When Kiki Dee was signed in 1973 to Elton John's Rocket Records label, the 26-year old was already a veteran of the music business as an in-demand background singer and a solo artist for Fontana and Motown. The former Pauline Matthews of Bradford, West Yorkshire, England had proven herself a versatile vocalist at both of those labels, but at Rocket would finally take flight as a top-tier blue-eyed soul singer with so much more to offer than just the duet part in "Don't Go Breaking My Heart." The
Record Store Day 2019 is just under five weeks away. In anticipation of the April 13th celebration of vinyl, The Second Disc presents a round-up of Universal Music Group's RSD selections! The Charlatans, Us and Us Only - LP, clear vinyl - 1,000 copies Originally released in 1999, Us and Us Only was the British alt-rock group's sixth album. It will be reissued for the first time ever for Record Store Day, pressed on limited-edition transparent vinyl. Charlie Parker, Charlie Parker With
Last month, Elton John ushered in the holiday season when he partnered with retailer John Lewis for an emotional commercial about the gift of music. Now, he's released a Christmas EP called Step Into Christmas. The yuletide gift for his fans puts the spotlight on a certified Christmas classic. The three-track EP includes "Step Into Christmas," the classic track that reached No. 24 in the UK at the end of 1973 and topped the Billboard Christmas singles chart. The original B-side, "Ho! Ho!
A British compilation series recently released a magical volume for Disney fans - and with a host of rarities for collectors, to boot! Since 2016, Universal Music On Demand's Sing Your Heart Out series has annually issued hits-packed compilations meant for (you guessed it) singing together, at home or in the car. In October, the Sing Your Heart Out series expanded to include a volume of classics from the films of Walt Disney Pictures. A total of 52 tracks are featured across the set's first
Welcome to our annual rundown of Must-Haves for this year's Record Store Day event! Once you're through reading, let us know what you're most looking forward to picking up tomorrow at your favorite local independent retailer! Our list features just a sampling of our favorites from our friends at Legacy Recordings, Varese Sarabande, Rhino Records, Real Gone Music, Demon Music Group, Walt Disney Records, Omnivore Recordings, and more! Joe's kicking things off with five essential picks (in
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
We've already filled you in on the upcoming Record Store Day releases from Legacy Recordings, Rhino, and Real Gone Music, but there's still much more on offer from many of our other favorite labels! Here's a selection of "the best of the rest" to be released in brick-and-mortar independent record stores on Saturday, April 21! ABBA, Summer Night City (Polydor) (2000 copies) (Record Store Day UK) (Quantity TBA) Clear/yellow-splatter 7-inch release of ABBA's 1978 non-LP single Baby Huey,
Welcome to Part Two of our RPM Records Round-Up, exploring another three titles from the Cherry Red retro imprint! If you missed Part One, just click here! The first release heads down under, collecting The Dave Miller Set's recordings for Australia's Spin label in the late 1960s. Mr. Guy Fawkes: The Complete Spin Recordings and More (1967-1970) has 19 tracks, including one previously unreleased, from the New Zealand-born frontman and his musical collaborators. The compilation takes its
It's not untoward to ask exactly who the intended audience of an Elton John compilation is in 2017. The British piano pop legend has been releasing music for more than 50 years now, and has enjoyed a run of success that began early in the '70s and has yet to entirely let up. And in that time, there have been plenty of collections for fans of all stripes. His very first greatest hits album topped both the U.S. and U.K. charts in 1974 and prompted a sequel only three years later (and a third a
Welcome to this week's Release Round-Up! Elton John, Diamonds [Various Formats] (UMe) 2CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada 3CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada 2LP: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada 1CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada Elton John looks back on his extraordinary career with a new retrospective collection, available in 1-CD, 2-CD, 3-CD, and 2-LP formats. Get all of the details right here! R.E.M., Automatic for the
Five decades ago, an aspiring singer/songwriter named Reginald Dwight, frontman for a band named Bluesology, answered an ad in the New Musical Express placed by an A&R man for Liberty Records. At the ensuing meeting, Dwight was given a stack of lyrics written by someone who'd answered the same ad: an up and coming lyricist named Bernie Taupin. Dwight wrote a melody to Taupin's lyrics, placed the ensuing song in the post--and thus started a partnership that continues to this day, with scores
