Welcome to this week's Release Round-Up, featuring a selection of the new titles out today including a very special pair from Second Disc Records and Real Gone Music! Melissa Manchester, Live '77 (Second Disc Records/Real Gone Music) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada / Real Gone Music) Second Disc Records and Real Gone Music proudly present the premiere release of Melissa Manchester's Live '77, recorded by Arista Records in October 1977 at Gainesville, Florida's Great Southern
Last weekend, Billy Joel played his first concert of 2022 at Hollywood, Florida's Hard Rock Hotel and Casino; he's scheduled to resume his long-running residency at New York City's Madison Square Garden on February 12 after a brief postponement due to the Omicron variant. The piano man is celebrating his 50th year as a solo artist with a variety of projects including the recent release of The Vinyl Collection Vol. 1 which reissued albums from his first decade. Over in Japan, the end of 2021
Welcome to this week's Release Round-Up! Billy Joel, The Vinyl Collection Vol. 1 (Columbia/Legacy) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada) This 9LP slipcased box set collects Billy Joel's first six solo studio albums plus his first live album and a box set-exclusive pressing of Live at The Great American Music Hall - 1975, a previously unreleased concert recording on 2 LPs from the famed San Francisco venue. All of the albums have been sourced from the original master tapes and
Welcome to this week's Release Round-Up! Chicago, Chicago at Carnegie Hall: Complete (Rhino) (Rhino.com) For the first time, Rhino brings together all eight of Chicago's concerts between April 5-10, 1971 at New York's Carnegie Hall in one deluxe, 16-CD box set. The original 4-LP box Chicago at Carnegie Hall was a commercial smash, reaching No. 3 on the Billboard 200. This set features every note played by the band as newly restored by the band's Lee Loughnane and engineer Tim
R-E-S-P-E-C-T. Otis Redding may have written the song, but Aretha Franklin owned it. The singer was only in her mid-20s when she left Columbia Records after five years and seven albums but she wasted no time in making music history when she signed with Atlantic Records in December 1966. By the middle of 1967, she'd had long-sought-after hits with "I Never Loved a Man (The Way I Love You)" and "Respect" and was proclaimed The Queen of Soul by a Chicago disk jockey. Some reports indicate the
It was late in 2015 when audiences across the country watched Aretha Franklin take the stage at The Kennedy Center Honors to salute honoree Carole King. The undisputed Queen of Soul tore into King, Gerry Goffin, and Jerry Wexler's "(You Make Me Feel Like A) Natural Woman" with blazing intensity and thrilling authenticity. She had not just sung these lyrics but lived them. Nearing the song's finale, she simply but defiantly dropped her fur coat to the floor, creating an instant viral moment
Ray Charles formed Tangerine Records in 1962 as part of the creative freedom he earned by jumping from Atlantic Records to ABC-Paramount. In addition to many of his Charles' own recordings, Tangerine issued music from Louis Jordan, Percy Mayfield, Jimmy Scott, Ike and Tina Turner, and other artists championed by The Genius. The label closed in 1973 when Charles departed the ABC roster, but the Ray Charles Foundation has recently reactivated it for a special 6-CD anthology celebrating its
Impulse! Records' 60th anniversary celebration continues all year with Verve/UMe and Acoustic Sounds' ongoing series of deluxe audiophile reissues drawn from the label's storied catalogue. The full 2021 slate of releases - 2-3 per month through December - has been announced. It features some of the heaviest hitters from the Impulse! discography including Ray Charles, Gil Evans, Sonny Rollins, Charles Mingus, and John Coltrane. A number of titles from the Verve catalogue will also be reissued
On June 7, 1979, President Jimmy Carter recognized June as Black Music Month. Thirty years later, President Barack Obama, the first African-American to hold the nation's highest office, commemorated the designation. He noted that the rich legacy of black music had encouraged citizens "to dance, to express our faith through song, to march against injustice, and to defend our country's enduring promise of freedom and opportunity for all." This June and into July, Rhino and sister imprint Run
It's What's Happening, Baby! That's the name of the 1965 television special hosted by influential New York disk jockey Murray Kaufman, a.k.a. Murray The K. Over the course of 90 minutes, the jocular, hep-talking Murray (who christened himself The Fifth Beatle as an early friend and supporter of the Fab Four) shared musical performances by the day's biggest pop and soul acts including The Supremes, Dionne Warwick, Ray Charles, The Righteous Brothers, The Miracles, Marvin Gaye, Johnny Rivers,
Black History Month is on the way in February and to celebrate, Rhino will release a number of limited-edition colored vinyl reissues along with a digital initiative to bring legendary recordings to digital service providers for the first time ever. The Rhino Black initiative begins on February 5, with the vinyl reissue of George Benson's multi-platinum Breezin' (issued on blue and beige vinyl) and a the first-ever vinyl issue of the Donny Hathaway compendium, A Donny Hathaway Collection, which
It was late in 2015 when audiences across the country watched Aretha Franklin take the stage at The Kennedy Center Honors to salute honoree Carole King. The undisputed Queen of Soul tore into King, Gerry Goffin, and Jerry Wexler's "(You Make Me Feel Like A) Natural Woman" with blazing intensity and thrilling authenticity. She had not just sung these lyrics but lived them. Nearing the song's finale, she simply but defiantly dropped her fur coat to the floor, creating an instant viral moment
