Ooh Baby Baby: New “Opus Collection” Celebrates Linda Ronstadt

Starbucks has unveiled the latest addition to its Opus Collection library, and the subject artist is one who’s always beat to a “different drum”: Linda Ronstadt.  Throughout her career, Ronstadt has rocked to Buddy Holly and Warren Zevon, performed Gilbert and Sullivan on Broadway, sang out front of Nelson Riddle’s orchestra, made sweet country harmonies with Dolly Parton and Emmylou Harris, celebrated her rich Mexican heritage, and explored folk and Cajun traditions.  In short, Ronstadt’s remarkable – and remarkably diverse career – can’t possibly be encapsulated on one compact disc, but the new Opus Collection does offer 16 tracks displaying the breadth of Ronstadt’s vocal talents.  It follows other recent releases for the artist including Rhino’s volume of Duets and Universal’s budget-priced ICON compilation.

This Opus Collection spans the period between Ronstadt’s second solo album, 1970’s Silk Purse, and 2006’s Grammy-nominated studio farewell, Adieu, False Heart, a collaborative LP with Ann Savoy.  Following the usual template of this series, Ronstadt’s edition includes a number of hits but eschews others in favor of lesser-known gems.  That the earliest track is Gary White’s ballad “Long, Long Time” is appropriate; with its No. 25 placement on the Billboard Hot 100, it was a milestone for Ronstadt that also earned her a Grammy nomination.  (“Different Drum,” from The Stone Poneys, had reached No. 13 in 1967 but “Long, Long Time” marked Ronstadt’s first major solo hit.)

Compilation producer Steven Stolder has selected some of Ronstadt’s most beloved hits from her amazing streak in the 1970s produced by Peter Asher: “You’re No Good” (No. 1, 1975, from Heart Like a Wheel), “Blue Bayou” (No. 3, 1977, from Simple Dreams), “Poor, Poor Pitiful Me” (No. 31, also from Simple Dreams), and “Ooh Baby Baby” (No. 7, 1979, from Living in the U.S.A.)  Anna McGarrigle’s title track to 1974’s chart-topping album Heart Like a Wheel, featuring an understated piano/string quartet arrangement and the harmony vocals of Maria Muldaur, is also a selection.

Ronstadt’s natural affinity and ability to blend with her fellow singers has never been in doubt.  Opus Collection draws on the Grammy-winning Trio II album from Ronstadt, Dolly Parton and Emmylou Harris for the traditional “Lover’s Return,” first popularized by the Carter Family in the 1930s, and on Adieu False Heart for Ronstadt and Ann Savoy’s delicious reinvention of The Left Banke’s pop hit “Walk Away Renee.”   Another favorite duet partner of Ronstadt’s is the great New Orleans soul man Aaron Neville; he’s heard on Tom Snow, Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil’s “Don’t Know Much,” a No. 2 Pop/No. 1 AC hit in 1989 from the multi-platinum album Cry Like a Rainstorm, Howl Like the Wind.  From that same LP, this collection reprises Jimmy Webb’s poignant “Adios,” featuring the angelic, multi-layered harmonies of Brian Wilson, and the Eric Kaz-written title track.  Kaz also co-wrote the beguiling title song to Ronstadt’s acclaimed 1993 album Winter Light, heard here, with Ronstadt and film score composer Zbigniew Antoni Preisner.

The final quartet of tracks represents Ronstadt’s varied forays into standards.  Puerto Rican singer-songwriter Bobby Capó’s “Piel Canela” is derived from Ronstadt’s Grammy-winning Frenesí.  Two tracks are taken from Ronstadt’s series of albums with the legendary arranger-conductor Nelson Riddle – “What’ll I Do” and “Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered.”  Opus Collection closes with “Cry Me a River,” another venerable standard from the Great American Songbook.  Ronstadt recorded it not with an orchestra, but with a jazz combo, for her 2004 Verve album Hummin’ to Myself.

After the jump, we have more on this set including the complete track listing!

