Various Artists 9 - The Second Disc

Classic Rock, Everything Else

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Johnny Hallyday, Various Artists, Vince Taylor

Remember When The Music: Bottom Line Presents Unheard Harry Chapin, Reissues Janis Ian and More

June 11, 2015 by Joe Marchese | 3 Comments

The new Bottom Line Archive Series, which launched earlier this year with volumes from The Brecker Brothers, Willie Nile, and Kenny Rankin, continues on June 30 with a new wave of titles all recorded at the late, great New York venue once located on West 4th Street in Greenwich Village. Concerts from Harry Chapin and Janis Ian, plus two various-artists compilations, will be released on Bottom Line Records on that date. Legendary singer-songwriter Harry Chapin’s January 1981 set at The Bottom Line was released as a 2-CD set in 1998 as part…

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Folk, Pop, Rock

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Harry Chapin, Janis Ian, Jimmy Webb, Pete Seeger, Various Artists

So This Is Love: Disney Expands “Cinderella”, Premieres “The Silly Symphony Collection” Box Set

June 8, 2015 by Randy Fairman | 1 Comment

We’ve got a couple of bits of Disney music news to bring you today. One concerns an ongoing series and the other concerns material that many have long hoped would see release! First up, we can confirm more details about the next volume of Walt Disney Records’ Legacy Collection: Cinderella. Celebrating its 65th anniversary this year, Cinderella was Walt Disney’s twelfth animated feature and was released on February 5, 1950. It starred the voices of Ilene Woods as Cinderella, Eleanor Audley as Lady Tremaine and Verna Felton as the Fairy Godmother. After…

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Box Sets, CD, Vinyl

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Soundtracks

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Al Hoffman, Jerry Livingston, Mack David, Various Artists

River Deep Mountain High: Ace Returns to the Jeff Barry and Ellie Greenwich Songbook

June 1, 2015 by Joe Marchese | 1 Comment

With Sweet Things, Ace Records has picked a most apt title for its third volume of music from the Ellie Greenwich and Jeff Barry songbook (Ace CDCHD 1434). Though Greenwich and Barry were united as husband and wife for just the short period of 1962-1965, and only worked together for a short time after that, a year hasn’t gone by since when their enduring songs haven’t been recorded and re-recorded. The collection’s 24 titles span 1963-1978 and blend hits and rarities from the duo with tracks penned by Greenwich and Barry individually…

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Darlene Love, Ellie Greenwich, Jeff Barry, Phil Spector, The Crystals, The Shangri-Las, Various Artists

Going to the Country: “Dylan, Cash and the Nashville Cats” Chronicles Birth of Music City Country-Rock

May 27, 2015 by Joe Marchese | 9 Comments

Two legendary artists headline a new anthology arriving on June 16, 2015 from Legacy Recordings. Dylan, Cash and the Nashville Cats: A New Music City, a 2-CD, 36-track compilation, serves as an audio companion and soundtrack to the exhibit of the same name currently on display at Nashville’s Country Music Hall of Fame through December 31, 2016. Like the exhibit, this new release explores the timeless sounds created at the intersection of country, folk and rock in Nashville between, roughly speaking, 1964 and 1975. Bob Dylan and Johnny Cash formed a mutual…

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CD, Digital Download

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Classic Rock, Country, Folk

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Bob Dylan, George Harrison, Johnny Cash, Linda Ronstadt, Neil Young, Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, Simon and Garfunkel, Various Artists

Release Round-Up: Week of April 28

April 28, 2015 by Joe Marchese | No Comments

Dusty Springfield, Faithful (Real Gone Music) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.) Faithful assembles for the first time on one CD all of the masters produced by Jeff Barry (“Chapel of Love,” “Leader of the Pack,” “Sugar, Sugar”) for Dusty Springfield in 1971. From his home base at New York’s Century Sound, Barry produced thirteen songs for Dusty – twelve intended for album release and one for a non-LP single. Four songs were released on two 45s, but when Dusty departed Atlantic Records, the remaining tracks were left on the shelf, and thought…

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Release Round-Up

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Box Sets, CD, Digital Download, Vinyl

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Cast Recordings, Classic Rock, Pop, Popular Standards/Vocal, R&B/Soul

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Brinsley Schwarz, Dusty Springfield, Ellie Greenwich, Eric Clapton, Jack Bruce, Jeff Barry, Julie Andrews, Pat DiNizio, Spooky Tooth, The Beatles, The Grateful Dead, The Kingbees, Various Artists

