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
Rush, Moving Pictures: 30th Anniversary Edition (Mercury/UMe) A CD/DVD remaster of one of the Canadian rock band's most beloved albums, featuring a 5.1 surround remaster of the album and some rare music videos on the DVD. If you're in the U.S., Best Buy is currently the only place you can get the set on CD/Blu-Ray; it'll be available to general retail on May 3. (Amazon) Material Issue, International Pop Overthrow: 20th Anniversary Edition (Hip-o Select) An underrated power-pop classic gets
UPDATE 3/22: You can now order this box set through Hip-o Select here. We have some more info on the aforementioned Impulse! Records box set coming from Universal in April, thanks to our friends at Record Racks. As previously mentioned, First Impulse: The Creed Taylor Collection 50th Anniversary box is going to compile the label's first six LPs by the likes of Kai Winding, Gil Evans, Ray Charles and John Coltrane, all of which were produced by label founder Taylor, along with rare and
Ray Charles took the Shrine Auditorium by storm in 1964, following a tour of Japan. That fiery show was recorded (unbeknownst to the Genius himself) and released as Live in Concert in 1965. Now, Concord is prepping an expanded edition of the concert with several unreleased bonus tracks from the same show. Though the original 12-track LP touched on some great hits and standards as only Ray could sing them - "What'd I Say," "I Got a Woman" and "Hallelujah, I Love Her So" chief among them - the
Universal Music Group has an impressive array of jazz titles in their library. Defining labels of the genre like Verve and Mercury are jewels in UMe's crown, while the catalogues of Concord and Fantasy are distributed domestically by Universal as well. One of the more arguably underrated vintage labels in Universal's family, though, is Impulse! Records. The label, founded by Creed Taylor in 1960 as a label in the ABC-Paramount group, may not be as long-running as the others in Universal's
Well, another New Year is in sight, the CD still isn't dead (told you so!) and celebration is in the air at The Second Disc. Back on December 23, Mike shared The Year in Reissues both here and over with our pals at Popdose. Do not pass go, do not collect 200 bucks until you read these indispensable columns! Are you back with me? Good. Now, I'd like to take this opportunity to take a fun look back at a few of my favorite things via Joe's Gold Bonus Disc Awards! I'm awarding these to the reissues
Just as we noted the box sets and other catalogue sets that were nominated for Grammys this year, we would also like to tip the hat to the recordings that were put into the Grammy Hall of Fame, as announced Monday. Thirty recordings, including nine LPs, have been added to a group that now includes 881 classic pieces of music. The oldest recordings on the list are two singles, "Dark Was the Night - Cold Was the Ground" by Blind Willie Johnson and "My Mammy" by Al Jolson (both released in 1927);
Start saving your pennies now. In an eye-opening move, audiophile specialty label Mobile Fidelity has announced a massive slate of releases across the CD, SACD and LP formats scheduled for 2011. Longtime collectors of audiophile masterings may get a thrill at seeing the “Original Master Recording” banner above the works of classic artists ranging from Tony Bennett and Ray Charles to Carole King and James Taylor. While this writer has some quibbles (why no CDs or SACDs for Bennett, Frank
Welcome to another installment of Reissue Theory, where we reflect on well-known albums of the past and the reissues they could someday see. This week, Quincy Jones' latest mingling with a new generation of artists leads to a recollection of the first (and best) time he did it. Last week saw the release of Q: Soul Bossa Nostra, the first full-fledged studio album by Quincy Jones since Basie and Beyond back in 2000. Now, Q is one of the greatest figures in pop and soul music alive today. He's
And now, here it is: the catalogue titles coming to your local stores this week. Various Artists including James Taylor, Billy Preston and Badfinger, The Apple Records remasters (Apple/EMI) This year's Beatles remasters are remasters of albums on The Beatles' short-lived Apple label. There's a lot of great, varied stuff to be hand across many genres. There's 14 individual remasters plus a new compilation with some other hard-to-find tunes (Come and Get It: The Best of Apple Records), not to
A couple short announcements to kick off your Friday morning - one regarding a Ray Charles compilation we've been waiting to learn more about, the other regarding a reissue of a classic '70s rock album. First, our gratitude to Vintage Vinyl News for lifting the curtain on Ray Charles' Rare Genius: The Undiscovered Masters, coming October 26 from Concord. This ten-track set includes entirely unreleased material from several phases of The Genius' career, from the '70s to the '90s. The first
The previously-reported reissue of Ray Charles' Genius + Soul = Jazz has finally been given a track list by its distributor, Concord Records. Not much in the way of previously unreleased content (one vault cut), but this two-disc set will pull four Ray LPs back into print. The package, due April 6, will feature Genius + Soul = Jazz as well as My Kind of Jazz (1970), Jazz Number II (1973) and My Kind of Jazz Part III (1975). (My Kind of Jazz was paired up with Genius + Soul = Jazz for a Rhino
Amazon has an April 6 date for a new reissue of Genius + Soul = Jazz, a 1961 instrumental album by Ray Charles. Backed by members of the Count Basie Orchestra, featuring orchestrations by Quincy Jones and propelled by a Top 10 hit, "One Mint Julep," the LP served as his first for Impulse! Records and is now owned and distributed by the Concord label (which owns the rights to all his Impulse and ABC/Paramount material, from 1960 to 1973). Concord's done quite a bit of stuff with this part of