Welcome to this week's Release Round-Up - one of the year's biggest! Frank Sinatra, World on a String (Capitol/UMe) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K./ Amazon Canada) Featuring performances spanning 1953 to 1982, this new live collection boasts more than four hours' worth of rare audio and video from the legendary Chairman of the Board - over 90 tracks on CD alone including such Sinatra favorites as "I Get a Kick Out of You," "I've Got You Under My Skin," "The Lady is a Tramp," "Witchcraft"
Review: Keely Smith, "The Intimate Keely Smith: Expanded Edition"
Rarely has an album so lived up to its name as in the case of The Intimate Keely Smith. The 1965 Reprise record, just brought to CD for the first time in a top-notch expanded edition via Real Gone Music, puts the song stylist front and center onstage in a tiny club, backed by just a small combo. The listener has a stage-side table. Other than the happy lack of clinking glasses and billowing smoke, you are there for a romantic, sensual, and yes, intimate set of classic ballads by Harry Warren,
Release Round-Up: Week of October 14
Welcome to this week's Release Round-Up! Big Star, Complete Third (Omnivore Recordings) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada) Omnivore does an in-depth vault dive into the creation of Big Star's Third for a new 3-CD box set. Complete Third includes every demo, rough mix, outtake, alternate take and final master from the Third sessions known to exist. The 69 tracks on this set represent the culmination of a decade-long search to assemble all extant recordings for the album
Friday's Child: Lee Hazlewood Meets Indie Rock On Ace's New "Son-of-a-Gun"
Ace has previously surveyed the singular oeuvre of musical iconoclast Lee Hazlewood on a number of releases including Califia: The Songs of Lee Hazlewood and, more recently, Shazam! and Other Instrumentals Written by Lee Hazlewood. Now, on Son-of-a-Gun and More from the Lee Hazlewood Songbook, the label has returned to the territory of Califia with a twist. Whereas that compilation focused on Lee’s vivid, quirky songs as performed by Nancy Sinatra, Dusty Springfield, Ann-Margret, Dino, Desi
Review: David Bowie, "Who Can I Be Now? 1974-1976"
Who Can I Be Now? asks the title of Parlophone's second in a series of elegant, chronologically-assembled box sets dedicated to the late David Bowie's oeuvre. Indeed, Bowie might have made that query as he reinvented himself in fashion and music from album to album. The twelve discs comprising Who Can I Be Now? span the brief period of 1974-1976 during which time Bowie was riding high on both sides of the Atlantic with his genre- and gender-bending brand of theatrical rock. This set, every
A Swingin' Safari: El Reissues Classics From James Last, Bert Kaempfert, Bernard Herrmann
Cherry Red's El imprint has recently turned its attention to a trio of disparate composer-conductors. Happy Sounds Forever reissues the 1963 album from James Last, the king of "happy music," and adds selections from the catalogue of Bert Kaempfert ("Strangers in the Night") to round out the disc. On the other end of the spectrum, the label also has The Fantasy Film World of Bernard Herrmann, a collection dedicated to film score maestro and Alfred Hitchcock's most notable musical
Release Round-Up: Week of September 23
Welcome to this week's Release Round-Up, packed with heavy hitters! David Bowie, Who Can I Be Now (1974-1976) (Parlophone) 12-CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada 13-LP: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada David Bowie - Who Can I Be Now? (1974-1976), the second in the late artist's series of deluxe albums box sets, will contain the following albums plus a 128-page booklet in the CD edition (or 84 pages in the vinyl edition. You'll find more details here, and watch
Oh By Gosh, By Golly: Second Disc Records Celebrates Christmas with Jack Jones, Eddy Arnold and Mitch Miller
The most wonderful time of the year is upon us once again, and as longtime readers know, The Second Disc is always excited to spread the holiday spirit! This year is a particularly special year for us, as we're thrilled to bring not one, not two, but three new releases to CD on November 4 via Second Disc Records in association with the premier label for holiday tunes, Real Gone Music! First up is the CD debut one of the most-demanded holiday albums of all time. For more than six
It Had To Be You: Real Gone's October Slate Features Eddie Money, Keely Smith, Mahalia Jackson, John Hammond, Percy Faith and More
Real Gone Music has just announced their October slate of titles and while only one of them will get you into the Halloween spirit, there might well be something else among the eclectic choice of genres to pique your interest! First up, Real Gone is releasing three two-disc greatest hits collections. One of these features liner notes from our very own Joe Marchese: Percy Faith's The Definitive Collection. Faith was hugely in demand at Columbia Records, arranging and conducting for a large
Review: The Turtles, "Complete Original Album Collection" and "All the Singles"
