Periodically this month, we’ll be looking at titles released in the latter part of 2018 that we either didn’t cover, or only covered briefly, the first time around! We hope you enjoy this look at “some nice things we’ve missed”… Cherry Red’s Grapefruit imprint has recently released a pair of 3-CD box sets touching on two very different aspects of the sixties British music scene. One of the fathers of the British blues boom, Alexis Korner (1928-1984) has been celebrated on Every Day I Have the Blues: The Sixties Anthology. This handsome…
Short Takes: Dusty, Bowie, Walker Brothers Salute Ivor Raymonde; Streisand, Sinatra Featured on “Mrs. Maisel”
Last year, the Bella Union label released a collection that fell under the radar. Happily, we here at Second Disc HQ have discovered Paradise: The Sound of Ivor Raymonde, available in 1-CD, 2-LP, and digital formats. The name of Raymonde will surely be familiar to fans of Dusty Springfield, Tom Jones, or The Walker Brothers, but those are only three of the artists with whom the late producer-arranger-conductor worked his magic. Paradise, co-curated by his son Simon Raymonde of Bella Union (and formerly of Cocteau Twins), is the first anthology of the…
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Breakfast In Bed: Eddie Hinton Saluted By Dusty, Cher, Box Tops, More On New Ace Collection
As a member of the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section, Eddie Hinton played on countless recordings by the likes of Wilson Pickett, Aretha Franklin, Elvis Presley, and Otis Redding. But there was another side of the guitarist that led Jerry Wexler to once proclaim him “the next big thing.” Hinton was a persuasive performer and moreover, a fine songwriter. In collaboration with Donnie Fritts, he penned what’s likely his most famous song: “Breakfast in Bed,” immortalized by Dusty Springfield on Dusty in Memphis. Late in 2018, Ace Records issued a definitive anthology of…
Presley, Darin, Orbison, Sinatra, Beach Boys Featured On Ace’s New “State of the Union”
Elvis and Dino took on hypocrisy. Dion lamented the senseless deaths of Abraham, Martin, and John. Johnny “Poetry in Motion” Tillotson cast a spotlight on the poor treatment of veterans returned home from war. Bing Crosby wondered “What Do We Do with the World” and Paul Anka observed that “This crazy world has come undone.” Such are the moments captured on Ace’s thoroughly captivating new collection Bob Stanley and Pete Wiggs Present State of the Union: The American Dream in Crisis 1967-1973. This 24-track set chronicles the tumult and upheaval of Vietnam-era…
Review: “Stax ’68: A Memphis Story”
Otis Redding’s “Sittin’ on the Dock of the Bay,” the first Stax single of 1968, should have been a new beginning for the artist and label. Instead, the posthumous release ushered in a tumultuous year for the Memphis institution. The death of Redding and members of The Bar-Kays on December 10, 1967 was a tremendous loss for Stax and popular culture, but no one could have predicted the upheaval that would affect Stax and the city of Memphis in the following twelve months. That time has just been chronicled in a new…
Holding Back the Years: Rhino to Deliver Reimagined Orchestral Classics with “’80s Symphonic”
Looking back from a vantage point thirty years on, there’s no denying the special place that the 1980s have in the history of popular music. It was a decade that surveyed past musical ground while simultaneously advancing the art form further, making an indelible mark on music to come. With dancefloor grooves, yearning ballads, infectious pop, and more, it was a decade of great music. Now, Rhino has announced a new collection that reimagines some of the smash hits from the decade: 80s Symphonic. The album, which arrives to CD and digital…
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The Right Track: Cherry Red Retells “The Contempo Story 1973-1977” with Major Lance, Fontella Bass, The Exciters, More
Between 1973 and 1977, the London-based Contempo Records label released roughly 150 singles (not to mention numerous albums) celebrating soul in its various strains. Contempo made its mark with both reissues of classic soul material and all-new recordings, and now its legacy has been celebrated in a new 3-CD box set from Cherry Red’s Soul Time imprint. The Contempo Story 1973-1977 collects 83 tracks featuring such boldface names as Major Lance, Fontella Bass, Bettye Swann, Doris Duke, Sam and Dave, Cymande, Crown Heights Affair, and Dorothy Moore. The Contempo label was established…
What a Groovy Day: Cherry Red’s Grapefruit Records Celebrates “The British Psychedelic Sounds of 1969”
Cherry Red’s Grapefruit imprint has recently released the latest volume in its year-by-year chronicle of British psychedelia. Try a Little Sunshine: The British Psychedelic Sounds of 1969 follows Let’s Go Down and Blow Our Minds (1967) and Looking at Pictures in the Sky (1968) with 3 CDs and 73 tracks from another fascinating year in music history. The box explores the various musical strains impacted by psychedelia, such as pop (including bubblegum, baroque, and sunshine/harmony pop), progressive rock, folk, and singer-songwriter. Tracks have been freed from the vaults of the labels like…
A Long Walk: New Box Set Collects Stax’s 1968 Singles, Chronicling Tumultuous Year For The Label
