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/ Carla Thomas

April 11, 2025 By The Second Disc 1 Comment

record store day logo

Tomorrow, Record Store Day is once again upon us! It's that time of year where music lovers and vinyl flippers get together at their favorite physical music retailers and wait in line to snag some treasured albums - almost all of which are pressed on vinyl instead of CD (or, you know, sold on secondary marketplaces for above their retail value).  This year, the list tops out at over 300 titles, so there's very nearly something for everybody.  It wasn't easy to narrow our choices down to around

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Categories: News Formats: CD, Vinyl Genre: Classic Rock, Folk, Jazz, Pop, R&B/Soul, Rock, Soundtracks Tags: a-ha, Carla Thomas, David Bowie, Doc Pomus, Duran Duran, Elton John, Jackie DeShannon, John Lennon, John Williams, Joni Mitchell, Marianne Faithfull, Mel Brooks, Neil Finn, Oasis, Prince, Queen, Record Store Day, Stephen Schwartz, Sting, Talking Heads, The Replacements, Todd Rundgren, Vince Guaraldi, Warren Zevon, Yoko Ono

February 6, 2025 By The Second Disc 3 Comments

record store day logo

Mark your calendars for Saturday, April 12 - that's the date this year for Record Store Day, the date upon which fans, collectors, and everyone in between flocks to local independent record stores and hopefully gives those brick-and-mortar stores a leg up for the year!  The full list has been posted, and here at TSD, we'll start today by spotlighting various releases from some of our favorite labels!  Craft Recordings is among those labels, and they've just announced a batch encompassing jazz,

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Categories: News Formats: Vinyl Genre: Jazz, Latin, R&B/Soul, Rock, Soundtracks Tags: A Day to Remember, Carla Thomas, Celia Cruz, Collective Soul, Gerry Mulligan, Record Store Day, Thelonious Monk, Vince Guaraldi, Willie Colon

September 29, 2023 By The Second Disc 2 Comments

Steely Dan Aja

Welcome to this week's Release Round-Up, featuring a selection of the new titles available today! The Spinners, Ain't No Price on Happiness: The Thom Bell Studio Recordings (1972-1979) (SoulMusic/Cherry Red) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada) Earlier this year, Second Disc Records and Real Gone Music celebrated the extraordinary legacy of The Spinners with the release of The Complete Atlantic Singles: The Thom Bell Productions 1972-1979, collecting a whopping 43 single sides

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Categories: News Formats: Box Sets, CD, Digital Download, Digital Streaming, SACD, Vinyl Genre: Classic Rock, Country, Disco/Dance, Electronic, Holiday, Latin, Pop, Popular Standards/Vocal, R&B/Soul, Rock Tags: Ann Wilson, Billie Holiday, Carla Thomas, Electronic, Grateful Dead, Green Day, HAIM, Jason Isbell, Otis Redding, Sarah Vaughan, Steely Dan, The Spinners, Wilco

September 25, 2023 By The Second Disc 2 Comments

Stax Christmas

'Tis the season to be soulful: This Friday, September 29, Craft Recordings and Stax Records will celebrate the holidays with the CD, LP, and digital release of A Stax Christmas.  This festive 12-track compilation features songs by the label's most beloved artists including two previously unreleased tracks from Carla Thomas and Otis Redding. The venerable Memphis label has had a long association with the music of Christmas.  House band Booker T. and The MG's 1966 album In the Christmas Spirit

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Categories: News Formats: CD, Digital Download, Digital Streaming, Vinyl Genre: Holiday, R&B/Soul Tags: Albert King, Carla Thomas, Isaac Hayes, Otis Redding, Rufus Thomas, The Emotions, The Rance Allen Group, The Staple Singers, Various Artists

April 27, 2023 By Mike Duquette Leave a Comment

Stax demos box

How do you follow up an essential document like this year's comprehensive Wattstax box set? If you're Craft Recordings, you plan a trip deep into the unheard history of the legendary Memphis label, through dozens of demos released for the first time anywhere. Written in Their Soul: The Stax Songwriter Demos is an impressive 7CD anthology including 146 demo versions of enduring Stax hits and fan favorites, songs written by label songwriters that ended up elsewhere as well as a number of songs

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Categories: News Formats: Box Sets, CD, Digital Download, Digital Streaming Genre: Pop, R&B/Soul Tags: Carla Thomas, Eddie Floyd, Rufus Thomas, Steve Cropper, The Newcomers, The Staple Singers, William Bell

December 12, 2022 By Mike Duquette 2 Comments

Wattstax

One of the greatest music festivals of the '70s is getting celebrated with an exhaustive array of reissues in 2023: Wattstax, the multi-dimensional Los Angeles celebration of soul, funk, blues and gospel courtesy of Stax Records. A half-century after the premiere of a Golden Globe-nominated documentary on the star-studded 1972 event, Craft Recordings, custodian of the Stax catalogue, will release the most definitive looks at Wattstax, most recently addressed in a 3CD box set in 2003 that took