This past April, New York's Radio City Music Hall hosted a prestigious premiere. The film was Clive Davis: The Soundtrack of Our Lives, and the screening was accompanied by an all-star concert featuring Barry Manilow, Dionne Warwick, Aretha Franklin, Carly Simon, and others celebrating the life of the music legend. Beginning on October 3, Apple Music will exclusively stream the Chris Perkel-directed documentary, and today, September 27, Legacy Recordings has digitally released an exclusive
Welcome to our annual rundown of Must-Haves for this year's Record Store Day event! Once you're through reading, let us know what you're most looking forward to picking up tomorrow at your favorite local independent retailer! Our list features just a sampling of our favorites from our friends at Legacy Recordings, Varese Sarabande, Rhino Records, Walt Disney Records, Real Gone Music, Omnivore Recordings, and many more! Mike's kicking things off... This year's Record Store Day offerings
Sir Elton John has just been named the first-ever Record Store Day Legend in honor of the vinyl collector's 10th annual event--and he's celebrating with an expansion of one of his beloved early live records. It's no secret that Elton is an enthusiastic vinyl listener, making appearances in local record stores all over the world and an interviewee in the 2015 documentary All Things Must Pass: The Rise and Fall of Tower Records. So the inaugural position of Record Store Day Legend couldn't fit
This past August 3, Tony Bennett celebrated his milestone 90th birthday...and made it clear that he had no intentions of slowing down. Indeed, the legendary vocalist has dates booked well into 2017, but first, he's looking back with a new 3-CD set including rare and previously unreleased material. Tony Bennett Celebrates 90 premieres the recording of the all-star concert tribute held at Radio City Music Hall on September 15 of this year, but the Amazon-exclusive Deluxe Edition will
Elton John is looking back on part of his catalogue on vinyl with a very unusual partner--British luxury fashion house Burberry. Elton's longtime passion for and collaboration with Burberry (he appeared in an ad campaign for the brand in 2015) will be commemorated by a special box of six of his albums on 180-gram vinyl, at a limited run of only 800 copies. Each LP has been remastered from the original tapes by Bob Ludwig and lacquers have been cut at Abbey Road Studios. The gold
Welcome to February's first Release Round-Up! Elton John, Wonderful Crazy Night (Island/UMe) Deluxe Edition CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada Standard Edition CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada Vinyl: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada Box Set: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada Sir Elton returns with his 32nd studio album! Featuring his longtime band and production by T Bone Burnett, Wonderful Crazy Night returns Elton to his upbeat, piano
This fall, the surviving members of The Zombies' classic line-up - a.k.a. Colin Blunstone, Rod Argent, Chris White and Hugh Grundy - will reunite for a tour centered on their landmark 1968 album Odessey and Oracle. Then, on October 9, Cherry Red and End Records will release Still Got That Hunger, an all-new album from the current line-up of Blunstone, Argent, Jim Rodford, Tom Toomey and Steve Rodford, fresh off acclaimed festival appearances. With so much renewed interest in the
When Kiki Dee was signed in 1973 to Elton John's Rocket Records label, the 26-year old was already a veteran of the music business as an in-demand background singer and a solo artist for Fontana and Motown. The former Pauline Matthews of Bradford, West Yorkshire, England had proven herself a versatile vocalist at both of those labels, but at Rocket would finally take flight as a top-tier blue-eyed soul singer with so much more to offer than just the duet part in "Don't Go Breaking My Heart."
With Walt Disney Records’ juggernaut soundtrack to Frozen preparing to enjoy its thirteenth week at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 – becoming one of only 39 albums in the history of the chart to have spent at least 13 weeks at pole position – the time has never been better for the record label to revisit the studio’s classic animated film library. Today, Walt Disney Records announced what’s arguably its most ambitious reissue program ever. The Legacy Collection will mark the anniversaries of
There wasn't a dry eye in the house when Leon Russell, upon accepting his induction to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, thanked Elton John for rescuing him from "a ditch beside the highway of life." Thanks to the success of The Union, the collaborative album between John and his early idol, Leon Russell's profile has been considerably high of late. It's been so high, in fact, that one member of the Steve Hoffman Music Forums even queried of the community, "Is Leon Russell getting too much