The Year In Reissues: The 2014 Gold Bonus Disc Awards

Welcome to The Second Disc’s Fifth Annual Gold Bonus Disc Awards!

As with every year’s awards, our goals are simple: to recognize as many of the year’s most essential reissues and catalogue titles as possible, and to celebrate as many of those labels, producers and artists who make these releases happen in an increasingly-challenging retail landscape.  The labels you’ll read about below have, by and large, bucked the trends to prove that there’s still a demand for physical catalogue music that you can purchase in brick-and-mortar stores.  And from our vantage point, there’s still great strength and health in our corner of the music industry.  By my estimate, The Second Disc covered roughly 500 compact disc releases in 2014 – and we have no reason to believe that number will decrease in the year ahead.  We dedicate The Gold Bonus Disc Awards to the creators of the music and releases we cover, to the dedicated retailers who continue to support catalogue titles, and most importantly, to you, our readers.  After all, your interest is ultimately what keeps great music of the past – this site’s raison d’etre – alive and well.

Which releases take home the gold this year? Hit the jump below to find out!

Spend the Night in Bangkok: “Chess” Reissued for 30th Anniversary

Tim Rice had been thinking about writing a musical about the Cold War for some time in the late 1970s.  Fascinated by the Soviet-U.S. chess rivalry of the time, the lyricist-librettist approached his longtime collaborator Andrew Lloyd Webber with the idea.  Lloyd Webber, however, was not available, as he was too busy developing a little show known as Cats.  A suggestion from a producer put Rice in touch with songwriters Benny Andersson and Bjorn Ulvaeus of ABBA.   Looking to pursue some projects outside of the group, Andersson and Ulvaeus met with Rice in 1981 and signed onto the project.  Over the course of the next couple of years, the group worked on the musical with Rice writing lyrics (with some contributions from Ulvaeus) and Andersson and Ulvaeus writing the music.  In order to raise money, it was decided to release a concept album first, a strategy that had worked for Rice previously with Jesus Christ Superstar and Evita.  Chess was released in 1984, and now to celebrate its 30^th anniversary, Universal U.K. is releasing Chess: The Original Recording – Remastered Deluxe Edition, a 2-CD/ 1-DVD set.

Chess tells the fictional Cold War-era story of Soviet chess grandmaster Anatoly and his American opponent Freddie.   While competing against each other, Anatoly becomes romantically involved with Freddie’s second and presumed lover, Florence.   This leads him to defect to the United States setting off political machinations and romantic entanglements (including Anatoly’s Soviet wife Svetlana) which come to a head around the concluding chess match.  Standout songs from the score include “Nobody’s Side,” “Anthem,” “Heaven Help My Heart,” “Pity the Child,” “I Know Him So Well” and “One Night in Bangkok.”

The original concept album was released in the fall of 1984.  Murray Head played Freddie and Tommy Korberg portrayed Anatoly (although they were just referred to as “The American” and “The Russian” on the album).  Florence was played by Elaine Page and Svetlana by Barbara Dickson.   The LP release featured lyrics and a basic description of the plot.  It received favorable critical notices and reached No. 47 on the Billboard 200 in US but fared even better in the U.K., climbing into the Top 10.  A couple of singles were released including “One Night in Bangkok” sung by Murray Head.  It peaked at No. 12 in the U.K. but impressively hit No. 3 on the U.S. Hot 100.  Having greater success in the U.K. was the duet between Paige and Dickson, “I Know Him So Well.”  The soaring power ballad topped the British chart for four weeks and remains the best-selling single by a female duo ever in the country.   The song was later covered by artists like Whitney Houston with mom Cissy, and a solo Barbra Streisand.

With the album’s success, Chess was brought to London’s West End and premiered in May of 1986.  The plot was expanded and several new songs and characters were added from the original album.  Michael Bennett, the theatrical genius behind such shows as A Chorus Line and Dreamgirls, was brought on to direct.  Unfortunately, he became ill while working on the show and had to pull out before tragically dying from an AIDS-related illness in 1987 at the age of 44.  Trevor Nunn, who had directed the massive musical hits Cats and Les Miserables, came onboard as Bennett’s replacement.  Nunn married his more realistic style to some conceptual elements which had already been planned for the Bennett version.  Head, Paige and Korberg all reprised their roles from the concept album but Dickson was unavailable and was replaced by Siobhan McCarthy.  The musical opened to generally mixed to favorable reviews and ran for three years.  It did not have a new original cast album recorded.

There’s more on the history of Chess, plus details on this new deluxe reissue, after the jump!

Release Round-Up: Week of December 2

B.J. Thomas, Home Where I Belong/Happy Man (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.)
B.J. Thomas, You Gave Me Love/Miracle (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.)
Linda Jones, The Complete Atco-Loma-Warner Bros. Recordings (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. )
The Five Stairsteps, Our Family Portrait/Stairsteps (Expanded Twofer Edition) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. )
The Unforgiven, The Unforgiven (Expanded Edition) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. )
Cowboy, 5’ll Getcha Ten (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.)
Grateful Dead, Dick’s Picks Vol. 14—Boston Music Hall 11/30/73 & 12/2/73 (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.)
Theodore Bikel, Theodore Bikel’s Treasury of Yiddish Folk & Theatre Songs (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.)