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Categories: News Formats: Box Sets, CD, Digital Download, Digital Streaming, Vinyl Genre: Blues, Comedy, Funk, Gospel, Pop, R&B/Soul, Soundtracks Tags: Albert King, Carla Thomas, David Porter, Eddie Floyd, Isaac Hayes, Johnnie Taylor, Kim Weston, Mavis Staples, Richard Pryor, Rufus Thomas, The Bar-Kays, The Emotions, The Staple Singers, William Bell

September 11, 2021 By The Second Disc 3 Comments

Stream

While The Second Disc prides itself on connecting people to reissues and box sets they can keep on their shelves, it's no secret that listening audiences are also digital - catalogue music lovers, too - and our passion is connecting people to music from the past that they might adore. So we've introduced a new feature: The Weekend Stream, which focuses on hidden gems that recently made it to digital channels that might make your playlists a little brighter! Aaliyah, Aaliyah

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Categories: Features, The Weekend Stream Formats: Digital Download, Digital Streaming Genre: Classic Rock, Country, Disco/Dance, Electronic, R&B/Soul, Rock Tags: Aaliyah, Blackstreet, Carla Thomas, Elvis Costello, Elvis Costello and The Attractions, Four Tops, Kenny Rogers, Lionel Richie, Loretta Lynn, Marvin Gaye, Otis Redding, Restless Heart, The Everly Brothers, The Isley Brothers, The Supremes, The Temptations

October 29, 2020 By Joe Marchese 3 Comments

Barbara Lewis Dont Forget About Me

In recent weeks, Cherry Red's SoulMusic Records imprint has launched a series of mini-box sets drawn from the Atlantic vaults including titles available now from Solomon Burke, Esther Phillips, Barbara Lewis, and Carla Thomas.  Yesterday we explored the releases from Burke and Phillips, and today's spotlight is on Lewis and Thomas! If she had only recorded "Hello, Stranger" and "Baby I'm Yours," Barbara Lewis' place in the pop pantheon would have been assured.  But there's much more to her

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Categories: News Formats: Box Sets, CD Genre: Pop, R&B/Soul Tags: Barbara Lewis, Carla Thomas, Otis Redding, Rufus Thomas

May 9, 2019 By Sam Stone 2 Comments

VA SoulExplosion pl az

Craft Recordings has announced the next phase of its campaign to honor one of the great labels of soul - Stax Records.  Entitled "Soul Explosion," the campaign began with their Record Store Day releases of Boy Meets Girl: Classic Stax Duets, Stax Does The Beatles and the first-ever mono reissue of Albert King's Born Under A Bad Sign.  The next phase begins on May 31 and will see new vinyl and digital reissues of classics from 1969, which proved to be a watershed year for the label, and

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Categories: News Formats: Digital Download, Digital Streaming, Vinyl Genre: Blues, Funk, Gospel, R&B/Soul Tags: Albert King, Booker T. and the MG's, Carla Thomas, Johnnie Taylor, The Staple Singers

October 29, 2018 By Joe Marchese 2 Comments

Stax 68 A Memphis Story

Otis Redding's "Sittin' on the Dock of the Bay," the first Stax single of 1968, should have been a new beginning for the artist and label.  Instead, the posthumous release ushered in a tumultuous year for the Memphis institution.  The death of Redding and members of The Bar-Kays on December 10, 1967 was a tremendous loss for Stax and popular culture, but no one could have predicted the upheaval that would affect Stax and the city of Memphis in the following twelve months.  That time has just

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Categories: Reviews Formats: Box Sets, CD Genre: R&B/Soul Tags: Albert King, Carla Thomas, Eddie Floyd, Isaac Hayes, Otis Redding, Rufus Thomas, Sam and Dave, The Staple Singers, Various Artists, William Bell

March 6, 2018 By Joe Marchese 1 Comment

Stax Singles 4 cover

Stax Records is rightfully renowned for its catalogue of deep southern soul straight from the heart of Memphis.  But, like its famous Detroit competitor Motown, the label founded by Jim Stewart and Estelle Axton released music in a variety of sounds and styles.  The Complete Stax-Volt Singles 1959-1968 (released in 1991 and reissued by Rhino in 2016 was the first major archival box to begin to address the Stax legacy in record-by-record fashion.  It was followed by The Complete Stax-Volt Soul

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Categories: News Formats: Box Sets, CD Genre: Country, Gospel, Pop, R&B/Soul Tags: Barbara Lewis, Big Star, Billy Eckstine, Carla Thomas, Delaney and Bonnie, Isaac Hayes, O.B. McClinton, Rufus Thomas, Various Artists

