Release Round-Up: Week of May 31

Ozzy Osbourne, Blizzard of Ozz / Diary of a Madman: Legacy Edition (Epic/Legacy)

The Prince of Darkness’ first two LPs, finally put back into print with the original drum and bass tracks and expanded with bonus material (including a previously unreleased live disc for Diary). A box set packs all the CDs in with vinyl, a commemorative book and the new documentary Thirty Years After the Blizzard. (Official site)

Twisted Sister, Under the Blade: Deluxe Edition (Eagle)

Another welcome hard-rock reissue that restores the original mix of Twisted Sister’s debut LP to CD and adds some bonus EP tracks and a DVD of the band’s gig at the Reading Festival in 1982. (Official site)

Kate Bush, Director’s Cut (Fish People/EMI)

The magnificent singer/songwriter’s latest album project – her first in six years, and already released in the U.K., where it hit No. 2 – features remixed and re-recorded versions of tracks from The Sensual World (1989) and The Red Shoes (1993). A deluxe set features those original albums remastered as well. (Official site)

James Taylor, JT (Mobile Fidelity)

One of Taylor’s most satisfying albums gets the hybrid SACD treatment. (Mobile Fidelity)

The Guess Who, Flavours: Expanded Edition (Iconoclassic)

The Guess Who reissue series continues with the band’s penultimate LP for RCA. (Iconoclassic)

The O’Jays, Back Stabbers: Expanded Edition / Jon Lucien, Song for My Lady: Expanded Edition / Linda Lewis, Woman Overboard: Expanded Edition / Linx, Intuition: Expanded Edition (Big Break Records)

The latest crop of BBR reissues makes its way to U.S. shores. Back Stabbers looks like it’s gonna be a good one, what with one of the best Philly soul songs ever in “Love Train.” (Big Break Records)

Let’s Hear It for the Big Break May Slate

Not long after the Cherry Red labels update their calendars for April, their ever-busy Big Break Records imprint preps a set of R&B reissues for May. And there are quite a few hits contained therein.

No less than six new expansions are on the label’s schedule in the next month, most of them from the Sony catalogue. The biggest hits by far would be Back Stabbers, the sophomore release by The O’Jays and the album that spun off the immortal chart-topping hit “Love Train,” and Deniece Williams’ Let’s Hear It for the Boy, the title track of which featured as one of many hits in the 1984 film Footloose. Each of those albums will be expanded with single edits and remixes. There are two other dance-heavy titles on the roster, too. The Gap Band’s Gap Band VI had the Top 10 R&B hits “Beep a Freak” and “I Found My Baby,” while the relatively obscure Linx had a raft of U.K. hits with debut album Intuition, newly expanded with six bonus remixes.

If full-on dance/funk isn’t your thing, there are the chilled-out sounds of Jon Lucien, the singer from the Virgin Islands whose Song for My Lady album is due for expansion from the label (his second, after an expansion of hit album Rashida for the label last year), or Linda Lewis, the British singer-songwriter whose Woman Overboard, featuring production by Allen Toussaint and Cat Stevens, will be expanded with non-LP material (again, following an expansion of her first album for Arista from Big Break last year).

The O’Jays, Lucien, Lewis and Linx all drop in the U.K. on May 23, with Williams and The Gap Band following a week later on May 30. And of course, each of them come to the U.S. through Amazon a week after their British release dates (May 31 and June 7, respectively). Order them from the label here and hit the jump for the track lists!

The O’Jays, Back Stabbers: Expanded Edition (Big Break Records CDBBR0051, 2011)

1. When the World’s at Peace
2. Back Stabbers
3. Who Am I
4. (They Call Me) Mr. Lucky
5. Time to Get Down
6. 992 Arguments
7. Listen to the Clock on the Wall
8. Shiftless, Shady, Jealous Kind of People
9. Sunshine
10. Love Train
11. 992 Arguments (Single Version)
12. Who Am I (Single Version)
13. Love Train (A Tom Moulton Mix)

Tracks 1-10 from Philadelphia International Records LP KZ-31712 (U.S.)/PIR-65932 (U.K.), 1972
Track 11 from Philadelphia International Records 7″ single ZS7-3522, 1972
Track 12 from Philadelphia International Records 7″ single S PIR-2213 (U.K.), 1972
Track 13 from Philadelphia Classics promo compilation – Philadelphia International Records PZG-34940, 1977

