“You Came,” You Saw, You Conquered: Universal U.K. Gets “Close” to Kim Wilde Classic for Its 25th Anniversary

Universal’s U.K. arm will expand Kim Wilde’s Close (1988) for its 25th anniversary with a two-disc set full of rare and unreleased remixes on September 2.

Wilde’s sixth album was her biggest success to date, a U.K. Top 10 album with four huge hits to its name in “Hey Mister Heartache” and Top 10 singles “You Came,” “Never Trust a Stranger” and “Four Letter Word.” (The record was a Top 20 album in the U.S., though only “You Came” charted Stateside, landing at No. 41.) Close remains one of Wilde’s most beloved and fully-realized albums (an opinion shared by Wilde herself), and her popularity also earned her the opening slot on the European leg of Michael Jackson’s Bad World Tour – no small feats here.

The newly-expanded Close includes all the B-sides and remixes from all five singles released from the album, many of which have not been released on CD at all, or not since the original CD single releases. (This includes Shep Pettibone’s remix of “You Came” for U.S. singles, which was included in full on a European 12″ single.) In addition, an unreleased a capella and “bonus beats” version of “You Came” have been added to the bonus disc.

The full track list and pre-order links for this new reissue are after the jump.

Lookin’ for a Love: Bobby Womack’s Singles Compiled on New 2CD Set

Often unfairly slighted in the pantheon of great soul musicians in the 1970s, a new U.K. compilation gives Bobby Womack his due, anthologizing every one of his single sides from the first nine years of his solo career.

Womack and his brothers, Friendly, Curtis, Harry and Cecil, started from the small clubs of Cleveland before being discovered by Sam Cooke, who signed them to his SAR label. The classic “Lookin’ for a Love,” which he produced, earned them a spot on James Brown’s tour; a follow-up, “It’s All Over Now,” co-written by Bobby, was the first chart-topper for The Rolling Stones in their native England and a Top 40 hit in America.

He took on session work after leaving The Valentinos, playing on Aretha Franklin’s Atlantic albums and writing for Wilson Pickett. This string of successes led Minit Records to sign Womack, where he stayed until moving to Liberty and United Artists in the 1970s. While many of his sides were soulful covers of standards (“Fly Me to the Moon,” “I Left My Heart in San Francisco”) and contemporary pop-rock (“California Dreamin’,” “Everybody’s Talkin’,” “Sweet Caroline”), Womack would enjoy success with originals like “That’s the Way I Feel About ‘Cha,” “Harry Hippie,” “Across 110th Street” (from the iconic soul soundtrack album of the same name), “Nobody Wants You When You’re Down and Out” and even a remake of “Lookin’ for a Love.”

Womack’s career cooled in the years since, after the enormous success of “If You Think You’re Lonely Now” in 1981, but in true soul survivor fashion, the iconic singer-songwriter-guitarist came back in 2012 with The Bravest Man in the Universe, his first album of all-new material in nearly a decade, produced by Damon Albarn of Blur and Gorillaz fame.

Everything’s Gonna Be Alright: The American Singles 1967-1976, released on the Charly label, looks to be a nice introduction to an underrated force in R&B. This set is available now; pre-order links and the full track list are after the jump.

Wherever He Lays His Hat: Cherry Pop Collects Paul Young’s “Remixes and Rarities”

For Daryl Hall, “Every Time You Go Away” might have been “the one that got away.”  Hall recorded his song on Hall and Oates’ 1980 album Voices, where it languished as an album track in the shadow of hit singles “Kiss on My List,” “You Make My Dreams,” “How Does It Feel to Be Back,” and “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’.”  But you can’t keep a great blue-eyed soul ballad down.  In 1985, Hall’s composition became the centerpiece of British-born Paul Young’s sophomore album The Secret of Association, reaching No. 1 in the U.K., going Top 20 in America, and propelling the LP to double platinum status in the U.K. and Gold in America.  It’s also the track leading off Cherry Pop’s new 2-CD set dedicated to Remixes and Rarities of Young’s eighties output for Columbia Records.

The 24-track compendium restores a number of said Remixes and Rarities back to print, alongside tracks new to CD and previously available only in Japan.  This eclectic selection of tracks – original, extended 12-inch mixes, B-sides and live recordings – has been drawn from the multiple singles accompanying Young’s first four Columbia albums: No Parlez (1983), The Secret of Association (1984), Between Two Fires (1986) and Other Voices (1990).  In all, the two discs include over 2-1/2 hours of music representing one-stop-shopping for the kind of material usually reserved for bonus tracks.

Let’s take a look after the jump!  Plus: the full track listing and order links!