Soundtrack Round-Up: La-La Land’s Next Releases, “TRON” on Demand and More Elfman Box Goodies

Here’s some news from around the world of catalogue soundtrack releases, including developments on notable box sets and a surprise expansion from La-La Land Records.

The busy label has finally announced a release date of next Tuesday, April 12, for their biggest-sized title yet – an eight-disc box set of music from the Medal of Honor video game series. The long-running franchise, conceived by Steven Spielberg for the Sony PlayStation game console, has featured music by several composers, most notably Michael Giacchino (who would transition to an in-demand career in film scoring, including the Oscar-winning music to Up in 2009). The eight-disc set features music from nine of the games – the 1999 original, Underground (2000), Frontline (2002), Allied Assault (2002), Rising Sun (2003), Pacific Assault (2004), European Assault (2005), Airborne (2008) and the 2010 game with bonus material and new liner notes (including a foreword by Spielberg).

But that’s not all from the label: April 12 will see the release of two additional titles, including a compilation highlighting the scores of the DC Showcase (several Warner Bros.-produced animated shorts based around some of DC Comics’ second-tier characters) and – perhaps most surprising of all, a two-disc expansion of the score to the 1995 action/drama First Knight, composed by Jerry Goldsmith. The Medal of Honor box is limited to 2,000 copies, the DC Showcase is limited to 1,000 copies and First Knight will top out at 5,000 units. All order information and track details will be issued next Tuesday afternoon. (The first 100 orders of DC Showcase will have their sets autographed by the composers.)

Need a fix after listening to this week’s TRON: Legacy R3c0nf1gur3d remix album? Wendy Carlos’ original TRON soundtrack from 1982 is now available as part of Amazon’s Disc on Demand program. Given that original pressings of the 2002 expanded reissue (which this set replicates) were relatively expensive on the secondary market when TRON: Legacy hit theatres last Christmas, this could be a killer opportunity to snag this excellent soundtrack.

Had your fill of words on The Danny Elfman/Tim Burton 25th Anniversary Music Box? Fans are finally starting to get their boxes shipped to them, and one lesser-known surprise is the addition of some extra tracks on the USB drive that comes with the set. The drive features 192 kbps MP3 files of every track on the proper 16 discs in the set, all included on an iTunes-like program, eliminating the need to rip every disc to iTunes. The 21 tracks are mostly short outtakes, alternates and demos from 1993 to the present, and the complete list is after the jump.

Rhino Resurrects “L.A. Woman” This Fall

It was hard not to worry about Rhino for awhile. Since the new year kicked off, things have been eerily quiet from the venerable label and catalogue arm of Warner Music Group (currently prepping for a major reorganization). Outside of the largesse of the Europe ’72 box set from The Grateful Dead and a few soundtrack selections, all was quiet.

Now, one of Warner’s most enduring catalogue artists looks to be getting another reissue: hot off the presses, Rhino’s announced a 40th anniversary campaign for L.A. Woman, the final album released in 1971 by The Doors. The celebration kicks off with a special Record Store Day reissue of the album’s lead single, “Riders on the Storm,” on 7″ vinyl, backed by a mono mix released as a radio promo in 1971. That disc will be limited to 2,500 copies (and randomly distributed in one of several reproduced international picture sleeves), but the goods will come out on CD in the fall, as a two-disc deluxe edition of the album itself, to feature “a selection of rare and previously unreleased session outtakes and studio dialogue,” is planned.

Hit the jump to read the official press release, and check off another treasure to hunt for this Record Store Day!

“Trouper” to Get More Super on New ABBA Deluxe Set

The ABBA catalogue has seen plenty of expansions, compilations and catalogue activity (see this Back Tracks post for the proof) over the years, and we can now add one more to the list: Super Trouper, the band’s penultimate album, is being reissued yet again with a bonus DVD of unreleased goodies.

Super Trouper was the group’s penultimate album, a conscious attempt to distance the group from the increasingly-hated genre of disco. The more straightforward pop stylings were still as successful with audiences, though, and the album went to No. 1 in seven different countries (it peaked at No. 17 in America). The bouncy, danceable title track and the mournful, prescient break-up ballad “The Winner Takes It All” both soared to the top of the U.K. charts, but only the latter went Top 10 in the States. (The track topped Billboard‘s Adult Contemporary chart, while a maxi-single of “Lay All Your Love on Me”/”Super Trouper”/”On and On and On” topped the U.S. dance chart.)

In keeping with the recent formula of ABBA deluxe editions, the expanded Super Trouper features the original album with five bonus tracks mostly available from previous reissues (the sole new offering is the extended video version of “On and On and On,” presented for the first time in stereo), coupled with a DVD full of vault material. Live television performances, music videos and vintage commercials are all included, along with a long-unreleased vintage documentary (Words and Music) and a never-before-seen one, Somewhere in the Crowd There’s You, which focuses on the night the band, along with two local circuses, shot the album sleeve and footage for several of the music videos.

The set is due out in the U.K. on May 9 and two weeks later in the U.S. on May 24 (Amazon is reporting a May 17 release date). Hit the jump for the track list and all discographical information! (Thanks as always to MusicTAP for confirming the date.)

