Appropriately enough, The Rocky Horror Picture Show is the movie that refuses to stay dead. Written off by audiences and critics upon its opening in summer 1975, the little movie with the $1.4 million budget has since earned some $170 million and counting worldwide - the longest-running movie release in history. Even with COVID-19 shutting cinemas everywhere, Rocky Horror marches on in Zoom screenings and tributes timed to its 45th anniversary. As part of that celebration, Ode Records has
Welcome to this week's Release Round-Up! David Bowie, Spying Through a Keyhole: Demos and Unreleased Songs (Parlophone) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada) Spying Through a Keyhole: Demos and Unreleased Songs is the new box set with four seven-inch vinyl singles of some of Bowie's earliest material. It will feature nine rare, monaural recordings, including mostly solo vocal-and-guitar versions of familiar songs ("Space Oddity" in its earliest known version, "London Bye Ta Ta,"
CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada LP: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada Cleveland's rock scene during the '70s was largely championed by Steve Popovich, a former Cleveland resident who ended up being the head of A&R at Epic. In mid-1976, he left the corporate rock world and headed back home to Cleveland, where he set up Cleveland International Records, part record label, part management company, part marketing consulting group. Throughout the '70s, Cleveland
"Cleveland Rocks" is the name of one of Ian Hunter's best-loved compositions. First released in 1979, it's since became the de-facto anthem of the city, a rock proclamation whose title has always rung true. Cleveland's rock scene during the '70s was largely championed by Steve Popovich, a former Cleveland resident who ended up being the head of A&R at Epic. In mid-1976, he left the corporate rock world and headed back home to Cleveland, where he set up Cleveland International Records, part
Welcome to this week's Release Round-Up! Prince, Musicology [Various Formats] (Legacy) 1-CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada 2-LP black vinyl: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada 2-LP purple vinyl: Prince Official Store Today, three of Prince's essential 2000s albums arrive on CD and, for the first time ever, LP. Musicology marked Prince's return to a major label and to the upper heights of the charts. It reached the Top Five on the Billboard Album Chart in
Geffen/UMe is serving up a new edition of Meat Loaf's Bat Out of Hell II: Back Into Hell, due out on February 8. Released just over 25 years ago, was the sequel to Meat Loaf's multi-platinum 1977 effort. Originally recorded at Ocean Way Recording in LA and at Power Station in New York, Bat Out of Hell's sequel was once again helmed by Jim Steinman and features many of the same musicians and personnel. Among those returning are Roy Bittan, Todd Rundgren, Ellen Foley, and Kasim Sulton. With
Meat Loaf's 17th studio album, Welcome to the Neighbourhood, will arrive on vinyl on February 8l. Released in 1995, it's a concept album that follows the trajectory of a relationship over the years. Among its tracks are the singles "I'd Lie for You (And That's the Truth)" (a duet with Patti Russo), "Not a Dry Eye in the House," and "Runnin' for the Red Light (I Gotta Life)." Diane Warren and Jim Steinman are among the songwriters represented on its epic musical dramas. For its vinyl debut,
Over the past few weeks, Universal has announced a varied assortment of upcoming vinyl releases, including a rarities collection from the Godfather of Soul, a compilation of early Scott Walker, two Meat Loaf titles arriving on vinyl for the first time ever in the States, and a celebratory 10th Anniversary edition from U2. It's set to be a vinyl-filled February and March, and The Second Disc has all the details! First up, Geffen/UMe is serving up two new editions of celebrated Meat Loaf
Welcome to the first Release Round-Up of the new year! David Bowie, Beauty and the Beast [7-Inch Vinyl Single] (Parlophone/Rhino) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada) David Bowie's series of 40th anniversary series continues with the picture-disc release of "Beauty and the Beast" from Heroes, backed with a live version of "Blackout" from Berlin's Deutschlandhalle on May 16, 1978. The A-side boasts a photo of Bowie from Japan 1977, while the flip has him in NYC in
Welcome to this week's Release Round-Up! Randy Newman, The Randy Newman Songbook (Nonesuch) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada) The Randy Newman Songbook box set marks the first-ever combined release of all three of the legendary songwriter's piano-and-voice Songbook albums (including the new Vol. 3) recorded in 2003 and 2010 with producers Mitchell Froom and Lenny Waronker. All songs have been resequenced as one cohesive, thematically-linked listening experience spread over 4
Welcome to this week's Release Round-Up! Led Zeppelin, The Complete BBC Sessions (Atlantic/Swan Song/Rhino) 3 CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada 5 LP: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada 3 CD/5 LP Super Deluxe Edition: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada Digital Download: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. This new collection expands the original double-disc set, from 1997, which was culled from the band's appearances on BBC radio between 1969 and 1971. This updated
Meat Loaf and Jim Steinman have been inextricably linked since the beginning of their careers with the release of the classic Bat Out of Hell in 1977. The rock heroes have gone their separate ways in the four decades since that album's release but they always seem to come back together and they are doing it once again. A new Meat Loaf album entitled Braver Than We Are has just shown up on Amazon for release on September 16 with the subtitle reading "All Songs By Jim Steinman." This album
