William Bell - The Second Disc

Release Round-Up: Week of August 8

August 8, 2025 by The Second Disc | 6 Comments

Welcome to this week’s Release Round-Up, featuring a selection of the new titles available today. As an Amazon affiliate, we earn from qualifying purchases. America, Hearts: 50th Anniversary Edition (Omnivore) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada / Omnivore) Omnivore Recordings is reissuing, remastering, and expanding America’s Hearts, featuring “Sister Golden Hair,” “Daisy Jane,” and “Woman Tonight,” for its 50th anniversary. This new edition adds six bonus cuts to the original album’s dozen tracks. Five of these are unreleased alternate versions and mixes of songs from Hearts including a unique arrangement of Bunnell’s “People in the Valley,”…

Categories:

Release Round-Up

Formats:

Blu-Ray Audio, CD, Digital Download, Digital Streaming, Vinyl

Genres:

Classic Rock, Pop, R&B/Soul, Rock

Tags:

America, Better Than Ezra, Bill Pitcock IV, Booker T. and the MG's, Carla Thomas, Chicago, Dwight Twilley, Fleetwood Mac, Lou Bond, Odyssey, Rufus Thomas, Traci Lords, William Bell

You Can’t Sit Down: Craft Offers Rare Memphis Soul in Concert on ‘Stax Revue: Live in ’65!’

June 12, 2025 by Mike Duquette | 2 Comments

The Southern soul of Stax Records truly knew no boundaries. This summer, a classic instance of its staying power, recorded live in concert, will be revisited on a new 2CD/2LP set. Stax Revue: Live in ’65! expands a pivotal pair of concerts undertaken at the 5-4 Ballroom in Los Angeles 60 summers ago when the Memphis label – newly bolstered by a distribution deal with Atlantic Records – took several of its marquee acts to the West Coast (many for the first time) for a spirited club set packed with favorites by…

Categories:

News

Formats:

CD, Digital Download, Digital Streaming, Vinyl

Genres:

R&B/Soul

Tags:

Booker T. & The MG's, Carla Thomas, David Porter, Rufus Thomas, William Bell, Wilson Pickett

Craft Recordings Plans Staggering Box of Stax Demos

April 27, 2023 by Mike Duquette | No Comments

How do you follow up an essential document like this year’s comprehensive Wattstax box set? If you’re Craft Recordings, you plan a trip deep into the unheard history of the legendary Memphis label, through dozens of demos released for the first time anywhere. Written in Their Soul: The Stax Songwriter Demos is an impressive 7CD anthology including 146 demo versions of enduring Stax hits and fan favorites, songs written by label songwriters that ended up elsewhere as well as a number of songs unveiled here for the first time. Only six of…

Categories:

News

Formats:

Box Sets, CD, Digital Download, Digital Streaming

Genres:

Pop, R&B/Soul

Tags:

Carla Thomas, Eddie Floyd, Rufus Thomas, Steve Cropper, The Newcomers, The Staple Singers, William Bell

The Living Word: New Box Sets Chronicle Wattstax in Full, 50 Years On

December 12, 2022 by Mike Duquette | 2 Comments

One of the greatest music festivals of the ’70s is getting celebrated with an exhaustive array of reissues in 2023: Wattstax, the multi-dimensional Los Angeles celebration of soul, funk, blues and gospel courtesy of Stax Records. A half-century after the premiere of a Golden Globe-nominated documentary on the star-studded 1972 event, Craft Recordings, custodian of the Stax catalogue, will release the most definitive looks at Wattstax, most recently addressed in a 3CD box set in 2003 that took the highlights of both double albums from 1973 and added even more material. Soul’d…

Categories:

News

Formats:

Box Sets, CD, Digital Download, Digital Streaming, Vinyl

Genres:

Blues, Comedy, Funk, Gospel, Pop, R&B/Soul, Soundtracks

Tags:

Albert King, Carla Thomas, David Porter, Eddie Floyd, Isaac Hayes, Johnnie Taylor, Kim Weston, Mavis Staples, Richard Pryor, Rufus Thomas, The Bar-Kays, The Emotions, The Staple Singers, William Bell

I’ve Been Loving You: Vinyl Me, Please Spotlights Stax Classics in New VMP Anthology Box

December 11, 2019 by Sam Stone | No Comments

Vinyl Me Please is at it again! Following their celebrations of Blue Note, Motown, and Ghostly International, the subscription service is set to release a new volume of their acclaimed VMP Anthology Series. This time, they’re shining a light on the history of Stax Records. As with previous volumes, The Story of Stax Records will be told in four chapters. The eight albums included in the box will be wrapped in “secrecy sleeves” that can be unveiled at specific points in the journey. Though titles have not been revealed, VMP has announced…

Categories:

News

Formats:

Digital Streaming, Vinyl

Genres:

R&B/Soul

Tags:

