Ring Them Bells: Pink Floyd Celebrates 20 Years of “The Division Bell” with New Box Set

All has largely been quiet on the Pink Floyd front since the early 2012 release of the Immersion (mega-box) and Experience (trimmed-down but still deluxe) Edition sets for 1979’s The Wall.  The releases for The Wall concluded a campaign that also saw Discovery Edition (standard) remasters of all of the group’s albums and lavish sets for The Dark Side of the Moon and Wish You Were Here.  Today, the Floyd camp announced a new 20th anniversary box set for the band’s fourteenth and final studio album to date, 1994’s The Division Bell. Though there’s no mention of Immersion or Experience anywhere, the Division Bell box, due on July 1 from Parlophone, will feature an array of music and swag to make it a fitting companion to the previous Immersion boxes.

Originally released in the U.K. by the EMI label and in the U.S. by Columbia Records, The Division Bell was the second Pink Floyd studio album following the departure from the band of Roger Waters.  Though the musical auteur Waters was not involved, the album was very much in the vein of the classic-era Floyd concept albums.  This time, David Gilmour, Richard Wright and Nick Mason explored the importance of communication.  Gilmour co-produced the album with Bob Ezrin (The Wall, Alice Cooper, KISS) and had a hand in writing all but one track.  Wright co-wrote a number of the tracks with Gilmour, and one with Anthony Moore, and also provided his first lead vocal on a Pink Floyd album since The Dark Side of the Moon.  Other lyrics were provided by Gilmour’s wife Polly Samson and Nick Laird-Clowes; Ezrin co-wrote music for one song.  Michael Kamen contributed orchestral arrangements to the album.

The Division Bell reached a peak of No. 1 in both the U.K. and the U.S., where it has been certified three-times platinum.  Just two days after the album’s release, Pink Floyd launched a tour in support of it.  The Pulse live album (1995) documented this tour.  When the tour ended on October 29, 1994, it was Floyd’s final live performance until the 2005 Live 8 concerts which reunited the band with Roger Waters.

After the jump: what will you find on the new box set?  (Hint: you won’t find any marbles.)

That’s Amore: “Arrivederci Italy” Features Jerry Vale, Dean Martin, Rita Pavone, Nino Rota, Ennio Morricone

IN MEMORIAM: JERRY VALE (1930-2014) : While readying the following article for publication, we learned of the passing of Jerry Vale on May 18, 2014 at the age of 83.  Jerry was one of the last great gentlemen of song, and a mainstay of the Columbia Records roster for many years.  He notched 18 singles on the Hot 10o between 1953 and 1967, and 27 on the Adult Contemporary chart through 1971, including the AC chart-topper “Have You Looked Into Your Heart” in 1964.  Though best-known for his Italian-themed songs like “Innamorata” and “Al di là,” Vale weathered the changing trends in popular music and embraced contemporary material on LPs including This Guy’s in Love with You, Where’s the Playground Susie, Let It Be and We’ve Only Just Begun.  He was also a frequent visitor to Yankee Stadium as performer of the national anthem.  Martin Scorsese featured Vale in his films Casino and Goodfellas, and his presence added verisimilitude to those acclaimed pictures.  Jerry Vale will be remembered for his smooth croon, his effortless charm and his elegance of an era gone by.  Ciao, Genaro.  Riposi in pace.

Coffee giant Starbucks is saying Arrivederci, Italy with a new compilation disc that aims to “capture the abundant flavor and expressive bravado of Italia and some of its greatest performers.”   The repertoire, however, goes beyond the music one might hear at the local Italian restaurant with soundtrack cuts and Italian-language pop classics alongside more familiar fare by American bel canto practitioners like Dean Martin and Jerry Vale.

Alongside music, one of Italy’s greatest contributions to international popular culture is film, and Arrivederci Italy includes themes from Ennio Morricone and Nino Rota.  Morricone, the versatile 85-year old composer of more than 500 film and television scores in every genre imaginable, is perhaps best known stateside for his “spaghetti western” scores for Sergio Leone.  “Carillon (Watch Chimes – The Musical Pocket Watch)” has been included from the second film in Leone’s Man with No Name trilogy, 1965’s For a Few Dollars More.  The late Nino Rota, a favorite composer of Franco Zeffirelli, Francis Ford Coppola and Federico Fellini, is represented with cues from two of the legendary Fellini’s films.  “Amarcord” is the title theme from Fellini’s 1973 picture of the same name, and “La Bella Malinconica” (“The Beautiful Melancholy”) is derived from Rota’s score to 1960’s groundbreaking La Dolce Vita.  Sophia Loren, Italy’s most celebrated actress and sex symbol,  found time in between her film work to embark on a recording career.  Her 1957 chart-topper “Che m’è ’mparato a fa’,” less familiar to American listeners than her amusing duets with Peter Sellers, has been included here.

On the pop front, the compilation includes a neat bit of cross-cultural exchange with Italian singer Carla Boni’s 1956 rendition of “Mambo Italiano,” an Italian pastiche composed by American Bob Merrill (lyricist of Broadway’s Carnival and Funny Girl).  Teenage starlet Rita Pavone, subject of a recent reissue from Real Gone Music, topped the Italian charts for nine weeks in 1963 with “Cuore,” an Italian adaptation of Brill Building stalwarts Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil’s “Heart.”  Francesco Migliacci and Domenico Modugno’s “Volare” remains one of the most famous Italian popular songs.  The Italian entry to the 1958 Eurovision song contest, “Volare” hit big around the world, with Modugno’s own recording becoming a U.S. No. 1 in mid-1958 and winning the first ever Grammys for Record of the Year and Song of the Year.  Subsequent versions arrived from Bobby Rydell, Dean Martin, Al Martino, Sergio Franchi and others, but Arrivederci selects a more recent, lesser-known version from English tenor and crossover star Russell Watson.

After the jump, we have plenty more on this new release, including the complete track listing!