Here's some news from around the world of catalogue soundtrack releases, including developments on notable box sets and a surprise expansion from La-La Land Records. The busy label has finally announced a release date of next Tuesday, April 12, for their biggest-sized title yet - an eight-disc box set of music from the Medal of Honor video game series. The long-running franchise, conceived by Steven Spielberg for the Sony PlayStation game console, has featured music by several composers, most
Rhino Resurrects "L.A. Woman" This Fall
It was hard not to worry about Rhino for awhile. Since the new year kicked off, things have been eerily quiet from the venerable label and catalogue arm of Warner Music Group (currently prepping for a major reorganization). Outside of the largesse of the Europe '72 box set from The Grateful Dead and a few soundtrack selections, all was quiet. Now, one of Warner's most enduring catalogue artists looks to be getting another reissue: hot off the presses, Rhino's announced a 40th anniversary
"Trouper" to Get More Super on New ABBA Deluxe Set
The ABBA catalogue has seen plenty of expansions, compilations and catalogue activity (see this Back Tracks post for the proof) over the years, and we can now add one more to the list: Super Trouper, the band's penultimate album, is being reissued yet again with a bonus DVD of unreleased goodies. Super Trouper was the group's penultimate album, a conscious attempt to distance the group from the increasingly-hated genre of disco. The more straightforward pop stylings were still as successful
Rosanne's Record Shop: "The Essential Rosanne Cash" Coming from Legacy
It’s no small feat to become a success in the music business, but it may be an even greater accomplishment when your father is a legend. While the cachet of a famous last name may provide entrée into the industry, only a major, singular voice can maintain a long career. The number of such successes is small, but an undoubted member of the elite club is Rosanne Cash. Like Nancy Sinatra and Natalie Cole, Cash has defied the odds to become a living legend herself, and produced a body of work
Back Tracks: Nirvana
Seventeen years ago today, Generation X lost an icon when Kurt Cobain, the talented, troubled frontman for Nirvana, took his own life in his Seattle home. Nirvana were three albums into their career, but had already redefined music for an entire cachet of disaffected youth. The genre that came to be known as grunge music, based on frequently alternating dynamics, heavy distortion and angst-filled lyrics, was forged largely under the songwriting tactics of Cobain, who very reluctantly accepted
Musicals Are Busting Out All Over: Masterworks Announces Next Wave of Vintage Releases
Sony's Masterworks Broadway label has announced the next three titles it will rescue from the vaults of Columbia and RCA Victor, and the albums have one person in common: Richard Rodgers. Still one of the most-recorded composers of all time (Rodgers' "My Funny Valentine," co-written by Lorenz Hart, was the third most-covered song of 2010 according to ASCAP, no small feat considering the song was written in 1937!), Rodgers' collaborations with both Hart and Oscar Hammerstein II are represented in
He's Got What It Takes: Marv Johnson's Motown Years Coming from Kent
Had Marv Johnson (1938-1993) accomplished nothing else, he would still go down in history as the first artist heard on a Motown single. The very first release to come out of Berry Gordy's mighty empire in January 1959, Tamla 101, was Johnson's "Come to Me" b/w "Whisper," both sides of which were written by Gordy and the artist. Thankfully, Johnson did accomplish much more musically, and as a testament to his legacy, Ace's Kent label will release I'll Pick a Rose for My Rose: The Complete Marv
Intrada Premieres Classic Film Soundtracks from Friedhofer, Newman, Small
Fans of Hugo Friedhofer and Alfred Newman have had much to applaud lately, thanks to Kritzerland’s recent reissues of Friedhofer’s One Eyed Jacks and Newman’s The Counterfeit Traitor. Our friends at Intrada last night delivered more for fans of those Golden Age titans with the release of the scores to Two Flags West (1950) and North to Alaska (1960) on one CD; Friedhofer composed the former while Alfred Newman conducted. For the latter, Alfred’s brother Lionel handled scoring duties and also
Release Round-Up: Week of April 5
