Clarence Clemons wasn’t born in New Jersey, but he might as well have been. Those of us who hail from the Garden State are used to the “What exit?” jokes, but truth to tell, we can identify those exits by the great musicians who lived in those towns off the Garden State Parkway or New Jersey Turnpike. One such towering talent was our favorite adopted son Clarence, who had an early job counseling troubled children in Newark (Parkway Exit 145), participated in one of his first recording sessions
Sinatra on Screen: Rare Dramatic Scores By Bernstein and Antheil Arrive From Kritzerland
When Frank Sinatra won the Academy Award as Best Supporting Actor for 1953’s From Here to Eternity, it was the “comeback” story of the year. As Sinatra was earning plaudits in Hollywood, he was also beginning the most significant chapter of his recording career at Capitol Records, recording his Capitol debut Songs for Young Lovers in November 1953. After his triumph as Maggio in From Here, Sinatra’s Hollywood career was riding high, as he embarked on a number of high-profile dramatic films.
Review: Ozzy Osbourne, "Blizzard of Ozz: Expanded Edition" and "Diary of a Madman: Legacy Edition"
There's something wonderful about seeing things in a different light than before. Some of us go through our lives thinking certain things are one way, when others might see the same thing in a totally opposite way. If those two sides see eye-to-eye, though? It's a beautiful thing. I'd like to think that there's a bit of that eye-to-eye business with Epic/Legacy's new reissues of the first two Ozzy Osbourne albums. New fans who pick these packages up will learn that there is so much more to the
Review: Paul Simon, "Live Rhymin'" and Expanded, Remastered Studio Works (1972-1975)
Paul Simon may have titled his latest studio album So Beautiful or So What, but the same name could apply to his catalogue relaunch at Legacy Recordings. So Beautiful has been hailed as a return to form for Simon, writing with a guitar for the first time in many years. A timely reminder of that form and of the style Simon both recalls and updates on the new disc can be rediscovered on these four reissued titles. Paul Simon, There Goes Rhymin’ Simon, Live Rhymin’ and Still Crazy After All
Reissue Theory: Two for the Big Man
Welcome to another installment of Reissue Theory, where we focus on notable albums and the reissues they could someday see. As we wish a speedy recovery to one of rock's most beloved sidemen, we present a special look at a rare moment in the spotlight for the Big Man, Clarence Clemons. To many, the saxophone is just one of those embellishments that can can spice up a pop song or dull its taste. It's hard to deny, however, the tastiness of a tune garnished with the saxophone work of Clarence
Review: Paul McCartney, "The Paul McCartney Archive Collection: McCartney and McCartney II"
Paul McCartney is still on the run, as his just-announced concert tour of the same name attests. But one thing the former Beatle doesn’t have to run from is his own legacy. Last year he inaugurated The Paul McCartney Archive Collection with his 1973 Band on the Run, making the title available in multiple platforms and prices. The next two releases in the non-chronological series have just arrived, and though the formats are slightly tweaked, the same hallmark of quality is evident on the
Legacy Preps "Young Man With The Big Beat" 5-CD Box For Elvis Presley's 1956 Breakthrough
Back in 1956, a promotional poster billed Elvis Presley as a young man with a big beat. Chances are the ad's designers didn't realize just how big that beat was, and how far it would take the boy from Tupelo, Mississippi. Freshly poached from the Sun Records roster, Presley was about to embark on a career at RCA Victor, the label with which he'd remain for the rest of his life. On September 13, celebrating the 55th anniversary of Presley's RCA debut, Sony Legacy will release a comprehensive
Review: "Our Lives Are Shaped By What We Love: Motown's Mowest Story 1971-1973"
The sound is familiar but different. The harmony is spellbinding if a bit woozy. You've only given me a flower/I wish I had the whole bouquet... The track, led by acoustic guitar and gently funky percussion, is spare and raw. If I should ask you for an hour/Is there a chance that you would stay/And maybe spend the day? The falsetto is recognizable but eerily haunting. The song is "You're A Song (That I Can't Sing)" performed by Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons for the album Chameleon, the
"Roll The Bones" In A Rush To Hit Gold CD
