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/ Kool and the Gang

September 12, 2022 By Joe Marchese 5 Comments

Kool and the Gang The Albums Volume 2 Cover

In 2024, Kool and the Gang will celebrate 60 years of music-making.  Though the band has weathered the passing of key personnel in recent years including founding members Ronald Bell a.k.a. Khalis Bayyan and Dennis "D.T." Thomas, Robert "Kool" Bell and George "Funky" Brown keep the fusion of soul, R&B, dance, funk, and jazz alive and well.  Earlier this year, Demon Music Group's Edsel label released Kool and the Gang's The Albums Vol. 1: 1970-1978 collecting their first dozen LPs plus a disc

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Categories: News Formats: Box Sets, CD Genre: Disco/Dance, Funk, Pop, R&B/Soul Tags: Kool and the Gang

July 8, 2022 By The Second Disc 5 Comments

Elton John Regimental Sgt. Zippo Stereo

Welcome to this week's Release Round-Up, featuring a selection of the new titles out today! George Michael, Older: Deluxe Edition (Legacy) 5CD/3LP: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada 2LP: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada George Michael's third solo album - and the one he believed to be his finest - returns from Legacy Recordings in a new 5CD/3LP edition and a 2LP set.  This expansion of 1996's Older features both the remastered album and the EP Upper (included with

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Categories: Release Round-Up Formats: Blu-Ray, Box Sets, CD, Digital Download, Digital Streaming, Vinyl Genre: Classic Rock, Country, Disco/Dance, Pop, R&B/Soul, Rock Tags: Dio, Dolenz Jones Boyce and Hart, Elton John, George Michael, Journey, Kool and the Gang, Neil Young, Nelson, Richie Furay, Sting, The Monkees

March 22, 2022 By Mike Duquette 8 Comments

Kool Albums V1

For more than a half century, Kool & The Gang have been synonymous with a special, ever-changing kind of soul music - blending rhythm and blues, disco, jazz and funk, with a few decades of hits as a result. Edsel will celebrate Kool's legacy with a series of box sets starting with The Albums Vol. 1, a 13CD set including the group's studio and live output from the majority of their time together during the '70s. Formed by a troupe of high school friends in Jersey City, NJ (including

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Categories: News Formats: Box Sets, CD Genre: Disco/Dance, Jazz, Pop, R&B/Soul Tags: Kool and the Gang

October 9, 2021 By Mike Duquette 4 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! Madonna, Madame X - Music from the

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Categories: Features, The Weekend Stream Formats: Digital Download, Digital Streaming Genre: Classical/Opera, Country, Disco/Dance, Gospel, Pop, R&B/Soul, Rock, Soundtracks Tags: Billy Preston, Curtis Mayfield, Gladys Knight and the Pips, Indigo Girls, Itzhak Perlman, Kool and the Gang, Lou Reed, Madonna, Otis Redding, Paula Abdul, Tears for Fears, The Sweet Inspirations, War

August 20, 2021 By The Second Disc 1 Comment

Eric Clapton Box Set

Welcome to this week's Release Round-Up! Eric Clapton, Eric Clapton: Anniversary Deluxe Edition (Polydor/UMe) 4CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada 1LP (Original Album Only): Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada Eric Clapton's eponymous 1970 solo debut is reissued today in 4CD and 1LP iterations.  The 4CD Deluxe Edition presents Eric Clapton in three separate mixes, with one mix on each of the first three CDs in the box: The Tom Dowd Mix, The Eric Clapton Mix, and The

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Categories: Release Round-Up Formats: Box Sets, CD, Digital Download, Digital Streaming, Vinyl Genre: Cast Recordings, Classic Rock, Country, Jazz, R&B/Soul, Rap/Hip-Hop, Soundtracks Tags: Aaliyah, Bob Dylan, Chrissie Hynde, Connie Smith, Eric Clapton, James McMurtry, Joan Jett, John Coltrane, Julie Andrews, Kool and the Gang, Lee Morgan, Rodgers and Hammerstein, Vince Guaraldi, Wanda Jackson

December 11, 2020 By The Second Disc Leave a Comment

neil after the gold rush

Welcome to this week's Release Round-Up! Neil Young, After the Gold Rush: 50th Anniversary Edition (Reprise) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada) The 50th Anniversary Edition of Neil Young's classic album features new art based on Gary Burden's original album cover design.  The CD is out today while the vinyl edition will be released in March, 2021 and presented in a box set with the LP and a bonus 7″ single in a newly designed picture sleeve.  This set includes two different

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Categories: Release Round-Up Formats: CD, Digital Download, Digital Streaming, SACD, Vinyl Genre: Cast Recordings, Classic Rock, Country, Pop, R&B/Soul, Rock Tags: Alan Jay Lerner, David Heneker, Deftones, Firefall, Frank Sinatra, Jim Croce, John Barry, Kool and the Gang, Maury Yeston, Merle Haggard, Neil Young, Roxette, Willie Nelson

