Simon’s Legacy Showing in April

A quick heads-up thanks to our friends at Pause & Play: Columbia/Legacy has set April 12 as a release date for the first batch of Paul Simon reissues.

Simon’s catalogue, it was announced last year, will return to Columbia after Simon left them for Warner Bros. in the 1970s. Simon’s newest LP, So Beautiful or So What, is due out on Concord the same day, while a deluxe edition of Simon & Garfunkel’s Bridge Over Troubled Water is out in March, also from Columbia/Legacy.

The reissues will be drawn from the same remasters as Rhino’s 2004 catalogue overhaul but will feature new bonus tracks. As for the titles in the first batch? It’s Paul Simon (1972), There Goes Rhymin’ Simon (1973), Paul Simon in Concert: Live Rhymin’ (1974), Still Crazy After All These Years (1975) and Graceland (1986).

Stay tuned for more info, which must surely be coming soon.

La-La Land Goes Straight as an “Arrow” on New Soundtrack Batch

La-La Land’s got two soundtracks ready to order today, including their first-ever expansion of a score by Hans Zimmer.

The German composer is one of a remaining few “household name” composers to even the least knowledgeable of film scores thanks to titles like the Oscar-winning The Lion King, Gladiator, Rain Man, Gladiator, the Pirates of the Caribbean series and Inception. But only last year was he treated to an expanded reissue – Perseverance’s new Rain Man CD – and it was criticized for less than stellar sound quality.

The LLL team, including score production and preservation luminaries Nick Redman, Mike Matessino and Daniel Hersch, brings another Zimmer classic back to audiences: his score to the 1996 action flick Broken Arrow, starring John Travolta and Christian Slater. Featuring guitar work by Duane Eddy, the score is restored to its original film presentation over two discs, including three album-only suites as bonus tracks.

The label’s other release today is the score to Yesterday Was a Lie, a recent neo-noir film scored by composer Kristopher Carter (composer for animated television shows including Ben 10 and Batman: The Brave and the Bold).

Broken Arrow is limited to 3,000 copies and Yesterday Was a Lie is limited to 1,000. They can be ordered through the label’s Web site as always (independent order links were not live as of post time.) Full track info for both can be found after the jump.

Reissue Theory: Madonna, “Like a Prayer”

By now, you’ve likely heard the 1,000th No. 1 hit on the Billboard Hot 100 – Lady Gaga’s new single “Born This Way.” The dance anthem has come under a bit of fire for critics thanks to its striking similarity to another dance-pop icon’s hit, Madonna’s “Express Yourself.”

The Madonna-Gaga comparisons have been wildly obvious from the start – Italian-American, dyed blonde singers with decent if not fantastic voices, a flair for the visual and a desire to control every aspect of their iconography – but it’s the same damn chord progression on both tunes. If there is a bright side to the situation, though, it’s that listeners might be tempted to revisit “Express Yourself” and the landmark pop album it came from, Like a Prayer (1989) – which has never been remastered on compact disc.

You know what this means, of course – a Reissue Theory look at Madonna’s most ambitious album, and arguably her most satisfying. It’s all after the jump.

Release Round-Up: Week of February 15

Smokey Robinson, The Solo Albums Volume 4 (Motown/Hip-o Select)

The Motown great’s next two vintage studio albums (Love Breeze and Where There’s Smoke) go back into print on one CD with a bonus B-side instrumental added on. (Hip-o Select)

Teena Marie, ICON (Motown/UMe)

The late, great Motown singer is canonized in Universal’s budget compilation series. (Amazon)

Phil Collins, No Jacket Required (Audio Fidelity)

The Genesis frontman/drummer’s biggest and best pop LP gets the 24K gold CD treatment, mastered by Steve Hoffman. (Audio Fidelity)

Jackie DeShannon, Come and Get Me: The Complete Liberty and Imperial Singles, Volume 2 (Ace)

The second volume of Ace’s DeShannon singles series covers “What the World Needs Now is Love” and beyond. (Ace)

Doris Troy, I’ll Do Anything: The Doris Troy Anthology 1960-1996 (Kent)

There’s more to Troy than “Just One Look” and her Apple album, as this compilation deftly shows off. (Ace)

Al Jarreau, L is for Lover: Deluxe Edition (Friday Music)

Jarreau’s 1986 LP, produced by Nile Rodgers, is reissued on CD with three bonus single mixes, including the hit “Moonlighting.” (Friday Music)

Grand Funk Railroad, We’re An American Band / REO Speedwagon, High Infidelity (Friday Music)

Two bands, two hit albums, two 180-gram vinyl reissues! (Friday Music – GFR, REO)

Hollies “Lost Recordings” Box Coming from Sundazed

The Hollies have long existed in the shadow of Graham Nash’s other band – you know, the one with two or three other initials. But the lineup of Nash, Allan Clarke, Tony Hicks and Bobby Elliot plus Eric Haydock or Bernie Calvert could be equally potent. And lately, The Hollies have been recipients of a lot of well-deserved love. First came last year’s induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and then Sundazed kicked off a vinyl campaign reissuing two of the band’s hardest-to-find American LPs on the Imperial label. Just last week BGO released two more Imperial titles on one CD, and now Sundazed has announced an exciting new project: The Hollies – Lost Recordings and Beat Rarities!

This vinyl-only box set will collect 20 Hollies tracks across ten 7-inch vinyl singles, each with period-style label and individual picture sleeve. While the full track listing hasn’t been announced yet, Sundazed has revealed on its Facebook page that the tracks will “range from hard-to-find U.S. and British singles and EPs to songs previously unissued on vinyl.” Among these treasures are “(Ain’t That) Just Like Me” b/w “Hey What’s Wrong With Me,” the band’s first single released in May 1963, and uptempo, buoyant rockers like “Come on Back,” “What Kind of Love” and “She Said Yeah.” “Yes I Will,” a direct-from-the-Brill-Building ballad by Gerry Goffin and Russ Titelman will be presented, along with the sinuous “Honey and Wine,” written by Goffin and his usual collaborator, Carole King. “All the World is Love” is a psychedelic Clarke/Hicks/Nash original which was introduced as the B-side to “On a Carousel” on its February 1967 U.K. release.  Sundazed also promises “an impossible-to-find, spy-style double-sider the Hollies did for a 1967 Italian movie” (this single would appear to be “Kill Me Quick” b/w “We’re Alive,” both songs penned by Clarke, Hicks and Nash for the film Fai in Fretta ad Uccidermi…Ho Freddo!, known in English as Kill Me Quick…I’m Cold!) as well as unreleased tracks cut while on tour in New York City in 1965. (An April 27, 1965 trip to New York’s Bell Studios yielded three tracks, “Listen Here to Me,” “So Lonely” and “Bring Your Love Back to Me,” all of which sat on a shelf until 2003’s The Long Road Home box set.)  The Hollies’ cover of the Beatles’ “If I Needed Someone,” tracked at Abbey Road, also makes an appearance.

So, is a CD release in the cards?  Hit the jump for an answer, straight from the fine folks at Sundazed.