There have been several reissues this year celebrating the 50th anniversary of individual projects released in 1968. But Craft Recordings has announced a box set which celebrates an entire year’s worth of material with Stax ’68: A Memphis Story, due on October 19. This 5-CD set contains the A- and B-sides of every single released under the Stax Records banner in 1968, including the company’s sub-labels, for a total of 120 tracks. Some tracks are by soul legends like Isaac Hayes, The Staple Singers, William Bell, Booker T. & The M.G.’s and…
Release Round-Up: Week of August 10
Welcome to this week’s Release Round-Up! Elvis Presley, Where No One Stands Alone (RCA/Legacy) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada) RCA presents 14 of The King’s seminal gospel and spiritually-themed recordings, all remixed with new orchestrations and new supporting vocals from artists who knew and worked with Elvis including Darlene Love, Cissy Houston, and Lisa Marie Presley plus members of The Stamps Quartet and The Imperials. Includes new versions of “Stand by Me,” “You’ll Never Walk Alone,” “Amazing Grace,” “How Great Thou Art,” and “Crying in the Chapel.” Available on…
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Ride Like the Wind: “California Groove IV” Box Set Captures Sounds of Summer
Warner Music France is providing a breezy soundtrack for summer with the fourth installment of California Groove. Arriving seven years after Volume 3, this impressive 6-CD box set is a little bit country, a little bit-rock-and-roll – not to mention filled with pop, lounge, jazz, dance, R&B, soul, and beyond. It’s too eclectic to be filed under “yacht rock,” though many of that so-called genre’s bright lights are here, including Christopher Cross and Steely Dan. What it is, however, is a collection of sleek, chill, California-inspired sounds that will “tune out all…
Release Round-Up: Week of July 27
Welcome to this week’s Release Round-Up! Bob Dylan, Live 1962-1966: Rare Performances from the Copyright Collections (Columbia/Legacy) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada) The new 2-CD set Live 1962-1966: Rare Performances from the Copyright Collections draws on Dylan’s previously issued limited edition “copyright extension” collections to offer a sampler of Dylan onstage, from a pair of songs recorded on April 16, 1962 at Gerdes Folk City in New York (“Blowin’ in the Wind” and “Corrina, Corrina”) to “Ballad of a Thin Man” from May 20, 1966 at Edinburgh’s ABC Theatre. Many of his most famous songs are…
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A Million Miles of Fun: Real Gone Celebrates “Dazed and Confused,” “True Romance,” “Go” and “The Munsters” in September
We’ve told you about one of Real Gone’s September releases: the first-ever collection of Alice Coltrane’s complete Warner Bros. recordings. Now we’ve got the news on a quartet of soundtrack releases also slated for the month. The first release actually hits one day before September, on August 31. It is a vinyl reissue of Even More Dazed and Confused, the second soundtrack album from Richard Linklater’s 1993 film Dazed and Confused. The high school coming-of-age film takes place primarily during a single day in Austin, Texas in 1976. The ensemble cast featured…
In the Air Tonite: Phil Collins’ New Box Set “Plays Well with Others” Features McCartney, Clapton, Plant, Bennett
Throughout his career, Phil Collins has always been willing to share his talents – whether at the microphone or the drum kit, as a songwriter, or in the producer’s chair – with his fellow musicians. On September 28, the superstar will collect 59 of his favorite collaborations on a new 4-CD box set. Rhino/Atlantic will release Plays Well with Others just one week before Collins launches his Not Dead Yet, Live! tour on October 5 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Collins states in the press release, “Some would say I’ve lived a charmed…
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Review: “Fab Gear: The British Beat Explosion and Its Aftershocks 1963-1967”
“Yesterday’s Gone”: the song by folk-pop duo Chad and Jeremy opens the first of the six discs comprising Cherry Red and RPM’s new box set Fab Gear: The British Beat Explosion and Its Aftershocks 1963-1967. It’s a most appropriate opener, as yesterday really was gone for an entire generation of artists swiftly rendered obsolete by the emergence of The Beatles. As the box eloquently explains, the Fab Four “in name, song, band structure, image, defined this new Beat music…Until 1967, when The Beatles reinvented pop again with Sgt. Pepper’s, Beat music –…
Review: Bear Family’s “Battleground Korea: Songs and Sounds of America’s Forgotten War”
If there was any doubt that history could be engaging as well as informative, such doubt would be dispelled by a listen to Bear Family’s new release, the 4-CD box set Battleground Korea: Songs and Sounds of America’s Forgotten War. Make no mistake, the handsomely slipcased collection is as imposing and heavy as a textbook, as its four discs are housed within a lavish, 160-page hardcover tome. But this immersive journey can’t help but thrill in its scope and execution. It follows previous Bear Family releases such as Next Stop Is Vietnam:…
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Magic Voodoo Moon: Numero Group Collects Ultra-Rare Exotica On New Box Set
