As longtime collectors know, great “nuggets” show up in the most unlikely places…and so do Nuggets, naturally. Warner Music Japan has just issued four volumes of Soft Rock Nuggets, but most of the tracks on these collections are firmly in the harmony-drenched, lushly melodic, sunshine pop genre. Any fans of Rhino Handmade’s Come to the Sunshine: Soft Pop Nuggets from the WEA Vaults (reissued on vinyl this year for Record Store Day) will find much to savor on these latest additions to the Nuggets library – and sweetening the deal, Warner has…
Release Round-Up: Week of June 30
Welcome to this week’s Release Round-Up! The Beach Boys, 1967: Sunshine Tomorrow (Capitol/Brother/UMe) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada) The Beach Boys’ Sunshine Tomorrow, a new 2-CD and digital collection, not only premieres the first-ever true stereo mix of 1967’s Wild Honey, but also premieres a whopping 54 rarities recorded that year including the live album Lei’d in Hawaii, session material from both Wild Honey and Smiley Smile, and further live recordings (spanning 1967-1970). Read all of the specs here, and tune back in soon for our full review of…
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Review: “Singles: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack – Deluxe Edition”
A Tribute Told in Vignettes… Well, I don’t like to reduce us to just being part of the “Seattle Sound.” I’d like to think of us as expanding more. Like, we’re huge in Europe right now. I mean, we’ve got records… uh, a big record just broke in Belgium. -Cliff Poncier, Singles A Cameron Crowe film tends to have a “killer” soundtrack. Listening to a Crowe soundtrack is an intriguing adventure filled with carefully curated juxtapositions. In fact, the experience is a lot like the line from Crowe’s motion picture Singles, in…
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The Beat Goes On: Ace Collects Rock and Soul of “1967: The Year Pop Divided”
Late in 2015, Ace Records released the compilation Jon Savage’s 1966: The Year The Decade Exploded to coincide with the publication of the author-historian’s book of the same name. Now, Ace and Savage have followed that CD release with another volume – 1967: The Year Pop Divided. The 2-CD collection’s mission statement is clearly set out: “MOR ballads were rife in the U.K. charts in 1967, but thankfully not on this dynamic collection of rock, soul, pop, and incipient funk and psych the teenage Jon Savage thrilled to on pirate radio this…
Spicks and Specks: Ace Collects “Songs of The Bee Gees” From Lulu, Nina Simone, Percy Sledge, Others
With a recent Grammy Awards salute, a new catalogue deal, and the 40th anniversary of Saturday Night Fever, the music of the Bee Gees has been front and center in 2017. Ace Records has joined the celebration of the brothers Gibb with a new entry in the label’s long-running Songwriters Series. To Love Somebody: The Songs of The Bee Gees 1966-1970 pulls into focus the early professional years of Barry, Robin, and Maurice, with 24 choice cover versions of songs both familiar and lesser-known. These performances, in particular, underscore the deep affection…
Release Round-Up: Week of April 21
Welcome to this week’s Release Round-Up! Various Artists, Honeybeat: ’60s Groovy Girl-Pop (Real Gone Music) CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada LP: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada Honeybeat: Groovy 60s Girl Pop, curated by Sheila Burgel from the Sony archives and released on Real Gone Music, features 19 songs from nine different labels, nearly a third of which have never been released on CD. While some tracks come from known artists such as Little Eva, Skeeter Davis and even Nichelle Nichols (who had a brief music career during her…
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Big White Cloud: Ace Collects Folk Rock Sounds on “English Weather”
To many, the phrase “English weather” conjures images of fog, clouds, and rain. To Bob Stanley and Pete Wiggs, English weather means something “melodic, melancholy, with jazz and folk touches, and the same similar shrug of resignation…” So explains the compilers of the recent English Weather, an absorbing 18-track compendium from Ace Records collecting rare and unusual songs that might be, in their words, akin to “an unfamiliar album with a hint of Crosby, Stills and Nash, but an identifiably British pall hanging over the sunny harmonies.” They were referring to an album…
Release Round-Up: Week of March 31
Welcome to this week’s Release Round-Up, featuring some of the most hotly-anticipated sets of the year! Fleetwood Mac, Tango in the Night [Various Editions] (Warner Bros./Rhino) 3CD/1DVD/1LP: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada 2CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada 1CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada Fleetwood Mac’s 1987 album featuring “Little Lies” and “Everywhere” returns in a variety of formats including a 3-CD/1 DVD/1 LP version (with the original album on CD, high-resolution stereo DVD, and LP; a CD of outtakes; and a CD of rare single…
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Ooh Baby: Ace Collects Third Volume of Rare “Manhattan Soul”
