Release Round-Up: Week of November 16

Bruce Springsteen, The Promise: The Darkness on the Edge of Town Story (Columbia/Legacy)

Bruuuuuuuuce celebrates one of his most acclaimed albums in a big way. Darkness will be augmented with two discs’ worth of outtakes and three(!) DVDs, including the new making-of documentary The Promise. (The outtakes are available as their own double-disc set as well.) (Official site)

Jimi Hendrix, West Coast Seattle Boy: The Jimi Hendrix Anthology / BBC Sessions / Live at Woodstock / Blues / Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year (Experience Hendrix/Legacy)

The latest chapter of the Hendrix reissue campaign from Sony includes a new box set of rare and unreleased material (available on CD or vinyl) that features a neat overview of Hendrix’s early days as a sideman with other rock and soul acts. (A single-disc compilation will feature the best of the outtakes, and will also be sold as a double-disc set with the new documentary DVD from the box.) The same date will see CD/DVD versions of BBC Sessions and Blues alongside new reissues of Hendrix’s Woodstock set and collector-favorite Christmas EP.

Billy Joel, The Hits (Columbia/Legacy)

The Piano Man’s first-ever single-disc compilation – geared to entice casual fans into partaking in next year’s Billy Joel catalogue blitz – is a very straightforward (and very debatable) release, but one that’s worth buying, especially if you like Billy Joel. (Note: it is this writer’s opinion that it is easy to like Billy Joel. Results may vary.) (Amazon)

The Stooges, Have Some Fun: Live at Ungano’s / 1970: The Complete Fun House Sessions (Elektra/Rhino Handmade)

Orders begin shipping this week on two new Stooges sets: an unreleased live show from 197o and the reissue of the out-of-print seven-disc box set version of The Stooges.

Bee Gees, Mythology (Rhino)

This four-disc box set, featuring an overview of all of the Gibbs (including Andy) and including three unreleased tracks, was supposed to come out last holiday season. Better late than never? (Amazon)

Release Round-Up: Week of November 9

Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers, Damn the Torpedoes: Deluxe Edition (Geffen/UMe)

With a bonus disc of B-sides and unreleased outtakes and an optional Blu-Ray audio version, audiophiles hopefully won’t have a reason to say “don’t do me like that” with this set. (Official site)

Bon Jovi, Greatest Hits: The Ultimate Collection (Island)

If 1994’s Cross Road isn’t enough of a Bon Jovi comp for you, this career-spanning set (available in single and double-disc formats) combines all the usual hits with two new tracks (or four, depending on what set you buy). (Official site)

Elvis Presley, Viva ELVIS: The Album (RCA/Legacy)

The King gets his own equivalent to The Beatles’ Love, complete with a soundtrack of remixed, re-imagined classics. (More material you’re not going to find on the box set.) (Official site)

The Rolling Stones, Ladies and Gentlemen: The Rolling Stones (Box Set) (Eagle)

The Stones’ classic Exile-era concert film (just recently released on DVD) is paired with this year’s The Stones in Exile and a bunch of bonus material in a limited, numbered box. (Amazon)

Bing Crosby, The Crosby Christmas Sessions (Collector’s Choice) / The Television Specials Volume 2: The Christmas Specials (Infinity)

Hooray for Christmas catalogue titles! Collector’s Choice honors Bing’s holiday spirit with a trove of mostly-unreleased Yuletide tracks, while Infinity Entertainment gets his holiday television specials on DVD. (Official site)

A Heatwave in November

This week has been unseasonably warm around The Second Disc HQ, and while that’s not particularly fun, there is news of some heat of another kind – particularly, expanded reissues of the Heatwave catalogue coming your way from Cherry Red next month.

The immortal disco band, which had a string of classic dance/soul cuts in the late ’70s from the pen of member Rod Temperton (who also of course wrote some instant classics for Michael Jackson in the Off the Wall and Thriller days), will see no less than three sets coming out from Cherry Red’s Big Break and 7Ts imprints. Big Break has reissues of the band’s Hot Property (1979) and Candles (1980) LPs, each remastered and expanded with four and nine bonus B-sides and remixes, respectively. Meanwhile, 7Ts will release a two-disc compilation, The G.T.O. Singles Collection, which will feature all their greatest U.K. hits in their original 45 versions.

Between these sets and reissues overseen by Big Break and Demon earlier this year, we can gladly report that the Heatwave catalogue has now been fully remastered and expanded for the 21st century. The expansions of Hot Property and Candles will be released November 8, while The G.T.O. Singles Collection streets a week later on November 15.

Check out the track listings for all these releases after the jump.

A Catalogue to Last, Always and Forever

Here’s some under-the-radar, in-case-you-missed-it news concerning the discography of Heatwave, the multi-national soul/disco group famed for killer cuts like “Boogie Nights” and “Always and Forever.” It looks like these records are getting their due on CD thanks to two indie labels, with one title already available and another few on the way.

First up, Edsel U.K. has combined and released a double-disc set comprising their first two LPs, Too Hot to Handle (1976) and Central Heating (1978). Both records were Top 5 R&B and Top 20 Pop hits and spun off hits like “Boogie Nights,” “Always and Forever” and “The Groove Line.” The set features six B-sides and original dance remixes plus new liner notes featuring an interview with the band’s original producer, Barry Blue.

Jumping ahead, it looks like Big Break Records (another U.K.-based label owned by the Cherry Red Group) is prepping a reissue of the band’s final work, Current (1982). The band looked considerably different; for starters, keyboardist Rod Temperton had left (though he still wrote almost every song for the group, not to mention a handful of cuts on Michael Jackson’s Off the Wall and Thriller LPs). Plus, following several unfortunate accidents, original bassist Mario Mantese had been replaced by Derek Bramble (later the co-producer of David Bowie’s Tonight) and founding member Johnnie Wilder, having been paralyzed in an auto accident, could only do so much in the studio, prompting the addition of several guest vocalists. Still, the band put together a powerful disc to close their career, and BBR promises to honor that with a remastered version of the record bolstered by in-depth liner notes and three bonus cuts. Look for the reissue of Current on August 10.

Order Too Hot to Handle/Central Heating here (no pre-order info for Current yet – the label’s Web site and/or Facebook page will likely have order info as it comes), and take a look at the sets after the jump.