If you’re a resident of the storm-ravaged East Coast, you might have recently found yourself singing, “We need a little Christmas, right this very minute! “ I know I have. As happens every year around this same time, holiday albums have already begun to fill the shelves, with new albums arriving from artists old and new as well as reissues from Christmases past. In 2011, Legacy Recordings issued The Classic Christmas Album for Tony Bennett, combining tracks from Bennett’s three holiday-themed
Barry Manilow, Elvis Presley, Kenny G, Willie Nelson, John Denver, Luther Vandross, The Classic Christmas Collection (Legacy) Oh my goodness, it really is almost sort of kind of close to Christmas, yes? Legacy's getting your seasonal fix early with new compilations full of cheer (and, in a few cases, some harder to find Yuletide songs and tracks licensed from non-Legacy albums). Dion, The Complete Laurie Singles / Shoes, 35 Years: The Definitive Shoes Collection / David Cassidy, Romance / The
On February 11, 2011, Barbra Streisand joined some illustrious company, including Bono, Brian Wilson, Aretha Franklin and her “You Don’t Bring Me Flowers” duet partner, Neil Diamond. That was the evening Streisand was recognized as the MusiCares Person of the Year, following in the footsteps of those above-named artists. Streisand was a natural candidate for the honor, as the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences annually bestows it upon an artist with significant artistic
Believe it or not, Christmas is just around the corner…and Barry Manilow is teaming with Legacy Recordings for the festivities. The pop superstar has recorded three very different holiday albums between 1990 and 2007, and all three can be sampled on his Classic Christmas Album, due in stores on October 2, part of Legacy's all-new holiday series. Manilow made his first memorable contribution to the holiday songbook with his own composition “It’s Just Another New Year’s Eve,” co-written with
Dionne Warwick recently announced a new album, produced by Phil Ramone. Entitled Now, the projected October release will reflect on a storied career that’s lasted 50 years. But Warwick was in a very different place then, meaning in 1979. The sophisticated soul singer was at a crossroads. Her unprecedented string of pop and R&B hits written and produced by Burt Bacharach and Hal David at Scepter Records were far in the rearview mirror. Bacharach and David had bitterly split after just
Welcome to another installment of Reissue Theory, where we focus on notable albums and the reissues they may someday see. Today's installment looks back at the mighty career of the late Marvin Hamlisch and how his best songs might be compiled into a truly "Essential" release. On Tuesday morning, August 7, news broke that composer Marvin Hamlisch had unexpectedly died the day before, at the age of 68. The worlds of music, theatre and film were all shocked, as Hamlisch's latest musical, The
Welcome to another installment of Reissue Theory, where we take a look back at notable albums and the reissues they could someday see. Today's column takes a slight departure, looking at an album that never was, but certainly could be. We present Barry Manilow's Live at the Troubadour! Rolling Stone may have famously proclaimed him "the showman of our generation," but when Clive Davis signed Barry Manilow to the fledgling Arista label, he was anything but. Manilow was a longtime accompanist,
Welcome to another installment of Reissue Theory, where we take a look at notable albums and the reissues they may someday see. Long before "Wind Beneath My Wings" and "From a Distance," Bette Midler was blazing a path like few others before or since with her blend of outrageous comedy, musical invention and pure showmanship. Yet despite a treasure trove of unreleased material, Midler's platinum debut, The Divine Miss M, has never been expanded on CD. What might such a reissue be
Sade, The Ultimate Collection (Epic) The sultry British soul band anthologized across two discs, featuring several brand-new tracks - the perfect teaser for their long-awaited summer tour. (Official site) Loudon Wainwright, 40 Odd Years (Shout! Factory) The witty singer/songwriter is anthologized across four CDs and a DVD. Check for Joe's review later today! (Shout! Factory) Rush, Moving Pictures: Deluxe Edition (Blu-Ray) (Mercury/UMe) Already available at Best Buy since April, the
While Barry Manilow's fans patiently wait for 15 Minutes, his first album of all original material since 2001's Here at the Mayflower, Arista and Legacy will offer a chance to look back at some past moments in Manilow's long career. Duets compiles fifteen teamings, some more difficult to find than others, spanning the period between 1980 ("The Last Duet" with Lily Tomlin, from Barry) and 2008 ("Islands in the Stream" with Reba McEntire, from The Greatest Songs of the Eighties.) This 15-track
Way back in August, The Second Disc reported on a flood of titles in Legacy's budget Playlist series. Today, a whole bunch of them are released, and if you haven't yet made your weekly trip to the record store and were wondering what might be in store, you'll have your answer after the jump. Read on to see the newest compilations for Barry Manilow, Stevie Ray Vaughan, The Isley Brothers, gospel titles from Johnny Cash, Elvis Presley and Dolly Parton and much more!
The Second Disc kicks off the week with a bit of synergy. Our very own Mike Duquette contributed a wonderful piece over at Popdose looking at the hidden musical treasures you can find at your local grocery store - of all places! - including Sony/Legacy's Playlist: The Very Best of Daryl Hall & John Oates. If you haven’t checked out Mike’s incisive, entertaining feature, please do so now, and then rejoin me here. Okay? Good. Welcome back! With summer turning to fall, and fall traditionally
And Legacy’s Essential train just keeps on rolling along. Upgrades to Essential 3.0 have been announced for two popular volumes in the long-running series, The Essential "Weird Al" Yankovic and The Essential Barry Manilow. The new editions will expand the 2-CD releases with a third disc containing 6 and 7 tracks, respectively. While none of the tracks on the third discs appear to be rare, Essential 3.0 titles are usually priced very similarly to the original 2-CD sets (retailing for
Apologies if The Second Disc is flooding your Web space with posts today. I, for one, am thrilled; it's nice to see great news getting us catalogue enthusiasts through the week. And here are three little briefs to further your excitement for all things reissues: Steven Van Zandt recently talked to a U.K. radio station about the long-in-development reissue of Bruce Springsteen's Darkness on the Edge of Town (1978). It looks like it might follow the format of this year's Exile on Main St.
Back Tracks left Barry Manilow in 1984 after the release of his first genre-specific album, the jazz-inflected 2:00 a.m. Paradise Café. We pick up with him shifting gears in an attempt to once again court the pop market. He’s left his longtime label, Arista, and signed a new deal with RCA. This union would be a short-lived one, producing just four albums: two sets of his greatest hits as sung in Spanish and Portuguese, and the following two discs... Manilow (RCA, 1985 - reissued Legacy,
Where Barry Manilow is concerned, it's best to let the facts speak for themselves. A Grammy, Emmy and Tony Award winner, Manilow scored his first Billboard No. 1 album in 1977, his most recent in 2006. His string of hit singles extended from 1974's chart-topping "Mandy" to 1983's Top 20 "Read 'Em and Weep," with 38 songs hitting the Top 40. He's recorded over 25 studio albums and released countless more live discs, compilations and soundtracks, and regularly plays to sell-out houses after over