Rush, Moving Pictures: 30th Anniversary Edition (Mercury/UMe) A CD/DVD remaster of one of the Canadian rock band's most beloved albums, featuring a 5.1 surround remaster of the album and some rare music videos on the DVD. If you're in the U.S., Best Buy is currently the only place you can get the set on CD/Blu-Ray; it'll be available to general retail on May 3. (Amazon) Material Issue, International Pop Overthrow: 20th Anniversary Edition (Hip-o Select) An underrated power-pop classic gets
Review: Aretha Franklin, "Take a Look: Aretha Franklin Complete on Columbia"
Some legends are repeated so often that they’ve come to be accepted as the truth. One such legend has it that the suits at Columbia Records, circa 1960-1965, were a chain of fools who kept Aretha Franklin from reaching her potential. After all, the record states that one year and one record after being released from Columbia, a superstar was born. But what if that notion was completely incorrect, and Aretha Franklin’s talent was already fully formed and on display at Columbia? Listen to the
Jay Reatard Celebrated on New Reissue
Memphis-born musician Jimmy Lee Lindsey, Jr., better known as Jay Reatard, gained a considerable cult following with his brand of all-over-the-place garage-rock. Though Reatard died last January at the too-young age of 29, he left a pretty long musical legacy, not only as a solo act but through his early bands, The Reatards and The Lost Souls. Reatard's original label, Goner Records, announced in January plans to reissue some of those early recordings, and now news has broke that one of
David Bowie to Unleash "Golden Years" Remixes Across Multiple Formats
Well, there hasn't been any news of David Bowie releasing his lost album Toy, even after it was unceremoniously leaked two weeks ago. But some old Bowie material will indeed be coming to light in a new way on June 6, when the musician and iconoclast releases Golden Years as both an EP and iPhone application. Golden Years, the EP, will feature Bowie's original 1975 track and four remixes by Anthony Valadez, Eric J. Lawrence, Chris Douridas and Jeremy Sole of KCRW. It will be released in an array
Ozzy's "Blizzard" and "Madman" LPs to Be Expanded in May (UPDATE 4/4)
UPDATE 4/4: This isn't particularly new, but in case anyone stumbled upon this post, there was some initial confusion as to the existence of bonus tracks on the Diary of a Madman set. Everything has now been properly edited. Original post: Last year, Legacy promised to turn October into "Rocktober" with the reissues of Blizzard of Ozz and Diary of a Madman, the first two solo albums by Ozzy Osbourne. Those reissues were unsurprisingly well-received by fans, particularly following the revelation
No Need to Ask: Sade Compilation Track List Unveiled
Lovers rejoice! The track list for Sade's The Ultimate Collection has been revealed by our friends at Vintage Vinyl News. The two-disc set, set for release May 3 - in advance of the British soul band's forthcoming tour - is the band's second compilation and the first to span all of their albums to date, from Diamond Life in 1984 to last year's Soldier of Love. It features 14 of the 16 tracks that made up 1996's single-disc The Best of Sade - omitting "Like a Tattoo" from Love Deluxe (1992) and
Everybody Dance! Japan Gets New CHIC Compilation
As a celebration of being cancer-free, CHIC guitarist and producer extraordinaire Nile Rodgers announced today that Warner Japan was releasing a new compilation of material that spans both his work with the legendary disco band and in the producer's chair. Everybody Dance!, billed as "a tribute to my longtime partner Bernard Edwards" on the front cover (it's approaching the 15th anniversary of the bassist's death), is a two-disc set full of hits, one new track - and one absolute oddity. Disc 1,
The Second Disc is Grand
Well, one grand, anyway. This post is the 1,000th regular post on The Second Disc. I think I speak for myself and Joe pretty well when I say this is damn exciting. With our hit count now regularly around 3,000 and up per day, it's heartening to know that so many people (or a few people a lot of times per day, or robots) like reading news on reissues and box sets, and the crazy would-be sets that we'd like to think could be made in the future. On the right side of the page, we have a link called
Hey, Baby! It's Nino and April, Compiled on Ace!