Real Gone Music kicks off December with a packed slate including soul rarities from The Five Stairsteps and Linda Jones, roots-rock from The Unforgiven, classic rock from Cowboy (featuring Duane Allman!) and Grateful Dead, timeless folk from Theodore Bikel, and four albums on two CDs from B.J. Thomas!  Home Where I Belong/Happy Man and You Gave Me Love/Miracle shed light on the multiple Grammy winner’s contemporary Christian period, and both titles feature bonus tracks and new liner notes from The Second Disc’s own Joe Marchese based on a new interview with B.J. himself!

Leonard Cohen, Live In Dublin (Columbia/Legacy, 2014)

3-CD/DVD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.
3-CD/BD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.
3-CD: Amazon U.K.

The Canadian troubadour’s epic, three-hour career retrospective concert of September 12, 2013 concert in Ireland is preserved on a variety of releases!

Willie Nelson and Sister Bobbie Nelson, December Day: Willie’s Stash Vol. 1 (Legacy) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.)

Legacy kicks off a new archival series dedicated to the legendary Willie Nelson with a selection of homemade recordings by Willie and his beloved Sister Bobbie, featuring other Family Band members including Mickey Raphael and the late Bee Spears.

Pixies, Doolittle 25: B-Sides, Peel Sessions And Demos (4AD) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.)

1989’s Doolittle – the second album from Pixies – has been expanded as a 3-CD version with 50 tracks: the original album, 2 full Peel Sessions, 6 B-sides and 22 demos – of which, almost half have never been commercially released before.

Todd Rundgren, Todd Rundgren at the BBC: 1972-1982 (Esoteric) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.)

This new 3-CD/1-DVD set captures Todd Rundgren’s live performances for the BBC during the first decade of his mighty career in one compact clamshell case.  This set promises to include all of the surviving footage of Todd at the BBC – on both radio and television – during this period, and the DVD is happily region-free.

Donna Summer, The CD Collection (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.)

The Vinyl Collection: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.

The late, beloved dance diva’s underrated Geffen and Atlantic period is re-evaluated in a new box set containing remastered and expanded editions of Summer’s albums on CD, and remastered original album sequences on vinyl.  Each title is also available individually.  See here for links to individual titles, full track listings and more!

Three Dog Night, Suitable for Framing: Expanded Edition (Iconoclassic) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.)

Iconoclassic continues its series of Three Dog Night reissues with the band’s second album featuring “Celebrate,” “Easy to Be Hard” and “Eli’s Coming” plus Elton John and Bernie Taupin’s “Lady Samantha.”  This remastered edition boasts new liner notes and single mixes of “Eli’s Coming” and “Celebrate.”

Dionne Warwick, How Many Times Can We Say Goodbye (FTG) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.) / No Night So Long: Expanded Edition (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.)

Funky Town Grooves kicks off its vault-clearing series of expanded reissues from Miss Warwick’s 1980s catalogue with these albums from 1983 and 1980, respectively.  See full details and track listings here.

Goldebriars, Walkin’ Down the Line: The Best of the Goldebriars (Now Sounds) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.)

Now Sounds revisits the 1960s folk group The Goldebriars – featuring the young Curt Boettcher – on this new anthology featuring previously unreleased tracks and new liner notes from Dawn Eden.  Watch this space for a full rundown soon.

Chess: The Original Recording – Remastered Deluxe Edition (Universal U.K.) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. )

The original 1984 concept album of the musical by Tim Rice (Jesus Christ Superstar, The Lion King) and ABBA masterminds Benny Andersson and Bjorn Ulvaeus is revisited on a new 2-CD/1-DVD edition.  Chess stars Elaine Paige, Barbara Dickson, Murray Head, Tommy Korberg and Denis Quilley.  Three previously unreleased bonus audio tracks (“Press Conference,” “Mountain Duet (Der Kleine Franz)” and “Anthem (Instrumental)”) have been added as well as a (reportedly region-free) DVD with five music videos and a 1984 Swedish documentary.

Leonard Bernstein, On the Waterfront: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack (Intrada)

It’s hard to believe, but Leonard Bernstein’s score to Elia Kazan’s 1954 masterwork On the Waterfront has never been released in any audio format…until now!  Intrada has the world premiere release of the sole original film score by the great Bernstein plus four bonus tracks!  And for those who missed out, the label’s 2010 CD issue of John Williams’ score for SpaceCamp is also back in print!

The Moody Blues, The Polydor Years 1986-1992 (Polydor) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.)

An overlooked period of The Moodies’ long career is celebrated on this 6-CD/2-DVD/1-vinyl single set which includes previously unreleased music and a new hardbound book of liner notes and more.

