Release Round-Up: Week of October 14

Diana Ross, Why Do Fools Fall in Love / Silk Electric / Ross / Swept Away / Eaten Alive / Red Hot Rhythm and Blues (Expanded Editions) (Funky Town Grooves)

Why Do Fools Fall in Love: Expanded Edition (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.)
Silk Electric: Expanded Edition  (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.)
Ross: Expanded Edition  (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.)
Swept Away: Deluxe Edition  (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.)
Eaten Alive: Deluxe Edition  (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.)
Red Hot Rhythm and Blues: Deluxe Edition (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.)

Funky Town Grooves has remastered and expanded all six of Miss Ross’ RCA albums, first released between 1981 and 1987 during what turned out to be an extended hiatus from Motown.  These editions are loaded with rarities and remixes; see full details here!

Foreigner, The Complete Atlantic Studio Albums 1977-1991 (Atlantic/Rhino) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.)

Rhino boxes up 7 CDs from Foreigner, including five U.S. multi-platinum smash LPs and hits like “Waiting for a Girl Like You,” “Feels Like the First Time,” “Cold as Ice,” “Hot Blooded,”  and “I Want to Know What Love Is.”

The Kinks, The Essential Kinks (RCA/Arista/Legacy)  (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.)

Legacy kicks off its Kinks campaign (kampaign?) with this 48-song, 2-CD anthology featuring just about every Kinks hit except for the original studio recording of “Lola.”  (A live recording from 1979 takes its place.)  Every track has been newly (and splendidly) remastered by Vic Anesini, and the deluxe 28-page booklet include liner notes from David Bowie and critic Bob Mehr, plus appreciations from Iggy Pop, Howard Kaylan, Creed Bratton, Pete Townshend and many more!

Jaco Pastorius, Anthology: The Warner Bros. Years (Warner Bros./Rhino) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.)

Rhino has 2 CDs and 22 tracks from jazz bassist Jaco Pastorius (1951-1987) drawing on the albums Word of Mouth, Invitation and The Birthday Concert plus tracks on which Jaco joined Mike Stern and Airto Moreira and one previously unreleased bonus track, “Donna Lee,” from 1981.  Bill Milkowski, author of Jaco: The Extraordinary And Tragic Life Of Jaco Pastorius, provides new liner notes.

Ozzy Osbourne, Memoirs of a Madman (Legacy)

CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.

2-LP Vinyl: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.

DVD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.

This career spanning release features 17 of the Black Sabbath legend’s greatest hit singles compiled in one place for the first time in his career and will be available in a single CD, two-LP set and two-LP picture disc set configurations. The companion 2-DVD set includes classic music videos, plus previously unreleased and out-of-print live performances, and interviews from his solo career.

Sly Stone, I’m Just Like You: Sly’s Stone Flower 1969-1970 (Light in the Attic) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. )

During those creatively fertile days of the late 1960s, producer-arranger-composer Sly Stone couldn’t be confined to work with his band Sly and the Family Stone, so he formed the Stone Flower label and production company.  Stone Flower released a handful of tracks on its own label as well as on Scepter and Atlantic by the artists Little Sister, Joe Hicks, and 6ix; those are collected here along with ten previously unissued songs.  The sound on these tracks recalls the Family Stone’s groundbreaking There’s a Riot Goin’ On thanks to Sly’s use of the early Rhythm King drum machine/beat box.  Light in the Attic packages this fascinating and essential chapter of the Sly and the Family Stone story with a 52-page booklet including a new interview by Alec Palao with Stone himself.  Also available on vinyl.

Dean Martin, The Essential Dean Martin (Legacy) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. )

Legacy has 40 tracks on 2 CDs from the king of cool, Dean Martin.  Though this compilation concentrates on Dino’s Reprise years, five key Capitol cuts are included as well as one late-period single at Warner Bros. Records.  You’ll hear “Volare,” “That’s Amore,” “Sway,” “Everybody Loves Somebody,” “Memories Are Made of This,” “Houston,” “I Will” and many more on this set which has been remastered by Vic Anesini and annotated by James Ritz.

Meat Loaf, ICON (UMe) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.)

Universal’s budget-priced ICON series is back with a new entry for Meat Loaf.  This odd volume features six of the eleven tracks from 1993’s smash hit comeback Bat Out of Hell II: Back Into Hell and four songs from its follow-up, 1995’s Welcome to the Neighborhood.  “Hot Patootie (Bless My Soul)” from Rocky Horror rounds out the 11-song compilation.

