Release Round-Up: Week of January 22

Welcome to this week’s Release Round-Up! Black Sabbath Deluxe Reissue Series (Warner Bros./Rhino) Black Sabbath: Deluxe Edition – Amazon U.S.: 2CD / 2LP Amazon Canada: 2CD / Amazon U.K.: 2CD Paranoid: Deluxe Edition – Amazon U.S.: 2CD / 2LP Amazon Canada: 2CD / Amazon U.K.: 2CD Master of Reality: Deluxe Edition – Amazon U.S.: 2CD / 2LP Amazon Canada: 2CD / Amazon U.K.: 2CD Past Lives: Amazon U.S.: 2CD / 2LP Amazon Canada: 2CD / Amazon U.K.: 2CD Rhino is reissuing the hard rock legends’ first three albums-Black Sabbath (1970), Paranoid (1970) and Master of Reality (1971)-as deluxe 2CD and 2LP sets, along with the 2002 live collection Past Lives. These collections feature the original albums, as remastered…

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Sister Golden Hair Surprise: America Opens Its “Archives” On New Release

The vaults are open!  The legacy of the enduring band America has received a long-overdue celebration with the recent release on compact disc and digital download of Archives Vol. 1.  Featuring the versatile, original trio of Gerry Beckley, Dewey Bunnell and the late Dan Peek (as well as the talented musicians and producers who contributed mightily to the band’s earliest albums), Archives is a 15-track, non-chronological collection of previously unreleased alternate versions, early mixes, demos, rehearsals and outtakes spanning the period between America’s 1971 debut album America and 1975’s Hearts.  In other…

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Release Round-Up: Week of November 27

To our U.S. readers, today is the day of shopping known as Black Friday – but happily, the diverse slate of releases due in stores today should lift your spirits – no matter where you’re located! Love, Reel to Real: Expanded Edition (High Moon Records) (Amazon U.S.) High Moon Records has the premiere reissue of Arthur Lee and Love’s 1974 album Reel to Real as a newly-expanded Deluxe Edition boasting a color, 32-page booklet.  A vinyl edition will follow early next year.  Read more here! America, Archives Volume One (America Records) (Amazon…

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Keepin’ The Summer Alive: Ricci Martin’s “Beached” ARRIVES TOMORROW From Second Disc Records!

“I was living up the street from Carl Wilson and his wife Annie,” Ricci Martin told me in July of this year. “I was over his house, playing his piano. And Carl said, ‘God, I really like that! Did you write that?’ And I said, ‘Yeah, I wrote that!’ And he said, ‘How would you like to record that?’ And I said, ‘Of course, absolutely!’”  The song Ricci was playing was “Stop, Look Around,” a shimmering slice of Southern California pop that would open his 1977 Epic Records album Beached.  Carl Wilson…

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Review: Chicago, “The Studio Albums” and America, “The Warner Bros. Years”

In 1969, Chicago Transit Authority – a.k.a. Robert Lamm, Peter Cetera, Terry Kath, Danny Seraphine, Lee Loughnane, James Pankow and Walter Parazaider – released its first album on Columbia Records.  46 years and a total of 36 core albums later, the band simply known as Chicago is still intact with Lamm, Loughnane, Pankow and Parazaider.  In the waning days of 1971, another band made its first appearance on records.  America – the trio of Gerry Beckley, Dewey Bunnell and Dan Peek – arrived on December 29 of that year with a self-titled…

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Catch a Wave! Second Disc Records Expands Ricci Martin’s All-Star “Beached” Featuring Carl Wilson, Dennis Wilson, Chicago Horns and More

What if key members of The Beach Boys, Chicago, America, and Wings had teamed up to create one of the greatest California rock albums you’ve never heard?  Well, they actually did!  And on September 11, Second Disc Records, in association with Real Gone Music, will be bringing it to CD in the U.S. for the very first time in a newly-remastered and expanded edition! Singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, author and director Ricci Martin, the sixth child of legendary “King of Cool” Dean Martin (and younger brother of Dino, Desi and Billy’s Dean-Paul Martin!), got…

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Release Round-Up: Week of July 17

Welcome to this week’s Release Round-Up featuring classic rock, soul and jazz box sets and more! Sly and the Family Stone, Live at the Fillmore East: October 4th and 5th, 1968 (Epic/Legacy) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.) Dance to the music!  On October 4th and 5th, 1968, shortly after the release of the band’s third album Life, Sly & The Family Stone took the stage for a two-night, four-show engagement at Bill Graham’s Fillmore East in New York City.  Epic Records recorded all four of the band’s concerts (two shows per night) with…

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Sister Golden Hair Surprise: Remastered, Complete “America: The Warner Bros. Years” Box Due in July

Get ready for another ride down Ventura Highway.  On July 17, Rhino will release the new 8-CD box set America: The Warner Bros. Years 1971-1977 collecting all of the studio and live albums released by the band for the Warner Bros. label: America (1971), Homecoming (1972), Hat Trick (1973), Holiday (1974), Hearts (1975), Hideaway (1976), Harbor (1977), and America Live (1977).  Happily, we can report that every one of these albums will be presented in newly-remastered sound prepared in 2014! The trio consisting of Gerry Beckley, Dewey Bunnell and Dan Peek, three…

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Release Round-Up: Week of April 21

Today’s Release Round-Up features an array of titles including a box set from the one and only Chairman of the Board, a number of vintage albums in surround sound, a classic reissue from a new Rock and Roll Hall of Famer, and more! Frank Sinatra, Ultimate Sinatra (Capitol/UMe) 4-CD Box:  Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. 1-CD Highlights:  Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. 2-CD Target Exclusive: Target.com 2-LP: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. Standard Edition DD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. The 100th birthday of Ol’ Blue Eyes is celebrated with a variety of releases under the Ultimate Sinatra umbrella,…

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The Entertainers: Billy Joel, America, Labelle, Earth Wind and Fire Get Surround-Sound Treatment From Audio Fidelity

Audio Fidelity is continuing its well-received series of surround-sound releases on hybrid SACD with a trio of quadraphonic (4.0) titles from 1974 and one classic rock favorite from 1972 in 5.1.  All of these titles feature the surround mix on the high resolution SACD layer with a newly-remastered version of the original stereo mix on both the SACD and standard CD layers. The ’72 classic is America’s Homecoming.  The second album by the trio of Dewey Bunnell, Gerry Beckley and Dan Peek, Homecoming introduced the Top 10 Pop/Top 5 AC hit single…

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