Various Artists, Hang on Sloopy: The Bert Berns Story Volume 3 (Ace) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.)

Ace Records takes another little piece of our hearts with this third volume of songs penned by the great Bert Berns such as “Twist and Shout” and “Hang On Sloopy.”  Performers on this volume include Van Morrison, The Isley Brothers, The Drifters, Wilson Pickett and Lulu!

Release Round-Up: Week of November 10

 

The Monkees, The Monkees: Super Deluxe Edition (Rhino Handmade) (Exclusively available directly from label)

It’s Monkeemania all over again: Davy, Micky, Peter and Michael are back with a 3-CD expansion of their debut album featuring 100 tracks – 45 of which are previously unreleased!

ABBA, Gracias Por La Musica: Deluxe Edition (Polar/Universal) (Amazon U.S. Link TBD / Amazon U.K.)

ABBA is saying “Thank You for the Music” – in Spanish!  The band’s Spanish-language 1980 album Gracias Por La Música is going deluxe with 5 bonus tracks, plus a 40-minute DVD featuring vintage promo clips and previously unreleased television material.

The Kinks, Muswell Hillbillies: Legacy Edition (Legacy) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.)

Legacy has a new edition of 1971’s Muswell Hillbillies on tap as part of its new Kinks kampaign.  It retains eight of the thirteen bonus tracks on the 2013 U.K. Deluxe Edition, dropping three BBC radio performances from The John Peel Show (“Acute Schizophrenia Paranoia Blues,” “Holiday” and “Skin and Bone”) and the 1976 remixes of “Muswell Hillbilly” and “20th Century Man.” It then adds a separate DVD with thirteen previously-unreleased performances: two songs from a January 1972 broadcast of The Old Grey Whistle Test and eleven from BBC’s Live at the Rainbow program from July 1972.

Pink Floyd, The Endless River (Columbia)

CD/Blu-ray: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.

CD/DVD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. 

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

In early 1993, David Gilmour, Nick Mason and Richard Wright created more than one hundred pieces of music by jamming together and recording the results.  The trio then honed the pieces at Gilmour’s studio, played them live for 2 days at Olympic Studios in Barnes with additional players (Guy Pratt on bass, Jon Carin on keyboards and Gary Wallis on percussion), returned to Astoria, and worked further with co-producer Bob Ezrin.  The resulting LP, after lyrics and vocals were added, was The Division Bell.  Rumors abounded of a separate ambient album created from the remaining ethereal instrumentals, but nothing came of it until now.  Gilmour and Mason re-entered the studio earlier this year and added further instrumentation to the tracks they originally created with the late Richard Wright.  Pink Floyd describes The Endless River as 60% new, with the other 40% drawn from those original 1993 recordings.  Gilmour describes the record as follows: “The Endless River has as its starting point the music that came from the 1993 Division Bell sessions. We listened to over 20 hours of the three of us playing together and selected the music we wanted to work on for the new album. Over the last year we’ve added new parts, re-recorded others and generally harnessed studio technology to make a 21st century Pink Floyd album. With Rick gone, and with him the chance of ever doing it again, it feels right that these revisited and reworked tracks should be made available as part of our repertoire.”

Rush, R40 (Concord/Rounder)

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

BD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.

This 10-DVD or 6-BD box set tells the story of Rush through live performance material recorded over the years,with an emphasis on the period of 2003-2013.

Whitney Houston, Live (Arista/Legacy)

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

Clive Davis has overseen this first official live release for the late, great Whitney Houston, which includes some of the diva’s most beloved onstage performances recorded between 1983 and 2009.

Queen, Queen Forever (Hollywood)

CD: Amazon U.K.
2CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.

This new anthology features three previously unissued recordings (including “There Must Be More to Life Than This” with Michael Jackson) and other off-the-beaten path selections.

Roger Taylor, The Lot (Omnivore)

The Queen drummer’s own solo career is captured in this lavish 13-disc complete box set.

Blood Sweat and Tears, Child is Father to the Man – 5.1 Surround SACD (Audio Fidelity) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. Link TBD)

Al Kooper’s long-shelved 5.1 surround mix of Blood, Sweat and Tears’ stunning jazz-rock debut finally makes an appearance on hybrid SACD thanks to Audio Fidelity!  Bob Ludwig masters Kooper’s 5.1 mix, while Steve Hoffman has remastered for the stereo presentations.

Eric Clapton, Pilgrim SACD (Audio Fidelity) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. Link TBD)

Steve Hoffman remasters Eric Clapton’s 1988 studio album Pilgrim for hybrid stereo SACD!

Tears for Fears, Songs from the Big Chair: Super Deluxe Edition (Mercury)

Box Set: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.

2-CD Deluxe Edition (Discs 1 & 2 below only): Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.

Vinyl (Original Album): Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.

Blu-ray Audio (Stereo and 5.1 Mixes): Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.