White Christmas: Diamond Edition Blu-ray with CD (Paramount) (Amazon U.S.)

This new Blu-ray edition of the 1956 musical film has, among its bonus features, a 12-song CD featuring Crosby, Danny Kaye and Rosemary Clooney, with guest appearances by Ella Fitzgerald, Peggy Lee and Judy Garland. Eight of the songs on this exclusive bonus CD are previously unreleased.

Miles Davis, Bitches Brew (Hybrid SACD) (Mobile Fidelity) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.)

The great trumpeter’s revolutionary 1970 jazz-rock double album arrives on stereo hybrid SACD as part of Mobile Fidelity’s series of Davis reissues.

Madeleine Peyroux, Keep Me In Your Heart For A While: The Best Of Madeleine Peyroux (Rounder) (Amazon U.S.)

Here’s the very first compilation release in the singer-songwriter’s 18-year career, including tracks from the Rounder, Atlantic and Decca/Emarcy catalogues. Keep Me in Your Heart will include one previously unreleased song, the Warren Zevon title track which appeared in 2011’s independent film Union Square. Liner notes by former Atlantic Records A&R man Yves Beauvais, complete the package of the chanteuse’s greatest performances.  A 2-CD edition is also available from Amazon U.K. with 27 tracks vs. the domestic version’s 15.

Billy Strayhorn, Out of the Shadows (Storyville) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.)

This 7-CD/1-DVD box set from venerable label Storyville turns the spotlight on a man who preferred to remain in the shadow of his close friend, collaborator and benefactor, Duke Ellington.  62 of Strayhorn’s compositions are presented here, both with and without Duke’s company, featuring such personnel as Art Tatum, Tommy Flanagan, Johnny Hodges, Clark Terry and Ben Webster plus Strayhorn and Ellington.  Tracks were recorded between 1939 and 2007; see here for more details!

Swing Out Sister, The Essential Swing Out Sister (Salvo) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. )

This set has 17 tracks from the Manchester band formed in 1985 including their breakout hit “Breakout” and more originals and covers like “La La Means I Love You,” “Am I the Same Girl” and “The Windmills of Your Mind.”  This survey of the sophisti-pop duo’s career concludes with a previously unreleased “Big Band” version of “Forever Blue,” a track arranged in its original version by Jimmy Webb.

Bob Seger, Ride Out (Capitol) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. )

The Detroit rocker returns with his first studio album since 2006 and seventeenth overall.  It’s available in a variety of formats including deluxe edition CD, vinyl and a Target exclusive with two bonus tracks.

 

Jerry Goldsmith, Our Man Flint/In Like Flint: Original Motion Picture Scores (Intrada)

Intrada brings two of Jerry Goldsmith’s grooviest scores to CD for the very first time, remastered from the recently discovered original 20th Century Fox stereo album session masters! Differing from the Varese Sarabande release of soundtrack highlights from these spy capers, this single disc offers both classic original albums exactly as Goldsmith recorded them.  For more background, see Joe’s review of Our Man Flint at The Digital Bits!

Michel Legrand, Summer of ’42/The Picasso Summer: Original Motion Picture Scores (Intrada)

Here’s the world premiere expanded release of two “summer” Michel Legrand soundtracks including his Oscar-winning score for Summer Of ’42 (1971).  Legrand’s complete score runs just 17 minutes, so to fill the original Warner Bros. soundtrack album, 30 minutes of his score for the 1969 film The Picasso Summer was included.   Intrada premieres the entire 55-minute Picasso score on the second disc of this 2-CD set, while the original album assembly of his “Picasso Suite” also plays intact on CD 1, following Summer Of ’42.

Merry Christmas, Baby! “A Very Special Christmas” Reissued with New DVD at Target Stores

If you can get over the shock of a good amount of holiday CDs available on the shelves at Target, you’ll find a surprise new exclusive: a reissue of the classic 1987 compilation A Very Special Christmas with a brand new DVD about the long-running holiday benefit series.

