Welcome to The Weekend Stream, a relaxing weekly review of notable digital-only catalogue titles. There may be no CD or vinyl, but there's plenty of great new/old music to usher you into the weekend. Today, there's some newer KISS, some obscure Duke Ellington, and a few rare cast albums - plus a way you can help out some writers in need. KISS, Sonic Boom (UMe) (iTunes / Amazon) After a mid-'90s reunion of the classic KISS line-up, the band dynamics began to shift again In the early 21st
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! The Beatles, Get Back (Take 8) EP
Welcome to this week's Release Round-Up! Paul McCartney, III-Imagined (MPL/Capitol) CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada / Your Local Record Shop CD with alternate art insert: Target 2-LP black vinyl: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada / Your Local Record Shop 2-LP red vinyl: Newbury Comics 2-LP gold vinyl: Your Local Record Store 2-LP splatter vinyl: Paul McCartney Online Store (limited to 3500 copies in the US) 2-LP "Spotify" green vinyl: Paul McCartney Online
Fun, laughs, good time... The team of director-choreographer Bob Fosse, librettist Neil Simon, composer Cy Coleman, and lyricist Dorothy Fields made good on those promises with the 1966 Broadway debut of Sweet Charity. Based on Federico Fellini's film Nights of Cabiria, the musical depicted the bittersweet romantic adventures of dance hall hostess Charity Hope Valentine, so memorably created onstage by Gwen Verdon and introduced on film by Shirley MacLaine. The splashy production reopened the
Earlier this year, Craft Recordings kicked off its celebration of Stax Records' Gospel Truth imprint with a weekly digital album campaign. That series wrapped up on August 28, opening the door for the November 13 release on CD and LP of The Gospel Truth: The Complete Singles Collection. Stax chief Al Bell launched Gospel Truth in 1972, working in close coordination with radio promotions guru/producer/songwriter Dave Clark and Stax staffer Mary Peak Paterson. Early press materials for the
Welcome to this week's Release Round-Up! Johnny Mathis, The Island (Second Disc Records/Real Gone Music) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada) The 1989 "lost" album by Johnny Mathis is lost no more! Renowned producer Sergio Mendes of Brasil '66 fame and arranger-guitarist Dori Caymmi joined Mathis on The Island to subtly modernize the classic sounds of bossa nova and samba. He delivered some of his most sensual vocals ever for ten smoldering songs by Caymmi, Mendes, Ivan Lins,
Welcome to this week's Release Round-Up, and one of the biggest Release Fridays of the year to date! Chicago, VI Decades Live: This is What We Do (Rhino) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada) Chicago celebrates 50 years on the road with this expansive new box set featuring 4 CDs and 1 DVD of previously unreleased live music recorded between 1969 and 2014. This set includes two complete concerts - The Isle of Wight, 1970 on CD and a Rockpalast broadcast from Germany in 1977 on
Fans of cast recordings can look forward to plenty of exciting releases due in the coming weeks! Kritzerland has recently announced two new limited edition titles! First up is a two-for-one release with a pair of classic television specials. NBC's 1973 presentation of Cole Porter in Paris starred Perry Como, Diahann Carroll, Connie Stevens and others in a rousing celebration of the legendary songwriter's work. It was directed by Martin Charnin (Annie) and featured arrangements by Como's
A trio of upcoming releases will be sure to raise the pulse of theatre and cast recording fans out there! Harbinger Records and the Musical Theatre Project have continued their Songwriter Showcase Series with another entry dedicated to the late composer Cy Coleman. Barnum: Backer's Audition finds Coleman and lyricist/librettist Michael Stewart presenting the score to their potential Broadway musical to an enthusiastic audience of potential investors in an Upper East Side apartment. With
Welcome to this week's Release Round-Up! Carole King, Tapestry: Live at Hyde Park (CD/DVD) (Legacy/Rockingale) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada) This new CD/DVD release features Carole King's 45th anniversary performance of her seminal 1971 classic Tapestry, performed live in front of 65,000 fans in London's Hyde Park on July 3, 2016. The setlist, preserved on both CD and DVD, includes the entire original album plus numerous highlights from King's illustrious songbook both
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
When Bob Dylan released his first collection of standards earlier this year, the venerable singer-songwriter took umbrage at the notion that he was "covering" classic songs. "I don't see myself as covering these songs in any way," he reflected. "They've been covered enough. Buried, as a matter a fact. What me and my band are basically doing is uncovering them." Among the songs uncovered by Dylan was Cy Coleman and Joseph McCarthy's "Why Try to Change Me Now," first recorded by Frank Sinatra
Welcome to this week's Release Round-Up! We hope all of our U.S. readers enjoyed a wonderful Memorial Day weekend. And now, without further ado, onto the music! Yes, Progeny: Seven Shows from Seventy-Two (Rhino) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.) Finally, after a brief delay, Progeny is here! This whopping 14-CD box captures seven complete concerts from Yes circa 1972 - the same tour leading up to the performances preserved on Yessongs. For those who don't need 14 discs, 2-CD and 3-LP
Well, these are incredibly light weeks for new releases! Thankfully, the Kritzerland and Audio Fidelity labels have stepped up with a quartet of titles to close out 2014 on a high note! Cy Coleman, John Kander, Harvey Schmidt and Charles Strouse, Classical Broadway (Kritzerland) (available for pre-order now) Kritzerland remasters this 1992 album (originally released on the Bay Cities label) featuring classical compositions from four of Broadway's most legendary composers including Cy
With hyperbole the norm, it's questionable just how many buyers took notice of a 1957 album on the Liberty label entitled The Versatile Henry Mancini. Yet fewer record titles have proven as apt. As frequent collaborator Blake Edwards noted, "Whether the situation is romantic, humorous, tragic, ironic or full of action, Mancini creates exactly the right musical mood." Mancini's breakthrough came two years after that LP's release, when Edwards enlisted him to provide the cool jazz-inflected