Release Round-Up: Week of July 15

July 15, 2016 by Joe Marchese | No Comments
Little Richard Mono Box

Welcome to this week’s Release Round-Up!   Little Richard, Mono Box: The Complete Specialty and Vee-Jay Albums (Concord/Specialty) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada) This new, 5-LP vinyl box set collects all of the studio albums that Little Richard recorded for both the Specialty and Vee-Jay labels between 1957 and 1965. The mono albums, each replicating the original label and jacket art, have been remastered from analog tapes. A 16-page booklet featuring new liner notes by Bill Dahl, plus era-specific photos, rounds out the collection.  Read more here! Diana Ross, Diana Ross…

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Release Round-Up: Week of June 23

June 24, 2016 by Joe Marchese | 6 Comments
Marvin Gaye Volume 2

Welcome to this week’s Release Round-Up! The Bangles, Ladies and Gentlemen…The Bangles! (Omnivore) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada) Ladies and Gentlemen…The Bangles!, first released digitally in 2014, features all of the band’s pre-Columbia studio material, plus four unreleased demos, two live tracks and other odds and ends!  It arrives in stores from Omnivore just before Susanna Hoffs, Vicki Peterson and Debbi Peterson hit the road again!  Read more here! Laura Nyro, Eli and the Thirteenth Confession Hybrid Quadraphonic SACD (Audio Fidelity) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada) The classic 1968 album…

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My Oh My What A Groove: Ace Collects Unreleased Motown on “One Track Mind”

May 31, 2016 by Joe Marchese | No Comments
One Track Mind More Motown Guys

The first volume of Ace/Kent’s series dedicated to the male artists of Motown was entitled Satisfaction Guaranteed – but that title would be equally apt for the recent release One Track Mind: More Motown Guys, a second disc of rarities from the Sound of Young America.  With 16 previously unissued cuts among this collection’s 24 tracks, it proves that the treasures of the Motown vault are far from exhausted. This is also one volume sure to keep your foot tapping and your body moving, with each track selected for maximum danceability! Many…

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Release Round-Up: Week of November 13

November 13, 2015 by Joe Marchese | No Comments
Aretha Atlantic Albums Collection Cover

It may be Friday the 13th, but today’s choice releases are hardly scary, with box sets, archival releases, new music from veteran artists, and much, much more! Aretha Franklin, The Atlantic Albums Collection (Atlantic/Rhino) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.) This 19-CD box set brings together 16 of the Queen of Soul’s Atlantic albums as previously released on CD including the deluxe 2-CD Live at Fillmore East, the 2-CD Rare & Unreleased Recordings From The Golden Reign Of The Queen Of Soul and Oh Me Oh My: Aretha Live in Philly 1972.  There are no…

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Release Round-Up: Week of September 11

September 11, 2015 by Joe Marchese | 1 Comment
Four Seasons Sherry

Welcome to this week’s Release Round-Up!  Second Disc Records is going back to the beach with Ricci Martin, but that’s far from all this week! We’re also taking off with ELO, singing street-corner symphonies with The Four Seasons, and much more!  Plus: new titles from classic artists! Ricci Martin, Beached: Expanded Edition (Second Disc/Real Gone) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.) What if key members of The Beach Boys, Chicago, America, and Wings had teamed up to create one of the greatest California rock albums you’ve never heard?  Well, they actually did!   Singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, author…

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What’s Going On: “Motown 25” Comes To DVD In New Box Set, Highlights DVDs

August 20, 2014 by Joe Marchese | No Comments
motown 25

On the evening of March 25, 1983, the Pasadena Civic Auditorium was alive with the sound of music – the Sound of Young America, to be more specific.  Motown Records was celebrating its 25th anniversary, and producer Suzanne de Passe wasn’t pulling any stops.  “Once in a lifetime” was as overused in 1983 as it is today, but the galaxy of stars assembled by de Passe couldn’t be described any other way: Diana Ross and the Supremes, Marvin Gaye, Lionel Richie and the Commodores, Smokey Robinson and the Miracles, Stevie Wonder, Mary…

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Shine Her Light: “The Midnight Special” Box Set Arrives In September with Fleetwood Mac, Bee Gees, ELO, More