Produced by acclaimed engineer-turned-label impresario Jimmy Iovine, A Very Special Christmas featured the brightest stars in pop music, from Springsteen to Madonna, recording new versions of classic carols (plus one modern classic, Run-D.M.C.’s “Christmas in Hollis”). Nearly all of its 15 tracks have become staples of holiday radio, and the original album has moved more than 4 million units in the United States. The best part? Proceeds from the sale of the album went to The Special Olympics, Eunice Kennedy Shriver’s worldwide organization allowing intellectually-disabled children and adults to compete in sporting events. (Over $100 million has been raised by the album series, now spanning across nine titles.)

With a new subtitle, The Story and The Music, appended to its iconic Keith Haring-designed album sleeve, this new version of A Very Special Christmas features a new 60-minute DVD of highlights from the series’ quarter century-plus history. It comes alongside the most common pressing of the original AVSC album – which substituted a live cover of “Back Door Santa” by Bon Jovi for the same band’s studio recording of a new ballad, “I Wish Every Day Could Be Like Christmas.” (You’ll hear more from us soon on the package, from mastering to bonus content, in a forthcoming review – albeit one closer to the holiday season!)

Head to your local Target to buy this new set now, or order it through the store’s website. Full product specs are after the jump!

Release Round-Up: Week of May 21

The Beach Boys, Live: The 50th Anniversary Tour (Capitol)

Brian, Mike, Al, Bruce and David may not be touring again anytime soon, but at least we now have two discs of live memories to play. (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.)

Townes Van Zandt, The Late Great Townes Van Zandt / High, Low and In Between (Omnivore)

You heard the demos, now rediscover these great country albums, on CD or vinyl!

Late Great CD (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.), LP (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.)
High, Low CD (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.), LP (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.)

Various Artists, FM: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack (Culture Factory USA)

The hit-filled soundtrack, featuring the Steely Dan single of the same name, is the latest to get the Culture Factory LP replica treatment. (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.)

Southside Johnny & The Asbury Jukes, Diana Ross, Donna Summer, Jeff Buckley, Chet Atkins et al., Playlist: The Very Best of (Legacy)

A dozen or so new entries in the Playlist series are coming your way this week. Watch this space tomorrow for a full breakdown on them all!

Release Round-Up: Week of November 21

Another Monday release date, ostensibly to get the jump on an abbreviated week with the Thanksgiving/Black Friday holiday! And it’s another big week, to be sure.

The Rolling Stones, Some Girls: Deluxe Edition (Rolling Stones/UMe)

Whether you think it’s the last truly great Stones album or not, it’s hard to deny that this is the biggest of the deluxe releases this week. (That super-deluxe edition, with a bonus DVD and vinyl, doesn’t disprove the notion, either.)

Bob Seger, Ultimate Hits: Rock and Roll Never Forgets (Capitol)

Seger’s Greatest Hits (1994) was the biggest selling catalogue album of the last decade. So it stands to reason that this two-disc set, boasting more than a few rare and unreleased classics, would do just as well, right?

Michael Jackson, Immortal (Epic)

Not only Michael’s greatest hits, but his best material, remixed and reimagined for the new Cirque du Soleil show. Shameless plug: a full review from me will be up, courtesy of our friends at Popblerd, later today. But I can tell you this – if you love Michael, and remember how much fun it was to lose yourself in Michael’s music, this one’s for you.

Rush, Sectors 1-3 (Mercury/UMe)

Three box sets of Rush’s entire discography for Mercury, from 1976 to 1987. Fifteen albums, five per box, with one of the albums in each box also included as a surround-sound DVD. (That part’s still kind of confusing to me, too.)

The Kinks, The Kinks in Mono (Sanctuary U.K.)

Ten discs of mono Kinks, includes their first seven albums and three discs of EP and single material. And I didn’t make a single Kinks “K” joke in there at all!

Lady Gaga, Born This Way: The Collection (Streamline/Kon Live/Interscope)

My pick for the best mainstream pop album of the year (although it’s quite further down the list of overall albums) is expanded with a new remix album and live DVD (also available separately, because Gaga is good to her little monsters like that).

The Grateful Dead, Dick’s Picks Vol. 34-36 (Real Gone)

More reissued gems from our new friends at Real Gone: the last three volumes of Dick’s Picks, originally released in 2005.

Warren Zevon, Bad Luck in Dancing School (Friday Music)

Long out of print, Zevon’s 1980 album is remastered and reissued on compact disc.

Styx, Pieces of Eight (Vinyl) (Friday Music)

All you renegades and blue collar men will love this vinyl reissue of the 1978 classic.