Prepare to be shell-shocked! Manifesto Records and FloEdCo have, at long last, given fans of The Turtles deluxe sets befitting the band's happy (and happily subversive!) musical legacy. The 6-CD Complete Original Album Collection and 2-CD All the Singles round up, in truly definitive fashion, the original band's recordings between 1965 and 1970 as first released on White Whale Records. Though The Turtles have long been recognized as top-flight purveyors of classic 45s, a journey through their
You Keep Me Swinging: Parlophone Collects Matt Monro's "The George Martin Years"
Earlier this year, George Martin passed away at the age of 90. Among the great producer's most lasting associations was with vocalist Matt Monro. Martin and Monro's professional partnership endured for more than fifteen years, while their friendship survived until the singer's untimely death in 1985 at just 54 years old. Now, the joint Martin/Monro legacy has been celebrated on a wonderful new anthology. Matt Monro's The George Martin Years is available now from Rhino and Parlophone U.K.,
The Summer Knows: Varese Collects Snuff Garrett's Movie Music On "50 Guitars Go to the Movies"
Between 1961 and 1973, legendary producer Thomas Lesslie "Snuff" Garrett released over two dozen albums as The 50 Guitars of Tommy Garrett, making an indelible contribution to the "easy listening" instrumental market. The multitalented Garrett was at his most prolific, overseeing the 50 Guitars albums during a period in which he produced a variety of artists including Cher, Gary Lewis and the Playboys, Vicki Lawrence, Vikki Carr, and Jim Nabors. Last year, Varese Vintage reissued The 50
La-La Means I Love You: The Delfonics, Survivor, Brook Benton and Sea Level Join Eddy Arnold On Real Gone's July Slate
Yesterday we told you about Second Disc Records' and Real Gone Music's July 1 release of Eddy Arnold's Chet Atkins and Lee Hazlewood albums from 1970 and now we've got the news of the rest of Real Gone's line-up for right before Independence Day. First up is a compilation featuring notes by our very own Joe Marchese: 40 Classic Soul Sides from The Delfonics. When Stan Watson introduced a group (including brothers William and Wilbert Hart and Randy Cain) he was managing to a young Thom Bell
Edsel's In a Bobby Darin Bag With "Shadow" and "Broadway" Reissues
We're proud to have kicked off the Bobby Darin 80th birthday celebration earlier this month with Second Disc Records/Real Gone Music's release of Another Song on My Mind: The Motown Years. The Bobby festivities will continue next month from Edsel Records with the re-reissue of a pair of currently out-of-print titles previously released as a two-fer. The Demon Music Group imprint has new standalone editions of Darin's 1966 albums The Shadow of Your Smile and In a Broadway Bag arriving on June
Happy Birthday, Bobby: Darin's "Another Song on My Mind: The Motown Years" ARRIVES TOMORROW!
Will the real Bobby Darin please stand up? Between his first single in 1956 and his final recordings in 1973, the artist born Walden Robert Cassotto on May 14, 1936 blazed his path through rock-and-roll, big-band swing, jazz, R&B, soul, country, folk, pop, rock, and everything in between. Yet each reinvention was genuine, and each represented the real Bobby Darin. The driven artist brought fervor and passion to every style he tackled throughout his tragically-short life. Tomorrow,
In Memoriam: Billy Paul (1934-2016)
Farewell to another remarkable voice. Philly soul and R&B legend Billy Paul has passed away at the age of 81, leaving behind a decades-long legacy of rich, passionate and sublimely soulful music. Big Break Records has been one of the stewards of Billy's musical history on CD; below, we've reprinted our review of 2014's reissue of Feelin' Good at the Cadillac Club in this great artist's memory. Big Break Records and Billy Paul - they've got a thing going on. The label, an imprint
Release Round-Up: Week of April 15
Welcome to this week's Release Round-Up! Phil Collins, No Jacket Required and Testify: Deluxe Editions (Atlantic/Rhino) No Jacket Required 2-CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada No Jacket Required LP: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada Testify 2-CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada Testify LP: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada Phil Collins' No Jacket Required, originally released in 1985 and still the artist's most commercially successful album,
Él Reissues Vintage Bossa Nova from Silvia Telles, Vocal Harmony Sound of The Johnny Mann Singers
Today's spotlight is on two releases from él Records from bossa nova legend Silvia Telles and easy-listening vocal group The Johnny Mann Singers! In recent years, the él label has issued bossa nova -centric reissues and anthologies from some of the genre's leading lights including Antonio Carlos Jobim, Joao Gilberto, Joao Donato, Vinicius De Moraes, and Luis Bonfá. The Cherry Red imprint has just added a new release from Silvia Telles to that list. Telles, who tragically died in a car
Some Velvet Morning: Ace Salutes Lee Hazlewood on "Shazam!"
