Rick James - The Second Disc

Release Round-Up: Week of June 6

June 6, 2025 by The Second Disc | 2 Comments

Welcome to this week’s Release Round-Up, featuring a selection of the new titles available today. As an Amazon affiliate, we earn from qualifying purchases. Dusty Springfield, Longing (Real Gone Music) CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada LP: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada Real Gone Music premieres a lost album from Dusty Springfield: 1974’s Longing. Produced by Brooks Arthur, the album features a number of singer-songwriter-oriented compositions including songs from Colin Blunstone (“Exclusively for Me”), Melissa Manchester and Carole Bayer Sager (“Home to Myself”), Janis Ian (“In the Winter”), Stephen Schwartz (“Corner of the Sky” from…

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Release Round-Up

Formats:

CD, Digital Download, Digital Streaming, Vinyl

Genres:

Cast Recordings, Classic Rock, Funk, Pop, Popular Standards/Vocal, R&B/Soul, Rock

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Alden Shuman, Cynthia Erivo, Dusty Springfield, Eli Paperboy Reed, Joe Henderson, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Megan Hilty, My Chemical Romance, Pulp, Rick James, Seth MacFarlane, Steely Dan, The Doobie Brothers, War, Woody Shaw

Give It to Me Baby: Rick James’ ‘Collected’ Goes Deep

May 6, 2025 by Mike Duquette | 4 Comments

Universal’s overseas arm developed the Collected series as a line of compilations that would appeal to both casual and hardcore fans, combining an artist’s biggest hits with harder-to-find material. (For instance, a 2017 volume on Huey Lewis and The News offered rare edits and 12″ mixes, guest appearances and even a single track from the group’s pre-News existence as American Express.) Now distributed through the Music on CD label, Collected is still going strong – as evidenced by a forthcoming volume offering a comprehensive summary of the king of punk funk himself, Rick James. Rick’s Collected volume…

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News

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Disco/Dance, R&B/Soul

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Busta Rhymes, Chaka Khan, Eddie Murphy, Neil Young, Rick James, Smokey Robinson, The Temptations

The Weekend Stream: September 4, 2021

September 4, 2021 by The Second Disc | 2 Comments

While The Second Disc prides itself on connecting people to reissues and box sets they can keep on their shelves, it’s no secret that listening audiences are also digital – catalogue music lovers, too – and our passion is connecting people to music from the past that they might adore. So we’ve introduced a new feature: The Weekend Stream, which focuses on hidden gems that recently made it to digital channels that might make your playlists a little brighter! Rick James, Glow (Deluxe Edition) / Bitchin’: The Sound and Fury of Rick…

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Features, The Weekend Stream

Formats:

Digital Download, Digital Streaming

Genres:

Disco/Dance, Funk, Pop, Popular Standards/Vocal, R&B/Soul, Rap/Hip-Hop, Rock, Soundtracks

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ABBA, Aaliyah, Bernard Herrmann, DMX, Engelbert Humperdinck, Jerry Goldsmith, Mary Jane Girls, Mary Wilson, Miracle Legion, Propaganda, Rick James, Teena Marie, The Brothers Johnson, The Psychedelic Furs, Timbaland

Return To West Grand Boulevard: ‘Motown: The Complete No. 1s’ Box Gets Expanded Reissue

April 19, 2019 by The Second Disc | 9 Comments

For its 60th anniversary year, Universal Music Enterprises has begun reminding fans that “Motown Did It First“; now, the label that launched The Sound Of Young America is revisiting a box set that was released in celebration of its 50th anniversary a decade ago. Motown: The Complete No. 1s is being reissued and expanded on June 28. Motown: The Complete No. 1s featured more than 200 international chart-toppers, plus a handful of bonus masters that went to No. 1 through cover versions or samples. And the packaging was a delight: the discs…

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News

Formats:

Box Sets, CD

Genres:

Country, Disco/Dance, Everything Else, Funk, Holiday, Pop, R&B/Soul

Motown Did It First: Japan’s Motown 60 Campaign Reissues Supremes, Temptations, Four Tops, Gladys, Martha, Brenda, and More

March 27, 2019 by The Second Disc | 16 Comments

Motown Did It First! That’s the campaign slogan for Universal Japan’s ongoing program celebrating the venerable label’s 60th anniversary. And indeed, the influence of Motown – still the most successful African-American-founded record label of all time – can’t be underestimated when considering the current music scene. A number of physical releases have already been released in Japan to mark the anniversary, most of which are available as affordable imports and include titles not commonly available on the CD format. This first wave of titles is anchored by the compilation Motown 60, featuring…

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News

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Genres:

Pop, R&B/Soul

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Brenda Holloway, Four Tops, Gladys Knight and the Pips, Kiki Dee, Lionel Richie, Martha and the Vandellas, Marvin Gaye, Rick James, Smokey Robinson and the Miracles, The Commodores, The Jackson 5, The Supremes, The Temptations

I Hear a Rhapsody: “Motown Unreleased: 1967” Features Marvin Gaye, Four Tops, Temptations, Mynah Birds