Jon Lucien, Song for My Lady: Expanded Edition (Big Break Records CDBBR0052, 2011)

1. Soul Mate
2. Dindi
3. You Are My Love
4. Creole Lady
5. Song for My Lady
6. Mother Land
7. Maiden Voyage
8. Follow Your Heart
9. Creole Lady (Single Version)
10. Follow Your Heart (Alternative Version)

Tracks 1-8 from Columbia LP PC-33544, 1975
Track 9 from Columbia single 3-10232, 1975
Track 10 possibly from Love Everlasting: The Very Best of Jon Lucien (BMG 74321 66043-2 (U.K.), 1999)

Linda Lewis, Woman Overboard: Expanded Edition (Big Break Records CDBBR0053, 2011)

1. You Came
2. Shining
3. Bonfire
4. Come Back and Finish What You Started
5. No. 1 Heartbreaker
6. Dreamer of Dreams
7. Moon and I
8. Light Years Away
9. My Love is Here to Stay
10. My Friend the Sun
11. So Many Mysteries to Find
12. Flipped Over Your Love
13. Never Been Done Before
14. Can’t We Just Sit Down and Talk It Over

Tracks 1-11 from Arista LP SPARTY 1003 (U.K.), 1977
Track 12 from Arista single 100 (U.K.), 1977
Track 13 from Arista single 125 (U.K.), 1977
Track 14 from Arista single 170 (U.K.), 1977

Linx, Intuition: Expanded Edition (Big Break Records CDBBR0054, 2011)

1. Wonder What You’re Doing Now
2. I Won’t Forget
3. Intuition
4. There’s Love
5. Rise and Shine
6. Throw Away the Key
7. Together We Can Shine
8. Count on Me
9. You’re Lying
10. Don’t Get in My Way
11. You’re Lying (U.K. 12″ Mix)
12. Throw Away the Key (U.K. 12″ Mix)
13. Together We Can Shine (U.S. Recording)
14. Wonder What You’re Doing Now (U.S. Remix)
15. You’re Lying (U.S. Remix)
16. Throw Away the Key (U.S. Remix)

Tracks 1-10 from Chrysalis LP CHR 1332 (U.K.), 1981
Track 11 from Chrysalis 12″ A-side CHS 12 2461 (U.K.), 1980
Track 12 from Chrysalis 12″ A-side CHS 12 2519 (U.K.), 1981
Tracks 13-16 from The Last Linx – Chrysalis CHR 1409 (U.K.), 1983

Deniece Williams, Let’s Hear It for the Boy: Expanded Edition (Big Break Records CDBBR0055, 2011)

1. Let’s Hear It for the Boy
2. I Want You
3. Picking Up the Pieces
4. Black Butterfly
5. Next Love
6. Haunting Me
7. Don’t Tell Me We Have Nothing
8. Blind Dating
9. Wrapped Up
10. Whiter Than Snow
11. Let’s Hear It for the Boy (12″ Dance Mix)
12. Next Love (12″ Dance Mix)
13. Black Butterfly (Single Version)
14. Let’s Hear It for the Boy (Instrumental)
15. Next Love (Instrumental)

Tracks 1-10 released as Columbia LP FC 39366 (U.S.)/CBS LP 26010 (U.K.), 1984
Tracks 11 and 14 from Columbia 12″ single 44-04988 (U.S.), 1984
Tracks 12 and 15 from Columbia 12″ single 44-05043 (U.S.), 1984
Track 13 from Columbia 7″ single 38-04641 (U.S.), 1984

The Gap Band, Gap Band VI: Expanded Edition (Big Break Records CDBBR0056, 2011)

1. Interlude – The Sun Don’t Shine Everyday
2. Video Junkie
3. Weak Spot
4. The Sun Don’t Shine Everyday
5. I Believe
6. I Found My Baby
7. Beep a Freak
8. Don’t You Leave Me
9. Disrespect
10. The Sun Don’t Shine Everyday (Vocal)
11. Beep a Freak (12″ Dance Mix)
12. I Found My Baby (12″ Dance Mix)
13. Disrespect (12″ Dance Mix)

Tracks 1-10 from Total Experience Records LP FL-89426, 1984
Track 11 from Total Experience Records 12″ A-side TED1-2606, 1984
Track 12 from Total Experience Records 12″ A-side TED1-2613, 1985
Track 13 from Total Experience Records 12″ A-side TED1-2615, 1985