By 1953, RCA Victor already boasted a considerable number of Broadway classics in its catalogue - from original cast recordings of Brigadoon and Paint Your Wagon to studio cast renditions of South Pacific and Finian's Rainbow. But the label was eager to build up its musical theatre repertoire and compete with the likes of Columbia and Decca. To that end, the Show Time series was launched - a collection of 16 EPs, each dedicated to four songs from a beloved musical or operetta. The EPs were
Welcome to this week's Release Round-Up! America, Classic Album Collection: The Capitol Years (Capitol/Caroline) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada) All six of America's Capitol albums are collected in one newly remastered box set. Classic Album Collection: The Capitol Years presents newly remastered versions of 1979's Silent Letter, 1980's Alibi, 1982's View from the Ground, 1983's Your Move, 1984's Perspective, and 1985's In Concert in one deluxe, affordable package complete
Analog Spark kicked off 2016 with a trio of cast recordings - Fiddler on the Roof, My Fair Lady, and West Side Story - on deluxe 180-gram vinyl LPs, and now, the label is welcoming this spring with another three landmark titles from the Sony vaults: Columbia Records' original Broadway cast recordings of South Pacific (1949), Gypsy (1959), and Company (1970) - each one representing a classic period of American musical theatre. Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II's South Pacific, the
Welcome to this week's Release Round-Up! Michael Nesmith, Infinite Tuesday: Autobiographical Riffs - The Music (Rhino) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada) Rhino Records offers a 14-track companion CD to Michael Nesmith's memoir Infinite Tuesday - An Autobiographical Riff (due on April 18). This collection has tracks from Nesmith solo as well as The Monkees and The First National Band, charting his singular and often-trailblazing work over the decades. Read more here! The
Sony's Masterworks Broadway division has announced its spring slate, and it's filled with surprises. The label is kicking it off with next week's first-ever release of a shelved album from Shirley Jones and Jack Cassidy recorded in 1959 and unreleased until now, and following that in May with the first-ever reissue of a "lost" Richard Rodgers score written for television. That gem, Androcles and the Lion, will be followed in June by a pair of albums from one of its stars: Ed Ames, formerly of
Back on September 10, we reported on Sony Masterworks’ Broadway in a Box, a 25-CD primer on the impressive musical theatre catalogue of Columbia, RCA Victor and associated labels. Contemplating Masterworks’ vast library, we opined, “A deluxe Rodgers and Hammerstein box could represent each of the duo’s stage musicals (save the posthumous adaptation of State Fair) with a disc from the Columbia and RCA Victor archives.” Well, such a deluxe box set is here, much sooner than we anticipated! On
Curtain up! Tomorrow, Sony's Masterworks Broadway division will release Broadway in a Box: The Essential Broadway Musicals Collection, a 25-disc collection formatted similarly to the “Complete Albums” box sets arriving from sister label Legacy Recordings. This impressive collection brings together the original cast recordings for 25 musicals recorded for Columbia Records, Arista Records and RCA Victor between 1949 (South Pacific) and 1987 (Into the Woods and a revival of Anything
June is busting out all over, and so is the music of Richard Rodgers. Then again, the work of the composer (1902-1979) is always busting out all over. Even in 2010, Rodgers had the third most-covered song of the year, according to ASCAP. The song was "My Funny Valentine," with lyrics by Lorenz Hart, and it was written in 1937, proving that Richard Rodgers' music is, indeed, timeless. Masterworks Broadway, drawing from Sony Music Entertainment's Columbia and RCA Victor vaults, has been a leading