Jason Takes Hollywood: “Friday the 13th” Box Available from La-La Land

It’s Friday the 13th, and there’s a chill in the air out in the east. Perfect timing, then, for La-La Land Records to unveil their much-anticipated Friday the 13th soundtracks box set!

The beloved soundtrack label is presenting, for the first time, all of Harry Manfredini’s music for the first six films in the long-running slasher series, remastered and restored from original source elements. Much of this material is being heard on disc for the first time, a definite treat for fans of the series. Featuring beautifully designed artwork inspired by the original poster key art for each film and an in-depth 40-page book of liner notes, this limited box – at 1,300 copies – is a frightfully good add for the discerning horror score fan.

Learn more after the jump!

Open Your Eyes: The Move’s “Live at the Fillmore 1969” Coming From Right Recordings

Can you hear the grass grow?  An oft-circulated set by Birmingham’s legendary Move is finally receiving an official release courtesy of Right Recordings! Live at the Fillmore 1969 chronicles the band’s stand at San Francisco’s legendary Fillmore Auditorium on October 16-19 of that year; The Move joined Joe Cocker and the Grease Band and Little Richard on the bill!  The new 2-CD set is being released thanks to the cooperation of Sue Wayne, the widow of late singer Carl Wayne, and arrives in the U.K. on February 13.

Although Fillmore 1969 has been previously available as a digital download, the 2-CD edition has additional content including a 10+-minute version of “I Can Hear the Grass Grow” as well as a near 11-minute recollection of the band’s 1969 U.S. tour by Bev Bevan, later of Electric Light Orchestra.  The tapes from The Move’s shows at the Fillmore West were saved by Carl Wayne over the years but deemed to be of less-than-sufficient quality for release.  According to Right Recordings’ press release, “Carl began restoring the tapes in 2003. Sadly Carl died in 2004 and was never able to complete the live album he believed would show how incredible The Move was as a live band. Now, with the full co-operation and permission of his wife – Sue Wayne – the tapes have been painstakingly restored, remastered and released in memory of The Move’s dynamic front man and lead singer.”

Naturally, Roy Wood’s Move originals figure prominently in the two sets heard here, but some well-selected covers are also present.  Disc One’s set beings with a heavy, super-charged take on Todd Rundgren’s “Open My Eyes,” originally performed by The Nazz.  Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil’s “Don’t Make My Baby Blue,” first recorded by Frankie “Jezebel” Laine, also gets a hard-rock makeover.  Still less likely is the band’s take on Tom Paxton’s folk standard “The Last Thing on My Mind.”  Of the Wood compositions in this set, “Cherry Blossom Clinic (Revisited)” injects classical sensibilities into the psych/prog arrangement, presaging Wood’s work with the early Electric Light Orchestra, and the band chose the shimmering “I Can Hear the Grass Grow” as the finale, with a thunderous Bevan drum solo.

Hit the jump to Move along to Disc 2, plus the full track listing!

The Right Profile: Early Rap Label Anthologized on New Double-Disc Set

Legacy Recordings has got a fantastic new compilation coming out later this month chronicling the rise of a most underrated rap label: Profile Records.

Profile was the brainchild of two young aspiring music moguls living in New York City at the tail end of the disco boom. Steve Plotnicki was a songwriter whose cult disco tune, “Love Insurance,” was recorded by Cory Robbins in 1979, for release on Robbins’ own Panorama label, a small imprint with ties to MCA Music Publishing. The duo aspired to create a label for the danceable music they so treasured, and with a $34,000 loan from their parents, did just that.

While success was hard to come by at first, the duo discovered they had an ear for the burgeoning rap scene taking the five boroughs by storm. Artists like the Disco Four, Dana Dane and the Fresh 3 MCs were early, minor successes for Profile Records, but things really started to pick up when the label signed a trio from Hollis, Queens named Run-D.M.C., whose cover of Aerosmith’s “Walk This Way” was a smash crossover hit and precursor to an explosion of hip-hop in the mainstream. Profile never existed in the epicenter of the trend, but they did make several major contributions, including signing Rob Base & DJ E-Z Rock, whose Lyn Collins-sampling “It Takes Two” was a stratospheric success.

With the label having long been sold to Arista, Legacy presents Giant Single: The Profile Records Rap Anthology, a double-disc set that collates 31 essential sides served as a time capsule of hip-hop, from its underground roots to its metamorphosis from mainstream to gangsta subgenres. Giant Single is out January 31 and can be previewed after the jump.

Gilbert O’Sullivan Goes “Back to Front” On Next Salvo Reissue

Would the real Gilbert O’Sullivan please stand up?  When peering at his sophomore album, Back to Front, potential purchasers back in 1972 didn’t see the same nostalgic figure of the previous year’s Himself.  Gone was the chap in his flat cap, pudding-basin haircut and jacket.  In his place was a tanned, rather more mainstream-looking fellow, shirt open and chest hair exposed.  But the opening “Intro” in which the singer implored listeners to sit back, relax and enjoy the album, was proof positive that the lovably eccentric O’Sullivan hadn’t changed that much despite his new fashions.  (Listeners would be rewarded with outros at the ends of both Side One and Side Two of the original vinyl!)

The Salvo label has remastered Back to Front as the second title in its ongoing O’Sullivan reissue program, due February 21.  The album (his first and only U.S. chart-topper, and also No. 1 in the U.K.) has been expanded with three bonus tracks, including the international smash “Alone Again (Naturally)” and the fan favorite U.K. single hit “Ooh Wakka Do Wakka Day.”  “Alone Again (Naturally)” O’Sullivan’s calling card, needs no introduction here, but if you’d like one anyway, we kindly direct you to our initial posting about Salvo’s acquisition of his catalogue.  “Alone” was added to the U.S. edition of O’Sullivan’s debut album Himself, but was a single-only release in the U.K., hence its inclusion as a bonus track here. 

Back to Front was a hot seller largely on the strength of its single “Clair,” which was kept only from pole position by Carly Simon and that mysterious man who probably thinks her song was about him.  “Clair” was written by O’Sullivan for the daughter of his then-manager Gordon Mills, an ode to a young girl from her Uncle Ray (or Raymond O’Sullivan, Gilbert’s real name).  O’Sullivan’s earnest delivery and the irresistible melody add up to a likable and lighthearted song from a rather less cynical time.  Almost as infectious as “Clair” is another track off Back to Front, the toe-tapping “Who Was It.”  It was also recorded by Norman “Hurricane” Smith prior to O’Sullivan’s own rendition, and was also covered by Andy Williams.

Hit the jump for more, including the track listing with discographical info, plus a pre-order link!