For the second volume in its Lost Broadway series of 2-CD sets, the U.K.'s Stage Door Records label has turned its attention to the years 1956 and 1957. Musical hits during the 1956-1957 and 1957-1958 seasons included Bells Are Ringing, Li'l Abner, West Side Story, and The Music Man, but Stage Door's attention doesn't lie with those smashes but rather with the largely-forgotten, but certainly worthy, shows that haven't received nearly as much love over the years. Like the first volume (which
Welcome to this week's Release Round-Up! Janet Jackson, Control: The Remixes (A&M/UMe) CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada 2LP: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada / uDiscover Store (color variant) Fans looking for some rare or hard-to-find content from Janet Jackson will flip for a new pressing of Control: The Remixes on 2LP and CD. Originally released in Europe and Japan in 1987, this pressing features all the tracks of the former territory's releases
How often does one get the opportunity to hear a never-before-released score from one of the most beloved songwriting teams of all time? How about three unreleased scores, then? And what if one of those scores featured seven never-before-heard performances from Sammy Davis, Jr.? Indeed, such opportunities are rare...making Kritzerland's new release of Unsung Sherman Brothers all the more special. This delectable and tuneful collection premieres rare demo recordings of three unproduced scores
Welcome to this week's Release Round-Up featuring box sets, deluxe editions, rare albums and more! The Replacements, The Complete Studio Albums 1981-1990 (Sire/Rhino) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.) Rhino boxes up the Minnesota rockers’ complete studio output in one tidy package, utilizing the 2008 remasters but sans all bonus material. Tori Amos, Little Earthquakes and Under the Pink: Deluxe Editions (Rhino) Little Earthquakes: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. Under the
In one of the many testimonials that enhance the booklet to the first-ever DVD release of Here’s Edie: The Edie Adams Television Collection, Carl Reiner may have put it best and most succinctly: “Edie Adams...a combination of beauty, brains and talent...what else do you need?” Based on the evidence in this thoroughly delightful 4-DVD, 12-hour, 21-episode set now available from MVD Visual (MVD 59200), you don’t need anything else. Adams just about had it all, and showed it off for the 1962-1964
The story behind The Idelsohn Society for Music Preservation’s fascinating new 2-CD set ‘Twas the Night Before Hanukkah is a simple one. The label, dedicated to telling Jewish history through music, set out to chronicle the music of Hanukkah before discovering that the most famous Christmas songs – “White Christmas,” “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer,” “The Christmas Song,” just to name three – were all written by members of the Jewish faith! So the Hanukkah compilation doubled in size, and
What do we know about The Rat Pack, that famed group of celebrity rogues and rapscallions that defined American cool in the early '60s? You might not know that only a third of the classic members of the group were initially included; The Rat Pack was initially made up of actor friends of Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall, including Frank Sinatra but not Dean Martin or Sammy Davis, Jr. But after Bogart's death and the subsequent release of Ocean's 11 in 1960, the classic image of The Rat Pack -
Thin Lizzy, Jailbreak / Johnny the Fox / Live and Dangerous: Deluxe Editions (Universal) A trio of long-awaited deluxe editions from the U.K., featuring bonus tracks, non-LP sides and (in the case of Live and Dangerous) a DVD. (Amazon U.K.) Santana, The Swing of Delight / Zebop! / Shango: 30th Anniversary Editions (Friday Music) Though only one of them is truly a 30th anniversary edition (each album dates back from 1980, 1981 and 1982, respectively), these remasters are more than welcome for
Welcome to another installment of Reissue Theory, here we reflect on well-known albums of the past and the reissues they could someday see. Today, we look at a beloved American icon and one of the least anthologized periods of his lengthy career. There may be no figure in American popular culture more maligned in death than Sammy Davis, Jr. The image of the diminutive entertainer, clad in open shirts and bell-bottoms, wearing beads and gold chains, and with an ever-present cigarette dangling
The three core members of the superstar collective known as "The Rat Pack" - Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and Sammy Davis, Jr. - have had their share of catalogue reissues and box sets, more than all the riches in Las Vegas. But together, there have only been a few compilations, thanks to the necessary wrangling between labels (Sinatra's Rat Pack era material was captured between Capitol and his own Reprise label; both of which saw releases from Martin and Davis). The last such release was