Mercury has a variety of formats coming for Tears for Tears’ landmark 1985 album, including a 4-CD/2-DVD box set!

Ray Charles, Genius Loves Company: 10th Anniversary Limited Collectors Edition (Hear Music) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.)

Hear Music repackages Ray Charles’ Grammy-winning duets album for a second time this year, retaining the two bonus tracks and DVD documentary from the previous edition and adding director Taylor Hackford’s 2004 motion picture Ray on a second DVD.

Worzel Gummidge: The Musical – Original London Cast Recording (Stage Door) (Amazon U.K.)

Stage Door Records remasters and expands the Original 1981 London Cast Recording of Keith Waterhouse, Willis Hall and Denis King’s musical comedy to CD for the first time.

Various Artists, Lost on the River: The New Basement Tapes (Harvest) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.)

What happens when you give a notebook filled with never-before-recorded Bob Dylan lyrics to producer T Bone Burnett and a musical collective featuring Elvis Costello, Rhiannon Giddens (Carolina Chocolate Drops), Taylor Goldsmith (Dawes), Jim James (My Morning Jacket) and Marcus Mumford (Mumford & Sons)?  You get Lost on the River: The New Basement Tapes, a 2014 companion to the recent issue of the original, legendary recordings made by Dylan and The Band.

 

Release Round-Up: Week of September 30

ABBA, Live at Wembley Arena (Polar/Universal) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. )

As part of ABBA’s 40th anniversary celebration, the band unveils this 2-CD, hardcover book-style set preserving its 1979 concerts at Wembley Arena.  The 25-track set features the first-ever release on record of Agnetha’s “I’m Still Alive” along with perennials like “Dancing Queen,” “Waterloo,” “Knowing Me, Knowing You” and “Fernando.”  Live at Wembley is also available on vinyl.

Oasis, (What’s the Story) Morning Glory? (Big Brother)

CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.
2LP: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.
3CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.
Box Set: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.

Britpop’s favorite battling brothers have their seminal 1995 record remastered and reissued in various editions including vinyl, a single-disc edition, a 3-CD set with 28 bonus tracks and a super deluxe CD/LP edition loaded with swag!

Genesis, R-Kive (Universal/Rhino)  (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.)

Here’s the  3-CD set bringing together selections from 4o+-years of Genesis and its individual members – Peter Gabriel, Phil Collins, Tony Banks, Mike Rutherford and Steve Hackett.

Robin Gibb, 50 St. Catherine’s Drive (Rhino) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.)

The final solo recordings of the late, great Robin Gibb are collected on this new 17-track collection, including a new version of his Bee Gees favorite “I Am the World.”

Stories: Stories Untold — The Very Best of Stories (Amazon U.S.  / Amazon U.K. ) / Barbara Lynn: The Complete Atlantic Recordings (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. ) / Ronnie Dyson: Phase 2/Brand New Day (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. ) / Faith Hope & Charity: Life Goes On (Expanded Edition) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. ) / Kerry Chater: Part Time Love (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. ) / Kerry Chater: Love on a Shoestring (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. ) / Grateful Dead: Dick’s Picks Vol. 15 — Raceway Park, Englishtown, NJ 9/3/77 (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. )

Real Gone Music has a whole batch of rare titles coming to CD – click on the cover collage above for full details!

Paul Parrish, The Forest of My Mind (Now Sounds) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.)

Now Sounds excavates a lost psych-pop classic from Detroit, circa 1968, produced by Motown’s Clay McMurray!  This remastered edition features the original album and bonus singles, all in typically lavish Now Sounds fashion!  Watch for a full review coming soon.

Ray Charles, Genius Loves Company: 10th Anniversary Deluxe Edition (Concord) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.)

The eight-time Grammy-winning album from the late Ray Charles (featuring duets with Elton John, Diana Krall, James Taylor, Van Morrison, Johnny Mathis and others) is expanded with two bonus tracks on CD – “Mary Ann” with Poncho Sanchez and “Unchain My Heart” with Take 6 – plus a DVD of the hourlong “Making of Genius Loves Company.”

Gap Band, IV and V: Jammin’ / Yarbrough and Peoples, Heartbeats: Expanded Editions (Big Break)

BBR continues the story of the Gap Band and Yarbrough and Peoples with three more deluxe, expanded and remastered editions!  Look for our full rundown coming soon!

Gap Band, IV: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.

Gap Band, V: Jammin’: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.

Yarbrough and Peoples, Heartbeats: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.

Motown 25 various editions (StarVista)

6-DVD Set: StarVista

3-DVD Set: Amazon U.S.

3-DVD Set with exclusive bonus content: Best Buy

The classic 1983 television special that reunited The Supremes and introduced the world to Michael Jackson’s moonwalk finally appears on DVD in a variety of formats including an online-exclusive 6-DVD box set available only from StarVista and a 3-DVD set with bonus disc available only at Best Buy.  (A 6-DVD/8-DVD set is also listed at StarVista as “backordered,” but no details are available at the website.)