What’s Going On: “Motown 25” Comes To DVD In New Box Set, Highlights DVDs

On the evening of March 25, 1983, the Pasadena Civic Auditorium was alive with the sound of music – the Sound of Young America, to be more specific.  Motown Records was celebrating its 25th anniversary, and producer Suzanne de Passe wasn’t pulling any stops.  “Once in a lifetime” was as overused in 1983 as it is today, but the galaxy of stars assembled by de Passe couldn’t be described any other way: Diana Ross and the Supremes, Marvin Gaye, Lionel Richie and the Commodores, Smokey Robinson and the Miracles, Stevie Wonder, Mary Wells, Martha Reeves, Junior Walker, The Temptations, The Four Tops, and the Jackson 5 were all there.  And the moment Michael Jackson broke out of the shadow of his brothers, once and for all, to show America the moonwalk, the evening billed as Motown: Yesterday, Today, Forever entered into the annals of history.  With host Richard Pryor presiding over reunion performances ranging from the warm (The Miracles) to the seemingly contentious (The Supremes), a Temps/Tops “battle of the bands” and even tribute performances from visiting stars like Adam Ant and Linda Ronstadt, Motown 25 was an event the likes of which wouldn’t be seen again.  The program aired on NBC-TV on May 16, 1983, and was subsequently issued on MGM/UA Home Video in 1991, but DVD release had eluded it…until now.  On September 30, the Emmy Award-winning Motown 25 will arrive from Time Life/StarVista (in conjunction with de Passe Jones Entertainment and Berry Gordy’s West Grand Media) in a variety of formats echoing Time Life’s lavish treatment of The Midnight Special and other titles.

The crown jewel of this campaign is the 6-DVD box set, which – in Time Life/StarVista tradition – will be an online exclusive at MOTOWN25DVDS.COM. It’s available there now for pre-order.  The release features an extended version of the show, with over 20 additional minutes not seen on the original broadcast, as well as a brand-new 5.1 surround sound mix. The 6-DVD set also includes nine newly-produced featurettes and additional bonus features including:

• “Signed, Sealed, Delivered – The Making of Motown 25,” which tells the behind-the-scenes story of the making of the program, and offers new insights into the rise of Motown and its roster of super stars
• “What’s Going On: Marvin Gaye”
• “Come and Get These Memories: Inside Hitsville”
• “Dancing In The Street: History of Motown”
• Rare footage of Marvin Gaye ad-libbing at the piano prior to a soulful version of “What’s Going On”
• Stevie Wonder rehearsal footage
• A two-part Motown 25 Performers Roundtable featuring Smokey Robinson and Duke Fakir (Four Tops), Otis Williams (The Temptations) and Executive Producer Suzanne de Passe, taped at the location of the original concert, the Pasadena Civic Auditorium
• A “Yesterday-Today-Forever” Production Roundtable with de Passe, Director/Producer Don Mischer and others
• Over 25 exclusive interviews with performers and crew, including Claudette Robinson (The Miracles), Martha Reeves (Martha and the Vandellas), Smokey Robinson, Nelson George, Gloria Jones, Adam Ant, Ashford and Simpson, Buz Kohan (Head Writer), David Goldberg (Executive in Charge of Production), Mickey Stevenson (Former Head of A&R/Songwriter), Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis (Songwriters/Producers) and many more.

The box set, pictured above, is packaged with an exclusive 48-page booklet packed with information about the show and artists, production materials and never-before-scene photos from the production, essays on Motown performers, a copy of the original Motown 25 program, and more.

Two versions – a 3-DVD set and a single-disc release – will arrive to retail on September 30.  The 3-DVD set features the concert and over six hours of extras including four featurettes, the Marvin Gaye rehearsal footage, the Performer and Production Roundtables and more.  The single DVD features the newly-remastered concert and over one hour of bonus features.

About the only thing missing from this comprehensive campaign is an audio component, such as a new reissue of the 1983 version of the Grammy-nominated The Motown Story audio documentary or a first-time-ever actual soundtrack of the evening’s performances.  After the jump, we’ll break down the contents of each release for you!