Few artists have blurred the lines between jazz, rock and traditional pop as well as Nino Tempo. Both the multi-talented Tempo (saxophonist, arranger, songwriter, producer, actor) and his sister April Stevens have managed extraordinarily long, diverse careers in the music business; April's first single was released in 1950! Ace next week releases the most comprehensive retrospective yet for Nino and April. Hey, Baby!: The Nino Tempo and April Stevens Anthology compiles their work at numerous
More from Macca: "Run Devil Run," "Driving Rain" and "Chaos and Creation" Coming from Hear Music
Way back in February, our pals at MusicTAP passed along the news that Hear Music would continue Paul McCartney's catalogue reissue series on May 24 with three new titles, 1999's Run Devil Run, 2001's Driving Rain, and 2005's Chaos and Creation in The Back Yard. This trio will arrive in advance of the June 7 deluxe reissues of McCartney (1970) and McCartney II (1980). Both of those titles are part of The Paul McCartney Archive Collection and will contain extensive bonus material similar to last
Reissue Theory: Aretha Franklin at Arista
The music industry is littered with careers that crashed after a second chance at the spotlight. This could have easily befallen even a legend like Aretha Franklin; the Queen of Soul had in fact risen on a second chance at Atlantic after a largely unsuccessful career with Columbia, but by the late 1970s, Aretha's attempts to fall in with the trends of rhythm and blues were frequently derided, and ultimately she would sever her ties with the label. Against all odds - not counting the fact that
We Will Box You: Queen Remasters Box Coming to U.S.
Just a quick note for those of you thinking about how you're going to tackle these Queen remasters when they come to the United States on May 17 (they're of course already available in the U.K.): just as England got a special box of all five deluxe editions, so will we. But it's not going to be found in any store. Queen's Facebook page (the band is actually really good at using social media to update fans appropriately) just linked to an Amazon-exclusive Queen 40 box that will contain the
Bing Crosby Goes "Through the Years" and Crosby Archive Continues Digitally
With the Collector's Choice Music label in a state of flux and no new releases on the horizon, disappointment is in the air. One of the most acclaimed series created at Collector's Choice in recent years is The Bing Crosby Archive. With the cooperation of Crosby's family and access to his personal collection, executive producer Gordon Anderson spearheaded a deluxe series of expanded reissues restoring the legendary artist's album catalogue to print. While no formal announcement has been made by
Don't Know Why It Is At All: Universal Releases New Aerosmith Compilation
Aerosmith hasn't released an album of new material since 2004 (and that was a covers record, so the last album of original material was in 2001). Recent affairs between Steven Tyler and Joe Perry have veered toward acrimony, after Tyler injured himself on tour and began insisting his desire to work on "Brand Tyler" (i.e.: a solo album); this ultimately manifested itself into a gig replacing Simon Cowell as a judge on American Idol, a gig that has been bizarre but not disastrous. It would not be
Tom Waits Has Other Sonic Problems
Tom Waits' voice may not be for everyone, but there were bigger problems than that to notice on the recent repressings of his first four albums on red vinyl from Rhino. The reissues, put out several months back, have been plagued with sporadic problems that seem to lie with the mastering or transfer onto vinyl. Fortunately, Anti- Records has begun an exchange program and promised their customers that these problems will be corrected and avoided for future vinyl reissues of the Waits
Reissue Theory: Aretha Franklin, "Sweet Passion: The Lost Atlantic Years"
Welcome to another installment of Reissue Theory, where we reflect on great albums and the reissues they could someday see. Aretha Franklin began her groundbreaking stint at Atlantic Records in 1967 and it wasn’t long before a legendary star was in the ascendant. Yet the final chapter of Aretha’s Atlantic story has been all but forgotten. Today’s Reissue Theory takes us back to 1974 as we revisit the “lost albums” of Aretha Franklin. There are plenty of adjectives that can be used to describe
Legacy Provides Relief for Japan
Now here's a surprise. iTunes, in concert with the major record labels, put together a 38-song compilation called Songs for Japan, the proceeds of which would go to relief funds for the ongoing crises in Japan following a massive earthquake and tsunami that left the country in a state of peril. And now, Amazon has a listing for the compilation on CD from Legacy. (This two-disc set actually omits some of the tracks heard on the iTunes version, namely tracks by Madonna and David Guetta.) While
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