Even if you don't know the name of Bert Berns, chances are you know the songs he wrote ("Twist and Shout," "I Want Candy," "Hang On, Sloopy," "Piece of My Heart"), produced ("Under the Boardwalk," "Baby I'm Yours," "Brown-Eyed Girl," "Here Comes the Night") and oversaw as head of Bang Records ("Cherry, Cherry," "Solitary Man" and the rest of Neil Diamond's earliest recordings). Though Berns died in the final days of 1967 at just 38 years of age, a year hasn't gone by since when his songs haven't
Less than three months after the release of his 37th studio album, the rhythm-and-blues-based Roll with the Punches, the one and only Van Morrison is back with No. 38. On December 1, Legacy Recordings will issue Versatile - certainly an apt title for the man since his earliest days fronting Them to his immersions in jazz, soul, rock, blues, pop, and beyond. Roll with the Punches featured five original compositions from the prolific singer-songwriter alongside blues classics by artists such
Welcome to this week's Release Round-Up! The Rolling Stones, Their Satanic Majesties Request: 50th Anniversary Special Edition (ABKCO) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada) The Rolling Stones' controversial 1967 immersion into psychedelia, Their Satanic Majesties Request, gets a 50th anniversary box set from ABKCO containing the original album in mono and stereo on both 180-gram vinyl and hybrid SACD (playable on all CD players) as newly remastered by Bob Ludwig, plus restored
Five decades ago, in the Haight-Ashbury district of San Francisco, a social movement was growing. Young people, with heads full of progressive ideas and evolving attitudes toward sex, drugs and rock and roll, were converging on the area to celebrate their personal freedom--an extension of that January's "Human Be-In" in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park. The "Summer of Love," as it was called, was the birth of the modern counterculture, and music played an integral role in the shaping,
The first sound that jumps out at you after inserting Van Morrison's The Authorized Bang Collection is that of the familiar "Brown Eyed Girl," but something about it is different. As presented in its original stereo mix as remastered from the original 1967 first-generation tape, it's more vibrant than ever, with pronounced instrumental separation and a crisp sheen - as if that misty morning fog has been lifted, and the green grass smells fresher than ever. It will have you singing sha la la la
Almost exactly 50 years ago today, on March 28, 1967, Van Morrison and Bert Berns went into a studio for a two-day session for Bang Records. The results of this session gave Morrison a signature song but also led to eventual trouble between the artist and label, unauthorized albums, and legal entanglements. Morrison's released Bang material has been reissued and his unreleased Bang sessions have been bootlegged many times over the subsequent five decades, but now Legacy Recordings is bringing
Welcome to this week's Release Round-Up! The Rolling Stones, The Rolling Stones in Mono (ABKCO) CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada LP: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada The Rolling Stones in Mono captures, on 15 CDs or 16 LPs, the original mono albums released on both sides of the Atlantic between 1964 and 1969 including the exceptionally rare mono editions of Their Satanic Majesties Request (1967), Beggars Banquet (1968) and Let It Bleed (1969). Exclusive to
Forty years ago on Thanksgiving Day 1976, The Band took the stage at San Francisco's Winterland for their final performance. Bob Dylan, Eric Clapton, Neil Diamond, Van Morrison, Neil Young, Joni Mitchell, Muddy Waters and others joined Robbie Robertson, Levon Helm, Rick Danko, Garth Hudson and Richard Manuel for the concert event known as The Last Waltz. Director Martin Scorsese's film of the evening was released in April 1978, setting a high bar for concert movies. On November 11, Rhino
Welcome to this week's Release Round-Up, with some of the most high-profile releases yet for 2016! The Beach Boys, Pet Sounds 50 (Various Editions) (Capitol/UMe) 4-CD/1-BD Deluxe Edition: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada 2-CD Deluxe Edition (CD 1 + highlights from 4-CD set): Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada Mono 180-Gram Vinyl Edition: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada Stereo 180-Gram Vinyl Edition: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada The Beach
Following last year's releases of The Essential Van Morrison and The Complete Them 1964-1967, Legacy Recordings continues to mine the Van Morrison back catalogue with the June 10 releases of the remastered 2-CD or 2-LP It's Too Late to Stop Now and the 3-CD/1-DVD box set It's Too Late to Stop Now...Volumes II, III, IV & DVD. It's Too Late to Stop Now, of course, is Morrison's 1974 double album with his Caledonia Soul Orchestra, capturing concert recordings from his May to July 1973 tour
It has been a pretty big year for Van Morrison, both with new recordings and reissues. At the beginning of 2015, he released his latest studio effort, Duets- Re-Working the Catalogue. In August, it was announced that Sony/Legacy Recordings had acquired the rights to the majority of his catalogue. The label quickly released an Essential volume and put 33 albums up on digital services with the promise of more projects to come. Then, just last week, Rhino released expanded editions of two of
Welcome to this week's Release Round-Up! Packed with over 30 titles including highly-anticipated reissues, a slew of box sets, collections and more, it just may be the mightiest of the year! The Velvet Underground, Loaded: Re-Loaded 45th Anniversary Edition (Rhino) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.) The Velvet Underground's 1970 album - and Lou Reed's swansong with the band - gets the deluxe expanded treatment from Rhino in this new box set featuring the original stereo and mono
Welcome to New Release Friday and this week's Release Round-Up! Faces, You Can Make Me Dance, Sing or Anything (1970-1975) (Rhino) CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. Vinyl: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. This long-awaited 5-CD box set includes Faces' First Step (1970), Long Player (1971), A Nod Is as Good as a Wink...to a Blind Horse (1971), and Ooh La La (1973), and adds never-before-released bonus tracks to each album. The set is topped off with a bonus disc containing non-LP selections.