Welcome to this week's Release Round-Up! We kick off with not one, but two, releases from The Zombies! The Zombies, The Complete Studio Recordings (Varese Vintage) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada) The 2019 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees are being celebrated this week with two comprehensive vinyl box sets - one for the U.S., and one for the U.K. market. The 5-LP, 61-track U.S. version, from Varese Vintage, includes the band's two American albums in mono - She's Not
Warner Music Group and Sesame Workshop have recently announced a joint effort that marks the relaunch of Sesame Street Records, the label that released over 60 classic originalSesame Street albums from 1970 to 1984. To celebrate 50 years since the program first aired, the extensive Sesame Street music catalog, including original titles and newer collections from Golden Music, Koch and Sony Wonder, has finally joined the streaming age. As of this writing, a whopping 119 titles--many previously
The history of commercial recorded music stretches back over 100 years and has encompasses the stories of many artists and talents. One of the biggest figures in this early history was Ralph S. Peer. The A&R (Artists and Repertoire) and publishing pioneer might not be a household name today, but he made major contributions to many varied musical genres including blues, country and Latin. Sony Music Latin has recently released a wide-ranging, eclectic 3-CD box set entitled The Roots of
While we normally concentrate on CD reissues here at The Second Disc, we do occasionally like to highlight other titles which we think may be of interest to our readers. One such project, just announced from Shout! Factory, certainly qualifies: a 2-disc Blu-ray set entitled the T.A.M.I. Show/The Big T.N.T. Show Collector's Edition due out on December 2. Directed by Steve Binder, T.A.M.I. Show (meaning either "Teenage Awards Music International" or "Teen Age Music International") was filmed
Welcome to this week's Release Round-Up, packed with heavy hitters! David Bowie, Who Can I Be Now (1974-1976) (Parlophone) 12-CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada 13-LP: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada David Bowie - Who Can I Be Now? (1974-1976), the second in the late artist's series of deluxe albums box sets, will contain the following albums plus a 128-page booklet in the CD edition (or 84 pages in the vinyl edition. You'll find more details here, and watch
ABBA, Live at Wembley Arena (Polar/Universal) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. ) As part of ABBA's 40th anniversary celebration, the band unveils this 2-CD, hardcover book-style set preserving its 1979 concerts at Wembley Arena. The 25-track set features the first-ever release on record of Agnetha's "I'm Still Alive" along with perennials like "Dancing Queen," "Waterloo," "Knowing Me, Knowing You" and "Fernando." Live at Wembley is also available on vinyl. Oasis, (What's the Story) Morning
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
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
All that glitters is not (necessarily) gold. Two of the U.S.’ preeminent audiophile labels, Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab and Audio Fidelity – the latter a successor to DCC Compact Classics – made their name on Gold CDs, and have in recent years made the gradual change to hybrid stereo SACDs. These discs, playable on all CD players in standard CD quality, are remastered to the same high standard as the gold releases but also give consumers with SACD playback capabilities the opportunity to listen
Tomorrow sees the release of a new compilation of tunes by the late, great Ray Charles, to commemorate his latest posthumous achievement: a stamp from the United States Postal Service.Ray Charles Forever is far from your typical hits-packed compilation; the biggest "hits" of note are Charles' takes on "America the Beautiful" and Leon Russell's "A Song for You," for which Ray won a Grammy for Best R&B Male Vocal Performance in 1993. The songs on display run the gamut of his entire discography
In Part 10 of our TSD Buyers Guide, which counts the reissues of the albums in Rolling Stone‘s 100 greatest albums of all time (as selected in 2003), we pay homage to early rock-and-roll and rhythm-and-blues pioneers, look at two very different albums from 1970, and head down for Memphis for some seductive soul! 55. Elvis Presley, Elvis Presley (RCA Victor, 1956) Well, it’s one for the money, two for the show, three to get ready, now go, cat, go! With such words was a revolution born! Those
A brief note before we kick off the Release Round-Up: first, an apology for missing the last one. And second, a moment of crowd-sourcing from you, our beloved readers. As nice a service as the Round-Up is, it also seems....boring. Do you agree? How might one change it up? Sound off in the comments. The Who,
For Ray Charles, creative freedom was as easy as ABC. After a successful tenure at Atlantic spanning the years 1952 and 1959, the Genius was ready to move on, or hit the road, as a later album title would proclaim. Under the auspices of Atlantic producer Ahmet Ertegun, Charles recorded a seminal series of history-making recordings in both the jazz and R&B fields, the latter a particular Atlantic specialty. With the 1959 single “What’d I Say,” Charles crossed over to the burgeoning teen