Review: Linda Ronstadt, “Duets”

Tonight, Linda Ronstadt receives her long-overdue recognition into The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. But rock and roll, of course, played only a small – if key – role in Ronstadt’s career. The breadth of that career is revealed on Rhino’s new release of Linda Ronstadt – Duets (Rhino R2 542161), containing fourteen tracks originally released between 1974 and 2006 plus one previously unreleased performance. While there are no duets here from Ronstadt’s Tony-nominated turn in Gilbert and Sullivan’s operetta The Pirates of Penzance or her Mexican recordings , her immersions into the realms of country, folk, jazz, R&B, and of course, Southern California rock are all here. She’s joined by a “Who’s who” of artists including Frank Sinatra, James Taylor, Bette Midler, Emmylou Harris, Dolly Parton, Aaron Neville, James Ingram, and J.D. Souther.  Ronstadt won’t be attending tonight’s ceremony, but her music speaks for itself.

Compiled and remastered by her longtime manager, John Boylan, Duets is a reminder of just how catholic Ronstadt’s tastes were. From her earliest days as a member of country-rock band The Stone Poneys (“Different Drum”), she refused to be pigeonholed in one genre. On Duets, the songs of Irving Berlin and Warren Zevon are performed with the same sympathetic understanding and respect for the art of the song. Boylan has neatly sequenced the compilation as a musical travelogue from folk to country to rock to standards, both modern and vintage.  The sound changes along with the style of song, building and growing from acoustic to orchestral.

Three selections from Ronstadt’s final studio recording, 2006’s Adieu False Heart with Cajun singer Ann Savoy, open Duets. Their tight harmonies on the low-key opening cut, “Adieu, False Heart,” are adorned with light acoustic flourishes, and the already-poignant song takes on additional meaning when placed in context as likely the concluding chapter of Ronstadt’s career as a vocalist. Of the three Savoy duets, however, the most revelatory is their reinvention of The Left Banke’s “Walk Away Renee.” This folk reinterpretation of Michael Brown’s song can’t help but bring to mind Ronstadt’s famous recasting of “oldies” from Motown to Buddy Holly and The Everly Brothers into her own style.

Though Bette Midler is the partner on the fun, Barry Manilow-arranged recording of Irving Berlin’s “Sisters,” Ronstadt’s truest sisters in song might be Emmylou Harris and Dolly Parton. Though there are no recordings here from their Trio recordings, each is represented on one track. On the traditional “I Never Will Marry,” accompanied by just acoustic guitars (Waddy Wachtel and Ronstadt) and dobro (Mike Auldridge), Ronstadt and Parton’s voices blend with a beautiful simplicity. More boisterous is the delightfully bright bounce of Ronstadt and Harris’ take on Hank Williams’ familiar “I Can’t Help It (If I’m Still in Love with You).” Peter Asher’s clean production, featuring the tireless Andrew Gold on guitar, piano and ukelele along with “Sneaky” Pete Kleinow on steel guitar and David Lindley on fiddle, made no concessions to the sound of rock circa 1974. Ronstadt’s affinity for classic country recurs throughout her catalogue, and she blends exquisitely with Carl Jackson on a 2003, fiddle-and-dobro-flecked rendition of The Louvin Brothers’ chestnut “The New Partner Waltz.”

Keep reading after the jump!

Release Round-Up: Week of April 8

ABBA, Waterloo: 40th Anniversary Deluxe Edition / ABBA Gold: Greatest Hits – 40th Anniversary Edition (Polar/UMC)

In celebration of the Swedish quartet’s breakthrough single (and Eurovision contest winner), here are two of many planned ABBA catalogue projects for the year – a CD/DVD expansion of the band’s 1974 album with plenty of rare video footage, and a triple-disc set featuring the band’s best-selling 1992 compilation, a 1993 sequel, More Gold: More ABBA Hits and a new disc of single B-sides.

Waterloo: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.
ABBA Gold: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.

