The Weekend Stream: August 7, 2022

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 discover! From new remixes of old favorites and throwback remixes of new hits, to deep dives into ’80s alt-rock, mid-century easy listening, ’70s live folk and ’90s tracks to run on the beach in slow motion to…we’re pulling out all this stops this Sunday! Beyoncé & Madonna, Break My Soul (The Queens Remix) (Parkwood/Columbia) (iTunes / Amazon) Queen Bey had a busy month gearing…

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Release Round-Up: Week of May 6

Welcome to this week’s Release Round-Up, featuring a selection of the new titles out today including a very special pair from Second Disc Records and Real Gone Music! Melissa Manchester, Live ’77 (Second Disc Records/Real Gone Music) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada / Real Gone Music) Second Disc Records and Real Gone Music proudly present the premiere release of Melissa Manchester’s Live ’77, recorded by Arista Records in October 1977 at Gainesville, Florida’s Great Southern Music Hall but unreleased until now!  The 21 songs on Live ’77  – the singer-songwriter’s very first live album – include Manchester’s hits…

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A Day In Rio: This Friday, May 6, Real Gone Reissues Les Baxter’s “Soul of the Drum” and Expands Savage Republic’s “Tragic Figures”

This coming Friday, May 6, sees two releases on Second Disc Records through Real Gone Music: The Complete Reprise Recordings Plus! from Darlene Love and Live 1977 from Melissa Manchester.  But joining those two on Real Gone’s slate are another two reissues: a new vinyl version of Les Baxter’s Soul of the Drums and, on CD and LP, an expanded version of Savage Republic’s 1982 debut album: Tragic Figures. First up is 1963’s Soul of the Drums by Les Baxter and his Orchestra.  Along with Martin Denny and Arthur Lyman, Baxter is…

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“I Hunger For Your Touch” Collects 31 Recordings of “Unchained Melody” From Elvis, The Righteous Brothers, Many More

It began life as the theme to a 1955 B-movie that asked, “No locks!  No walls!  In the prison without bars!  What keeps men like these from crashing out?”  The film was Unchained, and the song was “Unchained Melody” with music by Alex North (A Streetcar Named Desire, Spartacus) and lyrics by Hy Zaret (“Dedicated to You”).  Though the movie – in which just a brief snippet of the song was sung by Porgy and Bess’ original Porgy, Todd Duncan – is hardly remembered today, the intensely romantic ballad  is anything but.  As…

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Ace Boldly Goes To “Outer Space” and The Bay Area On Two New Themed Collections

Ace Records is Going Wild!…not just with a rip-roaring rock-and-roll compilation of that name, but with a journey to the farthest reaches of the galaxy!  Yes, the London-based label is travelling from the Bay Area to the Milky Way with two of its latest releases: Greatest Hits from Outer Space and Going Wild! Music City Rock ‘n’ Roll. Based on the 24 tracks of Ace’s Greatest Hits from Outer Space, the final frontier engaged a wide variety of artists in every conceivable musical genre.  On this zany set compiled by Tony Rounce,…

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Soundtrack Corner: We Will Always Love “The Bodyguard” Plus Jerry Lewis Goes “Geisha” and Les Baxter for Halloween

Though the 1992 soundtrack to Mick Jackson’s film The Bodyguard is the best-selling soundtrack album of all time, its success was largely on the strength of star Whitney Houston’s performances of “I Will Always Love You,” “I Have Nothing” and “I’m Every Woman.”  Featured on just one track was the work of Alan Silvestri, the composer of Back to the Future and Who Framed Roger Rabbit who provided the film’s original score.  The under-three minute snippet featured on the Grammy-winning Arista album barely scratched the surface of Silvestri’s score for The Bodyguard. …

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Kritzerland Wraps Up 2011: Orson Welles on “Trial”, and Les (Baxter) Is More

2011 may be coming to a close, but the Kritzerland label still has a couple of surprises up its sleeve.  The label this morning announced its final two releases of the year, and both are offbeat gems: Lex Baxter’s scores to two Edgar Allan Poe offerings (Roger Corman’s 1963 The Raven and the Vincent Price-starring 1970 television special An Evening with Edgar Allan Poe) and Jean Ledrut’s score to Orson Welles’ 1962 film The Trial, described by the Citizen Kane director as “the best film I ever made.” Emphasizing comedy over horror…

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