The Weekend Stream: July 18, 2026

Welcome back to another edition of The Weekend Stream, The Second Disc’s review of notable catalogue titles making digital debuts, plus new works from legacy acts and even some personally curated favorites. We’ve got throwbacks to the ’90s and the ’00s, a legend of film music conducting live for America, some deluxe editions of the  current top-selling album in the country from a timeless pop icon, and so, so much more! Mariah Carey, Daydream (30th Anniversary Edition) (Columbia/Legacy) (Apple / Amazon) A sweet, sweet fantasy came true for all the Lambs out there: a…

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OUT TOMORROW! Iconoclassic Reissues Carole Bayer Sager’s Star-Studded “Sometimes Late at Night,” Featuring Burt Bacharach, Michael Jackson, Neil Diamond, More

Carole Bayer Sager was still a student at New York’s High School of Music and Art when her song “A Groovy Kind of Love,” co-written with Toni Wine, topped the U.S. Cash Box and Record World charts and reached No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1966.  Though some at the time thought it wouldn’t last due to its prescient use of the word “groovy,” Sager and Wine’s youthful tune more than proved its endurance.  22 years later, Phil Collins took it to No. 1 Pop and AC in the U.S. – not to mention No. 1…

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The Year In Review: The 2022 Gold Bonus Disc Awards, From A to Z – Part One

Happy 2023!  Welcome, friends, to The Second Disc’s 13th Annual Gold Bonus Disc Awards! A lot has happened in the last twelve months, but as we look to a new year with optimism and a hopeful spirit, we recognize the many roles music has played in our lives.  With that spirit in mind, The Second Disc wishes to recognize 2022’s cream of the catalogue music crop – those exemplary reissues and box sets, big and small, that proved to be truly outstanding for music lovers worldwide.  Despite the many delays caused by…

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Easy To Love Again: Carole Bayer Sager’s “Sometimes Late at Night,” with Burt Bacharach, Michael Jackson, Neil Diamond, Returns from Iconoclassic

Carole Bayer Sager was still a student at New York’s High School of Music and Art when her song “A Groovy Kind of Love,” co-written with Toni Wine, topped the U.S. Cash Box and Record World charts and reached No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1966.  Though some at the time thought it wouldn’t last due to its prescient use of the word “groovy,” Sager and Wine’s youthful tune more than proved its endurance.  22 years later, Phil Collins took it to No. 1 Pop and AC in the U.S….

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Nobody Does It Better: ‘The Best of Bond…James Bond’ Gets Update and Vinyl Release

With a new James Bond film set to shake (not stir) audiences in November, a longtime compilation of the super-spy’s famed film themes is getting a new iteration on November 20. The Best of Bond…James Bond offers a stellar 25-track overview of the pop themes that scored nearly all of the films based on Ian Fleming’s famed British secret agent. There are 14 U.K. Top 10 hits and two Academy Award winners herein – altogether, a formidable, half-century-plus musical portrait of one of cinema’s most popular characters. First released under this title…

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Phone Rings, Door Chimes, In Comes Company: Vocalion Releases Quad Mixes of “Company” and “A Chorus Line” on SACD

The U.K.’s Dutton Vocalion label is continuing its ongoing campaign reissuing quadraphonic albums on hybrid SACD (with a stereo layer playable on all CD players) with two classic Broadway cast recordings from the Columbia vaults.  Both were choreographed by Michael Bennett, feature the talents of Donna McKechnie, and have orchestrations by Jonathan Tunick.  Moreover, both merged classic Broadway with a powerful and contemporary sensibility. Much as Rodgers and Hammerstein had done before him, when they first masterfully integrated songs, dance, and dialogue into a dramatic whole, Stephen Sondheim would inaugurate his own…

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Release Round-Up: Week of May 25

Welcome to this week’s Release Round-Up! Prince, Nothing Compares 2 U  (Warner Bros.) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada) Prince’s original recording of “Nothing Compares 2 U” arrives on vinyl today for wide release.  The original Prince studio version was recorded at the Flying Cloud Warehouse in Eden Prairie, Minnesota by engineer Susan Rogers and featured background vocals by Susannah Melvoin and Paul “St. Paul” Peterson as well as saxophone by Eric Leeds. Prince composed, arranged, and otherwise performed the track entirely by himself.  This 7-inch vinyl single has an…

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Release Round-Up: Weeks of December 22 and 29