Bobby Darin, The Bobby Darin Show (MPI)

Thirteen full-length episodes of the great entertainer’s NBC variety show make it to DVD with guest appearances from Dusty Springfield, Petula Clark, Peggy Lee, Nancy Sinatra and more!  The 3-DVD set also includes bonus material such as newsreel, promo and documentary footage. (Amazon U.S.)

Emmylou Harris, Wrecking Ball: Deluxe Edition (Nonesuch)

Harris’ Grammy-winning 1995 album, produced by Daniel Lanois, is expanded with a bonus disc of a dozen outtakes and a new documentary on the making of the LP. (Amazon U.S. /Amazon U.K.)

Linda Ronstadt, Duets (Rhino)

As we prepare for Ronstadt’s deserved acceptance into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame this week, this compilation offers several of her greatest hits with partners. (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.)

Chaka Khan, Chaka: 35th Anniversary Edition / Evelyn “Champagne” King, Action – The Evelyn “Champagne” King Anthology 1977-1986 (Big Break Records)

Chaka’s debut solo album and a new Evelyn King compilation are up from the U.K. soul reissue label this week. As always, a full rundown of BBR’s titles will be coming soon!

Chaka: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.
Evelyn: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.

 

Jo Stafford, Live in London 1959 (Sepia)

Sepia unearths a rare concert from the late vocalist, recorded at the London Palladium and featuring songs by Lerner and Loewe, Rodgers and Hammerstein, Cole Porter and others. (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.)

Somewhere Out There: Linda Ronstadt’s Greatest “Duets” Arrive On CD in April

On April 10, Linda Ronstadt joins the class of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame – an honor that was certainly not needed to acknowledge Ronstadt’s place as among the top vocalists of her generation, but a welcome and long-overdue honor nonetheless.  Two days earlier, Rhino celebrates the career of the versatile artist with the release of Linda Ronstadt – Duets.  Its fifteen tracks encompass performances alongside artists including Aaron Neville, Emmylou Harris, Don Henley, Frank Sinatra, James Taylor, Dolly Parton, James Ingram and others, including one previously unreleased recording with bluegrass musician Laurie Lewis.

Curated with the cooperation of Ronstadt and her longtime manager, John Boylan, Duets touches on the varied sides of Ronstadt the artist.  Since her earliest days as a member of The Stone Poneys, she’s refused to allow herself to be pigeonholed in one genre.  That inclination towards musical exploration has led her to treat the works of Gilbert and Sullivan, Rodgers and Hart, Warren Zevon, Lowell George, and Jackson Browne with the same kind of respect and innate understanding.  The Rock Hall induction comes on the heels of the publication of Ronstadt’s memoir Simple Dreams and her sad announcement that Parkinson’s disease has left her unable to sing.  Ronstadt has never completely fit in with the rock clique, despite having placed 38 singles on the Billboard Hot 100 (including ten that went Top Ten) and 36 entries on the album chart, including ten that reached the Top Ten there too, and three that hit the top spot!

Duets draws on a variety of sources spanning 1974 to 2006.  A number of tracks show Ronstadt’s love of country music, including duets with her Trio partners Dolly Parton (1977’s “I Never Will Marry”) and Emmylou Harris (1974’s Grammy-winning “I Can’t Help It (If I’m Still in Love with You)”).  Other tracks draw on the group of Southern California/Laurel Canyon rockers in which Ronstadt flourished commercially and artistically; Eagles’ Don Henley joins Ronstadt on the harmonies of Warren Zevon’s “Hasten Down the Wind,” and J.D. Souther sings on his own “Prisoner in Disguise.”  James Taylor, who shared a producer with Ronstadt in Peter Asher and recorded many of his best works with that SoCal flavor, duets on a revival of the Ike and Tina Turner staple “I Think It’s Gonna Work Out Fine.”  Ronstadt, whose three collaborations with Nelson Riddle remain among the finest expressions of her art, is heard on a couple of Great American Songbook standards via “Moonlight in Vermont” with Frank Sinatra from Old Blue Eyes’ Duets II project, and Irving Berlin’s “Sisters” with Bette Midler from Midler’s 2003 Rosemary Clooney tribute album produced by Barry Manilow.