Albert King, Booker T. and the MG's, David Porter, Eddie Floyd, Johnnie Taylor, Otis Redding, Sam and Dave, Steve Cropper, The Bar-Kays, William Bell

Review: “Stax ’68: A Memphis Story”

October 29, 2018 by Joe Marchese | 2 Comments

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…

Categories:

Reviews

Formats:

Box Sets, CD

Genres:

R&B/Soul

Tags:

Albert King, Carla Thomas, Eddie Floyd, Isaac Hayes, Otis Redding, Rufus Thomas, Sam and Dave, The Staple Singers, Various Artists, William Bell

A Long Walk: New Box Set Collects Stax’s 1968 Singles, Chronicling Tumultuous Year For The Label

September 5, 2018 by Randy Fairman | 4 Comments

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…

Categories:

News

Formats:

Box Sets, CD

Genres:

R&B/Soul

Tags:

Delaney and Bonnie, Eddie Floyd, Isaac Hayes, Johnnie Taylor, Otis Redding, The Staple Singers, Various Artists, William Bell

Holiday Gift Guide Review: “The Stax Vinyl 7s Box”

December 21, 2017 by Joe Marchese | No Comments

When it comes to Stax Records’ 60th anniversary celebration, why should CDs have all the fun? The vinyl release of The Stax Vinyl 7s Box from Concord and UMC (STX 00252) brings fourteen rare tracks from across the Stax family of labels to seven 45 RPM singles, all emblazoned with the familiar yellow, finger-snapping logo. Compiler Richard Searling’s raison d’etre is a simple one, as he sets forth in the liner notes: “I’ve selected the content based on my experience of featuring these songs in clubs, on the radio, or just being…

Categories:

Holiday Gift Guide, Reviews

Formats:

Box Sets, Vinyl

Genres:

R&B/Soul

Tags:

Barbara Lewis, Carla Thomas, Margie Joseph, Roz Ryan, Various Artists, William Bell

Release Round-Up: Week of May 19

May 19, 2017 by Joe Marchese | No Comments

Welcome to this week’s Release Round-Up! Jethro Tull, Songs from the Wood: 40th Anniversary Edition – The Country Set (Chrysalis/Parlophone) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon Canada / Amazon U.K.) Jethro Tull’s 1977 album returns in a new 3CD/2DVD book-style edition, packed with bonus material. Steven Wilson produced new stereo and 5.1 surround sound mixes heard in this set on CD and DVD, featuring not only the album but bonus tracks too. As per the norm for this series, there’s a flat transfer of the original stereo album master on DVD, as well as…

Categories:

Release Round-Up

Formats:

Box Sets, CD, DVD, Digital Download, Digital Streaming, Vinyl

Genres:

Classic Rock, Jazz, Pop, R&B/Soul, Rock, Soundtracks

Tags:

Blink-182, Chris Cornell, Chris Price, Helium, Isaac Hayes, Jethro Tull, Little Steven, Los Straitjackets, Nick Lowe, Peter Cetera, The Staple Singers, Wes Montgomery, William Bell, Wynton Kelly

A 60th Anniversary Celebration “Stax” Up in 2017

April 28, 2017 by Mike Duquette | 3 Comments

From deep within the heart of Memphis to your stereo, the rich legacy of Stax Records will be honored this year as two label partners join forces to commemorate the label’s 60th anniversary. Rolling Stone reported yesterday a massive campaign to celebrate Stax artists and albums across physical and digital formats. Notably, this initiative will be carried out by both owners of the Stax catalogue: Rhino/Warner Music Group, which controls much of the label’s Atlantic-distributed output from 1957 to 1968, and Concord Bicycle Music, handler of the Stax masters released from 1968…

Categories:

News

Formats:

Box Sets, CD, Vinyl

Genres:

R&B/Soul

Tags:

Albert King, Booker T. and the MG's, Carla Thomas, Isaac Hayes, Johnnie Taylor, Otis Redding, Sam & Dave, The Dramatics, The Staple Singers, William Bell

From Memphis To New Orleans: Ace Collects Stax, DeLuxe Rarities

February 25, 2016 by Joe Marchese | No Comments

Bring on the B-sides! Despite its title, the massive, indispensable box set The Complete Stax/Volt Singles 1964-1968 concentrated on A-sides, presenting only a fraction of the labels’ valuable flips. The box left many worthy B-sides overlooked in the CD era, but Ace Records’ Kent imprint has redressed that situation with the release of The Other Side of the Trax: Stax-Volt 45 RPM Rarities 1964-1968. All but one of the 24 tracks on this new compilation are all making their official CD debuts – which is even more unbelievable considering the caliber of…

Categories:

News, Reviews

Formats:

Genres:

R&B/Soul

Tags:

Carla Thomas, Dave Bartholomew, Isaac Hayes, Rufus Thomas, Various Artists, William Bell