It won't make any sense in today's media-saturated world, but in 1987 and 1988, George Michael was inescapable. The idea that one single artist could grab multiple genders, races, cliques and generations by the shoulders with his or her music is all but impossible today, but the man born Georgios Kyriacos Panayiotou did just that. Faith, released by Epic Records in the fall of 1987, put six tracks in Billboard's Top 5 (two-thirds of them No. 1 hits), netted him a Grammy Award for Album of the
Cherry Pop Reissues Wendy & Lisa Album
Cherry Pop has announced details for a new reissue that will have Prince fans excited: an expansion of Wendy & Lisa's sophomore album, Fruit at the Bottom. Childhood friends, band mates, lovers, soundtrack composers - Wendy Melvoin and Lisa Coleman have had a lengthy, prolific career in the music industry. Both daughters of session musicians, Coleman was approached by Prince in 1980 to play keyboards for his Dirty Mind album. Three years later, with the exit of Dez Dickerson from the band,
Feel Good Music: Flying Burrito Brothers Live Set Coming from Hip-o Select
Hip-o Select has put up a new release for order at the top of the week: a live set by country-rock pioneers The Flying Burrito Brothers. The FBB were the brainchild of Gram Parsons and Chris Hillman, upon leaving The Byrds. The duo were the initial nucleus of the multi-musician ensemble. At the time of the recording of Authorized Bootleg: Late Show, November 7, 1970 The Fillmore East, New York, NY, Parsons and original bassist Chris Ethridge had left and were replaced by Rick Roberts and Bernie
Dionne, Natalie, Nancy Reissues Coming from Soulmusic Label
Cherry Red's got soul. Mike and I reported last week on the impressive slate planned by Cherry Red's Big Break Records label. A smaller yet equally rich line-up is on the way from another Cherry Red division, Soulmusic.com Records.On February 14 in the U.K. and one week later stateside, the label will reissue five classic albums from a trio of accomplished vocalists: Nancy Wilson, Dionne Warwick and Natalie Cole. Perhaps most exciting is the two-on-one CD release of Wilson's 1974 Capitol
Release Round-Up: Week of February 1
George Michael, Faith: Legacy Edition (Epic/Legacy) There's going to be a review of the two-disc/one-DVD edition of this album (also available as a deluxe box set) coming up later today, but let me say right now: Damn. If you forgot how good this record was - how it makes a lot of '80s pop look temporarily flawed and full of effort - go buy this immediately. I'll wait. (Official site) Bob Marley and The Wailers, Live Forever: September 23, 1980 - The Stanley Theatre, Pittsburgh, PA (Tuff
Pearl Jam Reissue Details Trickling Out
We've previously covered the forthcoming wave of Pearl Jam reissues from Legacy, this time pertaining to the band's second and third LPs Vs. (1993) and Vitalogy (1995). It seems that these sets might be closer to stores than previously known, thanks to some Amazon listings. The retailer has March 29 dates for expanded editions of each album, as well as a box that looks to collate both of them with possible additional material. (This clears up a bit of confusion from a Rolling Stone story that
The Name Was Barry
It is with a heavy heart that I pass along to you the news that film composer John Barry died on Sunday. Barry, a five-time Oscar winner, is of course best known for his work on 12 of the 22 James Bond films. Though his authorship of the iconic theme is under dispute even after a U.K. court ruled that it was Dr. No composer Monty Norman's work alone, Barry is still the name most synonymous with Bond music, and crafted some of the series' best themes. The timing of Barry's passing comes at an
New Neil Diamond Compilation: How Much Bang for Your Buck? (UPDATED 2/2)
Come this March, Neil Diamond won't be such a solitary man. Diamond will find plenty of stellar company when he’s inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on March 14. While Diamond has maintained his superstar status in both the recording studio and the concert stage for 45 years, chances are that the recordings he made for Bang Records between 1966 and 1968 were foremost on voters’ minds when choosing to induct the singer into the venerable hall. It’s during this period that Diamond
Would New Queen Reissues Ever Take on the World Someday?