October 29, 2020 By Sam Stone Leave a Comment

KoolandtheGang ST RGM

Are you in the market for Laurel Canyon-inspired power-pop? How about early '70s funk? Or maybe glam rock from the turn of the millennium is more your speed. Real Gone Music has you covered with new vinyl reissues due this December. This slate kicks off on December 4 with the vinyl debut of Spacehog's The Chinese Album. Fresh off the reissue of the band's debut Resident Alien for RSD, Real Gone now turns to the follow-up, which sees them pulling from power-pop and glam influences and features

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Categories: News Formats: Vinyl Genre: Pop, R&B/Soul, Rock Tags: Kool and the Gang, Spacehog, The Bangles

November 17, 2017 By Joe Marchese 6 Comments

Saturday Night Fever OST

Listen to the ground...there is movement all around... Saturday Night Fever didn't invent disco...but in many ways, it epitomized the genre.  With the December 1977 release of the John Badham-directed drama and its soundtrack album, the onetime underground dance movement which had been rising to the mainstream since at least 1974 became the mainstream.  Disco's alluring blend of the gritty and the glamorous gained a face in the form of John Travolta, whose tough yet tender Tony Manero of Bay

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Categories: Reviews Formats: Blu-Ray, Box Sets, CD, Digital Download, Digital Streaming, Vinyl Genre: Disco/Dance, Pop, R&B/Soul, Soundtracks Tags: David Shire, KC and the Sunshine Band, Kool and the Gang, MFSB, The Bee Gees, The Trammps

September 20, 2017 By Mike Duquette 8 Comments

Capito UMe Saturday Night Fever 40th Anniversary Edition

Get ready to strut into record stores--Saturday Night Fever's immortal soundtrack is being reissued as a super deluxe set alongside the film itself. Based on a New York Magazine article that was later found to be fabricated, Saturday Night Fever ironically solidified the image of disco in popular culture. John Travolta's rough-edged but sympathetic Tony Manero--a Brooklyn bum working in a hardware store by day and tearing up the floor of the 2001 Odyssey by night--established the young TV

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Categories: News Formats: Blu-Ray, Box Sets, CD, Vinyl Genre: Disco/Dance, Soundtracks Tags: Bee Gees, David Shire, KC and the Sunshine Band, Kool and the Gang, MFSB, Tavares, The Trammps, Walter Murphy, Yvonne Elliman

July 8, 2016 By Joe Marchese 2 Comments

Kool and the Gang Emergency

Over 45 years after their first release, Kool and the Gang remain synonymous with party music and delicious dancefloor grooves, from "Celebration" to "Ladies Night."  Big Break Records has recognized the band's legacy with an ongoing series of reissues, of which the recent Emergency is the ninth.  Originally released on De-Lite Records late in 1984, Emergency has been expanded by BBR into a deluxe, 2-CD set with a full complement of sixteen bonus tracks! Emergency continued Kool and the

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Categories: News Formats: CD Genre: Pop, R&B/Soul Tags: Kool and the Gang

August 27, 2015 By Joe Marchese Leave a Comment

Gloria Gaynor Ive Got You

Big Break Records has been on a big roll with its powerhouse slate of recent releases!  We've already filled you in on the worldwide CD debut of MFSB's Philly soul classic Universal Love; today, we'll take a look at another quartet of releases from the Cherry Red imprint. BBR has returned to the catalogue of Gloria Gaynor with another first-time-on-CD reissue.  I've Got You was Gaynor's third solo album and first for Polydor Records.  Released 39 years ago in August 1976, the album found her

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Categories: News Formats: CD Genre: R&B/Soul Tags: Chaka Khan, Forrest, Gloria Gaynor, Kool and the Gang, Rufus

February 19, 2014 By Joe Marchese Leave a Comment

kool and the gang everybodys dancin1

Big Break Records is determined to make sure that Everybody's Dancin' with its latest two reissues from the kings of Kool.  The Cherry Red label dived into the Kool and the Gang catalogue in late 2013 with deluxe, expanded editions of all four of the band's epochal albums with arranger-producer Eumir Deodato: Ladies' Night (1979, Platinum), Celebrate! (1980, Platinum), Something Special (1981, Platinum) and As One (1982, Gold).  Prior to that, BBR had already given similarly lavish treatment to

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Categories: News Formats: CD Genre: R&B/Soul Tags: Kool and the Gang

November 8, 2013 By Joe Marchese Leave a Comment

kool and the gang ladies night3

You can't keep a Kool man down.  This week, Robert "Kool" Bell (now known as Muhammad Bayyan) leads the legendary funk-soul-R&B-disco outfit Kool and the Gang through its latest studio album, the Best Buy/Wal-Mart exclusive Kool for the Holidays.  But for nearly 45 years, the music of Kool and the Gang has been celebrated for all seasons.  Big Break Records last revisited the Kool catalogue in 2011 with an expanded edition of 1976's Open Sesame, but the label is returning to the group in a

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Categories: News Formats: CD Genre: R&B/Soul Tags: Kool and the Gang

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