Review: “Beale Street Saturday Night”

April 27, 2015 by Joe Marchese | 1 Comment

Beale Street in downtown Memphis, Tennessee runs approximately 1.8 miles from the Mississippi River to East Street. Created in 1841 and originally named Beale Avenue, it was immortalized in 1916 by composer, musician and bandleader W.C. Handy in his “Beale Street Blues.” By the middle of the century, Louis Armstrong, B.B. King, Albert King, Muddy Waters and more had all played Beale Street, recognized as one of the nation’s foremost cradles of the blues. But by the mid-1960s, the legendary thoroughfare had fallen into decay. On May 23, 1966, the area between…

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Everything Else, R&B/Soul

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Furry Lewis, Jim Dickinson, Sid Selvidge, Various Artists

Still Into Something Good: Ace Collects More From Carole King and Gerry Goffin

March 18, 2015 by Joe Marchese | No Comments

The songs of Carole King and Gerry Goffin have been enjoying a rather spectacular renaissance on both sides of the Atlantic thanks to the success of King’s biographical Broadway and West End musical Beautiful. Happily, Ace Records has returned to the duo’s catalogue for a fourth anthology. Hung on You: More from the Goffin and King Songbook follows three previous excursions: Goffin & King: A Gerry Goffin and Carole King Song Collection 1961-1967 (2007), Honey and Wine: Another Gerry Goffin and Carole King Song Collection (2009), and Something Good from the Goffin…

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Carole King, Gerry Goffin, Various Artists

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Pop, R&B/Soul

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Such a Much! Croydon Collects R&B Girls, Swingin’ TV Themes

March 11, 2015 by Joe Marchese | 1 Comment

Since its inception in 2013, Cherry Red’s Croydon Municipal label has reliably shed light on some of the least illuminated corners of the pre-Beatles pop world. Two recent releases – Such a Much: R&B Girls of the ‘50s and ‘60s and TV is the Thing: Fifties and Sixties Television Themes – continue in this tradition. Like many of Croydon’s releases, Such a Much features a blend of names both familiar (LaVern Baker, Little Esther, Etta James, Ruth Brown) and less familiar (Paula Grimes, Carrie Grant, Annie Laurie, Fay Simmons). What the 19…

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CD, Digital Download

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Doris Troy, LaVern Baker, Ruth Brown, Various Artists

Walking in Memphis: Omnivore Revisits “Beale Street Saturday Night”

March 2, 2015 by Joe Marchese | No Comments

Omnivore Recordings is going back to Memphis. The label has already preserved a number of classic records drawing on the city’s rich musical landscape by artists including Big Star, Alex Chilton, Sandra Rhodes, and Sid Selvidge. On April 14, Omnivore will add to that collection with the reissue of Beale Street Saturday Night, produced and curated in 1979 by the late Jim Dickinson in celebration of the city’s blues mecca Beale Street. Produced for The Memphis Development Foundation (and with proceeds today going to benefit the Beale Street Caravan, a non-commercial radio…

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Everything Else, R&B/Soul

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CD, Digital Download, Vinyl

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Jim Dickinson, Sid Selvidge, Various Artists

Liquid Spirit: Raising A Coffee Cup to Starbucks’ Final CD “Blue Note Blend”

February 23, 2015 by Joe Marchese | 3 Comments

On April 1, 1995, Starbucks launched its line of CDs with Blue Note Blend, a selection of thirteen tracks from the catalogue of the venerable jazz label and its sister labels. Available as a standalone release or bundled with a pound of Starbucks’ same-named coffee, the album was an unqualified success, selling over 75,000 copies and spawning sequel volumes. Twenty years later, the coffee house is returning to its roots for a new edition of Blue Note Blend which features many of the same musicians and brings the Blue Note story up…

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Jazz

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Cannonball Adderley, Herbie Hancock, Miles Davis, Norah Jones, Various Artists

Hang On Sloopy! “The Bert Berns Story Volume 3” Features Van Morrison, Lulu, Drifters

February 19, 2015 by Joe Marchese | 1 Comment

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 since when his songs haven’t…

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Pop, R&B/Soul

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Bert Berns, The Drifters, Van Morrison, Various Artists

Grapefruit Collects Rare Psych-Pop From Pre-Deep Purple Episode Six, More on “Shapes and Shadows”