Among the most successful tracks here are the Grammy-winning “Somewhere Out There” written by Barry Mann, Cynthia Weil and James Horner for Don Bluth’s 1986 animated film An American Tail, on which Ronstadt duets with James Ingram, and two tracks with New Orleans’ legendary Aaron Neville from their joint album Cry Like a Rainstorm, Howl Like the Wind.  “Don’t Know Much” reunited Ronstadt with Mann and Weil, this time writing with Tom Snow.  The song had been performed previously by Mann, Bill Medley, Bette Midler, Glenn Jones and even Dallas actress Audrey Landers, but Ronstadt and Neville took it all the way to No. 2 Pop/No. 1 AC in 1989, also picking up a Grammy for their trouble.  “All My Life,” written by Karla Bonoff, won yet another Grammy, and though it barely missed the Pop Top 10 at No. 11, it also topped the AC chart.  Ronstadt had been an early champion of Bonoff’s songs, recording three of them on 1976’s Hasten Down the Wind.  The three most recent tracks on Duets hail from what will likely remain Ronstadt’s final studio album, Adieu False Heart with Cajun music singer Ann Savoy, including a cover of the Left Banke’s 1966 hit “Walk Away Renée.”

After the jump: more on Duets, including the complete track listing and pre-order links!

And One More For The Road: Frank Sinatra’s “Duets” Goes Super Deluxe In November

The way he wore his hat…the way he sipped his tea (or likely, something stronger)…the memory of all that…no, they can’t take that away from us.  Frank Sinatra’s influence is still felt every day – in style, in attitude, especially in song.  Though 2013 has been a quiet year for the Chairman’s catalogue, that’s about to change on November 19 when Capitol and UMe celebrate the twentieth anniversary of Sinatra’s triple-platinum Duets album with a variety of commemorative reissues including a 2-CD/1-DVD Super Deluxe Edition, 2-CD Deluxe Edition and 2-LP vinyl set.  All iterations will include Duets II, the 1994 Grammy-winning follow-up, and both CD editions will include bonus duets with Tom Scott, Tanya Tucker, Willie Nelson, Luciano Pavarotti and George Strait.

Duets, originally released on November 2, 1993, marked Sinatra’s return to Capitol Records after a more than thirty-year absence.  His first studio album for the label since 1962’s Point of No Return, Duets teamed the celebrated icon with producer Phil Ramone, co-producer Hank Cattaneo, and a host of performers from various musical styles.  Some of Sinatra’s choices for duet partners were naturals, such as his friends Tony Bennett (his self-professed “favorite singer”) and Liza Minnelli, or Barbra Streisand.  Others came from the worlds of R&B (Luther Vandross, Anita Baker, Queen of Soul Aretha Franklin), and rock (Bono).  Natalie Cole, daughter of Nat, had a deep connection to the standards created by the likes of Sinatra and her dad, while Carly Simon had ventured into the Great American Songbook on her 1981 collection Torch.  Gloria Estefan, Julio Iglesias and Charles Aznavour all added international flavor to the album.

Phil Ramone was able to deftly blend Sinatra’s classic style of recording with modern technological advances allowing for virtual duets.  He chose to record Sinatra in Capitol’s Studio A, the same room Sinatra had inaugurated in 1956.  Sinatra would sing an array of his most famous songs in front of a live orchestra, as always, with musical director Patrick Williams conducting his own charts as well as those by Nelson Riddle, Don Costa, Billy Byers and Quincy Jones.  Ramone told The Independent just before the album’s release, “We had separated him from the band in the beginning – not extremely, but with enough separators and bits of plexiglass and stuff and he was very uncomfortable.  He said, ‘I wanna be with the guys.’ The only thing to do was to put him out in the middle of the room…We put [his longtime accompanist] Bill Miller in front of him, so he could tease him, bust him. Bill’s been with him 40 years…Ordinarily, I would use two mikes on him – one above, one below. But he wasn’t comfortable, so I got him a stool and a hand-mike. It’s a way in which I’ve recorded Jagger and Bono. It’s not going to win any audio awards. But he’s the most comfortable with that. He did nine songs one night, straight. Three of the tracks that made it to the album are Take Ones.”  As he recalled in his book Making Records, Ramone utilized the Entertainment Digital Network system, developed in part by George Lucas’ Skywalker Sound, to record the duet partners via long-distance: Aznavour in Paris, Minnelli in Brazil, Bono in Ireland, Estefan and Iglesias in Miami, and Franklin and Baker in Detroit.