Monty Python’s Total Rubbish: The Complete Collection (Virgin)

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

The Monty Python troupers have a new 9-CD set boxing up all of the band’s original U.K. albums from 1970 to 1983!

Engelbert Humperdinck, Engelbert Calling (Megaforce) (Amazon U.S.  – new U.S. edition / Amazon U.K. – original U.K. edition)

Tom Jones reportedly rejected the invitation, but Engelbert Humperdinck snagged duets with Elton John, Dionne Warwick, Neil Sedaka, Lulu, Olivia Newton-John, Willie Nelson and others on his new album, receiving its belated U.S. bow this week.

Original Cast Recording, Tess of the D’Urbervilles (Stage Door) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.)

Stage Door Records premieres the first complete recording of the 1999 West End musical Tess of the D’Urbervilles with music by Stephen Edwards and lyrics by Justin Fleming.  This release brings together tracks from the 1999 original London production alongside the previously unreleased 1998 studio cast recording, and includes performances by Philippa Healey, Alasdair Harvey, Jonathan Monks, Cathy Sara, Martin Crewes, Mark Umbers, Heather Craney, Eliza Lumley and an ensemble of forty singers.

Prince, ART OFFICIAL AGE / Prince and 3RDEYEGIRL, PLECTRUMELECTRUM (Warner Bros.)

ART OFFICIAL AGE: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.

PLECTRUMELECTRUM: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.

Prince has not one, but two, new albums due this week – as always, the favorite son of Minneapolis is doing things his way!

Herb Alpert, In the Mood (Shout! Factory) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. TBD)

The great trumpeter follows up his acclaimed 2013 Steppin’ Out and returns with a new set of various standards including “Begin the Beguine,” “Let It Be Me,” “Blue Moon,” “Spanish Harlem” and “All I Have to Do is Dream” – and even better, the Amazon-exclusive edition features two additional tracks!

The Dean Martin Celebrity Roasts – Complete Collection (StarVista) (Amazon U.S. )

This staggering 25-DVD collection features ALL 54 Dean Martin Celebrity Roasts, pally, with such legendary showbiz icons as Frank Sinatra, Lucille Ball, Bob Hope, Johnny Carson, Jack Klugman, Tony Randall, Jack Benny, George Burns, Sammy Davis, Jr., Betty White and more – plus over 15 hours of bonus material:  11 newly-produced featurette interviews with former participants and fans: Don Rickles, Betty White, Jackie Mason, Phyllis Diller, Tim Conway, Rich Little, Norm Crosby, Carol Burnett and many others; 4 classic TV Specials including Dean’s Place and Red Hot Scandals of 1926, featuring Dean and friends including Jonathan Winters, Dom DeLuise, Robert Mitchum and more; rare, exclusive home movies from Dean’s private collection; bonus comedy sketches; 2 Dean Martin Variety Show DVDs featuring Bob Hope, John Wayne, Peggy Lee, Rodney Dangerfield and many others.  A 44-page book rounds out this package which is arriving now to general retail after a period of online exclusivity.

Release Round-Up: Week of August 19

The Posies, Failure (Omnivore)

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

Omnivore expands the 1988 debut album from power-pop heroes The Posies.  The new Failure restores the album’s original 12-track running order (preserved on cassette but cut down by one song on vinyl) and adds eight bonus tracks. Many of these are sourced from a long out-of-print 2000 box set and a 2004 reissue of the album proper, but one, a demo of “At Least for Now,” is being heard for the first time on this disc.  The deluxe configuration is available on CD, and the original 12-track album on vinyl plus the bonus tracks on a download card.  Even better, the first pressing of the LP will be green vinyl!

Professor Longhair, Let’s Go to New Orleans: The Sansu Sessions (Fuel) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.)

Fuel continues to raid the catalogues of Allen Toussaint’s Sansu and Dessu labels with a compilation of Toussaint-helmed sides for New Orleans’ great piano man Professor Longhair.

Original London Cast Recording, On the Town (Masterworks Broadway)

In conjunction with the upcoming Broadway revival of the classic Leonard Bernstein/Betty Comden/Adolph Green musical, Masterworks Broadway brings the 1963 Original London Cast Recording to CD-R and DD for the first time.  Elliott Gould, Don McKay, Franklin Kiser and Carol Arthur star in this recording of the production directed and choreographed by Joe Layton.  Available exclusively at MasterworksBroadway.com for a limited time.

Smokey Robinson, Smokey and Friends (Verve) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.)

Okay, this isn’t a catalogue title, but we couldn’t resist putting the spotlight on Smokey Robinson’s new studio collection!  Smokey puts his own spin on the now-de rigeur duets album, featuring many of his famous Motown hits in new versions alongside Elton John, Sheryl Crow, John Legend, James Taylor, Steven Tyler and more!

Various Artists, Look Again to the Wind: Johnny Cash’s Bitter Tears Revisited (Sony Masterworks) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.)