February 13, 2015 by Joe Marchese | No Comments

Musical renaissance man Les Reed is responsible for some of the most beloved pop tunes of all time – “It’s Not Unusual,” “There’s a Kind of Hush,” and “The Last Waltz” among them. His songs have been recorded by Tom Jones, Elvis Presley, Shirley Bassey, Petula Clark and Bing Crosby. Less well known is that Reed also founded a record label. His Chapter One Records was formed in 1968 and lasted until 1973, releasing music by a diverse collection of artists including Episode Six (a proving ground for Deep Purple), Mark Wirtz,…

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Deep Purple, Les Reed, Mark Wirtz, Various Artists

Unchained Melodies: Ace Collects “The London American Label 1965” with The Righteous Brothers, Burt Bacharach, The Vogues, More

January 29, 2015 by Joe Marchese | 5 Comments

With the recently-released tenth volume of its year-by-year chronicle, Ace’s The London American Label series revisits 1965. Though America was swept up in the sounds of the British Invasion, Great Britain was still interested in the music from the United States – as evidenced by the 27 selections here drawn from 72 singles. That said, the tide was turning; London American issued 109 singles in 1964 and 177 in 1963. Hit-wise, though, the London American label yielded 11 chart records in 1965 compared to eight in 1964. Compiler Tony Rounce has done…

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Pop, R&B/Soul

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Burt Bacharach, Lou Johnson, The Righteous Brothers, The Ronettes, The Vogues, Various Artists

Harmless Readies Massive 10-Disc “Northern Soul Time Capsule”

January 26, 2015 by Joe Marchese | 3 Comments

Hot on the heels of the 2014 release of the film Northern Soul and its soundtrack, Demon Music Group’s Harmless Records imprint is celebrating the R&B subgenre with what’s likely its most exhaustive chronicle ever: the 8-CD/2-DVD box set The Odyssey: A Northern Soul Time Capsule. This massive set, due on February 16, has been co-compiled by Harmless’ chief and 1970s Northern Soul DJ Ian Dewhirst, and features diverse tracks from artists including The Spinners, Chuck Jackson, Gladys Knight and the Pips, Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons, Bunny Sigler, Paul Anka,…

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Box Sets, CD, DVD

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Various Artists

Holiday Gift Guide Review: “International Pop Overthrow: Volume 17”

December 18, 2014 by Ted Frank | No Comments

We’d like to extend a big welcome to the newest member of our Second Disc family, author Ted Frank. Ted, a self-described “power pop-a-holic,” kicks off his contributions to The Second Disc with a review of the latest collection from the fine folks at The International Pop Overthrow Festival. The Festival’s seventeenth volume (yes, seventeenth – congratulations, IPO!) of pure pop for now people is just the latest in a smashing line of releases designed to introduce you to the best bands you’ve never heard of – and won’t soon forget. Produced…

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Holiday Gift Guide, News, Reviews

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Various Artists

Ace Is Twistin’ the Night Away with Sam Cooke Tribute, Motown Rarities and More

December 11, 2014 by Joe Marchese | No Comments

When it comes to rare soul, Ace Records never sleeps! The label has recently released a compilation celebrating the career of Sam Cooke not as a singer but as a songwriter, along with collections dedicated to excavating the vaults of two great Detroit labels: Westbound Records, and of course, Motown! Countless albums have anthologized the short but influential oeuvre of Sam Cooke, but Bring It on Home: Black America Sings Sam Cooke takes a different approach, featuring 24 versions of Cooke compositions recorded between 1959 and 1976, performed by some of the…

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Holiday Gift Guide, Reviews

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Sam Cooke, The Four Tops, The Spinners, The Temptations, Various Artists

Holiday Gift Guide Review: “The Classic Christmas Album” Series

December 5, 2014 by Joe Marchese | No Comments

Johnny Mathis. Frank Sinatra. Perry Como. Steve Vai? Menudo? When it comes to Christmas music, Legacy Recordings doesn’t pull its punches. The label’s series of Classic Christmas Album releases has become a bit of an annual tradition, and this year’s batch of single- and various-artist anthologies once again draws on names both expected and unexpected. While the packages are bare-bones, with no liner notes (but happily with full credits and discographical annotation), the music most certainly is not. Johnny Mathis recorded his first Christmas album in 1958 and his most recent in…

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Classic Rock, Country, Pop, Popular Standards/Vocal, Rock

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Barbra Streisand, Frank Sinatra, Il Divo, Johnny Mathis, Perry Como, Various Artists