January 2, 2018 by Randy Fairman | 8 Comments

As has become a yearly tradition for the past several years, Motown released a “copyright extension” compilation of previously unreleased tracks at the very end of 2017, only a couple of weeks after last year’s similar set got a physical release. Motown Unreleased: 1967 gathers 89 tracks across the equivalent of 4 CDs, all previously unheard treasures from the seemingly inexhaustible Motown vaults. Like the collections of the past couple of years, there is a wide range of Motown talent on display here. Unlike, however, say last year’s compilation, the set is…

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News

Formats:

Digital Download, Digital Streaming

Genres:

Pop, R&B/Soul

Tags:

Billy Eckstine, Earl Van Dyke, Gladys Knight and the Pips, Jimmy Ruffin, Marvin Gaye, Neil Young, Rick James, The Four Tops, The Temptations, Valerie Simpson, Various Artists

Morales Preps the (Dance) Sound of Young America on “Club Motown”

August 4, 2014 by Mike Duquette | 2 Comments

Calling all ’80s Motown fans! Universal’s U.K. arm has issued a double disc set of 20 classic club mixes from the label, curated by noted remixer John Morales. Motown of course crafted the sound of young America throughout the ’60s and created some deeply affecting funk and soul in the ’70s, but the ’80s was still a prolific time, thanks to popular R&B/dance acts including Rick James and DeBarge as well as established acts like The Temptations and Commodores frontman Lionel Richie. Morales and partner Sergio Munzibal, the “M+M” mixing team, turned…

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News

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Genres:

Disco/Dance, Funk, R&B/Soul

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Lionel Richie, Michael Jackson, Rick James, Tata Vega, Teena Marie, The Commodores, The Temptations, Thelma Houston

Give It to Us, Baby: Rick James’ Motown Masters (and More) Are Digitally Reissued

July 9, 2014 by Mike Duquette | 6 Comments

Singer, songwriter, bassist, producer, partier, punk-funk pioneer – however you know him, one thing’s clear: he’s Rick James. (You’ll have to imagine the word that usually follows.) Though the world lost the “Super Freak” hitmaker 10 years ago this summer, his legend continues: this week sees the release of his authorized biography Glow, written with David Ritz, and to celebrate, two labels are joining forces to update his killer catalogue in the digital domain. From the earliest moments of his musical career, Rick James (born James Ambrose Johnson, Jr.) was a bad boy….

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News

Formats:

Box Sets, Digital Download

Genres:

Funk, R&B/Soul

Tags:

Rick James

UMe’s Record Store Day Slate Features Nirvana, Frank Zappa, Classic Blue Note, Motown Funk and More

April 17, 2014 by Joe Marchese | No Comments

With Public Enemy’s Chuck D engaged as the Record Store Day Ambassador for 2014, it’s only appropriate that one of his own records is arriving this Saturday as a special limited edition vinyl platter. The new reissue of Public Enemy’s It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back will be joined on RSD by a host of other vinyl goodies from Universal Music Enterprises (UMe). Previously unreleased music from Frank Zappa (previewing the upcoming 40th anniversary reissue of Apostrophe) and the seventies Motown pair of Rick James and Teena Marie…

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News

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Nirvana, Public Enemy, Record Store Day, Rick James, Soundgarden, Teena Marie, Vinyl

The Second Disc’s Record Store Day 2012 Essential Releases

April 20, 2012 by Joe Marchese | No Comments

Well, Record Store Day is finally upon us! Tomorrow, Saturday, April 21, music fans and collectors will descend upon their local independent record stores to celebrate both the sounds on those black platters and the cherished physical shopping environments alike. As Record Store Day 2012 will offer a typically eclectic array of limited edition releases (primarily on vinyl but also some on CD, too!) from many of our favorite artists here at Second Disc HQ, we thought we would take a moment to count down the titles to which we’re most looking…

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News

Formats:

Box Sets

Genres:

Soundtracks

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Buck Owens, Miles Davis, Neil Young, Otis Redding, Paul Simon, Record Store Day, Rick James, The Clash, Vinyl

New Reissues Fit Hip-o Select to a “Tee”

June 1, 2011 by Mike Duquette | No Comments

After a few days of shuttering their website for some repairs, Hip-o Select is back with a bang, announcing four new titles ready for order. The first three we already knew about per our chat with Harry Weinger in May: a trio of titles devoted to the late soul queen Teena Marie. Her second and third albums, Lady T and Irons in the Fire, both released in 1980, are being remastered and expanded by Select. Featuring production from Teena herself as well as Richard Rudolph, husband and songwriting partner of recently-deceased soul…

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News

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Rick James, Teena Marie

Rick James Coming Into Your Life Again

March 23, 2010 by Mike Duquette | 1 Comment

Just a day after readying a deluxe edition of Meet the Supremes for the world, Hip-O Select comes through with a pair of out-of-print Rick James titles. Fire It Up (1979) and Garden of Love (1980) are both making their way to CD (the latter being pressed on CD for the first time) with a few bonus tracks. The original artwork will be replicated for each and complemented with liner notes by Yale music professor Michael Veal. Links are here and here and full song specs are below. Rick James – Fire It…

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News

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Rick James