Duets was an unqualified commercial success, reaching No. 2 on the Billboard album chart in the U.S. and No. 5 in the U.K., and selling over three million copies in the United States.  The following year, Capitol released Duets II, once again in time for the holidays.  This time, Ramone and Sinatra corralled an arguably even more diverse gallery of duet partners.  Sinatra’s pals Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gorme showed up, as did old friend Antonio Carlos Jobim and the legendary Lena Horne.  Willie Nelson, who successfully transformed standards into his own laconic style on Stardust, joined Sinatra, as did Linda Ronstadt, who shared with Sinatra a close collaboration with Nelson Riddle.  Neil Diamond, Jimmy Buffett, Chrissie Hynde, Gladys Knight and Stevie Wonder all brought their instantly recognizable styles to Duets II.  Frank Sinatra, Jr. even joined his pop on a swinging “My Kind of Town.”  Duets II also made the Billboard Top 10, though it fared less well abroad with a No. 29 peak in the United Kingdom.  It went on to sell over one million copies and netted Sinatra the 1995 Grammy Award for Best Traditional Pop Vocal Performance.

What will you find on Capitol’s various anniversary editions of Duets?  Hit the jump!

Release Round-Up: Week of May 21

The Beach Boys, Live: The 50th Anniversary Tour (Capitol)

Brian, Mike, Al, Bruce and David may not be touring again anytime soon, but at least we now have two discs of live memories to play. (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.)

Townes Van Zandt, The Late Great Townes Van Zandt / High, Low and In Between (Omnivore)

You heard the demos, now rediscover these great country albums, on CD or vinyl!

Late Great CD (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.), LP (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.)
High, Low CD (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.), LP (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.)

Various Artists, FM: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack (Culture Factory USA)

The hit-filled soundtrack, featuring the Steely Dan single of the same name, is the latest to get the Culture Factory LP replica treatment. (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.)

Southside Johnny & The Asbury Jukes, Diana Ross, Donna Summer, Jeff Buckley, Chet Atkins et al., Playlist: The Very Best of (Legacy)

A dozen or so new entries in the Playlist series are coming your way this week. Watch this space tomorrow for a full breakdown on them all!

Release Round-Up: Week of December 4

Johnny Cash, The Complete Columbia Collection (Columbia/Legacy)

Perhaps the biggest box set of the quarter (maybe the whole year?), this 63-disc set collects all of The Man in Black’s Columbia albums from The Fabulous Johnny Cash (1959) to Live at Madison Square Garden (recorded in 1969 and released in 2002), plus an expansion of the Sun album Johnny Cash with His Hot and Blue Guitar (1957) and two discs of non-LP singles and other odds and ends.  Here’s Joe’s review of the whole set!   (Amazon U.S. / U.K.)

Smashing Pumpkins, Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness: Deluxe Edition (Virgin/EMI)

“Tonight, Tonight” (or today, today) is the day to get the latest Smashing Pumpkins catalogue project: four discs (three CDs and a DVD) of bonus material appended to the original double LP! (Amazon U.S. / U.K.) A triple-vinyl remaster of the original album is also available (Amazon U.S. / U.K.), as is a basic remaster of the album on two discs. (Amazon U.S. / U.K.)

The Who, The Studio Albums (Geffen/UMe)

Every one of The Who’s 11 main albums, newly remastered and replicated for vinyl. (Amazon U.S. / U.K.)

