Mel Tormé - The Second Disc

The Weekend Stream: August 20, 2022

August 20, 2022 by Mike Duquette | 2 Comments

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! A short but sweet release week has jazz, soundtracks and a lost pop record from one of the best-loved rock frontmen of the last few decades. Max Q, Max Q (Golden Rebel) (iTunes) INXS may have announced some activity around the 40th anniversary of their classic Shabooh Shoobah this fall (more on that as we keep confirming information about the band’s plans)…

Categories:

The Weekend Stream

Formats:

Digital Download, Digital Streaming

Genres:

Country, Jazz, R&B/Soul, Rock, Soundtracks

Tags:

"Weird Al" Yankovic, Bill Anderson, Dolly Parton, INXS, John Powell, Marvin Gaye, Mel Tormé, The Manhattans

So Nice: The Lennon Sisters Return This Weekend to Public Television, Issue New Christmas, Broadway, and Standards Collections on CD

November 27, 2020 by Joe Marchese | 9 Comments

65 years ago this coming Christmas Eve, The Lawrence Welk Show welcomed a winsome young quartet for their very first television appearance. The story goes that the host’s teenaged son brought Dianne, Peggy, Kathy, and Janet Lennon home to sing for him; their shimmering vocal harmonies won the elder Welk over and he quickly booked them to appear on his show. The response was so tremendous that The Lennon Sisters continued to appear every Saturday night with the “wunnerful, wunnerful” host until 1968 and began a cherished showbiz career that continues to…

Categories:

News

Formats:

CD, DVD

Genres:

Holiday, Popular Standards/Vocal

Tags:

Al Martino, Andy Williams, Jack Jones, Leslie Uggams, Mel Tormé, The Lennon Sisters, The Osmonds

La-La Land’s Annual Black Friday Blowout Offers ‘Star Trek,’ ‘Karate Kid,’ Disaster Scores and More

December 3, 2019 by The Second Disc | 4 Comments

It wouldn’t be Black Friday without an announcement of one last killer batch of archival soundtracks from La-La Land Records. The impressive slate of titles the label announced are on sale now, and we’ve got the scoop on all of them! First up, it’s a second, long-promised collection of music from Star Trek Voyager, the third live-action spinoff based on Gene Roddenberry’s iconic sci-fi series that aired between 1966 and 1969. Hot off the success of Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987-1994) and Deep Space Nine (1993-1999), Voyager (1995-2001) was set contemporaneously…

Categories:

News

Formats:

Box Sets, CD

Genres:

Soundtracks

Tags:

Alfred Newman, Bill Conti, David Arnold, Dennis McCarthy, Franz Waxman, Jerry Goldsmith, John Williams, Mel Tormé, Nelson Riddle, Victor Young, Walter Scharf

Christmas Conga! Real Gone Announces First Wave of Holiday Lineup

October 3, 2019 by Sam Stone | 1 Comment

Sure, you can wait to find Real Gone’s lineup of holiday-themed titles under the tree, but why wait? A trio of merry Yuletide albums will be available on color vinyl on November 1, including Cyndi Lauper’s Merry Christmas… Have A Nice Life!, the Home Alone Christmas soundtrack compilation, and the soundtrack to Love Actually. First up: Cyndi Lauper’s Merry Christmas… Have A Nice Life! This often-overlooked slice of Lauper’s discography is a fresh spin on the time-honored tradition of the Christmas album. The album was partly inspired by motherhood; in fact, the story goes that…

Categories:

News

Formats:

Vinyl

Genres:

Holiday, Pop, Soundtracks

Tags:

Alan Jackson, Atlantic Starr, Cyndi Lauper, Darlene Love, Dido, John Williams, Joni Mitchell, Kelly Clarkson, Lisa Fischer, Maroon 5, Mel Tormé, Norah Jones, Otis Redding, Southside Johnny, TLC, The Beach Boys, The Pointer Sisters, Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers

Gee, But It’s Good to Be Here: Stage Door Releases “Lost Broadway 1956-57”