August 13, 2014 by Joe Marchese | 9 Comments
midnight special box set

Between August 1972 and May 1981, late night television was a little more rockin’.  Producer Burt Sugarman’s The Midnight Special followed Johnny Carson’s Tonight Show on Friday evenings, welcoming viewers with Johnny Rivers’ rousing rendition of the traditional tune (a Top 20 hit for Rivers in 1965).  Over the course of 450 episodes, The Midnight Special presented a staggering array of music’s top talent on network television with most songs performed live for the majority of its run.  The program, featuring announcer Wolfman Jack and a variety of guest hosts, premiered as a…

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Neither One of Us (Wants to Be the First to Say Goodbye): Final “The Complete Motown Singles” Volume Bows

November 13, 2013 by Mike Duquette | 5 Comments
the complete motown singles volume 12b2

They did it. Nearly nine years after the first volume in Hip-O Select’s The Complete Motown Singles box set series was released, the 14th and final entry in the series, Volume 12B: 1972, will be released on December 10, just in time for the holidays. The year 1972 marks, for many, the end of the “classic Motown” period. Label founder Berry Gordy moved label operations from Detroit to Los Angeles, and many of his most treasured acts were in periods of transition. Diana Ross was long a solo artist away from The Supremes, while…

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Release Round-Up: Week of June 11

June 11, 2013 by Mike Duquette | No Comments
rockshow new

Paul McCartney and Wings, Rockshow (Eagle Rock) Macca’s newly-restored live show may not be in the Wings Over America box, but that means you can buy it for that much less now. (DVD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.; BD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.) ZZ Top, The Complete Studio Albums 1970-1990 (Warner Bros./Rhino) So not only are you getting all of ZZ Top’s London/Warner-era albums in one convenient box, but you’re getting a fair amount of them in their original mixes for the first time ever on CD. Win? Win. (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.) Various Artists, The…

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Come Get This Thang: The Spinners’ G.C. Cameron’s Motown Solo Debut Arrives On CD

May 16, 2013 by Joe Marchese | No Comments
g c cameron love songs

It’s a shame, isn’t it?  When Motown mainstays The Spinners departed the venerable Detroit label for the greener pastures of Atlantic Records, lead singer G.C. Cameron didn’t make the switch.  Cameron, the unmistakable main voice of The Spinners’ Stevie Wonder-penned No. 14 hit “It’s a Shame,” remained with Motown.  Cameron suggested his cousin and close friend Philippe Wynne replace him, and soon watched Wynne and co. score the group’s first ever Top 10 pop singles.  In fact, Atlantic debut Spinners charted five hits and two Top 10s – including the million-selling “I’ll…

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The Softer Side of UMe’s Budget Compilation Lines: “Ballads” Released

April 10, 2013 by Mike Duquette | No Comments
marvin gaye ballads

Having recently introduced some EMI-controlled artists to the ICON roster, Universal now incorporates some of those artists (and some of their most treasured R&B and country acts) into a new budget-oriented series, Ballads. And while none of the artists covered here really, truly need more compilations on the market – and, one can assume, the assembly of these is as low-impact as the ICON series – there’s actually some promise to be had here. The overall selection of artists isn’t terrible, particularly on the EMI side; new sets from culled from the catalogues of Peabo…

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Get Ready! Songs of “Motown: The Musical” Are Collected In Original Hit Versions

February 26, 2013 by Joe Marchese | No Comments
motown musical originals1

When Motown: The Musical opens at Broadway’s Lunt-Fontanne Theatre on April 14, it will mark yet another career landmark for Berry Gordy, the songwriter-producer-entrepreneur who turned Detroit, Michigan into Hitsville, USA some fifty-five years ago.  The musical, written by Gordy and directed by Charles Randolph-Wright, depicts the rise to prominence of the Sound of Young America, with Brandon Victor Dixon (The Color Purple, The Scottsboro Boys) starring as Gordy.  He’s joined by a cast of roughly 40 including Valisia Lekae as Diana Ross, Charl Brown as Smokey Robinson, Bryan Terrell Clark as…

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The Year in Reissues: The 2012 Gold Bonus Disc Awards