Earlier this year, Mercury celebrated 30 years of Rush's Moving Pictures with a deluxe edition including surround mixes and music videos. A more unexpected anniversary for Rush will be recognized next month when Audio Fidelity releases a 24k Gold CD of Roll the Bones, just in time for the platinum seller's 20th anniversary. The 1991 album, the 14th studio effort by Rush, was produced by the band and Rupert Hine (Tina Turner, Howard Jones) and became Rush's first Top 5 album in a decade. Audio
Intrada Preps Pouledoris and Exciting New Series on the Horizon
Intrada has two very interesting catalogue soundtrack titles up for order today - but it's their plans for later in the month that have film score fans dizzy with anticipation. Today brings another set of scores from Basil Pouledoris in Cherry 2000 (1987), a sci-fi cult classic with Melanie Griffith as a sexy automaton of the future, and The House of God (1984), a barely-seen 1984 adaptation of the satirical medical novel of the same name. While Cherry 2000 will be familiar to fans of
UPDATED 6/13: Mobile Fidelity Delivers The Band's "Stage Fright" On SACD
Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab continues its ongoing series of stereo hybrid SACD reissues of The Band's storied catalogue with the release of the group's third album, Stage Fright. Recorded in Woodstock in 1970, Stage Fright marked a departure for the group in a number of ways. Produced by The Band and engineered by the up-and-coming Todd Rundgren, there were more confessional, personal songs than on The Band or Music from Big Pink, and the harmony vocals were much less prominent. Was The Band -
Friday Feature: Indiana Jones
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ZOcoxjeUYo] This Sunday, June 12, marks the 30th anniversary of one of the best films of all time: Raiders of the Lost Ark. For three decades, Harrison Ford's iconic, fedora-clad hero, Indiana Jones, has become a touchstone of film heroism for the whole world. The brilliant visionaries who created Jones, producer/directors George Lucas and Steven Spielberg, reinvented blockbuster cinema on their own time; together, they created what may be the perfect
Ipanema, Again: "Getz/Gilberto" Restored To Original Mix For New SACD and Vinyl LP
Bossa nova, translated, literally means "new trend." And as 1964 began, with the British Invasion taking flight, America was also experiencing a Brazilian Invasion thanks to this new trend in popular music and jazz. Identified by gentle acoustic guitar and sometimes piano, and often adorned with subtle string or horn accents, bossa nova was based on the rhythms of the samba. It soon was adapted on stages from the concert hall to Broadway, spawned the "lounge" genre and influenced countless
Judas Priest Prep Singles Box
Judas Priest may be heading toward the finish line, at least as live performances go, with their current Epitaph World Tour (though sadly without founding guitarist K.K. Downing, who elected to retire a bit early), but they still have plenty of irons in the fire - including a neat catalogue set for hardcore collectors. The band announced the impending release of Single Cuts: The Complete U.K. Singles Collection, a 20-disc set replicating every one of the band's British singles, right down to
Tony Bennett's Improv Years Revisited By Concord For Crooner's 85th Birthday
In 1975, Tony Bennett was without a record label and at a crossroads. He had turned down numerous entreaties to return to Columbia Records, the label that launched him to stardom in 1950 but refused to give him the creative freedom he deserved. (See our special feature on Tony Sings the Great Hits of Today for more on that!) He had finished a two-album tenure at MGM Records and felt the time was right to strike out on his own. And so Improv Records was born. And although the label only
Review: Frank Sinatra, "Ring-a-Ding Ding!: Expanded Edition"
Ring-a-ding ding! It can be used as an adjective or an interjection. But when Frank Sinatra chose the expression to title his very first album for his very own label, it was simply an ecstatic expression of pure joy. Sinatra was no longer tethered to Capitol Records, the label at which he'd made history with a series of "concept" albums. He had the freedom to make some new history, his way, when he launched Reprise. And Ring-a-Ding Ding!, now reissued and remastered for its 50th anniversary
Lalo Schifrin Score To Gene Roddenberry Flick Arrives From FSM
Argentinian composer Lalo Schifrin has never been one to be boxed into any single genre. He created one of the most memorable television themes of all time with his “Mission: Impossible,” recorded jazz albums for labels like Verve and Creed Taylor’s CTI, and scored innumerable films, racking up six Oscar nominations in the process. Now, after the recent release by Quartet Records of Schifrin’s score to Pussycat, Pussycat, I Love You, another one of living legend Schifrin’s most unknown scores
