Release Round-Up: Week of October 9

 

The Beach Boys, 2012 Remasters / Greatest Hits / Greatest Hits: Fifty Big Ones (Capitol/EMI)

The summer gets a little more endless with a new compilation (in two formats) and remasters of nearly all of the band’s ’60s albums. (A full breakdown of those albums is here, and a full review is coming up from Joe today!)

The Beatles, Magical Mystery Tour (Apple/EMI)

The Fab Four’s kooky film is making its Blu-Ray debut in standard and deluxe box formats.

Deep Purple, Machine Head: 40th Anniversary Edition (EMI)

A five-disc box set devoted to this classic rock LP, featuring various different mixes of the album (including quad and 5.1 mixes) and other goodies.

Barbra Streisand, Release Me (Columbia)

The incomparable Barbra’s newest album is actually an offering of entirely unreleased performances from the vaults. Lots of great discoveries herein!

B.B. King, Ladies and Gentlemen…Mr B.B. King (Hip-O/UMe)

Available in four-disc and Amazon-exclusive 10-disc formats, these box sets are the latest way to honor one of the greatest living blues legends.

The Supremes, I Hear a Symphony: Expanded Edition (Hip-O Select/Motown)

Another Supremes classic expanded to two discs, featuring the original album in mono and stereo and a host of live and studio treasures from the vault.

David Ruffin, David: The Unreleased LP and More (Hip-O Select/Motown)

Out of print for years, Hip-O Select reissues this compilation of the Temptation’s unissued 1971 album and a host of outtakes from the album sessions.

Various Artists, The Best of Bond…James Bond: 50 Years, 50 Tracks (Capitol/EMI)

It’s been 50 years since Dr. No hit theaters and it’s only a few weeks until Skyfall is released, so it’s time for a new 007 compilation that features all the classic title themes on one disc and a sampling of other tracks from the Bond films on the other.

Level 42, Running in the Family: 25th Anniversary Deluxe Edition (Polydor/UMC)

This ’80s hit is available from the U.K. as a double-disc expansion or four-disc, extras-packed box set.

The Who, Live in Texas 1975 (Eagle Rock)

Their latest at the time was The Who by Numbers, but this newly-restored show, on DVD in its first official release, is anything but.

Old 97’s, Too Far to Care: Deluxe Edition (Omnivore)

A demo-packed reissue of the 1997 country-rocker.

Various Artists, Athens, GA – Inside Out (Omnivore)

A nice deluxe set featuring both the classic documentary on the colorful Athens, GA music scene in the 1980s on DVD (with new special features) and the expanded soundtrack on CD.

Vince Guaraldi Trio, A Charlie Brown Christmas: Original Sound Track from the CBS Television Special (Fantasy)

The classic holiday album gets a brand new remaster with three bonus tracks. Full review coming later today!

Glen Campbell and Jimmy Webb, In Session (Fantasy)

Two legends collaborate on this live performance from 1983, newly released as a CD/DVD set.

Adam Ant, Destiny’s Child, Shawn Colvin, Alan Jackson, Waylon Jennings & Willie Nelson, George Jones & Tammy Wynette, Carole King, Taj Mahal, Ricky Martin, Johnny Mathis, Meat Loaf, Laura Nyro, Collin Raye, Starship, Porter Wagoner & Dolly Parton, Playlist (Legacy)

A surprisingly strong batch of Playlist titles includes a few neat surprises, too, from brand-new compilations for Destiny’s Child and Ricky Martin to rare and unreleased tracks on the Meat Loaf, Starship and Laura Nyro sets.

The Chipmunks, Christmas Collection (Capitol)

Because it wouldn’t be the holidays without some squeaky-voiced renditions of holiday classics, plus the immortal “Christmas Don’t Be Late.”

Edie Adams, The Edie Adams Christmas Album (Omnivore)

Another Christmas treat, sourced from rare kinescopes of Adams on television in the ’50s.

E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial: Anniversary Collector’s Edition (Universal Studios Home Video)

A timeless favorite at Second Disc HQ (in particular, Mike’s favorite movie!) comes home on Blu-Ray for the first time, featuring the restored original 1982 version of the film and a new retrospective consisting entirely of on-set footage shot by John Toll. Retail exclusives abound: Target’s offering a deluxe steelbook package (available internationally as a basic deluxe edition), Best Buy has a special book package with pages of full-color notes and artwork, Walmart throws in a free E.T. doll for the kids, and Amazon carried a limited deluxe package (now sold out) housed in a replica of E.T.’s spaceship.

Little Shop of Horrors: The Director’s Cut (Warner Home Video)

One of the most purely fun musicals of the past few decades, this loving musical adaptation of the Roger Corman cult classic features a killer, ’60s-flavored pop score from future Disney legends Alan Menken and Howard Ashman. For this special Blu-Ray release, the hilarious, 20-minute alternate ending (seen only on a quickly-recalled, highly-collectible DVD) has been fully restored and added to the end of the picture, and other great special features abound, too!

