Fly Him to the Moon

Nobody’s denying the greatness of Rod Stewart’s early career, both with The Faces and on his own. But since 2002, the man can’t stop putting out MOR albums devoted to The Great American Songbook. And it’s inspired a host of copycats, from Barry Manilow to Phil Collins.

Not content with his five(!) Songbook LPs, J Records will release The Best of The Great American Songbook next year. It’s a no-frills collection of the highlights of all those albums and will probably sell a million copies to the surprise of both everyone and no one.

Curious folks: order it here and parse the track list after the jump.

John Barleycorn Must Be Expanded

Well, at least it will be expanded. Traffic’s John Barleycorn Must Die (1970) is coming out as a double-disc deluxe edition in February.

Originally intended as Steve Winwood’s first solo album after the dissolution of Blind Faith, John Barleycorn became a reunion project for Traffic and spawned several well-known songs including “Glad” and “Empty Pages.” It was also the highest-charting album of Traffic’s career in the U.S., hitting No. 5.

A previous reissue in the U.K. in 1999 added two studio tracks within the album order and added three live cuts from a show at the Fillmore East. Those live cuts were dropped for the U.S. reissue in 2001. This new set includes more from that run of concerts (which were recorded for a live album, ultimately scrapped for 1971’s Welcome to the Canteen), but does not include those studio bonus tracks. You apparently can’t win them all.

The set’s coming your way on February 7 (a U.K. release date); order it here and check the track list after the jump.

The Year in Reissues, Part II

You’re probably wondering where Part I of The Year in Reissues is. Happily, the fine folks at Popdose have put my ramblings about the best reissues, box sets and other catalogue sets on their Web site.

But there are plenty more good ones I wanted to shine the spotlight on after filing the story. So here’s are five other notable catalogue sets to remember from the past year. And do share your opinions in the comments below, as always!