December 28, 2012 by Joe Marchese | No Comments
the association complete singles

Wow!  Was it just over a year ago when a rather dubious report began circulating (that, shockingly, was picked up by many otherwise-reputable publications) that proclaimed the death of the CD was secretly scheduled by the major labels for 2012?  Well, 2012 has come and (almost) gone, and it might have been the most super-sized year in recent memory for reissues, deluxe and otherwise, from labels new and old.  Here at the Second Disc, we consider our annual Gold Bonus Disc Awards a companion piece to Mike’s own round-up over at Popdose,…

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T Stands For “Trouble Man”: Marvin Gaye Classic Gets Expanded on CD

October 29, 2012 by Joe Marchese | 2 Comments
trouble man

At long last, Trouble Man. With the upcoming 40th anniversary edition of Marvin Gaye’s 1972 album currently slated for November 13 release, each one of the Motown legend’s studio albums between 1971’s seminal What’s Going On and 1982’s Midnight Love has been expanded as a 2-CD set.  (In the case of What’s Going On, an even more deluxe edition was released in 2011.)  Trouble Man, the soundtrack to the 20th Century Fox “blaxploitation” film, turned out to be Gaye’s only excursion into movie scoring.  It followed the enormous success of What’s Going…

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Eight More ICON Sets for You to Briefly Consider

March 8, 2012 by Mike Duquette | No Comments
icon motown classics

What you will see after the jump are eight more of Universal’s generic ICON titles, released this past Tuesday. There are two country acts, two Motown acts, two Motown compilations, one from Dean Martin and one from pop/rock band Fall Out Boy. A stranger collection you’ll rarely find. I’d give a halfhearted recommendation to the Motown ones if you want to spend a little money on someone who has the distinct displeasure of never having heard any Motown song, ever. If you have more money to spend, though, get a box set or…

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Legacy Plans Artist Collections, Themed Sets for New “Playlist” Batch

January 23, 2012 by Mike Duquette | No Comments
playlist black history month

Brace yourselves, compilation collectors: Legacy’s got another batch of Playlist titles out next week. The latest batch of set, due out January 31, skew mainly toward modern country and rootsier rock (Gretchen Wilson, Montgomery Gentry, solo works by Gregg Allman) with some wild cards thrown in for good measure (R&B from Charlie Wilson of The Gap Band and Wyclef Jean, contemporary pop-rockers Augustana, a set from The Hooters that was delayed from the last batch). In a nice change of pace, a few multi-artist themed compilations are present, too – one for…

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The Second Disc Buyers Guide: The 100 Greatest Reissues of All Time, Part 19 (#10-6)

December 23, 2011 by Mike Duquette | No Comments
beatles white album

It’s the penultimate entry in our list of Rolling Stone‘s greatest albums of all time, as seen through the reissues that have filled our shelves for years. We’ve got some heavy hitters here: Beatles, Stones, Dylan – plus what may be the greatest punk and R&B albums ever. 10. The Beatles, The Beatles (Apple, 1968) The double-LP the world knows mostly by three other words – “The White Album” – was difficult and unusual inside and out. Most of the songs were conceived during an ultimately aborted transcendental meditation course with Maharishi Mahesh…

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Motown Memories Captured on New DVDs

September 1, 2011 by Mike Duquette | No Comments
j5 sullivan

Oh, for the days when there was a bounty of venues to hear the latest, greatest music on television. By far, one of the greatest vanguards of popular music in the halcyon days of the medium was Ed Sullivan, host of his eponymous show from 1948 to 1971. While Sullivan found himself somewhat bemused by the wide variety of talent he showcased – legendarily confining camera angles on Elvis Presley to tight shots that wouldn’t expose too much of his gyrating hips – he generally picked performers regardless of the approval of…

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Review: Marvin Gaye, “What’s Going On: 40th Anniversary Edition”

June 29, 2011 by Mike Duquette | No Comments
lp super deluxe edition1

Close your eyes and think of your favorite childhood vacation destination. That familiar locale, perhaps a constant lake house where you dreamt of the perfect summer and did your best to achieve it. The silly family rituals, the bonds you made with others, the warm feeling that comes with those kind of memories. Now picture that same destination, revisited as a luxurious, all-expenses-paid package. There’s not a worry in sight, no shortage of requests to be fulfilled by servers and staff – the epitome of melt-into-your-beach-chair luxury. Which one do you like…