There's even more coming from Van Morrison! Following up on 2013's multi-disc deluxe edition of the Northern Irish soul man's 1970 classic Moondance and on the heels of Legacy Recordings' announcement earlier this week that the Sony imprint has acquired the majority of Morrison's post-1971 catalogue, Rhino has just announced two new deluxe editions drawn from Morrison's seminal early Warner Bros. discography. Both 1968's label debut Astral Weeks and 1970's jubilant His Band and the Street
The music of Van Morrison is returning to CD - and about to make a splash on digital platforms, as well. Rolling Stone broke the news today that Sony Music's Legacy Recordings has recently acquired the rights to 50 albums, videos and compilations from the venerable Northern Irish troubadour. The vast majority of Morrison's albums have been out-of-print on CD since the plug was abruptly pulled on a U.K. series of remastered and expanded editions. Legacy's very welcome campaign kicks off this
It's a Monday release date here in the U.S., so here's your early Release Round-Up! Bee Gees, 1974-1979 (Reprise/Rhino) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.) This box set brings together the band’s Mr. Natural, Main Course, Children of the World and Spirits Having Flown plus a disc of previously issued bonus material. Full track listing and details here. Watch on Record Store Day for a companion vinyl release to this set featuring the 12-inch mixes from Saturday Night Fever! Kansas,
Here comes the night…again! Even if you don’t know the name of Bert Berns, chances are you know the songs he wrote (“Twist and Shout,” “I Want Candy,” “Hang On, Sloopy,” “Piece of My Heart”), produced (“Under the Boardwalk,” “Baby I’m Yours,” “Brown-Eyed Girl,” “Here Comes the Night”) and oversaw as head of Bang Records (“Cherry, Cherry,” “Solitary Man” and the rest of Neil Diamond’s earliest recordings). Though Berns died in the final days of 1967 at just 38 years of age, a year hasn’t gone by
Welcome to The Second Disc’s Fourth Annual Gold Bonus Disc Awards! Though this is a slow time of year for news, it’s the perfect time to look at the year in review. As with every year’s awards, our goals are simple: to recognize as many of the year’s most essential reissues and catalogue titles as possible, and to celebrate those labels, producers and artists who make these releases possible in what many might deem an increasingly-challenging retail landscape. These labels have bucked the
Over forty years after Van Morrison first declared it a “marvelous night for a moondance,” the Irish troubadour’s seminal 1970 album has become even more marvelous, ‘neath the cover of October skies. Warner Bros. Records has afforded Moondance the deluxe treatment, adding three CDs of session material and one Blu-ray with high-resolution stereo and surround mixes to the original 10-song album. With this truly immersive listening experience, Morrison’s third proper solo album takes its place
Tears for Fears, The Hurting: Deluxe Edition (Mercury/UMe) The landmark debut album from the U.K. hitmakers celebrates its 30th anniversary with a new double-disc deluxe edition stocked with rare single-only material and a deluxe box set version with a bonus disc of John Peel sessions and the In My Mind's Eye live concert film on DVD. 2CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. 3CD/1DVD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. Van Morrison, Moondance: Expanded Edition (Warner Bros./Rhino) Though Van would rather you
Not long after Joe had posted about Rhino's upcoming expansion of Van Morrison's Moondance, I vocalized my pleasant surprise at the news. Morrison's history with reissues has been spotty at best; a late-2000s reissue campaign was quickly halted and almost instantly commanded top dollar on the secondary market. The next day, however, Morrison issued a statement denouncing the project, taking particular issue with the wording of the press release suggesting he was involved. "It is important that
On September 30, it’s going to be a marvelous night – and day – for a Moondance. For that’s when Warner Bros. Records will celebrate Van Morrison’s classic 1970 album in 1-CD, 2-CD and 4-CD/1-BD configurations. The latter expanded versions comprehensively explore the album’s sessions via outtakes, alternate takes and previously unheard mixes. Following one 1967 album for Bert Berns’ Bang Records, Van Morrison made his debut at the famous Burbank label in 1968 with Astral Weeks. It was a
We're in the Top 20 of Rolling Stone's Greatest Albums of All Time list, going through the various reissues and expansions of each one! This time, we have a Boss, a champion of a '90s rock revolution, a poet of the '60s - and starting right now, the King of Pop himself. Read on! 20. Michael Jackson, Thriller (Epic, 1982) Nine disparate songs, helmed by a producer of straightforward jazz and R&B, and performed by a 24-year-old former child star-turned-gawky but dedicated perfectionist. It
We continue our look at the many reissues of the 100 greatest albums of all time, as selected by Rolling Stone in 2003! We'll explore the various versions of these classic albums on disc, letting you know which audio treasures can be found on which releases. It's a marvelous night for a "Moondance" before we go "Back to Mono," roll with the Stones and then take in latter-day classics from the 1980s and 1990s! 65. Moondance, Van Morrison (Warner Bros., 1970) Van Morrison’s 1968 Warner Bros.
In 1941, the werewolf mythology gained an iconic set of lines in the Universal horror classic The Wolf Man: "Even a man who is pure at heart/and says his prayers by night/May become a wolf when the wolfsbane blooms/and the autumn moon is bright." Forty years later, from the same studio, a less delicate line was added to the lycanthrope canon: "I will not be threatened by a walking meat loaf!" Such is the tone of An American Werewolf in London, one of the best horror-comedies of the past few