Dio’s “Magica” Gets Deluxe Treatment in June

Dio’s Magica album, released in 2000, is getting the deluxe treatment from the late singer’s Niji Entertainment Group label. Long out-of-print and a favorite for fans, the album will be released in June as a double-disc set with rare studio extras and unreleased live tracks.

Magica was a long time coming for Dio’s core fan base, who’d seen him drift away from the more fantastical storytelling elements he’d become known for since his days in Ritchie Blackmore’s Rainbow. Albums like Strange Highways (1994) and Angry Machines (1996) dealt with much more straightforward lyrical material, hewing much closer to the newer generation of metal bands without much of an effect on the band’s commercial outlook.

The album marked a change in more than just lyrics; the band’s constantly changing lineup saw guitarist Craig Goldy, who’d played on 1987’s Dream Evil, come back into the fold. Goldy joined bassist Jimmy Bain (formerly of Rainbow), ex-AC/DC drummer Simon Wright (who played on Dio’s Lock Up the Wolves in 1990) and keyboardist Scott Warren for what many saw as a return to form for the metal singer. (Dio was, in fact, recording two follow-ups to this album when he died of stomach cancer in 2010.)

This deluxe edition, newly remastered by original engineer Wyn Davis, pairs the album up with a bonus disc including a spoken-word narration by Ronnie James Dio (appended to the end of the original pressing), two studio bonus tracks (one from a Japanese pressing and one from the Magica II & III sessions, which was later released on The Very Beast of Dio Vol. 2) and six “official bootleg” live tracks. The set will be released on June 25; no order information has sprung up yet, but it will be provided as it comes in. In the meantime, hit the jump for the full track list.

Come Aboard, He’s Expecting You: Vintage Jack Jones Albums Arrive From Zone Records

For eight seasons beginning in 1977, the voice of Jack Jones came into households singing the praises of The Love Boat via Paul Williams and Charles Fox’s famous theme song.  Yet long before The Love Boat, the smooth-voiced singer had established himself as a premier vocalist comfortable with both jazz and changing pop styles.  To date, Jones has recorded over fifty albums, yet many of his finest album achievements still remain unreleased on CD.  Zone Records is rectifying that with the reissue of four of Jones’ mid-sixties Kapp albums on two CDs, due in the U.K. on April 15.  Lady (1967) is joined by Jack Jones Sings (1966) on one CD, while the second pairs Our Song (1968) with For the “In” Crowd (1966).

Born to actors Allan Jones (the tenor best known for operetta classic “The Donkey Serenade”) and Irene Hervey, Jack Jones made his first big splash in 1959 when he was signed to Capitol Records and recorded debut album This Love of Mine.  (It was recently reissued, with added singles, by U.K. label Jasmine as This Could Be the Start of Something.)  The affiliation with Capitol was short-lived, however, and Jones soon decamped for the Kapp label.  He would remain there from 1961 to 1967, recording roughly twenty albums.  It was at Kapp that Jones scored his first hit with “Lollipops and Roses” in 1962 (No. 66 Pop/No. 12 AC); the next year, he did even better with Burt Bacharach and Hal David’s swinging “Wives and Lovers” (No. 14 Pop/No. 9 AC).  Jones was a regular on both charts for almost the entirety of his Kapp tenure, scoring No. 1 AC hits with “The Race is On,” “The Impossible Dream (The Quest),” and “Lady,” the title track of one of the albums being reissued by Zone.  (Four earlier Kapp albums have recently been reissued by Sepia Records: 1961 debut This Was My Love and its follow-up Shall We Dance, as well as I’ve Got a Lot of Livin’ to Do and Gift of Love, both from 1962.  Like the Jasmine release, Sepia’s reissues were possible due to European public domain laws.  Zone’s titles are fully authorized.)

We check out both new releases after the jump!

Still Beating: Huey Lewis and The News Mark 30 Years of “Sports” with Expanded Set (UPDATED)

UPDATE (4/16/2013): Amazon’s track list has further elaborated on the live bonus disc, and those who were less than thrilled with the contents may be even less so: only one recording is sourced from the Workin’ for a Livin’ Tour of 1983-1985. Most come from shows recorded from 1986 to 1989, and the album’s last two tracks, “You Crack Me Up” and “Honky Tonk Blues,” are represented as “newly recorded” versions on the bonus disc.