Over the first two volumes of Manhattan Soul, Ace Records’ Kent imprint has dug up some of the finest – and indeed, rarest – soul tracks to come out of the Big Apple in the 1960s. For the third installment of the series, the label has again tapped the vaults of Florence Greenberg’s Scepter and Wand Records, plus rival label Musicor, for a definitive chronicle of some of the most urbane R&B of the decade. Though these outfits were based in New York, productions sometimes came from other soul meccas; Manhattan Soul…
Seasons In The Sun: Frank, Dusty, Petula, More Salute Rod McKuen On New Anthology
In the case of Rod McKuen, “prolific” might well have been an understatement. Before he turned 35, McKuen had already lived many lives – from farm hand, lumberjack, rodeo cowboy, disk jockey, and U.S. Army veteran to singer, songwriter, actor, and the most commercially successful poet of his time – or any other. Despite an enviable career that saw him receive two Academy Award nominations and Frank Sinatra dedicate an entire album to him, the songs of Rod McKuen frequently haven’t received their due, and even after his death, he remains an…
RPM Records Round-Up, Part Two: Spotlight on The Boots and “Svenska Shakers”
Welcome to Part Two of our RPM Records Round-Up! Part One put a spotlight on the Cherry Red imprint’s recent releases from Welsh-born vocalist Maureen Evans and the New Zealand pop-psych band, The Avengers. Today, we’re looking at Germany’s The Boots, and a collection of Sweden’s finest rockers circa 1964-1968! Don’t miss out on Part One, either. You can read it right here! RPM’s international tour continues with a complete release from Germany’s The Boots. Beat! The Complete Telefunken Years collects, on two CDs, 38 tracks from the R&B-rooted rockers recorded between…
Release Round-Up: Week of January 20
Welcome to this week’s Release Round-Up! Grateful Dead, The Grateful Dead: 50th Anniversary Deluxe Edition (Rhino) 2-CD (Original Album and Bonus Disc): Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. Picture Disc (Original Album Only): Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. The Grateful Dead: 50th Anniversary Deluxe Edition presents the original 1967 album on Disc 1 and an unreleased concert from July 29, 1966 in Vancouver, Canada on Disc 2. The first disc has been remastered from the original tapes by David Glasser and restored via Plangent Processes (a tape transfer technique which has been used on other…
I Like It: Croydon Municipal’s “Britain’s Finest Thespians Sing” and “Doo Wop Soda Shop” Collect Rarities
Bob Stanley’s Croydon Municipal label closed out 2016 with a pair of releases continuing the Cherry Red imprint’s mission of excavating some of the most rare and well-done pop music inside and outside of Great Britain. And This is Me might be thought of as a kind of Golden Throats precursor. Subtitled Britain’s Finest Thespians Sing, this 24-track compendium features a host of the finest actors, comedians, and personalities from pre-Beatles Great Britain’s golden age of entertainment across its 24 tracks. Bernard Cribbins, represented by the opening track “What About Me,” has…
Johnny Cash, Eddy Arnold, Glen Campbell Featured On “Chartbusters USA: Special Country Edition”
The latest entry in Ace Records’ long-running Chartbusters USA series arrived late in 2016. The Special Country Edition turned its spotlight on Hot 100 hits which had crossed over from the Billboard Country chart. The 24 tracks on Chartbusters USA: Special Country Edition are all from the period of 1963-1969, needless to say a time of seismic change in pop music, and many come from the greatest names in any genre of music. The set, appropriately enough, opens with George Jones’ 1964 recording of “The Race is On,” which in George’s rendition…
“IPO Volume 19”: POP into The New Year!
Today, our very own Ted Frank takes a look at the annual CD series shining a spotlight on the best voices in pop you might not know! Although 2016 may be remembered for a number of losses in the artistic community, it has also been a reinvigorating one for the music industry. With the likes of David Bowie and Leonard Cohen tragically releasing some of their finest work in their final hours, to other legends such as William Bell, Nick Cave, Bob Dylan, Van Morrison, Iggy Pop, The Rolling Stones, The Pretenders,…
Ain’t Too Proud To Beg: New Digital Releases Premiere Unreleased Beach Boys and Motown Featuring Marvin Gaye, Supremes, Temptations and Many More
As has become commonplace over the past several years due to the copyright laws in the U.K. and Europe, a couple of “copyright extension” releases came out at the end of 2016 to come in right at the deadline for 1966 recordings. While sometimes these collections have taken physical form like the two large Bob Dylan box sets that have been released over the past couple of years, they are more often than not digital-only releases. And in keeping with the traditions of the past several years, that is the format for two new sets…
Holiday Gift Guide Review: A Vinyl Christmas From Presley, Cash and More
As the vinyl revolution continues, it’s no surprise that numerous classic Christmas albums have been reissued in the format, while newer holiday recordings have gotten the 33-1/3 treatment as well. Legacy Recordings, rather than continuing its Classic Christmas Album series in CD form this year, has brought a number of titles to vinyl including new collections from Elvis Presley and Johnny Cash, and a Classic Christmas volume dedicated to the big band sound. Of course, Elvis Presley has been one of the most anthologized holiday artists of all time despite the fact…