Ed Ames, Christmas with Ed Ames/Christmas is the Warmest Time of Year / David Rose, The David Rose Christmas Album (Real Gone)

Three adult contemporary classic holiday albums presented on two CDs.

Seger Takes Old (and New) Records Off the Shelf on New Hits Set

As if getting some of Bob Seger’s albums back on CD wasn’t exciting enough this year, a new double-disc compilation puts some of his greatest hits (and a few rarities) back on shelves, where they belong.

Ultimate Hits: Rock and Roll Never Forgets, boasts 26 tracks of Bob Seger on his own, with The Silver Bullet Band and – most exciting of all – with The Bob Seger System. The original mono single version of “Ramblin’ Gamblin’ Man” will feature on this set alongside classics like “Old Time Rock and Roll,” “Night Moves,” “Like a Rock,” “Still the Same” and “Shakedown.”

Additional rarities and new tracks include Seger and The Silver Bullet Band’s take on “Little Drummer Boy” from 1987’s A Very Special Christmas, a new cover of Little Richard’s “Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey” (subtitled “Going Back to Birmingham”) and an unreleased version of Tom Waits’ “Downtown Train,” recorded in 1989 but shelved to avoid competition with Rod Stewart’s hit version.

The 66-year-old rocker is still going strong, wrapping up a successful tour later this year and writing material for a new album in 2012. Until then, Ultimate Hits is out November 21, and the track list is after the jump.

UPDATED: Short Takes: “Some Girls” Super Deluxe Set Due In November, Seger Goes Digital…and Beatles in 5.1?

• Mick Jagger has been hitting the promotion trail to hype his upcoming SuperHeavy album (a group consisting of Jagger, Joss Stone, Damian Marley, Dave Stewart and A.R. Rahman) which is due in stores on September 20.  But the moonlighting Rolling Stones frontman let slip the news of a deluxe edition of the band’s 1978 classic Some Girls, in the style of last year’s revamp of 1972’s Exile on Main Street.  That news has since been made official.  (Thank you to the dynamite folks at MusicTAP for the heads-up!)  A remastered and expanded Some Girls will arrive in the U.K. on November 21 and most likely the following day in the United States.  Like Exile, it will be available in numerous formats, including a Super Deluxe box set and “standard” Deluxe Edition, as well as digitally.   Jagger told German television network ZDF that “I’ve just been in the studio finishing some outtakes from 1978 … They’re going to be released [on] a rerelease of Some Girls.  So these are going to be some 10 extra tracks from that time [that] were never released. Some of them had no vocals, so I had to do the vocals again. I did the same thing on Exile on Main Street.”  The expanded Some Girls reissue will follow the release of the concert film Some Girls Live in Texas 1978, previously announced to arrive on DVD and Blu-Ray on November 21, 2011, on DVD and Blu-ray.   Deluxe versions of the DVD and Blu-ray releases will include CDs, and the film will be shown for one night only in cinemas in October.  Stones fans, start counting those pennies!

• Tomorrow sees the arrival of the long-delayed Bob Seger reissues Live Bullet (1976) and Nine Tonight (1981), but these titles also mark the first Seger releases to be made available for digital download on both iTunes and Amazon.com.  Also making its iTunes debut is Early Seger Vol. 1, a collection of rare material circa the early 1970s.  Seger told USA Today that the rest of his catalogue “will come out in dribs and drabs,” and promised that he will use the digital realm to debut more vault music.  “There’s just so much of that stuff,” he told the newspaper. “I’d love people to finally hear it.”  On both the physical and digital editions, Live Bullet will feature a version of Albert King’s “I Feel Like Breaking Up Somebody’s House,” performed in 1976 by Seger and his Silver Bullet Band at the Pontiac Silverdome, as a bonus track. Nine Tonight will be expanded by a 1980 version of the song “Brave Strangers.”

Hit the jump for some Beatlenews!

