On April 9, Omnivore Recordings will release Something Wonderful, indeed: a 2-CD, 40-track collection of rare and long-unheard performances from the one and only Peggy Lee. This release brings together a host of rarities from CBS Radio's 1951-1952 Peggy Lee Show, all expertly restored and remastered by Michael Graves. Something Wonderful: Peggy Lee Sings the Great American Songbook features Lee's long-lost renditions of classic American standards written by a "Who's Who" of great
Frank Sinatra Enterprises and UMe have released a second volume of their digital-only Reprise Rarities series, bringing together another 13 sides from Frank Sinatra's time at the label he founded, all of which are new to download and streaming. This baker's dozen from the Chairman of the Board spans 1960-1995 and is arguably even more eclectic than the first collection. Reprise Rarities Vol. 2 includes single B-sides ("Tina," "Blue Lace," "Star!," "It's Sunday") as well as the sublime 1976
Welcome to this week's Release Round-Up! Diana Ross & The Supremes, Sing and Perform Funny Girl (Second Disc/Real Gone Music) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada / Real Gone Music) Real Gone Music and Second Disc Records debut Diana Ross & The Supremes Sing and Perform "Funny Girl": The Ultimate Edition, a deluxe 2-CD celebration of the classic 1968 Motown-meets-Broadway gem. Greatly building upon the digital-only Expanded Edition issued in 2014, The Ultimate Edition
This Friday, Capitol Records and UMe will release Peggy Lee's Ultimate Christmas on CD and vinyl as part of the Peggy Lee 100 celebration. This yuletide follow-up to Ultimate Peggy Lee brings together 22 holiday favorites from the late artist including selections from her Capitol albums Christmas Carousel (1960) and Happy Holiday (1965) - the latter an anthology of old and new material - as well as Decca and Capitol single releases and more. Ultimate Christmas includes a number of songs
Welcome to this week's Release Round-Up! Brian Wilson and Van Dyke Parks, Orange Crate Art: 25th Anniversary Edition (Omnivore) 2CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada / Omnivore 2LP Black Vinyl: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada / Omnivore 2LP Colored Vinyl: Omnivore Omnivore celebrates 25 years of Brian Wilson and Van Dyke Parks' beautiful Orange Crate Art with a variety of reissues. The 2-CD version boasts three previously unreleased bonus tracks on the first
100 years ago tomorrow - May 26, 1920 - Norma Deloris Egstrom was born in Jamestown, North Dakota. You know her as Peggy Lee: groundbreaking singer, songwriter, actress, and artist. Though she passed away in 2002, her music is as present today as ever - and her influence just as strong. Peggy's songs have recently scored such television shows as Ryan Murphy's Hollywood and Amy Sherman-Palladino's The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, and have been heard in commercials promoting Samsung and Tropicana
Welcome to this week's Release Round-Up! Frank Zappa and The Mothers of Invention, Carnegie Hall (Zappa Records/UMe) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada) Zappa Records and UMe repackage this 2011 website-exclusive 4-CD set in more compact 3-CD fashion for general release. Carnegie Hall chronicles Zappa and the Mothers of Invention's October 11, 1971 shows at the famed New York venue from the original mono tapes. This version drops the opening set by The Persuasions but
Smoky, sensual, sultry, confident, commanding...there has never been a voice quite like that of Peggy Lee. A triple threat singer/songwriter/actress, Lee had a remarkable career in music spanning over fifty years. She scored her first chart-topper in 1942 and her final recordings were released in 1995, seven years before her death in 2002. She was an Academy Award-nominated actress (Pete Kelly's Blues), a 13-time Grammy nominee (and two-time recipient), and a talented songwriter whose
Last year, the Bella Union label released a collection that fell under the radar. Happily, we here at Second Disc HQ have discovered Paradise: The Sound of Ivor Raymonde, available in 1-CD, 2-LP, and digital formats. The name of Raymonde will surely be familiar to fans of Dusty Springfield, Tom Jones, or The Walker Brothers, but those are only three of the artists with whom the late producer-arranger-conductor worked his magic. Paradise, co-curated by his son Simon Raymonde of Bella Union
When it comes to songwriting, Ray Davies is doubtless one well-respected man. Yet, unbelievably, Ace Records' recent Kinked! Kinks Songs and Sessions 1964-1971 marks the first collection to explore in comprehensive fashion the early body of work created by Davies outside of his famous band. Its 26 tracks encompass songs not recorded by The Kinks, or first released by artists other than The Kinks, as well as a handful of contemporary cover versions, sessions featuring The Kinks on backup, and
Well, this is it - the final big release week of the year! While next week will see releases slow to a trickle, this week is packed with exciting box sets and much more! Bruce Springsteen, The Ties That Bind: The River Collection (Columbia) 4-CD/3-DVD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon Canada 4-CD/2-BD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon Canada This 4-CD/3-DVD or 4-CD/2-BD set celebrating The Boss' seminal album The River features a treasure trove of previously unreleased material across its 53 audio tracks