Cherry Red imprint Hear No Evil Recordings has recently released a new reissue from a classic 1970's hard-rocker: Ted Nugent's second solo album for Epic Records, Free-For-All. This also follows in HNE's line of Meat Loaf reissues as the Bat Out of Hell superstar is a prominent guest on the album singing over half of the songs. Ted Nugent, hailing from Detroit, got his start in music at a young age. After performing in several bands, he formed the Amboy Dukes when his family moved to
Today's Release Round-Up has everything from classic country and rock to vintage jazz! Glen Campbell, Rhinestone Cowboy: 40th Anniversary Edition (Capitol Nashville) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. ) Capitol Nashville remasters and expands Glen Campbell’s smash 1975 album with five bonus tracks, including the previously unreleased “Quits,” two rare new-to-U.S.-CD single sides and remixes of “Rhinestone Cowboy” and “Country Boy (You Got Your Feet in L.A.).” Read full details
By 1986, Meat Loaf found himself in a bit of a predicament. 1984’s Bad Attitude had failed to reach the heights scaled by Bat Out of Hell or even its follow-up Dead Ringer for Love. After the disappointing sales of 1983’s Midnight at the Lost and Found, that made two straight albums which failed to meet the artist’s potential. So the powerhouse vocalist chose to wait a bit before recording his next album. He hoped to bring back the main ingredient of his first two albums:
Though he burst onto the scene like a Bat Out of Hell and has enjoyed a 35+-year solo career to date, the artist known as Meat Loaf has never been terribly prolific in the studio. Over the course of three and a half decades, he has only released 11 full studio solo albums with a 12th due next year. To the casual observer, however, that may seem a high number. After all, his career is often thought to consist of just the two smash Bat Out of Hell albums released 16 years apart in 1977 and 1993.
Virgin Records, one of England's most iconic labels, turns 40 this year - and they're celebrating with a new compilation full of hits from their storied existence. The Virgin label was largely the brainchild of one young businessman named Richard Branson. The London-born Branson began his career selling records by mail order and later opening a shop on Oxford Street. The Virgin label was blessed with early success thanks to a willingness to sign acts that major U.K. labels were keen to dismiss.
Ain’t no doubt about it: Ellen Foley achieved classic rock immortality via her role on “Paradise by the Dashboard Light,” opposite Meat Loaf on his 1977 album Bat Out of Hell. Foley was the girl “glowing like the metal on the edge of a knife” in Jim Steinman’s rock opera in miniature, with Meat Loaf as the boy “praying for the end of time” and the end of their time together. All these years later, Foley and the former Marvin Lee Aday are together again - on CD shelves, at least, thanks to two
A toast! A famed box set of music from The Rocky Horror Show is coming back into print, as well as a new reissue of the original film soundtrack on CD and vinyl, 40 years after the show first Time Warped into the hearts of fans. There comes a time in many music and theatre enthusiasts' lives when they encounter The Rocky Horror Show, Richard O'Brien's raucous cult musical, which first premiered in London's West End in the summer of 1973. More than 35 years after it was adapted into The Rocky
We proudly announce Gregg Alley as the winner of our Meat Loaf contest! Gregg wins a copy of the new album Hell in a Handbasket from Legacy Recordings. The Jim Steinman-penned "It's All Coming Back to Me Now," performed by Meat Loaf on Bat Out of Hell III: The Monster is Loose (2006), was first performed by a Steinman-created studio project, Pandora's Box. Their version of "It's All Coming Back", from the album Original Sin (which also featured three songs used by Meat on Bat Out of Hell II:
The weather is warming up around Second Disc HQ, and as our way of celebrating, we're giving away a "hot" disc from our friends at Legacy Recordings. Released in Australia last fall and in stores in the U.S. today, Hell in a Handbasket is the 12th and latest album by rock icon Meat Loaf. Produced by Meat Loaf's longtime lead guitarist Paul Crook, the disc features 12 new recordings (including a cover of The Mamas & The Papas' "California Dreamin'") and guest appearances by Public Enemy's
A few brief notes from around the catalogue world on this Tuesday afternoon! Slicing Up Eyeballs reports that the deluxe edition of The Jesus and Mary Chain's Darklands has an error on one disc, but Demon Music Group is ready to replace your copies. A mastering error caused eight tracks on the first CD to become improperly indexed, meaning the starts of those tracks will be cut off if you shuffle or skip through the program. Replacement discs are already being pressed and should be ready in
Whether quarreling with Gary Busey on The Celebrity Apprentice or taking the stage beneath a giant bat, Meat Loaf has never done anything in a small way. So it’s not surprising that EMI’s just-announced 2-CD/1-DVD deluxe reissue of 1995’s Welcome to the Neighborhood looks to be a weighty package! It’s due in the U.K. on June 6, and the original 12-track line-up has been augmented with some choice bonus material. Four bonus tracks have been added to the original album on Disc 1, plus another
This week sees the release of Hang Cool, Teddy Bear, the 11th studio offering from Meat Loaf. The outsized rock personality skyrocketed to fame with 1977’s Bat Out of Hell, the theatrical rock opus penned by Jim Steinman and produced by Todd Rundgren. As Meat prepares to unleash his latest work (cheekily placing a roman numeral “IV” on the album’s back cover, making it clear that he intends Hang Cool as another Steinman-less sequel to Bat), could there be a better time for a Reissue Theory-style