty Recordings brings together the short-lived group's two albums and adds a bonus disc of demos and studio sessions recorded in 1969-1970. As with so many bands of the era, High Tide refused to be boxed into one specific genre, melding a hard rock sound with psychedelic, progressive, folk, and classical flourishes. Tony Hill
The Morning Lasted All Day: The Dream Academy Get Comprehensive Box Set from Cherry Red
There was no Top 10 hit in 1985 quite like "Life in a Northern Town," a gentle-then-thundering folk-pop tune by British trio The Dream Academy. The gentle tribute to Nick Drake, counterpointed by an African-inspired, nearly wordless chorus, hit No. 7 on the Billboard Hot 100 and No. 15 in their native U.K. - but there was much more to their story. Cherry Red will tell that story - with input from the band's frontman, Nick Laird-Clowes - in a new deluxe box set to be released in
Freak Out in a Moonage Daydream: Early Version of Bowie's 'Ziggy Stardust' Announced for Record Store Day
On what would have been the 77th birthday of the incomparable David Bowie, his estate has announced a new catalogue title due out for Record Store Day, featuring an early track list for 1972's The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and The Spiders from Mars. Waiting in the Sky (Before the Starman Came to Earth) takes its title from "Starman," the U.K. Top 10 hit that helped propel Bowie from art-folk wonder to glam icon for a new decade. But when this line-up for the album was assembled onto a
Find Your Note: Light in the Attic Reissues Lou Reed's Penultimate Studio Album
Following the 2022 debut of The Lou Reed Archive Series with Words and Music - 1965, a collection of the late singer-songwriter-legend's earliest recordings, the Light in the Attic label is looking to one of his final works. On Friday, January 17, LITA will reissue 2007's Hudson River Wind Meditations, Reed's twentieth and final solo record. (The Metallica collaboration Songs for Lulu followed in 2011 and became Reed's last-ever full-length studio set.) An album of meditative music, Hudson
Dear Little Buttercup: Rhino's "Start Your Ear Off Right" Features America, The Doors, Grateful Dead, "Three Amigos," More
Rhino is once again inaugurating the new year with a Start Your Ear Off Right campaign, launching this Friday in brick-and-mortar independent record stores (and if the past is any indication, at Barnes and Noble locations across the United States). The vinyl-only slate, which is spread out over the next four release weeks, concentrates on classic rockers (The Doors, Foghat, America, Grateful Dead, Velvet Underground, Black Sabbath, Stevie Nicks, Yes) with a healthy dose of R&B legends (Ray
All-Time High: La-La Land Surprise Expands a Pair of James Bond Scores
Having delivered a typically stunning last batch of archival film score reissues last November, La-La Land Records is wasting no time at all kicking off 2024 with a bang. On Christmas Eve, they surprise-announced two pre-orders of expanded editions of soundtracks to two James Bond films from the '70s and '80s. La-La Land has long been the home of definitive presentations of 007 on CD, having licensed deluxe 2CD sets of three scores fan favorite composer David Arnold composed for Pierce
We Wish You (Another) Merry Discmas!
The stockings are hung, the presents are wrapped, and the time is now to wish all of our readers at The Second Disc a wonderful holiday season before we enter a brief winter hibernation until the new year! 2023 was our 13th year as (we hope!) one of the more fun destinations for music reissues, box sets and catalogue releases. The business has certainly changed a lot in that time - maybe too much vinyl, maybe not enough CDs? - but labels big and small keep finding new, old and interesting
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