For catalogue fans, the announcement of the track listings for the upcoming Queen reissues was the hot story of the week. New versions of the band's first five albums, each expanded with a host of bonus tracks, are due in the U.K. in March as part of the band's new licensing agreement with Universal Music Group - and there's plenty of room on the fence, because many have taken a stand for or against the sets. To this writer, the track lists probably could have been better - but can't they all
All Aboard "The Big Bus"! FSM Releases Comedy Score by David Shire
Released some years before Airplane! - hell, even before That's Armageddon! - the world had The Big Bus, a 1976 comedy lampooning the then-fashionable swath of disaster films. Though The Big Bus received nowhere near the accolades that Airplane! got, it was a pretty silly romp with stars like Stockard Channing, Ned Beatty, and John Beck (best known as Mark Graison, one of Pamela's beaus on Dallas). It also boasted a score by David Shire, who composed the scores to '70s classics All the
Friday Feature: "Almost Famous"
Thank you, Cameron Crowe. You had me at "hello." You cost me plenty, but my record collection has long been grateful for the education! The integration of popular song and cinema has been around as long as the talking film itself, since the day Al Jolson prefaced his performance of "Toot, Toot, Tootsie (Goodbye)" with the epochal dialogue "Wait a minute, wait a minute, you ain't heard nothin' yet!" These lines from 1927's The Jazz Singer, the first feature-length "talkie" in which
Robert Flack Compilation is Killing Us Softly from the U.K.
U.K. music fans, do you need some romance in your life? Rhino's got you covered the forthcoming release of Love Songs, a new compilation by Roberta Flack. Flack is, of course, one of the most legendary artists on the Atlantic roster, scoring an impressive run of Top 5 hits (including three chart-toppers) through the 1970s. Her iconic "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face" and "Killing Me Softly with His Song" were the first back-to-back Record of the Year Grammy winners by the same artist - and
Reissue Theory: Cher, "A Woman's Story: The Warner Bros. Years"
Welcome to another installment of Reissue Theory, where we reflect on well-known albums of the past and the reissues they could someday see. Before Madonna, before Lady Gaga, there was Cherilyn Sarkisian LaPiere Bono, better-known as Cher. Today, we look at a largely forgotten period of the diva's career, now entering its sixth(!) decade. Cher's latest hit song may be titled "You Haven't Seen the Last of Me," but really, who thought we had? We listeners don't need a modest little Diane Warren
A "Perfect Way" to Get Scritti Politti's Hits Coming Soon
Here's an under-the-radar release for you on this ridiculously snowy day: a new compilation for '80s dance-rock band Scritti Politti from EMI/Virgin. Founded by singer/songwriter Green Gartsdale in Leeds in the late 1970s, Scritti Politti began as a left-leaning post-punk outfit championed by John Peel and signed to Rough Trade and spent the '80s evolving into a funky, synth-based ensemble. "Wood Beez," "Absolute," "The Word Girl" and "Oh Patti" were some of the band's Top 20 singles in their
La La Land to Get a "Clue" in February
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NHEpuz_gUGM] The mystery has finally been solved: it was La La Land Records, on the Internet, with a batch of CDs. Well...in other words, it's been confirmed that one of the label's most hotly-anticipated releases is happening soon: the world-premiere release of John Morris' score to Clue (1985). Clue, of course, comes from a simpler time when movies based on board games and television shows weren't the only ideas circulating throughout Hollywood. In
Review: "The Very Best of The Rat Pack"
What do we know about The Rat Pack, that famed group of celebrity rogues and rapscallions that defined American cool in the early '60s? You might not know that only a third of the classic members of the group were initially included; The Rat Pack was initially made up of actor friends of Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall, including Frank Sinatra but not Dean Martin or Sammy Davis, Jr. But after Bogart's death and the subsequent release of Ocean's 11 in 1960, the classic image of The Rat Pack -
How Killer Are the Queen Reissue Track Lists?