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Release Round-Up: Week of June 7

June 7, 2011 by Mike Duquette | No Comments
lp super deluxe edition

Marvin Gaye, What’s Going On: 40th Anniversary Edition (Motown/UMe) Two CDs feature the original album and a host of rarities, single mixes, and all the best outtakes leading up to the making of this R&B classic (almost a dozen of which are unreleased). The deluxe package is rounded out by the great Detroit mix of the album on vinyl. (Check out our interview with Harry Weinger on the set!) (Amazon) Paul Simon, Paul Simon / There Goes Rhymin’ Simon / In Concert: Live Rhymin’ / Still Crazy After All These Years (Columbia/Legacy) The Rhino reissues (plus Simon’s…

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Make Me Wanna Holler: A Chat with Harry Weinger on “What’s Going On” (Part 2)

May 23, 2011 by Mike Duquette | No Comments
marvin gaye whats going on

The wait is over. We continue our discussion of Marvin Gaye’s classic What’s Going On, to be released as a super-deluxe edition on June 7, with reissue producer Harry Weinger. In this portion of the discussion, Weinger touches on the always-hot topic of remastering the source material, a thought on super-deluxe box sets, and future projects to honor both Gaye’s legacy and other Motown greats. Read on after the jump!

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“I Just Wanna Ask a Question”: Harry Weinger on the “What’s Going On” Box Set

May 19, 2011 by Mike Duquette | 10 Comments
marvin

For most music producers, there’s a kind of strangeness to working on multiple reissues of the same classic album over time. Not so for Harry Weinger, vice-president of A&R at Universal Music Enterprises and, as one of UMe’s resident Motown gurus, the producer of several deluxe editions of Marvin Gaye’s classic LPs, including What’s Going On. “You learn between anniversaries,” Weinger said. “And luckily, I was there for both of them.” When What’s Going On became one of Universal’s first in a then-new series of Deluxe Editions – now iconic for their double-sized digipacks…

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Right On: Marvin Gaye’s “What’s Going On” Receives 40th Anniversary Box Set (UPDATED WITH TRACK LIST)

April 13, 2011 by Joe Marchese | No Comments
marvin gaye whats going on

Smokey Robinson has called it “the greatest album of all time.” Rolling Stone ranked it in the Top Ten in its survey of the Greatest Albums of All Time, at No. 6. Marvin Gaye’s What’s Going On broke the Motown mold as Gaye delivered one of the most personal albums of all time: impassioned, outraged, haunting, beautiful and altogether unexpected. That seminal LP was released on May 21, 1971 and has remained in print since. Ten years ago, for its thirtieth anniversary, Motown reissued What’s Going On as a two-disc Deluxe Edition, bolstering Disc 1 with…

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“Icon” Series Gets More Iconic

December 13, 2010 by Mike Duquette | 3 Comments
icon oneal2

Universal is prepping another batch of Icon compilations for the first week of 2011. Now, we’ve been hard on this series before, but there’s actually a lot to like about these new sets. While previous Icon sets have been bashed by The Second Disc for either shamelessly repackaging previous compilations or offering fewer CD-based rarities than, say, Legacy’s Playlist series (more on that tomorrow), this new batch of Icon sets collate artists who haven’t had much in the way of compilations yet (Vanessa Carlton), expand on previous sets (the hefty double-disc set…

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Rarities Editions, Round Three (UPDATED 11/1)

November 1, 2010 by Mike Duquette | No Comments
lets get it on rarities1

Remember Universal’s Rarities Edition sets? The sets that issue the bonus material of a previously-released Deluxe Edition on its own? A trio of new Rarities Edition titles will street on Tuesday, November 2, and like the last two batches, The Second Disc wants to give a clear perspective to you, the reader, as to whether they’re worth getting if you never upgraded to the original Deluxe Edition in the first place. Luckily, unlike the last two batches of Rarities Editions (which had some clunkers alongside some worthy purchases), most of these are…

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