Release Round-Up: Week of September 13

Jimi Hendrix, Winterland / Hendrix in the West / Blue Wild Angel: Live at the Isle of Wight Festival / The Dick Cavett Show (Experience Hendrix/Legacy)

Another wave of Hendrix catalogue titles from Legacy, all of a live nature. The Winterland set captures The Jimi Hendrix Experience’s legendary run at the venue of the same name over four discs (or one, if you’re into the whole brevity thing), while In the West provides an expanded, slightly alternate presentation of the posthumous live LP. The DVDs Blue Wild Angel and The Dick Cavett Show show Hendrix at his live prime, with some special features to boot. Look for reviews of all these sets – Joe’s take on the CDs and my look at the DVDs – very soon! (Official site)

The Beatles, 1 (Apple/EMI)

In case you weren’t one of the tens of millions of people who’ve picked up this compilation since 2000, it’s been remastered (from the 2009 remasters, naturally). (Official site)

Bob Seger and The Silver Bullet Band, Live Bullet / Nine Tonight (Capitol/EMI)

Two killer Seger live albums, remastered and expanded with one bonus track apiece. (Official site)

The Art of Noise, Who’s Afraid of The Art of Noise? (ZTT/Salvo)

The first full-length LP by the influential U.K. act is expanded with unreleased BBC sessions and a DVD of videos and other vault treasures. (Official site)

1991: The Year Punk Broke (Geffen/UMe)

A greatly-expanded presentation of this vintage documentary, spotlighting the rise of Nirvana, Sonic Youth and Dinosaur Jr., as seen on the road and in the trenches. (Official site)

Motown Gold on The Ed Sullivan Show / The Best of The Supremes on The Ed Sullivan Show / The Best of The Temptations on The Ed Sullivan Show (Hip-O/Sofa Entertainment)

The Sound of Young America and the Toast of the Town, combined on three handy DVD packages. (Official site)

Seger Reloads for September

Was it really that far back in April that we reported expanded, remastered editions of Bob Seger and The Silver Bullet Band’s live classics, ‘Live’ Bullet and Nine Tonight, for a May release? For whatever reason, those discs never turned up when they were supposed to (at least one big box retailer near Second Disc HQ has a lonely endcap space for the Bullet reissue!) – but fear not, friends! They’re on the way once again.

We can thank our friends at Ultimate Classic Rock for reporting that the remasters of both albums, each augmented with an exclusive, unreleased bonus track each, are coming to stores on September 13. Per a strange note from our earlier post, retailers now have the appropriate track list for ‘Live’ Bullet, with its classic opening cover of “Nutbush City Limits” intact.

Pre-order links from Amazon (who, strangely, still haven’t locked in the September release date) and the full track lists can be found after the jump!

Bob Seger Reissues His Live Albums with a Bullet

If you’re in the mood for that old time rock & roll, you just might be in luck!  Capitol and EMI have announced two remastered editions of classic live albums from Bob Seger and the Silver Bullet Band.  1976’s Live Bullet and 1981’s Nine Tonight are both due in stores on May 17.

Bob Seger catapulted to national stardom in 1976 with the LP Night Moves, after a string of regional hits in the Detroit area and throughout the Midwest.  Just before that commercial breakthrough, Seger and his Silver Bullet Band were captured in their live prime at Detroit’s Cobo Arena for the 2-LP set Live Bullet.  Seger had already recorded six albums for Capitol by this point without gaining a significant national audience.  Night Moves would change all that just a few months after the release of Live Bullet.  The new, single-disc edition of the album adds one bonus track, a live take on “I Feel Like Breaking Up Somebody’s Home.”  Bizarrely, the track listing supplied to retailers leaves off the album’s electric opening cut, a cover of Ike and Tina Turner’s “Nutbush City Limits.”  Seeing as how “Nutbush” received considerable airplay and is an integral part of the LP, it’s doubtful that the song has actually been excised from the reissue, but we’ll report back as soon as more details are confirmed.  Both “Nutbush” and the bonus track should handily fit on one disc.

1981’s Nine Tonight drew on 1980 concerts at both Cobo Arena and the Boston Garden, and featured a U.S. Top 5 hit, “Tryin’ to Live My Life Without You.”  Nine Tonight features live renditions of many of Seger’s most enduring classics including “Night Moves,” “Hollywood Nights,” “Old Time Rock & Roll” and “Against the Wind.”  Previous CD incarnations of Nine Tonight have included an edited version of album closer “Let it Rock,” Seger’s cover of the Chuck Berry song, shortening it from 10:36 to 6:18.  It’s likely that this reissue may contain the same edit, as it adds one bonus track, a live version of “Brave Stranger.”

Hit the jump for pre-order links and track listings, with discographical information, for both Seger live releases.  Live Bullet and Nine Tonight will be released by Capitol on May 17.