From Hoagy To Popcorn: Croydon Municipal Mines Carmichael Tunes, Vintage Pop, R&B and Film Music

November 5, 2014 by Joe Marchese | 1 Comment

St. Etienne co-founder Bob Stanley’s Croydon Municipal imprint from the Cherry Red Group continues to have some of the most eclectic releases out there, emphasizing classic fifties and early sixties pop, R&B and beyond. The label’s latest offerings include a tribute to the pride of Bloomington, Indiana – Mr. Hoagy Carmichael – as well as a return to the realm of Popcorn, and a collection of cool, swinging film themes! Any songwriter would likely sell his soul to compose a song with the endurance of “Stardust,” the 1931 standard written by Hoagy Carmichael with lyrics…

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Hoagy Carmichael, Various Artists

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A Little Love In Her Heart: “She Did It” Spotlights Songs of Jackie DeShannon

October 22, 2014 by Joe Marchese | No Comments

That Jackie DeShannon is one of the most gifted singer-songwriters in popular music should come as no surprise to anybody reading this. Equally skilled at interpreting her own songs as well as those of others, the multi-talented Miss DeShannon was the concerned yet optimistic voice of “What the World Needs Now is Love,” the flower-power spokeswoman who implored you to “Put a Little Love in Your Heart,” one of the first Ladies of the Canyon, and one-half of the songwriting team behind the eternally sensual “Bette Davis Eyes.” And that’s just naming…

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News, Reviews

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Jackie DeShannon, Various Artists

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Ace Soul Round-Up, Part One: Label Unveils Lost Treasures From Sounds of Memphis, Mary Love

August 28, 2014 by Joe Marchese | No Comments

When it comes to vintage soul, no stone is left unturned by the team at Ace and Kent Records. A number of recent releases hit points from Miami to Memphis, and just about everywhere in between. In today’s Part One of our Ace Soul Round-Up, we’ll look at releases from the Sounds of Memphis label and vocalist Mary Love! Memphis is a long way from Hollywood, but the famous MGM lion adorned the releases of the Sounds of Memphis label, subject of Kent’s new More Lost Soul Gems from Sounds of Memphis. …

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Mary Love, Various Artists

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Try To Forget Him: Ace Continues “The Jack Nitzsche Story” With The Righteous Brothers, Jackie DeShannon, Darlene Love

August 12, 2014 by Joe Marchese | No Comments

The credit “Arranged and conducted by Jack Nitzsche” should be familiar to any collector of those little black vinyl platters we used to call 45s. Such a credit – or a similar one – graced records by Frankie Laine and Doris Day, The Paris Sisters and The Righteous Brothers, The Tubes and The Crystals, Graham Parker and Bobby Vee. Jack “Specs” Nitzsche (1973-2000) made his mark across multiple genres and many decades, the common factor being the quality of his work. Nitzsche the orchestrator helped define Phil Spector’s Wall of Sound; Nitzsche…

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Buffalo Springfield, Jack Nitzsche, Jackie DeShannon, The Righteous Brothers, Various Artists

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Ace’s “Girls with Guitars 3” Features Guitar Rock From Jackie DeShannon, Brenda Lee, Goldie and the Gingerbreads, More

July 25, 2014 by Joe Marchese | No Comments

Ace Records began its Girls with Guitars CD series in 2004. That first volume took its inspiration from a 1989 LP issued by the label and featured 24 tracks from lesser-known American girl groups worthy of attention from garage-rock fans. The music of Girls with Guitars was diverse, encompassing a variety of sixties sounds from garage to pop and soul. A second volume, Destroy That Boy: More Girls with Guitars, followed in 2009 ramping up the star wattage with a couple of mind-blowing cuts by Ann-Margret. Now, Volume 3 – entitled The…

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Pop, Rock

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Various Artists

Sumpin Funky Going On: “Country Funk II” Features Willie, Dolly, Bobby, Jackie, Kenny and More

July 23, 2014 by Joe Marchese | No Comments

Almost two years ago, we reported on Light in the Attic’s Country Funk, an anthology celebrating the hybrid genre of the title. Back then, LITA described country funk as an “inherently defiant genre” encompassing “the elation of gospel with the sexual thrust of the blues, country hoedown harmony with inner city grit. It is alternately playful and melancholic, slow jammin’ and booty shakin’. It is both studio slick and barroom raw.” Well, if the 16 nuggets on that 2012 release weren’t enough for you, the label has returned to the well with…

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