I see a little silhouetto of the track lists of the forthcoming U.K. Queen remasters, as released on the band's official site today. There was a track list posted on the Steve Hoffman forums that was taken from a Japanese Web site and perhaps too heavily devoted to the remixes from The eYe (that odd 1998 computer game with five discs' worth of remixes and instrumental tracks built into the CD-ROMs and suitable for ripping to one's iPod). Those track lists were mostly wrong, thankfully. So what
Aretha Opens "The Great American Songbook"
Can't wait for that massive 11-CD/1-DVD box set, Take a Look: Aretha Franklin Complete on Columbia? Or maybe you're just looking for the perfect Valentine's Day gift? Either way, Legacy may have the disc for you. Next Tuesday, February 1, will see the under-the-radar release of Aretha Franklin's The Great American Songbook from Columbia/Legacy, compiling 18 of the tracks from that massive box set on one CD. Oddly, this release features the same cover art as the upcoming box, not due for
Reissue Theory: Hall and Oates, Extended
Welcome to another installment of Reissue Theory, here we reflect on well-known albums of the past and the reissues they could someday see. Today's post might be out of touch, but we remind fans that Sony's not out of time to release a collection of remixes for one of their greatest acts of the 1980s. There are so many artists who have a lot of great 12" mixes that are either out of print on compact disc or entirely unavailable on the format. Oddly, some of the brightest stars of the MTV era
More Smokey Reissues Cruisin' Your Way (UPDATED)
(UPDATE 1/26: This set is now available to order direct from Hip-o Select.) Usually, the first place to hear about Hip-o Select titles is through Hip-o Select themselves. They keep a semi-frequent newsletter and an active Twitter feed which usually gets the links out to their new reissues and box sets. It's strange, then, that there hasn't yet been a peep about their forthcoming installment in the long-running The Solo Albums two-fers from Smokey Robinson. Meanwhile, Amazon has put up a full
Short Takes: Soundtracks on Tap from Barry, Horner and Mancini
It's already been a busy week here at Second Disc HQ, and the news just keeps on comin'. Three more soundtracks are due from some of the finest composers in film score history: John Barry, James Horner and Henry Mancini. Before becoming an eminence grise in the world of film scoring, John Barry was best-known as the leader of the John Barry Seven, an association which led him to one of his earliest film projects, the score to the 1960 British film Beat Girl. The long-unavailable soundtrack to
Intrada Partially Finds Missing "Link"
It's always a cause for celebration in the soundtrack community when a Jerry Goldsmith score is put into print. Today is no different; one of Goldsmith's scores from the 1980s is one of the two new releases from Intrada. Link was a strange 1986 horror film from England in which Elisabeth Shue and Terence Stamp were pitted against a super-intelligent orangutan. Goldsmith was in his typical '80s form - orchestra augmented with synthesized instruments, not unlike another favorite at Second Disc HQ
Billy Joel's Shea Play on Its Way to Disc in March
The Billy Joel floodgates are about to burst open with the release of Live at Shea Stadium: The Concert, an audio scrapbook of the Piano Man's show-stopping concerts at Shea Stadium, the last major events held at the iconic sporting arena before its closure and demolition. Already documented in Last Play at Shea - a multifaceted documentary on the longtime home of the New York Mets and the Long Island-raised rocker who performed there (to be released on DVD next month) - Columbia/Legacy will
Release Round-Up: Week of January 25
Thin Lizzy, Jailbreak / Johnny the Fox / Live and Dangerous: Deluxe Editions (Universal) A trio of long-awaited deluxe editions from the U.K., featuring bonus tracks, non-LP sides and (in the case of Live and Dangerous) a DVD. (Amazon U.K.) Santana, The Swing of Delight / Zebop! / Shango: 30th Anniversary Editions (Friday Music) Though only one of them is truly a 30th anniversary edition (each album dates back from 1980, 1981 and 1982, respectively), these remasters are more than welcome for
Review: The Jayhawks, "Hollywood Town Hall" and "Tomorrow the Green Grass"
"Please don't call it 'alt-country!'," pleads The Jayhawks' archivist P.D. Larson in the liner notes to the new Legacy Edition of the band's fourth album, 1995's Tomorrow the Green Grass. But whatever you call it, the uniquely American music of the Jayhawks has endured, and is currently being celebrated by American Recordings and Sony/Legacy with two deluxe reissues produced by Larson and John Jackson. The band's major label debut from 1992, Hollywood Town Hall, has been expanded with a clutch
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