Release Round-Up: Week of January 21

The Beatles, The U.S. Albums (Apple/Capitol/UMe)

The centerpiece product of The Fab Four’s 50th anniversary celebration (thus far, anyway) is a 13-disc box featuring the original, unique American releases on Capitol/United Artists from 1964 to 1970 (including six titles from that first year alone). All but the spoken-word documentary album The Beatles’ Story will be available individually, and all but that and 1970’s stereo-only Hey Jude compilation will be available in mono and stereo on the same disc.

The U.S. Albums: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.
Meet The Beatles!: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.
The Beatles’ Second Album: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.
A Hard Day’s Night: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.
Something New: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.
Beatles ’65: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.
The Early Beatles: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.
Beatles VI: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.
Help! Original Motion Picture Soundtrack: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.
Rubber Soul: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.
Yesterday and Today: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.
Revolver: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.
Hey Jude: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.

Del Amitri, Waking Hours / Change Everything / Twisted: Deluxe Editions (Mercury/UMC)

Best known in the U.S. for peppy rock radio hit “Roll to Me,” the recently-reunited Glasgow rockers’ first three alternative-friendly albums for A&M are being expanded as double-disc sets with heaps of non-LP B-sides.

Waking Hours: Amazon U.K. / Amazon U.S.
Change Everything: Amazon U.K. / Amazon U.S.
Twisted: Amazon U.K. / Amazon U.S.

Mike + The Mechanics, The Singles 1985-2014 / The Living Years: Deluxe Edition (UMC)

To time with Mike Rutherford’s new memoir, the Genesis guitarist/bassist’s famed side-project (with vocals from Paul Carrack and Sad Café’s Paul Young) is first anthologized with a career-spanning double-disc hits and rarities set, and then an expansion of 1988’s The Living Years (whose title track was the band’s biggest worldwide hit), featuring a new version of the track with vocalist Andrew Roachford and a disc’s worth of live recordings from 1989.

The Singles 1985-2014: Amazon U.K. / Amazon U.S.
The Living Years: Amazon U.K. / Amazon U.S.

Paul McCartney, Off the Ground (MPL/Hear Music)

Sir Paul’s 1993 album gets a no-frills new remaster. (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.)

Charo and The Salsoul Orchestra, Cuchi-Cuchi: Expanded Edition / Loleatta Holloway, Queen of the Night: Expanded Edition (Big Break)

Two more expanded albums from the Salsoul label on BBR – one from label queen Loleatta Holloway and the debut album from the famed singer-comedienne.

Charo: Amazon U.K. / Amazon U.S.
Loleatta Holloway: Amazon U.K. / Amazon U.S.

Major Harris, How Do You Take Your Love / Margie Joseph. Knockout: Expanded Edition (Funky Town Grooves)

FTG puts the first and only RCA album by ex-Delfonic/”Love Won’t Let Me Wait” singer Major Harris on CD for the first time, while expanding a 1983 album by Harris’ onetime labelmate Margie Joseph.

Major Harris: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.
Margie Joseph: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.

Various Artists, Playlist: The Very Best Of (Legacy)

The latest wave in Legacy’s low-price hits series includes some converted greatest hits titles (Simon & Garfunkel’s Greatest Hits, Journey’s Greatest Hits Live, Closer: The Best of Sarah McLachlan) but also some new titles – chiefly some newly-curated compilations from Dean Martin, Ronnie Spector, Jermaine Jackson and Ray Parker, Jr. (All Amazon U.S. and U.K. links can be found in the link above!)

Everybody Loves Somebody: New “Playlist” Wave Includes Ronnie Spector, Simon and Garfunkel, Journey, Dean Martin, More

It’s a new year, and that means a new crop of Playlist titles from Legacy Recordings!  As in the past, this crop of releases runs the gamut, with a number of titles including rare or new-to-CD material and others relying on the tried and true.  The artists represented also encompass a wide variety of genres.  Fans of classic rock-and-roll and pop will find plenty to enjoy on a career-spanning disc from Ronnie Spector and a reissue of the vintage Greatest Hits album of Simon and Garfunkel, while those seeking their rock in a more modern vein can sample music from Sponge, Stabbing Westward and The Verve Pipe.  Traditional vocal pop enthusiasts should take notice of Legacy’s first-ever release from the catalogue of Dean Martin, and classic country gets a place with a Playlist from Ray Price.  For R&B fans, there are titles from Ray Parker, Jr. and Jermaine Jackson.  Christian artists Israel (Houghton) and New Breed get a Playlist volume, too.  The collection is rounded out by entries from rap group Three 6 Mafia, singer-songwriter Sarah McLachlan, and eighties rock heroes Journey.