February 26, 2018 By Joe Marchese Leave a Comment

Detroit Emeralds I Think of You

Welcome to Part Two of our Ace Records Round-Up!  If you missed Part One's spotlight on releases from Clarence Carter and James Carr, just click here!  Abe Tilmon, Iry Tilmon, and James Mitchell, a.k.a. The Emeralds, hailed from Little Rock, Arkansas, but once the vocal trio moved to the Motor City in 1967, they rechristened themselves The Detroit Emeralds and signed to Ed Wingate's waning Ric-Tic label.  It proved an auspicious start when their debut single, "Show Time," made No. 22 on the

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Categories: News Formats: CD Genre: R&B/Soul Tags: Betty Everett, Carla Thomas, Johnnie Taylor, Maxine Brown, The Detroit Emeralds, Various Artists

December 21, 2017 By Joe Marchese Leave a Comment

Stax 7s

When it comes to Stax Records' 60th anniversary celebration, why should CDs have all the fun? The vinyl release of The Stax Vinyl 7s Box from Concord and UMC (STX 00252) brings fourteen rare tracks from across the Stax family of labels to seven 45 RPM singles, all emblazoned with the familiar yellow, finger-snapping logo.  Compiler Richard Searling's raison d'etre is a simple one, as he sets forth in the liner notes: "I've selected the content based on my experience of featuring these songs in

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Categories: Holiday Gift Guide, Reviews Formats: Box Sets, Vinyl Genre: R&B/Soul Tags: Barbara Lewis, Carla Thomas, Margie Joseph, Roz Ryan, Various Artists, William Bell

December 14, 2017 By Mike Duquette 2 Comments

Stax Singles 4 packshot

Craft Recordings has been doing great things with the Stax Records catalogue in honor of its 60th anniversary (check out our most recent review of the new Isaac Hayes box set for proof!) - and now, they're continuing a beloved box set series with a new collection of the label's singles. Continuing the trend established by The Complete Stax-Volt Singles 1959-1968 (released in 1991 and reissued by Rhino in 2016), The Complete Stax-Volt Soul Singles, Vol. 2: 1968-1971 (1993, reissued 2014) and

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Categories: News Formats: Box Sets, CD Genre: Classic Rock, Everything Else, Funk, Gospel, Pop, R&B/Soul, Rock Tags: Big Star, Booker T. and the MG's, Carla Thomas, Delaney and Bonnie, Isaac Hayes, Sam & Dave, The Staple Singers

August 24, 2017 By Mike Duquette 6 Comments

Isaac Hayes Spirit of Memphis pack shot

Having just announced a John Lee Hooker box set, Craft Recordings shows no sign of slowdown, yesterday announcing The Sprit Of Memphis (1962-1976) a 4CD box set devoted to the legendary Isaac Hayes. It's impossible to think about the Stax Records sound--or soul music in the '60s and '70s, really--without considering Isaac Hayes. He helped shape the soul-pop sound of Memphis as a writer and producer, involved with smash hits and immortal cuts like "Hold On! I'm A Comin'," "B-A-B-Y" (a recent

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Categories: News Formats: Box Sets, CD Genre: R&B/Soul Tags: Booker T. and the MG's, Carla Thomas, Isaac Hayes, Johnnie Taylor, Sam & Dave

April 28, 2017 By Mike Duquette 3 Comments

Stax60 logo SNAP horiz RED

From deep within the heart of Memphis to your stereo, the rich legacy of Stax Records will be honored this year as two label partners join forces to commemorate the label's 60th anniversary. Rolling Stone reported yesterday a massive campaign to celebrate Stax artists and albums across physical and digital formats. Notably, this initiative will be carried out by both owners of the Stax catalogue: Rhino/Warner Music Group, which controls much of the label's Atlantic-distributed output from

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Categories: News Formats: Box Sets, CD, Vinyl Genre: R&B/Soul Tags: Albert King, Booker T. and the MG's, Carla Thomas, Isaac Hayes, Johnnie Taylor, Otis Redding, Sam & Dave, The Dramatics, The Staple Singers, William Bell

February 25, 2016 By Joe Marchese Leave a Comment

Other Side of the Trax

Bring on the B-sides! Despite its title, the massive, indispensable box set The Complete Stax/Volt Singles 1964-1968 concentrated on A-sides, presenting only a fraction of the labels' valuable flips.  The box left many worthy B-sides overlooked in the CD era, but Ace Records' Kent imprint has redressed that situation with the release of The Other Side of the Trax: Stax-Volt 45 RPM Rarities 1964-1968. All but one of the 24 tracks on this new compilation are all making their official CD

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Categories: News, Reviews Formats: CD Genre: R&B/Soul Tags: Carla Thomas, Dave Bartholomew, Isaac Hayes, Rufus Thomas, Various Artists, William Bell

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