We’ll still be following this title closely, should anything change.

ORIGINAL POST (3/27/2013): Whatever your city (or country!), it truly is still that same old backbeat rhythm that really really drives ’em wild. And we’ve got a popular album reissue coming our way in May with the forthcoming expansion of Huey Lewis & The News’ iconic Sports in honor of its 30th anniversary.

Huey Lewis & The News, comprised partially of one harmonica-playing frontman who’d toured with Thin Lizzy and a group of pub-rockers who’d backed Elvis Costello on his debut album, were the ’80s “bar band made good” to a tee. The Bay Area-based sextet had two modestly successful albums under their belt on Chrysalis Records in 1980 and 1982, the latter of which included Top 10 hit “Do You Believe in Love.”

But Sports was classic, definitive News that appealed to MTV-hungry kids and slick young adults yearning for good times. The LP was self-produced and, barring a few crucial tracks (the Chapman-Chinn-penned “Heart and Soul,” underrated Top 20 hit “Walking on a Thin Line”), self-written. Lewis, guitarist Chris Hayes, bassist Mario Cipollina, drummer Bill Gibson, keyboardist Sean Hopper and saxophonist Johnny Colla were in fine form on the seven-times-platinum album, particularly its four Top 10 hits, “Heart and Soul,” “I Want a New Drug,” “The Heart of Rock & Roll” and “If This is It.”

Bolstered by catchy videos, a hot live act and a crucial extracurricular appearance in 1985 on the soundtrack to Back to the Future, the world was ready to play Sports and catapult Huey Lewis & The News to the ranks of one of the planet’s biggest bands. Three decades, later, the News (minus Cipollina and Hayes) still tours, and will play across America this summer to commemorate three decades of the album that made them stars.

On May 14, Sports will be remastered and expanded by Capitol/UMe as a double-disc set featuring a new booklet with archival photos and new liner notes by journalist Gary Graff. While a 1999 expanded edition appended live cuts and session takes to the original LP, this two-disc set will feature a bonus live disc from the Sports tour featuring all songs from the original album. The press release touts “many” of the tracks as unreleased, leading one to assume the show is sourced from the band’s famous 1985 set at San Francisco’s Kabuki Theater. (Released on VHS at the height of the band’s success, one live cut – “Trouble in Paradise,” off the band’s first album – made it to the original We Are the World album while two others were included on the 1999 reissue.) (Of course, this didn’t actually happen. If only. -MD)

After the jump, preview the track list and order your copy from Amazon.

Release Round-Up: Week of April 16

Shuggie Otis, Inspiration Information/Wings of Love (Epic/Legacy)

Nearly 40 years after Inspiration Information, Shuggie Otis’ second and most recent LP, the R&B singer/songwriter/guitarist returns with a greatly expanded double-disc edition of that album featuring material recorded in the intervening years. (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.)

David Bowie, Aladdin Sane: 40th Anniversary Remaster (EMI)

Ziggy goes back to America in this newly-remastered straight reissue of the 1973 classic. (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.)

Blind Melon, Blind Melon: 20th Anniversary Edition (Capitol/UMe)

The alt-rock album that gave us “No Rain” is remastered and expanded with several unreleased studio tracks. (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.)

John Coltrane, Sun Ship: The Complete Session (Verve Select)

One of ‘Trane’s last quartet recordings, released posthumously, is expanded as a two-disc set that covers every last second of the session that birthed the album. (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.)

Frankie Valli, Hits (Rhino Flashback)

A budget reissue of Valli’s solo hits compilation from 1978. (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.)

Dust, Hard Attack/Dust (Kama Sutra/Buddah/Legacy)

A newly-remastered single CD collecting both albums by the proto-heavy metal band (featuring a young Marc Bell, who ended the 1970s as Marky Ramone). (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.)

Jack Jones, Our Song/For the “In” Crowd and Lady/Jack Jones Sings (Zone)

Four Kapp Records albums between 1966 and 1968 on two CDs from the crooner who welcomed us aboard The Love Boat later in his career!