All thirteen titles will be available in stores on Tuesday, January 21, and after the jump, we’ll spill details on all of them – plus full track listings with discographical annotation and pre-order links!

In Memoriam: Phil Ramone (1934-2013)

Today, The Second Disc remembers Phil Ramone.

The multiple Grammy-winning producer, 79, died on Saturday, leaving behind a legacy of song from artists ranging from Barbra Streisand to Paul McCartney, Barry Manilow to The Band.  Yet unlike so many of his contemporaries, Phil Ramone didn’t have a signature style.  Instead of molding a band or singer to a preferred sonic specialty, he was a true architect of sound, tailoring each production to the individual artist.  Ramone was equally comfortable with pop, rock, jazz, R&B, and the worlds of Broadway and Hollywood, not to mention classical – the genre in which Ramone started his love affair with music, as a Juilliard-trained violin prodigy.

Phil Ramone modestly titled his 2007 memoir Making Records, because that’s precisely what he did, from the day he and partner Jack Arnold opened the doors of New York’s A&R Studios in 1959.  Prior to that, he had been mentored by Charles Leighton at JAC Recording.  At A&R, Ramone perfected the art of engineering.  He earned his first Grammy for Stan Getz and Joao Gilberto’s immortal Getz/Gilberto, and soon A&R was the preferred destination for producers Burt Bacharach and Hal David to craft their movies-in-miniature with Dionne Warwick.  Ramone’s eclectic C.V. as an engineer and later, producer, took in pop princesses (Lesley Gore), folkies (Peter, Paul and Mary), jazz legends (Tony Bennett), superstars (Barbra Streisand), Beatles (Paul McCartney), Geniuses (Ray Charles), and Chairmen (Frank Sinatra), as well as everyone in between.

Chicago, Phoebe Snow, Kenny Loggins, Carly Simon, B.J. Thomas, Liza Minnelli, Rod Stewart, and of course, Paul Simon and Billy Joel all logged studio time with Phil Ramone at the console.  With Simon, Ramone helmed such beloved albums as There Goes Rhymin’ Simon and Still Crazy After All These Years, still cornerstones of the singer-songwriter’s catalogue.  With Joel, Ramone embarked on a seven-album, nine-year partnership that remains one of the most successful in rock history.  The duo also hold a place in the history books, as Joel’s 52nd Street, produced by Ramone, became the first commercially released compact disc when it hit stores in Japan on October 1, 1982.

To every project, Ramone brought an understated, subtle touch of class that squarely put the emphasis on music and sound: making each musician and singer’s contribution heard, cleanly and resonantly.  Even a partial list of songs with Ramone’s involvement is staggering: “Times of Your Life,” “Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head,” “It Never Rains in Southern California,” “Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey,” “Evergreen (Love Theme from A Star is Born),” “Loves Me Like a Rock,” “Just the Way You Are,” “Afternoon Delight,” “Poetry Man,” “If You Could Read My Mind,” “Leaving on a Jet Plane,” “Maniac.”

Phil Ramone could have ushered in 2013 basking in the glow of acclaimed recent albums from Dionne Warwick and Tony Bennett, but he remained active.  At the time of his death, he was working on a variety of characteristically diverse projects with artists such as George Michael and Glee star Matthew Morrison.  Bette Midler eulogized him as “kind beyond words,” echoing the sentiments of so many others.  Ben Folds called him “brilliant, generous, talented,” while Tony Bennett noted his “wonderful sense of humor and deep love of music.”  To celebrate the career of the legendary Phil Ramone, Mike and I have each contributed a playlist of ten favorite projects on which he worked.  These aren’t necessarily his most significant, or his most famous, though some might indeed be.  Taken together, they simply represent twenty slices of the versatility, dynamism and sheer hallmark of quality that made Phil Ramone an in-demand talent, and sympathetic collaborator of so many, for over fifty years.