August 1, 2019 by Joe Marchese | No Comments

For the second volume in its Lost Broadway series of 2-CD sets, the U.K.’s Stage Door Records label has turned its attention to the years 1956 and 1957. Musical hits during the 1956-1957 and 1957-1958 seasons included Bells Are Ringing, Li’l Abner, West Side Story, and The Music Man, but Stage Door’s attention doesn’t lie with those smashes but rather with the largely-forgotten, but certainly worthy, shows that haven’t received nearly as much love over the years. Like the first volume (which looked back to 1961), this edition features original cast performances…

Categories:

News

Formats:

Genres:

Cast Recordings, Popular Standards/Vocal

Tags:

Barbara Cook, Carmen McRae, Chita Rivera, Eartha Kitt, Ethel Merman, Gwen Verdon, Lena Horne, Leonard Bernstein, Mel Tormé, Sammy Davis Jr., Various Artists

Comes Once In a Lifetime: Stage Door Celebrates “Lost Broadway: 1961” On New Collection

May 29, 2019 by Joe Marchese | 2 Comments

Stage Door Records’ five volumes of Lost West End have sampled numerous rare musicals that have played London over the years. Now, the U.K. label is turning its sights across the pond to the Great White Way to launch a new series: Lost Broadway. The first volume focuses on the year 1961, when composer-lyricist Jerry Herman made his Broadway debut with the successful Milk and Honey; some of the brightest stars included Barbara Cook, Jerry Orbach, Elaine Stritch, and Alfred Drake; the venerable Noel Coward returned with Sail Away; and the hits…

Categories:

News

Formats:

Genres:

Cast Recordings, Popular Standards/Vocal

Tags:

Alfred Drake, Barbara Cook, Dinah Shore, Judy Garland, Margaret Whiting, Mel Tormé, Nat King Cole, Various Artists

A Granz Old Time: Verve/UMe Honors ‘The Founder’ On New Box Set

December 6, 2018 by Sam Stone | 1 Comment

On December 7, Verve/UMe will release The Founder, a 4-CD box set in honor of Norman Granz’s centennial earlier this year (August 6, 1918). The collection will also be available as a digital download and on streaming services. The set includes 44 tracks, some appearing on CD for the first time ever. It presents a chronological overview of the first two decades of the jazz impresario’s impressive career by way of recordings of the musicians he recorded. The booklet includes new liner notes by Tad Hershorn, author of Norman Granz: The Man Who…

Categories:

News

Formats:

Box Sets, CD, Digital Download, Digital Streaming

Genres:

Jazz, Popular Standards/Vocal

A Place for Us: Decca Broadway Celebrates Leonard Bernstein on “Jazz Loves Bernstein”

July 17, 2018 by Joe Marchese | 1 Comment

August 25, 2018 will mark what would have been the 100th birthday of Leonard Bernstein, and while the maestro passed away in 1990 at the age of 72, he left behind a lifetime of remarkable music in multiple genres. A number of classical releases have been issued for the Bernstein centennial, but a new entry concentrates on the popular side of the composer. The 2-CD anthology Jazz Loves Bernstein, on the Decca Broadway label in association with Verve and UMe, collects 27 examples from the Universal vaults of just how well Bernstein’s…

Categories:

News

Formats:

Genres:

Cast Recordings, Jazz, Popular Standards/Vocal

Tags:

Billie Holiday, Billy Eckstine, Bob James, Diana Krall, Leonard Bernstein, Mel Tormé, Oscar Peterson, Sarah Vaughan

Starbucks Serves Up Cocktails with Mel, Serge and Judy, and Folk with Nick, Sandy and Eliza

September 4, 2014 by Joe Marchese | No Comments

Fall apparently wasn’t arriving early enough for the folks at Starbucks, so the international coffee giant moved it up – to this past August 25 – with the early arrival of its familiar fall drinks. But when ordering up that pumpkin spice latte, you might want to check out two recent musical offerings, both curated with the Starbucks Entertainment label’s customary care. The simply-titled British Folk emphasizes the current crop of troubadours who currently follow in the footsteps of Nick Drake and Sandy Denny, both of whom are represented here with “Hazey…

Categories:

News

Formats:

Genres:

Folk, Popular Standards/Vocal

Tags:

Mel Tormé, Nick Drake, Ray Charles, Sam Phillips, Sandy Denny, Serge Gainsbourg