This isn’t a reissue, either, but rather a tribute to The Man in Black’s 1964 concept album which daringly shed light on the plight of Native Americans.  This 50th anniversary set presents Kris Kristofferson, Emmylou Harris, Steve Earle, Bill Miller, Gillian Welch, David Rawlings and veteran of the original LP Norman Blake as they reinvent Cash’s original songs with producer Joe Henry.  Look Again to the Wind is also a companion piece to the new documentary film We’re Still Here: Johnny Cash’s Bitter Tears Revisited, chronicling the story of Bitter Tears and this new recording.

Soren Hyldgaard, The Spider: Original Soundtrack Recording (Kritzerland)

Pre-orders are now being accepted for Kritzerland’s latest offering: Soren Hyldgaard’s spellbinding score to the 2000 Danish miniseries The Spider, a noir set in Copenhagen in the wake of World War II.  This 1,000-unit limited edition release improves on an earlier CD release in Denmark, upping the running time from around 44 minutes to nearly 79, mastered from the composer’s complete score tapes. The disc will ship by the last week of September, but pre-orders directly from Kritzerland usually arrive three to five weeks ahead of schedule.

Pino Donaggio, Blow Out: Original MGM Motion Picture Soundtrack (Intrada)

Intrada has pre-orders open for this reissue of the soundtrack by Pino Donaggio (Carrie) for Brian DePalma’s 1981 thriller starring John Travolta, Nancy Allen, Dennis Franz and John Lithgow.  Though the haunting score was previously released on CD in 2002, Intrada corrects errors in track titles and sequencing, and otherwise upgrades its presentation for a new group of listeners who might have missed out on the first, now out-of-print release.

Masterworks Goes “On the Town” With Roslyn Kind’s RCA Albums, Bernstein Musical’s London Cast

Masterworks Broadway has announced the balance of its summer slate of CD-Rs/DD reissues from the Sony Music archives with both releases making their debut in the digital domain.  Next week, the label will reissue for the very first time both RCA albums by vocalist and cabaret star Roslyn Kind – not only a talented artist in her own right but also the half-sister of one Barbra Streisand.  Then, on August 19, Masterworks will bring to CD-R and DD the original 1963 London Cast Recording of Leonard Bernstein, Betty Comden and Adolph Green’s On the Town, just in time for its Broadway revival this fall.

Masterworks describes the unusual circumstances behind Roslyn Kind’s 1968 debut album Give Me You: “On a late spring morning in 1968, seventeen-year-old Roslyn Kind graduated from high school in Brooklyn and immediately began a new job later the same day.  ‘I graduated to ‘Pomp and Circumstance’ in the morning,’ she recalls, ‘and that evening I was in RCA Studio B, down around 23rd Street in Manhattan, making my first recording.’  The young singer remained at RCA for two albums and a handful of singles, and now both of those albums will be available once more.

Give Me You, primarily helmed by composer and arranger Lee Holdridge, featured Kind wrapping her expressive, big pipes around an array of contemporary songs beginning with the title track by the Broadway team of Larry Grossman and Hal Hackady (Play It Again, Sam, Minnie’s Boys, Goodtime Charley) and continuing with material from Jimmy Webb (the Bacharach-esque “If You Must Leave My Life”), John Lennon and Paul McCartney (“The Fool on the Hill”), future Holdridge collaborator Neil Diamond (“A Modern-Day Version of Love”), Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil (“The Shape of Things to Come”) and Holdridge himself (“Who Am I?”).

Following this auspicious debut, Kind returned to RCA’s studios for 1969’s This is Roslyn Kind.  She returned to the Mann and Weil songbook with “Make Your Own Kind of Music” (which Barbra Streisand would later perform) and also surveyed tunes by the likes of The Association’s Larry Ramos (“It’s Gotta Be Real”) and Harry Nilsson (“I Guess the Lord Must Be in New York City”).  Roslyn remained on RCA for a 1970 single with “Foresight” from the musical Gantry backed with Grossman and Hackady’s “Rich Is” from Minnie’s Boys, and eventually moved on to Streisand’s label, Columbia, where she recorded songs by Paul Williams and Peter Allen, among others.  She’s appeared on Saturday Night Live and The Nanny, headlined at The Plaza’s Persian Room, and returned in 1994 with another full-length LP.  Today, Kind is a draw in concert, most recently performing a hot-ticket engagement at New York’s 54 Below nightspot.

Give Me You/This is Roslyn Kind will be released exclusively for purchase via MasterworksBroadway.com on July 22 as MOD CD-Rs, as well as for digital download.  The CD-Rs will be available through Arkiv Music on August 19, plus streaming and downloads via digital service providers the same day. After the jump: details on On the Town, plus full track listings for both titles and more!

