Last summer, as some music lovers took tentative steps in getting back to concertgoing amid the early vaccinations against COVID-19, Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson gifted audiences with an incredible display of live performance some 50 years in the past. Summer of Soul is The Roots drummer's debut documentary, concerning a little-seen arts festival in Harlem that took place before, during and after that year's Woodstock Music & Art Fair - with some of the greatest soul, blues and jazz performers
Welcome to this week's Release Round-Up! B.J. Thomas, In Remembrance: Love Songs and Lost Treasures (Real Gone Music) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada) Real Gone Music remembers the late, great B.J. Thomas with this new collection of rare and previously unreleased material drawn from both Thomas' personal archives and the vaults of Reprise and Warner Bros. Records. In Remembrance: Love Songs and Lost Treasures features 18 tracks, 13 of which are making their debut here,
Welcome to this week's Release Round-Up! Various Artists, Summer of Soul (...or When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised): Original Motion Picture Soundtrack (Legacy) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada) Legacy Recordings delivers a soundtrack to Questlove's acclaimed 2021 documentary Summer of Soul, chronicling the 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival. Live recordings are featured from headliners including The 5th Dimension, Nina Simone, David Ruffin, Sly & The Family Stone,
Last summer, as some music lovers took tentative steps in getting back to concertgoing amid the early vaccinations against COVID-19, Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson gifted audiences with an incredible display of live performance some 50 years in the past. Summer of Soul is The Roots drummer's debut documentary, concerning a little-seen arts festival in Harlem that took place before, during and after that year's Woodstock Music & Art Fair - with some of the greatest soul, blues and jazz performers
Earlier this year, The Second Disc shared news of Rock, Pop and Doo Wop, a 7-DVD collection from Treasury Collection and executive producer-director TJ Lubinsky. Now, with the holidays upon us, a new set featuring dozens of classic hit-makers has just been released: '60s Rock, Pop and Soul. This 4-DVD package has been culled from two decades of Lubinsky's historic television concerts, with 130 hit songs from a "Who's Who" of legendary performers including Frankie Valli ("Can't Take My Eyes
Randy Newman once observed of his friend Harry Nilsson, "The records Harry made, and the first records I made, it was like The Rolling Stones never existed." Indeed, before his famously chronicled lifestyle as a Hollywood hellraiser threatened to overshadow his reputation as a talent nonpareil (and left his once-angelic voice in tatters), Nilsson had carved out an artful niche of wit and whimsy. He expressed his musical muse in gentle psychedelia, baroque pop, folk rock, vaudeville
Christmas is just around the corner, and here at The Second Disc, we're hoping that you'll join us in celebrating the spirit of the season - heading home for the holidays, spending time with cherished family and friends, enjoying bounties of food, love, and music, and reflecting on the good times you shared in 2016. Our year was, by and large, a wonderful one. We released six titles on our Second Disc Records imprint of the amazing Real Gone Music label, from a Bobby Darin anthology that
While the Christmas season upon us, Real Gone Music has just announced a release which may be a perfect last-minute gift idea or stocking stuffer: The 5th Dimension's The Complete Soul City/Bell Singles 1966-1975, coming out on December 23. The quintet of Billy Davis Jr., Florence LaRue, Marilyn McCoo, Lamonte McLemore and Ron Townson first came together as The Versatiles in late 1965 before becoming The 5th Dimension in 1966. The soul group (their sophisticated, elegant vocal sound has been
Earlier this year, the Raven label collected The 5th Dimension's first four albums, all originally released on Soul City between 1967 and 1969, as a 2-CD set. Now, Raven is happily continuing the story of Marilyn McCoo, Billy Davis Jr., Florence LaRue, Lamont McLemore and Ron Townson with a second collection of four albums on two CDs. 4 Classic Albums: Portrait/Love's Lines, Angles and Rhymes/Individually and Collectively/Living Together, Growing Together has the group's four Bell Records
Welcome to this week's Release Round-Up! We hope all of our U.S. readers enjoyed a wonderful Memorial Day weekend. And now, without further ado, onto the music! Yes, Progeny: Seven Shows from Seventy-Two (Rhino) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.) Finally, after a brief delay, Progeny is here! This whopping 14-CD box captures seven complete concerts from Yes circa 1972 - the same tour leading up to the performances preserved on Yessongs. For those who don't need 14 discs, 2-CD and 3-LP
Led Zeppelin, Led Zeppelin I / Led Zeppelin II / Led Zeppelin III: Deluxe Editions (Swan Song/Atlantic) Anyone ever heard these albums? Interesting stuff. I don't know about you, but I'd predict big things for these guys. Led Zeppelin 1CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. 1LP: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. 2CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. 3LP: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. 2CD/3LP Super Deluxe: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. Led Zeppelin II 1CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. 1LP: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. 2CD: Amazon
Holland-Dozier-Holland: The Complete 45s Collection: Invictus/Hot Wax/Music Merchant 1969-1977 (Harmless) The H-D-H compositions/production didn't stop after the trio left Motown; they in fact created several labels and did an awful lot of work for them, as evidenced by this massive eight-disc box set of their works for three labels through the late '60s and '70s. (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.) KISS,
Real Gone Music isn't letting up, with six heavy-hitting reissues announced for an April 29 release, including compilations for Vanilla Fudge and The 5th Dimension, long-lost recordings by Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys and more! We've already told you about RGM's plans to release 10 tracks from the band's famed radio-only "Tiffany Transcriptions" - four of which won't be available on any other release - as a Record Store Day exclusive. A two-disc, 50-track set of those recordings from
When Marilyn McCoo and Billy Davis, Jr. departed The 5th Dimension following the release of 1975's Earthbound, their commercial success as a duo was far from a sure thing. Despite being a worthy follow-up to the 5th Dimension's magnum opus The Magic Garden and a reunion with that album's composer-lyricist-producer Jimmy Webb, Earthbound didn't rekindle the group's fortunes. But McCoo and Davis knew they had one thing going for them: their union, one which is still going strong today. That
The July slate for Real Gone Music has been announced, and things are really heating up! We've already filled you in at length about the pair of anthologies coming your way from Dionne Warwick, We Need To Go Back: The Unissued Warner Bros. Masters and The Complete Warner Bros. Singles, two of the most ambitious releases yet from the prolific label. But that's not all. Real Gone is completing their July 30 release schedule with a pair of long-awaited titles from Marilyn McCoo and Billy Davis,
In Wendy Wasserstein’s play Third, a professor is sitting at her desk, cigarette in hand, listening to “Wedding Bell Blues.” Her student enters, and recognizes the tune: “Is that the 5th Dimension?” The professor sharply replies, “Not in my office!” Beat. “It’s Laura Nyro. She wrote it.” He replies, “Cool. Does she have anything new out?” Professor Nancy Gordon answers, “She died of ovarian cancer a few years ago,” and changes the subject. Cancer would take Wendy Wasserstein, too, like