Welcome to this end-of-year Release Round-Up! The Monkees, More of The Monkees: Super Deluxe Edition (Rhino) Rhino delivers a 3-CD Super Deluxe Edition of The Monkees’ 1967 sophomore album with mono and stereo versions of the album and a plethora of alternate takes, never-before-heard rarities, and a recently-discovered live recording!  With 91 tracks (55 previously unreleased!), this set greatly expands upon the 2-CD iteration from 2006.  Read all about it here! Herbie Mann, It’s a Funky Thing: The Very Best of Herbie Mann (Varese Vintage) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon…

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If You Remember Me: Varese Reissues Dave Grusin, Willie Nelson on “The Champ” and “Electric Horseman”

On Friday, May 20, Varese Vintage has two rare soundtracks arriving in stores from composer and jazz great Dave Grusin: the CD premiere of his score to The Champ (with a pivotal song contribution from Marvin Hamlisch and Carole Bayer Sager) and the return to CD of The Electric Horseman, featuring score by Grusin and songs from the one and only Willie Nelson. 1979’s The Champ marked the American film debut of Italian director Franco Zeffirelli.  A remake of the 1931 film of the same name, it starred Jon Voight as Billy…

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Release Round-Up: Week of May 20

Welcome to this week’s packed Release Round-Up! David Bowie, ChangesOneBowie (Parlophone/Rhino) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada) ChangesOneBowie returns from Parlophone in a 40th anniversary edition available on vinyl, CD and digital formats.  Originally issued on RCA in May 20, 1976, ChangesOneBowie was the first key compilation album from superstar David Bowie.  Collecting songs dating back to 1969, the 11-track album introduced the single “John, I’m Only Dancing” on LP alongside highlights from his remarkable string of releases: David Bowie(“Space Oddity”), Hunky Dory (“Changes”), The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and…

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Release Round-Up: Week of April 22

Welcome to this week’s Release Round-Up! The Impressions, The Best of The Impressions: The Curtom Years (Varese Vintage) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada) Varese Vintage has an impressive line-up of releases this week!  First up, the label has brought together 18 prime cuts from the premier purveyors of Chicago soul, Curtis Mayfield and the legendary Impressions. This set features singles released on the Curtom label between 1968 and 1976 including the R&B hits “Fool for You,” “Choice of Colors,” “Say You Love Me,” “Finally Got Myself Together (I’m a Changed…

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Release Round-Up: Week of October 23

Welcome to this week’s Release Round-Up! Elvis Costello, Unfaithful Music & Soundtrack Album (UMe) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.) Elvis Costello has compiled a 2-CD companion release to his recently-released, utterly engrossing memoir Unfaithful Music & Disappearing Ink.  Featuring songs that “offer the deepest emotional connection to the themes and stories in his book,” Unfaithful Music & Soundtrack Album non-chronologically spans the onetime Angry Young Man and latter-day Renaissance man’s entire recorded discography, from 1977’s My Aim is True to 2013’s Wise Up Ghost, his collaboration album with hip-hop group The Roots.  In addition, two…

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One Singular Sensation: “A Chorus Line” Returns In 40th Anniversary Expanded Edition

Of a remarkable and indeed, singular, career that crowned him as an EGOT – winner of Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony Awards – and one of only two EGOTs with a Pulitzer Prize (the other is Richard Rodgers), Marvin Hamlisch’s most lasting musical accomplishment might well be his score to A Chorus Line.   Working with lyricist Ed Kleban, director/choreographer Michael Bennett, co-choreographer Bob Avian, and writers James Kirkwood and Nicholas Dante, composer Hamlisch struck a universal chord with the revolutionary musical that once held the record as the longest-running Broadway production of…

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Kritzerland Turns 10! Label Launches New Soundtrack Series, Begins Indiegogo Campaign

Happy Birthday, Kritzerland! Ten years ago this month, producer Bruce Kimmel, known for his work at labels including Bay Cities and Varese Sarabande, launched the Kritzerland label.  Since 2005, Kritzerland has released over 150 CDs: classic soundtracks from composers like Burt Bacharach, Henry Mancini, John Barry and John Williams, vintage cast recordings of musicals including stunning remixes of Follies and Promises, Promises, and solo albums by artists such as Sandy Bainum and the elusive Guy Haines.  Among the label’s recent highlights is a deluxe 2-CD premiere of the complete songs and score…

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The Entertainer: Marvin Hamlisch’s “D.A.R.Y.L.” Premieres on CD, Features Teddy Pendergrass and Nile Rodgers