It’s Got That Swing: Ellington’s “After Midnight” Recordings Collected By Legacy [UPDATED 6/19]

When this year’s Tony Award nominations were announced on April 29, After Midnight was among the most-recognized productions of the season with seven nominations including Best Musical. The critically-acclaimed show, which has been running at Broadway’s Brooks Atkinson Theatre since October of last year, picked up one Tony for Warren Carlyle’s vivid choreography.  But After Midnight has recently announced a closing date of June 29.  With its departure from the Great White Way, prospects for an original cast album seem even dimmer than before.  Happily, Legacy Recordings has come along to partially fill in the gap with a collection of the vintage big band recordings that inspired the musical. On June 17, the label will release The Original Recordings That Inspired The Broadway Hit After Midnight from legendary composer-bandleader Duke Ellington (1899-1974), whose music is played eight times a week onstage by the Lincoln Center Jazz All-Stars.

The revue celebrating Ellington’s music and the rich legacy of Harlem’s Cotton Club was conceived by Jack Viertel in cooperation with Wynton Marsalis and Jazz at Lincoln Center, and directed and choreographed by Warren Carlyle.  With evocative snippets of text by Langston Hughes as connective tissue, the musical features the 17-piece All-Stars and a cast of 25 multi-talented performers (including a rotating guest slot that has so far included Fantasia, Vanessa Williams, k.d. lang, Toni Braxton, and currently, Patti LaBelle) to bring the Jazz Age to life via a variety of vocal songs, instrumentals, dance specialties, comedy and more.  Under Marsalis’ guidance, the band plays the classic period arrangements – as heard on Legacy’s new compilation disc in recordings made between 1927 and 1940.

Though born in the final year of the 19th century, few figures in 20th century music were as influential as the composer, arranger, pianist and bandleader. After Midnight features songs from one of the most creatively fertile periods of Ellington’s long and distinguished career. On December 4, 1927, he began his engagement at New York City’s Cotton Club, and he led the house band there until June 30, 1931. Ellington recorded over 100 songs during this period, gaining national exposure via both radio and recordings even as word traveled of his band’s incendiary live performances. By the time of his first ever long-playing album, 1951’s Masterpieces by Ellington, he was true American cultural royalty, well-established via films, Broadway musicals and the enduring now-standard compositions he gifted to the Great American Songbook.

In addition to composing his own music at the Cotton Club, Ellington arranged music by other great songwriters including Harold Arlen and Ted Koehler, and Jimmy McHugh and Dorothy Fields. Songs from these talents represented in both the musical and on the companion disc include “It Don’t Mean a Thing”, “Stormy Weather,” “I Can’t Give You Anything But Love” and “Cotton Club Stomp”. The recordings here were made between 1927 and 1940; as Ellington recorded many of these tunes numerous times for various labels, Legacy has a vast archive of performances to draw upon.  The Original Recordings includes vocals by African-American trailblazers Ethel Waters, The Mills Brothers and Ivie Anderson; their spirits are all affectionately channeled onstage in the production.

After the jump, we have more including the complete track listing with verified discography, and order links!

The (Motown) Music That Makes Me Dance: The Supremes’ “Funny Girl” Gets Expansion

I’m the greatest star/I am by far! But no one knows it…

– Fanny Brice, Funny Girl

Back in 2012, while reviewing Hip-o Select’s splendidly expanded edition of The Supremes at the Copa, I wrote of the “altogether enjoyable [and] still inexplicably not on CD” album The Supremes Sing and Perform Funny Girl. Indeed, that 1968 LP, featuring Motown’s greatest stars tackling the showstoppers from Jule Styne and Bob Merrill’s score, has long been one of the rarest and most-requested titles in the Supremes discography. Yet Funny Girl has remained unavailable throughout the entirety of the compact disc era…until now. The good news is that the long-awaited reissue will arrive in lavishly expanded form, with twelve bonus tracks, on April 29. But with every parade must come some rain: this deluxe edition of Diana Ross and the Supremes Sing and Perform Funny Girl is currently only scheduled for release as a digital download. It will appear the same day that the 50th anniversary of the Broadway production of the musical is celebrated with a new CD/LP box set of its original cast recording from Capitol Records, sister imprint of Motown Select within Universal Music Enterprises (UMe).

The eight-time Tony-nominated musical by librettist Isobel Lennart, composer Styne and lyricist Merrill opened in March 1964 at New York’s Winter Garden Theatre, sealing the deal on superstardom for its leading lady, Barbra Streisand. Streisand’s tour de force as Ziegfeld Follies comedienne Fanny Brice became the stuff of legend, and Styne and Merrill’s score yielded the near-instant standards “Don’t Rain on My Parade” and, of course, “People.” Funny Girl didn’t go unnoticed by Motown chief Berry Gordy. In concert, Diana Ross rendered the sweetly upbeat “I Am Woman (You Are Man)” to coquettish perfection while Florence Ballard belted the dramatic “People” from the heart.