ABBA, Super Trouper: Deluxe Edition (Polydor/UMC, 2011)

Disc 1: Expanded original LP

1. Super Trouper
2. The Winner Takes It All
3. On and On and On
4. Andante, Andante
5. Me and I
6. Happy New Year
7. Our Last Summer
8. The Piper
9. Lay All Your Love on Me
10. The Way Old Friends Do
11. Elaine
12. On and On and On (Full-Length Stereo Version)
13. Put on Your White Sombrero
14. Andante, Andante (Spanish Version)
15. Felicidad (Spanish Version of “Happy New Year”)

Tracks 1-10 from original LP – Polar POLS 322 (Sweden)/Atlantic SD-16023 (U.S.), 1980
Track 11 was the B-side to “The Winner Takes It All” – Polar POS 1272, 1980
Track 12 previously unreleased
Track 13 first released on Thank You for the Music – Polydor 523 472-2, 1994
Tracks 14-15 from Spanish pressings of original LP – Carnaby TXS-3202, 1980

Disc 2: DVD

1. Show Express, ZDF TV performance (Germany – recorded 11/27/1980)
   The Winner Takes It All
   Super Trouper
   On and On and On
2. Happy New Year (SVT, Stockholm – recorded 11/27/1980)
3. Words and Music documentary (1981)
4. Somewhere in the Crowd There’s You – On Location with ABBA documentary (2011)
5. Super Trouper (remastered promo clip)
6. Happy New Year (remastered promo clip)
7. Super Trouper TV commercial I (U.K.)
8. Super Trouper TV commercial II (U.K.)
9. International Sleeve Gallery

Rosanne’s Record Shop: “The Essential Rosanne Cash” Coming from Legacy

It’s no small feat to become a success in the music business, but it may be an even greater accomplishment when your father is a legend. While the cachet of a famous last name may provide entrée into the industry, only a major, singular voice can maintain a long career. The number of such successes is small, but an undoubted member of the elite club is Rosanne Cash. Like Nancy Sinatra and Natalie Cole, Cash has defied the odds to become a living legend herself, and produced a body of work deservedly evaluated on its own merits, not just as music from the daughter of Johnny Cash. Legacy will celebrate her outstanding career on May 24 with the release of The Essential Rosanne Cash, a comprehensive two-CD anthology drawing on albums from Cash’s 1978 Ariola debut, a Germany-only release, through her most recent album for Manhattan/EMI, 2010’s The List.

The numbers speak for themselves when describing that 32-year period. The daughter of Johnny Cash and his first wife Vivian Liberto, Rosanne Cash charted twenty-two country singles under her own name while at Columbia Records between 1979 and 1995, seventeen of which appear on The Essential. All eleven of Cash’s chart toppers, including the triumvirate from 1981’s Seven Year Ache and her 1989 cover of The Beatles’ “I Don’t Want to Spoil the Party,” are compiled for the first time on one set. The Grammy Award-winning “I Don’t Know Why You Want Me” from 1985 is included, as well as the unprecedented four number ones in 1987 and 1988 from King’s Record Shop. The Essential also features duets with Vince Gill and Rodney Crowell, Cash’s husband from 1979 to 1992 and the producer or co-producer of her first five Columbia albums.

Disc One and the first half of Disc Two are largely devoted to those Columbia golden years, and the second half of Disc Two turns the spotlight on Cash’s most recent label affiliation with Capitol/Manhattan/EMI. Produced by Cash herself and Gregg Geller, The Essential Rosanne Cash takes us through her last, acclaimed release to date, The List, which drew its track selections from a list of 100 essential American standards given to Rosanne by her father. Bruce Springsteen appears on Paul Hampton and Hal David’s “Sea of Heartbreak” (best known from Don Gibson’s 1961 recording) and Nickel Creek’s Chris Thile joins Cash for a version of Mickey Newbury’s “Sweet Memories,” formerly available only on the Borders exclusive edition of The List. Johnny Cash himself appears on a duet track from 2002, “September When It Comes.”

Packed with 36 career-spanning songs and a striking cover photograph, The Essential Rosanne Cash arrives from Legacy on May 24. Rodney Crowell has contributed new liner notes for this release. Hit the jump for the complete track listing with a pre-order link plus discographical and chart information!

Short Takes: More News on Queen Reissues, Stax Expansions, Howard Jones Box Ships

• Queen’s official site issued a press release yesterday confirming a June 13 release date in the U.K. of the next batch of the band’s reissues. News of the World (1977), Jazz (1978), The Game (1980), Flash Gordon (1980) and Hot Space (1982) will comprise this batch. No bonus material has been announced (nor has a U.S. release date been set), but a Deep Cuts compilation will accompany the discs.
• We have our friends at Vintage Vinyl News to thank for this tip: Concord Records is releasing three expanded albums from the Stax catalogue! The albums, all remastered and expanded with as-yet-unconfirmed bonus material, are Booker T. & The MGs’ McLemore Avenue (1970), The Staple Sisters’ Be Altitude: Respect Yourself (1972) and Johnnie Taylor’s Taylored in Silk (1973).
• Howard Jones recently let fans know via Twitter and Facebook that his latest box set (The 12″ Album / Action Replay) has begun shipping after a short delay. (A comment from Howard’s team also confirmed remasters of One to One (1986) and Cross That Line (1989) in the pipeline. Has anyone got their box yet?