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 products while her classic compositions from Walt Disney’s 1955 animated film Lady…
Release Round-Up: Week of April 17
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 includes all of Zappa and the Mothers’ material from both shows. The Mothers’ lineup includes…
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Things Are Swingin’: “Ultimate Peggy Lee” Arrives in April
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 collaborators included the esteemed likes of Harold Arlen, Cy Coleman, Duke Ellington, and Lalo Schifrin. Lee was also…
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Short Takes: Dusty, Bowie, Walker Brothers Salute Ivor Raymonde; Streisand, Sinatra Featured on “Mrs. Maisel”
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 (and formerly of Cocteau Twins), is the first anthology of the…
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Not Like Everybody Else: “Kinked!” Kollects Kinks Kovers (And Sessions, Too!)
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 even previously unissued tracks. Chockablock with rarities, it’s divided into two sections by…
Release Round-Up: Week of December 4
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 plus four hours of never-before-seen video footage. Read the full track…
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I Love Being Here With You: Peggy Lee’s “Live in London” Box Set Coming In December
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 1981 BBC program Peggy Lee Entertains. …
Release Round-Up: Week of August 21
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 for this collection! Full details can be found here! Belinda Carlisle, The CD Singles 1986-2014…
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Review: Peggy Lee, “At Last: The Lost Radio Recordings”
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 be, thirteen-plus years after her death in 2002 at age 81. In…
UPDATED 5/5: He’s a Tramp (But She Loves Him): “Lady and the Tramp” Comes To Disney’s Legacy Collection
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 Greene’s short story “Happy Dan, the Whistling Dog,”…
He’s a Tramp (But She Loves Him): “Lady and the Tramp” Comes To Disney’s Legacy Collection
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 and the Tramp told the story of the…
Release Round-Up: Week of March 10
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 Thom Bell, plus ten bonus tracks! Read more here! Bob Crewe, The Complete Elektra Recordings…
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Real Gone’s March Slate Boasts Peggy Lee, Perry Como, Foghat, J. Geils Band – and Second Disc Records, Too!
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 painstakingly-recreated replica vinyl…
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Gentlemen, Please! Croydon Collects “Mid-Century Minx,” “Soho Blondes” and Other Pop Pleasures
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) performers like Jo Stafford, Anita O’Day and Broadway’s Dolores Gray. Soho Blondes and Peeping…
Ray Charles, Glen Campbell, Chet Baker, Peggy Lee Featured On Soundtrack Bumper Crop From Varese
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 even crooner Rudy Vallee. (If you ever wanted to hear…
Come Fly With Me: Bobby, Peggy, Ella, Buddy Take Off With “Pan Am” Soundtrack
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 of the most recognizable labels of the…
Where The Hits Are: Sedaka and Greenfield Profiled in “Songwriters” Series
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 relatively rare few…
Miss Peggy Lee’s Capitol Catalogue Goes Digital
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, Cy Coleman, Duke Ellington and Lalo Schifrin. Lee was also a…
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