It wasn’t unusual for The Supremes to switch gears back and forth between Holland-Dozier-Holland’s explosive Top 40 R&B and classic Broadway and standard repertoire. It was all part of Berry Gordy’s plan to make his artists true stars, appealing to the affluent supper club set as well as the teenagers buying the latest 45s. In early 1965, The Supremes began work on There’s a Place for Us, so named for Stephen Sondheim’s West Side Story lyric to “Somewhere,” for which they recorded both “People” and “I Am Woman.” That summer, Diana Ross, Mary Wilson and Florence Ballard made their debut at the Copacabana, singing live many of the songs they had recorded for There’s a Place for Us. With the release of The Supremes at the Copa, the studio album was shelved, eventually arriving on CD in 2004. Other Broadway-themed Supremes recordings were made, however, some even with Holland-Dozier-Holland at the helm. 1967’s The Supremes Sing Rodgers and Hart, produced by Berry Gordy and arranger Gil Askey, reached back to the Broadway of decades before Funny Girl.

In 1968, however, Gordy and Askey had good reason to turn their attention back to the Styne and Merrill musical. Its big-screen adaptation was arriving from Columbia Pictures; Streisand would win an Oscar for reprising her role as Fanny. Hitting record stores on August 26, 1968 (other sources say May) in advance of the movie’s September 19 release, Diana Ross and the Supremes Sing and Perform Funny Girl – performed by the new line-up of Diana, Mary and Cindy Birdsong – included nine Styne and Merrill songs (eight from the stage score and the movie’s title song) plus “My Man,” a signature song of Brice’s that was replaced in the stage score by the ravishing “The Music That Makes Me Dance.” (The movie featured “My Man” instead of “Music,” but Diana and the girls did both!) The Supremes promoted the album with a medley on The Ed Sullivan Show, and even Jule Styne gave his stamp of approval to the project by writing an adoring, appreciative note for the sleeve. The great composer (Gypsy, Bells Are Ringing) observed, “Although the girls are young and new and part of the now world, they have always showed great respect towards composers Richard Rodgers, Cole Porter, Irving Berlin (and now Jule Styne). Thank God. They are always aware of what’s new by their appreciation of the sounds of Burt Bacharach and Jimmy Webb, etc. What Diana Ross does…is something else again. If I sound excited, I am…My life is now complete. From Frank Sinatra, to Barbra Streisand, to Diana Ross and the Supremes. What a parlay!”

Despite the enormous success of the motion picture, the Supremes’ Funny Girl album only reached No. 150 on the Billboard 200 and No. 45 on the R&B chart. The motion picture soundtrack featuring Streisand fared rather better with a No. 12 peak, but Diana, Mary and Cindy didn’t have to wait long to return to chart supremacy. The very next month after the Funny Girl LP’s arrival, the group released the single “Love Child.” By November, it had reached No. 1. And that wasn’t all. Their collaborative album Diana Ross and the Supremes Join the Temptations, released the same month of November, reached No. 2 and its single “I’m Gonna Make You Loved Me” became a Billboard No. 2 Pop smash on 45. Miss Ross kept some of the Funny Girl music in her live repertoire well into her post-Supremes solo years.

What will you find on this new Funny Girl?  Hit the jump for that and more!

The Animals’ Alan Price Leads Musical “Andy Capp” From Stage Door Records

When the musical Andy Capp premiered at London’s Aldwych Theatre (current home to Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Stephen Ward) in September 1982, cartoonist Reg Smythe’s beloved character took his place alongside Little Orphan Annie, Snoopy and Li’l Abner as comic strip creations-turned-musical heroes.  The frequently inebriated, cap-wearing, chronically unemployed ne’er-do-well made his debut in The Daily Mirror on August 5, 1957 and readers quickly became engrossed in the daily gags featuring Andy, his wife Florrie and their neighbors Chalkie and Rube.  (The strip continues today in the same publication.)  The stage adaptation was conceived by Mirror editor Mike Molloy and became a reality thanks to an Animal and a Peacock – that is, Alan Price of The Animals, and Trevor Peacock, the songwriter of “Mrs. Brown, You’ve Got a Lovely Daughter,” among other songs.  On March 31, the Original West End Cast Recording of Andy Capp makes its debut on CD from Stage Door Records.

Reg Smythe gave his blessing to the musical with a book by Peacock, music by Price, and lyrics by both gentlemen.  Peacock had the difficult task of fleshing out the characters for a full evening of musical theatre.  He told Capp biographer Les Lilley that “I had to invent a plot, so I introduced a young couple who were getting married. Then, because Andy is always so bossy with Florrie, I created another family in which the man is completely under the thumb of the woman. I seem to remember it was Andy’s nephew who was the boy. He was called Elvis Horsepole, and he was marrying the daughter of this other family in which the mother was on top.”  Oscar-nominated actor Tom Courtenay (Doctor Zhivago) was a northern lad like Price and the fictional Capp.  He added a bit of luster, not to mention authenticity, to the production when he agreed to play Andy.  Val McLane portrayed Florrie, John Bardon was Chalkie, and Price himself appeared in the role of Geordie.  The musical’s set was decorated with images from Smythe’s comics.