Tomorrow, May 25, Numero Group is conjuring up a world of tikis, palm trees, and colorful drinks – in other words, a Technicolor Paradise. After years of successfully excavating the rarest soul, jazz, R&B, New Age, and more, the label has turned its attention to the realm of exotica. The genre’s blend of lounge, jazz, pop and all sounds beyond inspired a number of artists who didn’t receive the same attention as, say, Martin Denny, Yma Sumac, Arthur Lyman, and Esquivel. An alternate history of exotica appears on Technicolor Paradise: Rhum Rhapsodies…
Release Round-Up: Week of May 18
Welcome to this week’s Release Round-Up! Bruce Springsteen, The Album Collection Vol. 2, 1987-1996 (Columbia/Legacy) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada) Bruce Springsteen boxes up the second set of his albums in chronological order, remastered by Bob Ludwig and Toby Scott using the Plangent Process. The collection is only available on vinyl, although a limited edition CD version is being released in Japan only. The CD version is now available for pre-order at Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada! Read more details on the box here. LPs 1-2:…
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Baby, They’ve Got It! Ace Raids Motown Vaults for “More Motown Girls”
Back in 2013, Ace Records launched its first collection of Motown Girls, spotlighting previously unreleased tracks from the legendary ladies of Motown Records. A second installment arrived in 2015, and now, we’re finally the recipient of a third volume in the series. The 24-song anthology Baby I’ve Got It! More Motown Girls boasts 16 previously unreleased tracks, with the remaining eight drawn from the Motown Unreleased compilations (all of which have been digital-only except for the one covering 1966). This exciting new collection kicks off with a true landmark: the very first…
RECORD STORE DAY PREVIEW! Jazz Dispensary Celebrates 420 on Friday, Releases “Soul Diesel 2” on Saturday
This Friday – April 20, or 4/20 – is a date that’s not going unnoticed by the folks at the Jazz Dispensary label. And the festivities are continuing right through Record Store Day. On Friday, Jazz Dispensary teams with SPARC’s four cannabis dispensaries for a new 7-inch vinyl single, which will be followed on Saturday’s Record Store Day by the release of the 12-inch LP Soul Diesel II. The annual cannabis celebration 420 falls this Friday, hence the release that day of Private Stock Series # 001 from Jazz Dispensary. This translucent…
Land of a Thousand Dances: Ace Salutes Music of 1965, Plus Rock Instrumentals and Spanish Pop
Ace Records rightfully has a reputation for its top-notch collections, and three recent releases are no exception to that rule. Jon Savage’s 1965: The Year The Sixties Ignited follows previous releases compiled for Ace by historian Savage covering the years 1966 and 1967. This latest volume, with 48 tracks on 2 CDs, explores how the various strains of pop music came together to awaken the culture: whether the power of Motown (the label had six number ones) or Bob Dylan (who inspired an onslaught of imitators and cover artists), just to name…
Sounds From Beyond: Cherry Red Collects Psych, Pop, Rock, and the 101 Strings (!) On New Box Set
I Said, She Said, Ah Cid: With this delightfully offbeat release, Cherry Red’s Grapefruit label has turned in one of the year’s most intriguing releases. Ah cid, or acid, is in the air on this trippy 3-CD jaunt through the vaults of Alshire Records, the California-based budget label best known for the long-running 101 Strings series. As the subtitle – The Exploito Psych World of Alshire Records 1967-1971 – indicates, this set is focused squarely on the brief period in which Al Sherman’s company turned its attention to courting the counterculture. While…
Everybody Dance Now! Cherry Red’s Soul Time Imprint Collects Northern Soul, Detroit Rarities
Cherry Red’s Soul Time imprint is on fire! The crate-digging team there unearthed two box sets’ worth of R&B rarities in the final months of 2017 that we’re happy to spotlight now! Mr. M’s Northern Soul 1974-1981 is a 3-CD set celebrating the “oldies room” at the Wigan Casino, the late, fondly-remembered club in Wigan, England famous for its northern soul all-nighters held each Saturday from 2 a.m. to 8 a.m. Sunday morning. Mr. M’s was born out of necessity in 1974, a “club within a club” created to alleviate crowds and…
Keep a Close Watch: Ace Salutes “The Orchestrations of Robert Kirby” with Nick Drake, Richard and Linda Thompson, Iain Matthews
The subject of a new collection from Ace Records isn’t exactly a household name. But if you didn’t know the name of Robert Kirby before, you certainly will after a listen to When the Day is Done: The Orchestrations of Robert Kirby. The titular orchestrator is best known for his lush adornment of Nick Drake’s records, conjuring up a pastoral England that couldn’t be more removed from the swingin’ era that preceded it. A brief track from Drake opens this collection before it cedes to an exploration of Kirby’s other work as…
Review: “Stax Singles Vol. 4: Rarities and the Best of the Rest”
Stax Records is rightfully renowned for its catalogue of deep southern soul straight from the heart of Memphis. But, like its famous Detroit competitor Motown, the label founded by Jim Stewart and Estelle Axton released music in a variety of sounds and styles. The Complete Stax-Volt Singles 1959-1968 (released in 1991 and reissued by Rhino in 2016 was the first major archival box to begin to address the Stax legacy in record-by-record fashion. It was followed by The Complete Stax-Volt Soul Singles, Vol. 2: 1968-1971 (1993, reissued 2014) and The Complete Stax-Volt…