If there’s a rock-and-roll heaven, you know they’ve got one helluva band, true.  But now there’s one helluva producer sitting at the desk.

Hit the jump for two interactive Phil Ramone Top 10s!

Steve Perry’s “Street Talk” Gets Vinyl Reissue

It’d be easy to imagine former Journey frontman Steve Perry doing little besides sitting on a pile of money and denying the opportunity to reunite with his old band. In fact, the singer has been hard at work revisiting his solo debut, Street Talk, for an audiophile release.

Perry, who has effusively praised the quality of Journey’s forthcoming Greatest Hits Volume 2 release, recently took to The Mastering Lab in Ojai, California, to remaster his hit album alongside engineer Robert Hadley for a 180-gram audiophile vinyl package.

In a statement, Perry discussed the process of remastering the album, which spawned major pop hits in “Oh Sherrie,” “Foolish Heart” and “She’s Mine.”

I started with a pristine 24bit/96khz transfer of the original stereo mix and went from there. We used Pro Tools to bring out some of the subtle frequencies and moments in the original mixes that, in the old world of live analog hands-on console mixing would get compromised. Now we can take our time and really make the original tracks shine. This hybrid of analog and digital is, in my opinion, the wave of the future. The vinyl pressings also sound fantastic! The RTI pressing plant really knows how to take the lacquers we created and press some amazing audiophile-quality vinyl. I truly feel like this is the way this album was supposed to sound!

The vinyl set – which will feature a digital download of the new master inside the package – will be available on November 1, alongside the new Journey compilation. The Amazon link and track list is after the jump.

Still They Ride: Journey’s “Greatest Hits Vol. 2” Coming On CD and Remastered Double Vinyl

The singer/songwriter Peter Allen once commented in song, “Everything old is new again.”  And that adage certainly applies to the case of Journey.  Thanks to the one-two punch of television shows The Sopranos and Glee, the band’s “Don’t Stop Believin’” has become ubiquitous.  Though the band’s heyday was undoubtedly the 1980s (“Don’t Stop Believin’,” reportedly the top-selling catalogue track of all time on iTunes, dates from 1981), the music of Journey is in the public eye now more than ever.  So it shouldn’t come as a surprise that on November 1, Columbia Records and Legacy will release Greatest Hits Vol. 2.  It belatedly follows up the original Greatest Hits album, first released in 1988, which has racked up worldwide sales of over 25 million.  Greatest Hits Vol. 2 will be available as a single CD, digital download, and special gatefold 180-gram double-vinyl edition (which includes a code for a free digital download of the vinyl remastered album).

But there’s more!  The original Greatest Hits will also be issued as a gatefold 180-gram double-vinyl edition on the same date, November 1 (which also includes a code for a free digital download of the vinyl remastered album). Each release has been meticulously remastered; the honors for Greatest Hits Vol. 2 were handled by Robert Hadley and Steve Perry at The Mastering Lab in Ojai, CA, while the new vinyl release of Greatest Hits Vol. 1 was remastered by Doug Sax, Hadley and Perry, also at The Mastering Lab.  Perry commented of these new releases, “I truly forgot how sonically exciting and just plain better these Journey tracks sound back where they originally lived…on vinyl. The stereo separation, the center imaging and the sonic depth of the tracks themselves is more true to what we all loved about these original final mixes. All the instruments and voices, to me personally, sound so damn good that all I want to do is reach for the volume and turn it up!”

Formed in 1973 by guitarist Neal Schon and releasing an eponymous debut album in 1975, Journey’s career really took off when Steve Perry joined the band as lead singer.  Journey adopted a more pop-friendly sound, taking its cue from the arena rock of Boston and Foreigner, and the band was rewarded with a No. 21 chart placement and platinum sales for its 1978 album Infinity produced by Roy Thomas Baker and featuring Perry’s debut.  Despite a number of personnel changes, Journey was off and running.  1979’s Evolution included Journey’s first Top 20 single, “Lovin’, Touchin’, Squeezin’,” and 1980’s Departure introduced one of the band’s signature songs, “Any Way You Want It.”  The big one was 1981’s Escape, the eighth studio album from the group.  It shot to No. 1 on the album charts and included three Top 10 hits: “Who’s Cryin’ Now,” the deathless “Open Arms,” and of course, “Don’t Stop Believin’.”  Escape spent nearly three years on Billboard’s Top 200 chart.