Release Round-Up: Week of June 7
Marvin Gaye, What's Going On: 40th Anniversary Edition (Motown/UMe) Two CDs feature the original album and a host of rarities, single mixes, and all the best outtakes leading up to the making of this R&B classic (almost a dozen of which are unreleased). The deluxe package is rounded out by the great Detroit mix of the album on vinyl. (Check out our interview with Harry Weinger on the set!) (Amazon) Paul Simon, Paul Simon / There Goes Rhymin' Simon / In Concert: Live Rhymin' / Still Crazy
Les Baxter's "Marco Polo" Follows "Black Sunday" and "House of Usher" To CD Release
Rory Calhoun as Marco Polo? The California-born star of films like How to Marry a Millionaire and camp cult classic Motel Hell was cast in the title role of 1962's freewheeling Italian historical epic (shot in CinemaScope, no less!) Marco Polo. When the film was picked up for release in America, it was courtesy the wild ones at American-International Pictures! This Marco Polo was directed by Hugo Fregonese and featured a multi-cultural cast with Calhoun playing opposite Yoko Tani. And like
UPDATED 6/6: Some Trouble in Meat Loaf's "Neighbourhood" As Error Found On Deluxe Edition Disc
Whether quarreling with Gary Busey on The Celebrity Apprentice or taking the stage beneath a giant bat, Meat Loaf has never done anything in a small way. So it’s not surprising that EMI’s just-announced 2-CD/1-DVD deluxe reissue of 1995’s Welcome to the Neighborhood looks to be a weighty package! It’s due in the U.K. on June 6, and the original 12-track line-up has been augmented with some choice bonus material. Four bonus tracks have been added to the original album on Disc 1, plus another
Another British Invasion From RPM: Ian and the Zodiacs, Katch-22 Reissued
The RPM arm of the U.K.'s mighty Cherry Red empire has had a busy 2011, recently highlighted by the first-ever collection of the young Dusty Springfield's recordings with The Lana Sisters. The label's latest titles shed light on two largely-overlooked bands to come out of England in the 1960s, Ian and the Zodiacs and Katch 22. The Best of Ian and the Zodiacs: Wade in the Water and Major Catastrophe: The Katch 22 Story are both in stores now, and have much to offer fans of Merseybeat, mod,
MoWest Legacy Celebrated on New Compilation
Indie label Light in the Attic Records has prepped an interesting catalogue compilation for release: an overview of one of Motown's oft-overlooked divisions: MoWest Records. By the 1970s, Berry Gordy had a grander vision for Motown than ever before - one that extended from music into the film industry. To do that, of course, he needed a base of operations in Los Angeles, and the label's L.A. offices went from becoming a branch to the central nervous system of the company in 1972. (It's this
Review: "The Belle of New York: Original Soundtrack Recording"
Film Score Monthly has established a top-notch reputation for restoration, but the label can carve a notch on its belt for resuscitation, too. With the release of the Original Soundtrack Recording of The Belle of New York, FSM has resuscitated the line of expanded MGM musical soundtracks, once the province of Turner Classic Movies Music and Rhino, later Rhino Handmade. Under the aegis of George Feltenstein, the Rhino/Turner affiliation produced definitive editions of classic musical
A Compilation to Leave You Speechless
Here at The Second Disc, it's always about the music. The team at Eric Records takes this mission seriously, too: its newest release provides three discs of nothing but music, with nary a lyric to be found. Complete Pop Instrumental Hits of the Sixties, Volume 1 collates, for the first time on three CDs, every instrumental track that hit the Billboard Hot 100 in 1960. Some of them are chartbusters that we all know and love - Percy Faith's "Theme from 'A Summer Place'," The Ventures' "Walk -
"House of Rufus" Has Lots of Furnishings
Just in case you were waiting on a track list to buy Rufus Wainwright's mega-box House of Rufus, the wait is over. The 19-disc box set, which encompasses all the albums and DVDs the baroque-pop tunesmith has released in his career, is packed with some intriguing extras, too. Many of the CDs are augmented with some sort of bonus tracks, either extra songs that were released as retail exclusives, old or new live performances and outtake material. And there are another four discs of rarities as
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