’80s Expansion Watch: Deluxe Sets Planned for Heaven 17, Level 42

Two more expanded editions of titles by English ’80s pop bands are due in the next month “across the pond,” as they say.

Heaven 17’s debut LP Penthouse and Pavement, released in 1981 and reissued for its 30th anniversary last year, established themselves as a socially-conscious but still danceable band with singles like the famously banned-by-the-BBC “(We Don’t Need This) Fascist Groove Thang.” But with sophomore album The Luxury Gap, singer Glenn Gregory and keyboardists Ian Craig Marsh and Martyn Ware, further fused their minimalist, occasionally political New Wave style to some of the most danceable beats around. Second single “Temptation” became the group’s biggest single in their native U.K., peaking at No. 2 (not to mention a No. 4 placement in 1992 with a remix from Brothers in Rhythm), and follow-up “Come Live with Me” was a Top 5 hit. (In the U.S., the moody, percolating “Let Me Go” – a stiff in England, missing the Top 40 entirely – was a Top 5 hit on Billboard‘s Dance/Club Play charts, arguably becoming the band’s most successful song on our shores.)

Much like the expanded Penthouse and Pavement, this expanded edition of The Luxury Gap features two discs – one of the remastered album and one of eight period remixes of “Let Me Go,” “Temptation,” “Come Live with Me” and “Crushed by the Wheels of Industry” (plus the aforementioned 1992 mix of “Temptation”) – along with a DVD featuring five music videos and live footage from a 2009 gig with continuing Heaven 17 members Ware and Gregory. (That lineup will tour later this year, playing The Luxury Gap in full.)

After the jump, take a look at what Universal U.K.’s doing for a classic LP from Level 42!

News Round-Up: More Morrissey, Live Dio, A Change at Disney and More

• Our inimitable alt-rock flame-keeper friends at Slicing Up Eyeballs point us toward a trail of additional Morrissey rarities leading up to the 20th anniversary reissue of his excellent compilation Bona Drag. It seems that early single “Everyday is Like Sunday” is going to be reissued on CD and 7-inch vinyl, and will include some interesting bonus tracks. Both vinyl singles include live renditions of “Sunday” from the Hollywood Bowl in 2007 and The New York Dolls’ “Trash” from 1991, while the CD single will include Moz’s version of “Sunday” from Top of the Pops in 1988 as well as “November the Second,” a long-sought-after vintage dance mix of “November Spawned a Monster” that Morrissey seems to have stopped hating enough to release. The singles will be released alongside the expanded compilation on September 27.
• Ronnie James Dio’s Facebook page has announced that there will finally be some catalogue love for the late, great metal god. “Our first release from the Niji Entertainment Group will be a 2 CD set of never before released live Dio from 1983 and 1987!” the page updated on Friday. The set will be available on October 26.
• A special thanks to The Second Disc’s own Miss Disc for this tip: it looks like Walt Disney Records may be prepping another reissue of the soundtrack to Beauty and the Beast. The score, composed by Alan Menken and Howard Ashman, was integral to the success of the film in 1991 (the score and title theme both won Oscars), and looks to be put back on CD on September 14, in advance of Disney’s premiere Blu-Ray release of the film. No word on bonus content (the 2002 reissue of the soundtrack included a new tune worked into an IMAX re-release of the film plus three demos), but given Disney’s general aversion to soundtracks on CD (neither the Oscar-winning score to Up nor the acclaimed Toy Story 3 got such treatment), this is some good news.
• Finally, some bittersweet news: reports are coming in that the Living It Up box set by Level 42 is inappropriately mastered and badly packaged. Universal evidently has plans to issue replacements on the defective discs. Thanks to super reader Phil Cohen for pointing this out and informing the reissue community.

Box Set Round-Up: Hank Williams and Level 42

There’s a pair you’d never expect to see in the same title. A few bits of news around the way regarding a few box sets coming up. First up, Time-Life has got a really large box set of Hank Williams material coming out. The Complete Mother’s Best Recordings…Plus! is a 16-disc box set (including a DVD) of all Williams legendary, surviving recordings for Nashville radio station WSM (where he had his own show sponsored by Mother’s Best Flour).

These 72 acetates were recorded through 1951, two years before Williams died at just 29 years old, and famously rescued from a garbage bin in the 1970s and unreleased until 2008 and 2009, after years of legal wrangling between Williams’ estate and both PolyGram (owner of MGM Records, Williams’ label in life) and Legacy Entertainment (not the label, but a company which acquired the tapes). Time-Life did several box sets of some of the tracks, but this set will encompass all of that material.

Also, Hip-O has planned an August 3 release date for Living It Up, a four-disc box set by British pop act Level 42. The set includes two discs of all the band’s single A-sides, another disc of mostly-unreleased rarities and a set of brand-new, acoustic recordings of the band’s best-loved tunes.

After the jump, take a look at the cover art and track listing, straight from the band’s official Web site.