Escape was produced by Mike Stone and Kevin Elson, who went on to produce the band’s next album, Frontiers (1983). Frontiers (“After The Fall,” “Chain Reaction”) debuted the week before Michael Jackson’s Thriller reached pole position, and made sure that Thriller wasn’t lonely at the top when it remained comfortably ensconced at No. 2 for nine weeks! 1986’s Raised On Radio introduced a new member to the journey fold, the bassist Randy Jackson.  One of the most familiar faces in television thanks to his judging stint on American Idol, The Dawg went on to tour with Journey through 1987. Raised On Radio spent 67 weeks on the album chart, propelled by the Top 20 hit “Suzanne.”

Journey’s story is proof in the pudding that a label’s investment in a band might not always produce returns immediately, but that faith in a recording artist over a long period of time can, indeed, pay off in a big way.  Album Oriented Rock (AOR) was here to stay.  When Journey broke up (for what turned out to be a temporary hiatus) in 1988, Columbia issued the Greatest Hits album, encompassing fifteen tracks from seven of the band’s albums.  It’s been a mainstay for those fans introduced via The Sopranos, Glee, Family Guy, and American Idol, all of which have employed the band’s music.  Although the first Greatest Hits has long covered the bases for a casual fan’s Journey collection, a number of Top 40 and Top 20 singles were not included.  Columbia also notes that favorites of principal songwriters Steve Perry, Neal Schon and Jonathan Cain were excluded. Many of these tracks have been included on Greatest Hits Vol. 2, including five Top 40 hits and one AOR Top 20 track.

Hit the jump for the full track listing with discographical information as to the original album appearance of each track, and singles chart annotation for Journey’s Greatest Hits Vol. 2.  The album arrives in stores on both CD and vinyl on November 1 from Columbia/Legacy, along with the brand new vinyl remaster of that seminal Greatest Hits Vol. 1.  You’ll find pre-order links below!.

Release Round-Up: Week of April 12

Bob Dylan, In Concert: Brandeis University, 1963 (Columbia/Legacy)

Did you miss this when it first came to pass as a bonus disc with Amazon orders of the latest Bootleg Series? Here’s your second chance. (Official site)

Danny Elfman, The Tim Burton/Danny Elfman 25th Anniversary Music Box (Warner Bros.)

Can you believe it? These things are finally starting to ship after four months and endless posts of addressing speculation and delays. (Official site)

Jimi Hendrix, South Saturn Delta / Band of Gypsys Live at Fillmore East / Power of Soul: A Tribute to Jimi Hendrix (Experience Hendrix/Legacy)

The latest bunch of Hendrix reissues through Legacy are the South Saturn Delta outtakes album, the Band of Gypsys DVD and – perhaps most interesting – a rare tribute compilation featuring Prince, Santana, Sting, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Eric Clapton and more. (Official site)

George Benson, Beyond the Blue Horizon / Freddie Hubbard, First Light / Stanley Turrentine, Salt Song / Don Sebesky, Giant Box (CTI/Masterworks Jazz)

Fresh off the Creed Taylor “cool revolution” as encapsulated in the First Impulse! box set from Hip-O Select, Masterworks reissues four classic records from the CTI roster. Three of them are expanded with alternate and rare material. (Amazon: Benson, Hubbard, Turrentine, Sebesky)

Booker T. & The MG’s, The Best of Booker T. & The MG’s / Journey, Infinity (Vinyl) (Friday Music)

Some new vinyl reissues from Friday Music coming to a store near you. (Friday Music: Booker T. & The MG’s, Journey)

Jeff Buckley, Grace (Vinyl) (Columbia/Legacy)

Another vinyl reissue – 180 grams of Grace. (Amazon)

Jack Johnson, Brushfire Fairytales (Everloving)

A 10th anniversary remaster/reissue for the Hawaiian singer-songwriter’s debut record. (Amazon)

And let’s not forget all the releases for Record Store Day this Saturday!