KISS, The Casablanca Singles 1974-1982 (Mercury/Casablanca/UMe)

Every A and B-side from KISS’ Casablanca years, replicated on CD (Amazon U.S. / U.K.) and, allegedly, vinyl singles, though we’ve never found a retail link for that version, outside of an outsize expensive link from Universal itself.

T. Rex, The Slider: 40th Anniversary Edition Box Set (Edsel)

A super-deluxe take on T. Rex’s iconic LP, featuring the original album remastered by Tony Visconti, two discs of B-sides, demos and outtakes, a DVD, two books, a vinyl LP and three 7″ singles. (Amazon U.K. / U.S.)

Mary Wells, Something New: Motown Lost & Found (Hip-O Select/Motown)

Two discs of rare and unreleased Mary Wells tunes from the fabled Motown vaults! (Amazon U.S. / U.K.)

Johnny Mathis, So Nice/Johnny Mathis Sings / John Hatford, Aero-Plane/Morning Bugle: The Complete Warner Bros. Recordings / The Grateful Dead, Dick’s Picks Vol. 26–4/26/69 Electric Theater, Chicago, IL 4/27/69 Labor Temple Minneapolis, MN / Gene Harris, Gene Harris/The Three Sounds/Gene Harris of The Three Sounds / Bobbi Humphrey, Dig This / Jeremy Steig, Wayfaring Stranger (Real Gone)

Real Gone’s December slate includes the last of the Johnny Mathis/Mercury two-fers, another Dick’s Pick reissue and three Blue Note selections reissued on the resurrected Dusty Groove imprint! (Head here for pre-order links on all these sets.)

The Prodigy, The Fat of the Land: 15th Anniversary Edition (XL)

The Prodigy’s breakthrough album remastered and expanded with Added Fat, an EP of new remixes of tracks like “Firestarter,” “Breathe” and “Smack My Bitch Up.” (Amazon U.S. / U.K.) That EP is available separately on vinyl (Amazon U.S. / U.K.), as is a vinyl reissue of the original LP (Amazon U.S.).

Alice Cooper, Old School 1964-1974 (Bigger Picture)

Remember this box set? This is a condensed version – just CDs, no vinyl or extra swag. (Amazon U.S. / U.K.)

The Hooters, Nervous Night/One Way Home/Zig Zag (BGO)

All three of The Hooters’ Columbia albums on one handy two-disc set. (Amazon U.K. / U.S.)

And here are some vinyl reissues for your enjoyment!

Love, Forever Changes (180 Gram) (Elektra/Rhino)

The Moody Blues, Days of Future Passed (180 Gram) (Friday Music)

Linda Ronstadt, Heart Like a Wheel (RockBeat)

Sade, Promise (180 Gram) (Audio Fidelity)

Friday Feature: “An American Tail”

Let’s get the opinions out of the way: An American Tail is not a great movie. I’m not even sure it’s a good movie; I probably wouldn’t even be writing this had it not been an early childhood favorite. But while the film doesn’t quite pan out as a cohesive piece of work, there are some great parts – an interesting approach to plot and animation, and certainly a brilliant batch of soundtrack writing – that make the film worth writing about.

The thing you have to remember about An American Tail, released 25 years ago during the holiday season of 1986, was that the animated flick didn’t have much in the way of direct competition. Disney was three years away from their stunning reinvention as a pop-art animation studio, having most recently released The Great Mouse Detective months earlier. Adding insult to injury – at least for Disney – was the fact that the director was Don Bluth, an ex-Disney animator who had enjoyed some success with The Secret of NIMH (1983) and the laserdisc-based video game Dragon’s Lair (1983).

The story, however, is the kind of classic family yarn you’d expect from the film’s producer, Steven Spielberg. It’s the story of a family of Russian Jews who move to America, and the son, Fievel (named for Spielberg’s grandfather), who gets separated from the family before arriving at Ellis Island and has an adventure trying to find them. Of course, it’s an animated movie, so the family is made up of mice (the Mousekewitz family), but the fine-tuned pathos, not to mention a genuine interest in maintaining a modicum of accuracy to the real-life uphill climb of immigrants in America, is palpable when you watch this movie as an adult.