The title of Ace's new entry in its Songwriter Series - Shazam! - doesn't refer to Captain Marvel's magic word or Gomer Pyle's favorite expression. Rather, the new compilation CD is titled after Duane Eddy's (naturally) twangy western gallop "Shazam!" penned by Eddy and maverick producer Lee Hazlewood and released in 1960. (Okay, Duane and Lee likely did take its name from C.C. Beck and Bill Parker's popular comic book superhero!) Shazam! and Other Instrumentals Written by Lee Hazlewood is
Sarah Vaughan's "Live at Rosy's" Premieres 1978 Concert On CD
"Live from Rosy's...The Divine One, Sarah Vaughan!" So begins Resonance Records and NPR Music's new release, Live at Rosy's. It would take an extraordinary talent to live up to that sobriquet, but throughout her career, Sarah Vaughan certainly did. Live at Rosy's is the first commercial release of Vaughan's May 31, 1978 performances at the New Orleans nightspot, recorded for NPR's Jazz Alive program and presented here as remastered from the original eight multitrack reels. Vaughan was backed
Review: Elvis Presley, "The Album Collection"
I. Playing for Keeps "You don't have to face the music...you don't have to face the crowd...Just go back where you came from," sings a world-weary Elvis Presley on "It's Easy for You," the closing track of his 1977 album Moody Blue. "If you ever tire of the good life, call me in a year or two...I've got no choice, I'll forgive you, 'cause it's easy for you." Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice's musical recrimination not only dated back to the superstar artist's final studio session - at home
Reviews: A Real Gone Trio From The Mamas and the Papas, King Curtis and Nat "King" Cole
Real Gone Music has had some of its most expansive collections released this winter. Today, Randy takes a look at three of them, from The Mamas and the Papas, King Curtis, and Nat "King" Cole! "You gotta go where you wanna go, do what you wanna do, with whoever you want to do it with..." From their very first single, 1966's "Go Where You Wanna Go," The Mamas and the Papas spread their singular brand of California sunshine. The group's songs espoused the
Everything's Coming Up Roses: Masterworks Broadway's Winter Slate Highlighted by "Essential Sondheim," "Sweet Charity" and "Kismet"
While the months of January and February are usually down times on Broadway, Sony's Masterworks Broadway is keeping things going during the winter by announcing a quartet of musical theater titles to be released between now and March. The most expansive release, due February 26, is another entry in Sony's long-running Essential series: The Essential Stephen Sondheim. Sondheim, of course, needs no introduction to musical theater aficionados. Perhaps the most acclaimed theatrical
Popsicles, Icicles and More: Ace Collects The Best of The Murmaids
Ace Records has recently made quite a splash with the first-ever comprehensive compendium from one-hit wonder girl group The Murmaids. But as the collection so accurately titled A Few of the Things We Love reveals, the girls had more to offer than just "Popsicles and Icicles." This collection is pure girl group manna! That nostalgic composition by the young David Gates, pre-"Make It with You" and "Baby I'm a-Want You" fame, of course kicks off this 21-track anthology comprising The
A Little Bit Micky, A Little Bit Peter: 7a Presents Dolenz and Noone In Conversation On CD
A Monkee and a Hermit walk into a bar... Well, actually it was a theatre, The Monkee was Micky Dolenz, and the Hermit was none other than Herman himself, Peter Noone. Just last month, sixties survivors and music legends Dolenz and Noone shared a stage together for three intimate evenings of candid conversation. Those lucky enough to attend one of the talks (including yours truly) won't soon forget the pair's easy camaraderie and seemingly endless well of riotous and revealing
- « Previous Page
- 1
- …
- 10
- 11
- 12
- 13
- 14
- …
- 23
- Next Page »