It’s appropriate that Marvin Hamlisch’s only children’s book was titled Marvin Makes Music, for making music was indeed what the man did – music for Broadway, music for television, music for the concert hall, music for the silver screen. In any genre, Marvin made music overflowing with melody, wit and heart, and his populist approach earned him the nickname “the people’s composer.” Hamlisch’s film career began in 1968 with the score to the cult film The Swimmer and ended with his posthumously-released work on the HBO motion picture Behind the Candelabra; along…

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On the Fifth Day of Second Discmas…

Here at The Second Disc, the holiday season is the perfect time to do what we love to do best: share the gift of music. For the second year in a row, we have we reached out to some of our favorite reissue labels and we’ve teamed with them to play Santa Claus to our awesome and faithful readers. It’s called – what else? – Second Discmas, and it’s going on now through Christmas! The fifth day of Second Discmas is a celebration of all things stage and screen!  We’re offering two…

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It’s The Falling In Love: Raven Reissues The Complete Carole Bayer Sager Albums; Bacharach, Jackson, Diamond, Midler Guest

Carole Bayer Sager knew “that’s what friends are for” long before she wrote the song of the same name. The former Carole Bayer was already a hitmaking lyricist before graduating high school, thanks to the Mindbenders’ No. 2 hit “A Groovy Kind of Love.” The song was written by Bayer and Toni Wine before both women hit the ripe old age of 18. Following more hit tunes with the likes of the Monkees and Neil Sedaka, and even a Broadway musical (1970’s Georgy, with music by George Fischoff), she eventually turned to…

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Nobody Does It Better: James Bond Turns 50, Capitol Celebrates with New CD Anthology

When Sean Connery first uttered the immortal words “Bond…James Bond” fifty years ago in the film Dr. No, the template for the long-running movie series was already set.  That soon-to-be-signature phrase was joined in the film by a piece of music that would quickly rival those three words for familiarity.  John Barry’s arrangement of “The James Bond Theme” not only helped cement the silver screen icon of 007 but virtually became a genre unto itself, that of spy music.  The spy film craze may have hit its peak in the swinging sixties,…

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As the Globe Turns: Universal Adds Classic, Possibly Rare, Soundtrack Material to Blu-Ray Box Set

In 1912, an ex-dry goods merchant and owner of the nascent Independent Moving Pictures (IMP) studio stood in a New York office with five other movie moguls and made history. These six men, organized by IMP founder Carl Laemmle, were keen to merge their businesses with an eye toward the growing big business of moviemaking. As they struggled for a title for their venture, Laemmle allegedly saw a wagon zip by on the street below with a grandiose name: “Universal Pipe Fitters.” Turning back to the window, he announced the venture would…

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Reissue Theory, In Memoriam: Various Artists, “The Essential Marvin Hamlisch”

Welcome to another installment of Reissue Theory, where we focus on notable albums and the reissues they may someday see. Today’s installment looks back at the mighty career of the late Marvin Hamlisch and how his best songs might be compiled into a truly “Essential” release. On Tuesday morning, August 7, news broke that composer Marvin Hamlisch had unexpectedly died the day before, at the age of 68.  The worlds of music, theatre and film were all shocked, as Hamlisch’s latest musical, The Nutty Professor, had started performances in Nashville, Tennessee, and the…

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In Memoriam: Marvin Hamlisch (1944-2012)

I only met Marvin Hamlisch once. It was late in September 2010, on the campus of Los Angeles’ UCLA, where the esteemed composer had been working on a revised production of his 1979 musical They’re Playing Our Song.  He and I were both on our cell phones in the lobby a few minutes before the show was about to start.  As if by serendipity, we hung up at the same time.  As we both were headed back into the auditorium, I couldn’t resist the opportunity to extend my hand to one of…

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Ring Them Bells: Liza Minnelli’s Triumphant “Live at the Winter Garden” Expanded For CD Premiere

Liza Minnelli turns 66 today, and could rightfully relax, look back and celebrate over six decades in show business.  But the daughter of Judy Garland and Vincente Minnelli, who made her first onscreen appearance as a baby in 1949’s MGM extravaganza In the Good Old Summertime, has never been one to rest on her considerable laurels.  Minnelli is still touring, recording and doing what she does best: entertaining, whether on the big screen (Sex and the City 2), the small screen (Arrested Development) or onstage.  Masterworks Broadway will, on April 3, give…

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