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A Groovy Kind of Love: Ace Collects Classical-Inspired Pop Songs on “Classical Gassers”
Classical music has long been a source of inspiration for pop. Just ask Barry Manilow (“Could It Be Magic”), Eric Carmen (“All By Myself,” “Never Gonna Fall in Love Again”), Billy Joel (“This Night”), or Walter Murphy (“A Fifth of Beethoven”). Ace Records has recently collected 24 of these classical “crossovers” on the aptly-titled Classical Gassers: Pop Gems Inspired by the Great Composers. These tracks date between 1960 and 1971 and feature such hitmaking artists as Lesley Gore, Jay and the Americans, and Roy Orbison…and such unexpected composers as Rimsky-Korsakov, Grieg, Bach,…
And All That Jazz: Liza Minnelli, Petula Clark, Michael Crawford Featured On “Elaine Paige Presents The Musicals”
Elaine Paige is lending her name to a new 3-CD collection of musical theatre favorites. Elaine Paige Presents The Musicals is due on November 25 from Union Square Music, with 58 tracks and over three hours of music. Elaine Paige Presents the Musicals is licensed from various labels, making for a cross-section of recordings. You’ll find familiar names from the worlds of theatre, movies and pop, including Michael Ball (“Love Changes Everything” from Aspects of Love, “Falling Slowly” from Once, “Empty Chairs at Empty Tables” from Les Miserables, “Let It Be Me”…
Sundazed’s Black Friday Line-Up Boasts Scepter Soul, Spacey Jazz From Sun Ra, and an “Adult” Classic
Sundazed Music has announced a trio of limited edition releases for Black Friday’s Record Store Day event, and they’re sure to be a crate-digger’s delight. Scepter Records may today be best remembered as the home of Dionne Warwick’s classic recordings, but the New York label founded by pioneering executive Florence Greenberg also gave a home to The Shirelles, B.J. Thomas, Chuck Jackson, Maxine Brown, and numerous other stars of soul and pop. In addition, Greenberg nurtured a stable of some of the finest songwriters and producers in modern popular music, including Burt…
David Bowie, Moody Blues, Procol Harum, The Move Featured On “Let’s Go Down and Blow Our Minds” Box
Cherry Red’s Grapefruit imprint has continued its series of box sets – including Love, Poetry and Revolution and I’m a Freak Baby – with another musical journey through the world of British psych and rock. Let’s Go Down and Blow Our Minds is a more focused collection than either of those past two releases, concentrating solely on the U.K.’s psychedelic sounds of 1967. Of course, you won’t find selections from two of that year’s landmark psych-rock releases, Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band or Their Satanic Majesties’ Request, here, but you will…
Ace Collects Classic Beatles Covers On “Let It Be: Black America Sings Lennon, McCartney and Harrison”
If there was ever any doubt as to the versatility, adaptability and endurance of the songs of John Lennon, Paul McCartney, and George Harrison, it would certainly be dispelled by Ace’s new release of Let It Be: Black America Sings Lennon, McCartney and Harrison. The latest volume in the label’s Black America Sings series (also encompassing volumes dedicated to Sam Cooke, Bob Dylan, Otis Redding, and the team of Burt Bacharach and Hal David) and the second dedicated to the music of The Beatles, Let It Be features a staggering array of…
Life is a Rock (But The Radio Rolled Me): Ace Collects Seventies Smashes On “Hit List 2”
Way back in 2004, Ace Records compiled The Hit List: 24 Hot 100 American Chartbusters of the 1970s. The label has recently returned to the milieu of the first collection for Hit List 2: More Hot 100 Chartbusters of the 70s. The material on this CD is quite a bit different than that on most Ace releases in that both the artists and the songs are largely familiar. But it still casts its 24 tracks into a new context, celebrating – in the label’s words – the “time when AM radio was…
Friday’s Child: Lee Hazlewood Meets Indie Rock On Ace’s New “Son-of-a-Gun”
Ace has previously surveyed the singular oeuvre of musical iconoclast Lee Hazlewood on a number of releases including Califia: The Songs of Lee Hazlewood and, more recently, Shazam! and Other Instrumentals Written by Lee Hazlewood. Now, on Son-of-a-Gun and More from the Lee Hazlewood Songbook, the label has returned to the territory of Califia with a twist. Whereas that compilation focused on Lee’s vivid, quirky songs as performed by Nancy Sinatra, Dusty Springfield, Ann-Margret, Dino, Desi & Billy, and other artists in Hazlewood’s orbit, Son-of-a-Gun primarily (but not exclusively) looks at his…
The Wonderful World of Christmas: Elvis, Johnny, Luther Headline Legacy’s Vinyl Christmas Slate
Looking for some vinyl to place under the tree this season? Legacy is coming to the rescue with five new Christmas releases from the label’s top tier artists including Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Luther Vandross and more! Merry Christmas Baby arrives from Elvis Presley this Friday, October 7. This new 120-gram vinyl compilation features seventeen of the King’s bona fide Christmas Classics, all newly remastered from original sources. Naturally, “Blue Christmas” is here, as well as “Santa Claus Is Back in Town,” “Silent Night, “O Come, All Ye Faithful,” “I’ll Be Home…
Frank Zappa and The Mothers of Invention
September 25, 2026
