Gold Legion Prepping Vintage ’80s Titles

A pair of LPs from EMI’s 1980s catalogue is coming out on CD through the Gold Legion label.

The first up is Don’t Suppose, the solo debut album from Limahl in 1984. The uniquely coiffed, uniquely named singer (whose stage name was a rearranged version of his real surname, Hamill) had recently left (or had been asked to leave) the band Kajagoogoo (of “Too Shy” fame). Don’t Suppose was not a success in itself, but yielded two U.K. hits, “Only for Love” and the theme to the film The Never Ending Story (1984). U.S.-only dance mixes of those tracks are included as bonus cuts, and an expanded booklet will include liner notes and rare photos.

From that same year is Wotupski?!! from John “Jellybean” Benitez. Jellybean was one of the best-known remixers of the 1980s, owing to his early professional and personal partnership with Madonna. (She actually contributes vocals to “Sidewalk Talk,” a U.K. Top 20 hit from this album.) This disc is augmented with four remixes and an expanded booklet. (For some reason, Gold Legion’s site says the booklet will only be available directly through them.)

Pre-order each set here and here and hit the jump for track lists.

The Final Word: How Not to Do Box Sets, by Warner Bros.

Since our last post on The Tim Burton/Danny Elfman 25th Anniversary Music Box, a lot more dirt has been kicked up regarding the box, its limited availability and opinions thereof.

It turns out that the “limited edition” of the box is very much like The Complete Elvis Presley Masters. (The only difference between editions of the Elvis set is one run has numbers, the other does not.) The first 1,000 copies of the Burton/Elfman set, it was semi-confirmed before all copies sold out, would have a certificate of authenticity. The sets that were presumably to be wholesaled by Amazon and the like would simply lack an extra piece of paper. No big deal, right?

Wrong. Way wrong. Box producer Richard Kraft sent a message to the Film Score Monthly message boards the day all 1,000 copies sold out with a few notes:

• As a result of the workmanship behind putting the behemoth box together, Warner Bros. will not ship the box out around December 21, as was previously announced, but around the first week of February 2011.
• The limited first run will feature a bonus 17th disc (of as-yet-undetermined content) signed by Elfman.

Now what kind of label decides to announce extra music in a limited set – not some paper goods or needless swag that jacks up the price of the set, but extra music, the entire point of a box set in the first place – once the set has sold out?

The delay is bad enough: say you go to a restaurant with a reservation for a specific time, only to discover upon arrival that – oops! – they can’t accommodate you, and would you mind taking a different time instead? Whether you agree to a delay or not, you wonder why the restaurant couldn’t prepare for said delay better. That’s one major problem with the delay of the Burton/Elfman box. The Second Disc first reported on this set almost exactly five months ago, and an official track list and release date was up at the end of September. Given the excesses of the box – which you could probably fit a human head inside – couldn’t there have been some more foresight?

To change the release date so close to the intended release date is annoying (not entirely new for fans these days), but that’s only the injury. The insult is adding another disc to that first batch of copies after the fact, kind of a shifty, callow move by a label that should know better when it comes to box sets. How many people do you imagine are buying this