A pair of rare albums by the legendary Miss Peggy Lee are getting the deluxe, expanded treatment this fall from Universal Music. Peggy Lee: Live in London is the title of the new 4-CD box set due on December 4 containing the soulful songstress' 1977 studio album Peggy; the concert album Live in London recorded at the famous Palladium on March 13, 1977; an entire disc of previously unreleased material including studio outtakes, rehearsal takes and the March 20 Palladium show; and a DVD of the
Welcome to this week's Release Round-Up, packed with box sets, reissues, special collections, and more! The Isley Brothers, The RCA Victor and T-Neck Album Masters (Legacy) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.) Legacy has boxed up 23 discs of The Isley Brothers - featuring every one of the group's RCA and T-Neck albums released between 1959 and 1983, including one previously unreleased album and a total of 84 previously unissued or new-to-CD bonus tracks! Every track has been newly-remastered
When Mad Men returned to television on April 5 for the first of its final seven episodes, viewers saw a different Don Draper - perhaps ready, at last, to realize what he'd become. To underscore his possible epiphany of disillusionment, the strains of Peggy Lee's "Is That All There Is?" recurred numerous times throughout the episode. The song's placement underscored just how resonant Lee's music - mysterious, elegant, startling, bluesy, sensual, sly, hip, alternately hot and cool - continues to
UPDATED FROM ORIGINAL POST OF 4/28/15 [UPDATES IN BOLD]: Monday was a bella notte as Intrada began accepting orders for the long-awaited Legacy Collection reissue of the soundtrack to Walt Disney's Lady and the Tramp. The 1955 film, featuring an orchestral score by Oliver Wallace and songs by Sonny Burke and Peggy Lee (who also portrays Peg and other roles in the film), has been expanded to two CDs as the latest release in Walt Disney Records' series of deluxe soundtracks. Inspired by Ward
Monday was a bella notte as Intrada began accepting orders for the long-awaited Legacy Collection reissue of the soundtrack to Walt Disney's Lady and the Tramp. The 1955 film, featuring an orchestral score by Oliver Wallace and songs by Sonny Burke and Peggy Lee (who also portrays Peg and other roles in the film), has been expanded to two CDs as the latest release in Walt Disney Records' series of deluxe soundtracks. Inspired by Ward Greene's short story "Happy Dan, the Whistling Dog," Lady
This week brings a particularly impressive slate by any standard, but we're particularly proud to introduce the world to Second Disc Records with our first two releases, from Johnny Mathis and the late Bob Crewe! Johnny Mathis, Life is a Song Worth Singing: The Complete Thom Bell Sessions (Second Disc/Real Gone) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.) Here, on two CDs, we proudly present both of Johnny Mathis' album collaborations - including the never-on-CD Mathis Is... - with songwriter-producer
We hope that nobody missed yesterday’s big news of The Second Disc’s partnership with Real Gone Music to create Second Disc Records, launching March 10 with a pair of releases from Johnny Mathis and Bob Crewe! But that’s not all that Real Gone has on tap for March release. With a total of eight titles ranging from psychedelia to standards, this may be one of the label’s most eclectic release batches yet! Real Gone is kicking off the month on March 3 with two iconic classic rock albums on
Bob Stanley’s Croydon Municipal label has carved out a niche as part of Cherry Red’s label roster with its eclectic compilations and album reissues from the 1950s and early 1960s focusing on dusty corners of classic American pop ripe for reevaluation. Three of Stanley’s latest projects continue that mission with the compiler’s usual flair for the unexpected. The anthology Mid Century Minx focuses on many of the lesser-known ladies of vocal jazz along with some still-beloved (if underrated)
Varese Vintage is going any which way they can with an exciting trio of soundtrack releases from the library of Snuff Garrett’s Viva Records label. Garrett, of course, was the producer behind major hits from Gary Lewis and the Playboys (“This Diamond Ring”), Cher (“Gypsys, Tramps and Thieves”) and future “Mama” Vicki Lawrence (“The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia”). At Viva, he oversaw an eclectic array of releases from artists like the Midnight String Quartet, Alan O’Day, Ray Price and
Following in the footsteps of Matthew Weiner’s 1960s drama Mad Men, Jack Orman’s Pan Am takes to the airwaves each week on ABC with a period-perfect recreation of the days when "the world's most experienced airline" ruled the skies. Now, the show’s impeccably-selected music can be yours to keep - and perhaps used as the soundtrack to your very own swinging cocktail party! - on Verve’s Pan Am: Music From and Inspired by the Original Series, due to arrive on January 17. How appropriate that one
Doo doo doo down doo be do down down/Come a come a down doo be do down down… One year before “Da Doo Ron Ron,” eleven before “Doo Doo Doo Doo Doo (Heartbreaker)” and eighteen before “De Do Do Do, De Da Da Da,” Neil Sedaka and Howard Greenfield taught the world that “Breakin’ Up is Hard to Do” with their immortal wordless refrain. Sedaka went on to become the king of the “Tra-la-las” and “shoo-be-doos” with his early rock-and-roll records, and the Juilliard-trained musician was one of the
Norma Deloris Egstrom of Jamestown, North Dakota, was born in 1920, but as Peggy Lee she blazed a trail like few others in American popular music. A triple threat singer/songwriter/actress, Lee had a long recording career spanning over fifty years. Her first No. 1 was scored in 1942 and her final track was released in 1995, seven years before her death in 2002. She was an Academy Award-nominated actress (Pete Kelly's Blues) and a talented songwriter whose collaborators included Harold Arlen,