Kool and the Gang - The Second Disc

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Blu-Ray, Box Sets, CD, Digital Download, Digital Streaming, Vinyl

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Classic Rock, Country, Disco/Dance, Funk, Holiday, Jazz, Pop, Popular Standards/Vocal, R&B/Soul, Rock

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Alison Brown, Boz Scaggs, Chrissie Hynde, Connie Francis, David Gilmour, James Taylor, Kool and the Gang, Randy Newman, Simple Minds, Steve Martin, The Alan Parsons Project, The Meters

Compilation Watch: New Hits Sets from Devo, Kool & The Gang, Boomtown Rats

September 3, 2025 by Mike Duquette | 2 Comments

Three very different bands with venerable catalogues are getting new greatest hits collections added to their discographies. First up is a new set documenting Irish post-punkers The Boomtown Rats. The First Fifty Years: Songs of Boomtown Glory is a non-chronological compilation covering all seven of the Dublin group’s studio albums – the majority released between 1979 and 1984, before frontman Bob Geldof pivoted largely to pop-rooted activist causes including the spearheading of Band Aid and Live Aid. The tracks were jointly selected by the group as well as online fan polling, and include U.K….

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Digital Download, Digital Streaming

Formats:

CD, Digital Download, Digital Streaming, Vinyl

Genres:

Classic Rock, Disco/Dance, Funk, R&B/Soul, Rock

Tags:

Bob Geldof, Boomtown Rats, Devo, Kool and the Gang

The Weekend Stream: July 19, 2025

July 19, 2025 by The Second Disc

Welcome to another edition of The Weekend Stream, The Second Disc’s review of notable catalogue titles (and some new ones, too!) making digital debuts. We’ve got a gem from Linda Ronstadt’s vault, a new update of a Disney classic and a fascinating sit-down with one of folk’s most important matriarchs – plus tributes to artists we lost this week and a potential hint at a very exciting reissue from one of the pivotal duos in ’70s rock. Linda Ronstadt, “How Do I Make You” / “Rambler Gambler” (Asylum/Rhino) (Apple / Amazon) This week, song…

The Weekend Stream: June 28, 2025

June 28, 2025 by The Second Disc | 1 Comment

Welcome to another edition of The Weekend Stream, The Second Disc’s review of notable catalogue titles (and some new ones, too!) making digital debuts. There’s new music from Sarah McLachlan, Public Enemy and Liam Finn, plus a new video to a one-hit wonder, a Record Store Day single gone digital, and tributes to musicians we lost this week. Peter Gabriel, In the Big Room (Real World) (Apple / Amazon) The legendary pop/rock voice has loosed a recording from his vault for larger public consumption: highlights from an intimate 2003 performance at his Real World…

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The Weekend Stream

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Genres:

Classic Rock, Disco/Dance, Electronic, Pop, R&B/Soul, Rap/Hip-Hop, Rock, Soundtracks

Tags:

Alexandre Desplat, Camouflage, David Gilmour, Judas Priest, Kool and the Gang, Leo Sayer, Liam Finn, Marcella Detroit, Norman Greenbaum, Peter Gabriel, Public Enemy, Sarah McLachlan

The Weekend Stream: June 14, 2025

June 14, 2025 by The Second Disc | 6 Comments

Welcome to another edition of The Weekend Stream, The Second Disc’s review of notable catalogue titles (and some new ones, too!) making digital debuts. This week we’ve got it all, from Bakersfield country to Billy Joel on Broadway; actors who sing and singer-songwriters who act in short films; Tony Joe White going disco and Josh Groban’s hits going super-size. You’ll find something to love – we guarantee it! Wynn Stewart, Songs of Wynn Stewart (Capitol Nashville) (Apple / Amazon) After starting his major label career in the mid-’50s on Capitol, country singer/songwriter Wynn Stewart…

Too Hot: Edsel Compiles Second Album Box for Kool & 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 of bonus material. Now, Edsel has followed up that…

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Formats:

Box Sets, CD

Genres:

Disco/Dance, Funk, Pop, R&B/Soul

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Release Round-Up: Week of July 8

July 8, 2022 by The Second Disc | 5 Comments

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 reissues of the album in 1997) on 180-gram vinyl and CD, along with an additional three CDs featuring 27 B-sides, live tracks,…

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Formats:

Blu-Ray, Box Sets, CD, Digital Download, Digital Streaming, Vinyl

Genres:

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

Totally Kool: First Dozen Kool & The Gang Albums Boxed by Edsel

March 22, 2022 by Mike Duquette | 8 Comments

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 brothers Robert “Kool”…

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Formats:

Box Sets, CD

Genres:

Disco/Dance, Jazz, Pop, R&B/Soul

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Features, The Weekend Stream

The Weekend Stream: October 9, 2021

October 9, 2021 by Mike Duquette | 4 Comments

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 Theater Xperience (Boy Toy/Warner) (iTunes /…

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Formats:

Digital Download, Digital Streaming

Genres:

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

Release Round-Up: Week of August 20

August 20, 2021 by The Second Disc | 1 Comment

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 Delaney Bramlett Mix. The mix by Dowd (Dusty Springfield, The Allman Brothers Band) was originally released in 1970; the…

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Formats:

Box Sets, CD, Digital Download, Digital Streaming, Vinyl

Genres:

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

Release Round-Up: Week of December 11

December 11, 2020 by The Second Disc | No Comments

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 versions of the After the Gold Rush outtake “Wonderin’.” …

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Formats:

CD, Digital Download, Digital Streaming, SACD, Vinyl

Genres:

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

Almond Kisses: Real Gone Music Reissues Spacehog, Bangles, and Kool and The Gang on Colored Vinyl

October 29, 2020 by Sam Stone | No Comments

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 an appearance by Michael Stipe…

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Kool and the Gang, Spacehog, The Bangles

Formats:

Vinyl

Genres:

Pop, R&B/Soul, Rock

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Review: “Saturday Night Fever: The Original Movie Sound Track” [Super Deluxe Box Set]

November 17, 2017 by Joe Marchese | 6 Comments

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 Ridge, New York found solace in his escape each Saturday night to…

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Reviews

Formats:

Blu-Ray, Box Sets, CD, Digital Download, Digital Streaming, Vinyl

Genres:

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

Stayin’ Alive: ‘Saturday Night Fever’ Soundtrack Gets Super Deluxe Treatment

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 actor as a bona fide movie star and charming symbol of the ’70s….

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Formats:

Blu-Ray, Box Sets, CD, Vinyl

Genres:

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

Cherish The Love: BBR Expands Kool and the Gang’s “Emergency”

July 8, 2016 by Joe Marchese | 2 Comments

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 Gang’s winning streak after 1983’s In the Heart (reissued just last year by…

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Genres:

Pop, R&B/Soul

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Big Break Boasts Bursting Line-Up With Chaka and Rufus, Gloria Gaynor, Kool and the Gang, More

August 27, 2015 by Joe Marchese | No Comments

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 working once more with the architects of…

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Genres:

R&B/Soul

Tags:

Chaka Khan, Forrest, Gloria Gaynor, Kool and the Gang, Rufus

BBR Has “The Force” With Latest Kool and the Gang Remasters

February 19, 2014 by Joe Marchese | No Comments

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 1976’s Open Sesame. With a new pair of releases, the label has filled…

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Genres:

R&B/Soul

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Celebrate Good Times, Come On! BBR Reissues, Expands Four Kool and the Gang Classics

November 8, 2013 by Joe Marchese | No Comments

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 big way with deluxe reissues of all…

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Genres:

R&B/Soul

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