Part of the fun of An American Tail is its musical sensibilities, both in orchestral score and the four Disney-esque musical numbers peppered throughout the film. Anticipating the trend of classic Disney soundtracks from the likes of Alan Menken and Howard Ashman (renowned for their offbeat Broadway-pop tunes in Little Shop of Horrors) in the late ’80s and early ’90s, the production team recruited rising composer James Horner to provide the musical score, and paired him with legendary songwriting duo Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil for the numbers “There Are No Cats in America,” “A Duo,” “Never Say Never” and “Somewhere Out There.” The work as a whole brims with hummable themes, from the mournful, Eastern European-flavored violin solo representing the plight of the Mouskewitzes to the multi-national pastiche of “There Are No Cats,” where various immigrants justify their risky travel to the New World.

But the film’s signature song, the yearning “Somewhere Out There” (sung in the film by Fievel and his sister Tanya, neither of whom realize they’re both in the same city), was a surprise to even Mann and Weil. The composers stated in interviews that there was no pressure to write a hit single, and were in fact surprised when Spielberg suggested that “Somewhere Out There” would have crossover potential. A version uniting Linda Ronstadt and James Ingram and produced by Peter Asher was recorded and indeed became a smash, peaking at No. 2 in the U.S. and winning Song of the Year at the 30th Grammy Awards in 1988. (It lost both Oscar and Golden Globes to Berlin’s “Take My Breath Away” from Top Gun.)

After the jump, check out the soundtrack’s release history and read about the music to the sequel!

Different Drums: Music Club Compiles Linda Ronstadt and George Benson

The U.K.-based Music Club Deluxe label continues to raid the Warner Music Group archives with two new collections following similar sets for Dionne Warwick and Chicago.  Linda Ronstadt: The Collection and George Benson: The Collection are both due next Monday, September 5, and these 2-CD sets celebrate the long careers of two music legends.

Ronstadt’s fans will be glad to know that Music Club Deluxe has licensed tracks from Capitol Records to create a fairly comprehensive overview of the artist’s career.  At 46 tracks, it’s quite generous, eclipsing the 2-CD edition of The Very Best of Linda Ronstadt issued by Time-Life in 2003 (Warner Special Products/Time Life R162-26) which itself expanded the 21-track collection of the same title (Rhino R2 76109, 2002).  (This set bears the same striking cover portrait as those releases.)  Despite having placed 38 singles on the Billboard Hot 100, including ten that went Top Ten, and 36 entries on the album chart, including ten that reached the Top Ten there too (her magic number!) and three that hit pole position, Ronstadt is often overlooked by the rock cognoscenti.  The Collection is a reminder of her mastery of many genres, as it goes so far to include not only her most beloved Southern California country-rock hit singles, but also a couple of tracks performed in Spanish and one standard (“What’s New”) recorded with Nelson Riddle and his orchestra.  It’s her definitive interpretations of songs by other artists, though, that dominate: Roy Orbison, Buddy Holly, Paul Anka, Mike Nesmith, Warren Zevon, Don Henley and Glenn Frey all saw their royalties accumulate substantially thanks to Ronstadt’s catalogue. 

Gazing at the track list, it’s clear that this California rock legend’s taste in songwriters has always been top-notch; she was an early champion of the works of Jackson Browne, J.D. Souther, Karla Bonoff, Randy Newman, Lowell George, Neil Young, Jimmy Webb and so many others.  The Collection includes a number of lesser-known album tracks alongside the familiar classics, although the non-chronological sequencing might drive a person crazy!  The compilation’s two discs span from 1967’s Stone Poneys LP Evergreen, Volume 2 (“Different Drum”) through 1996’s Dedicated to the One I Love (the title track and “Be My Baby”).

Hit the jump for the full track listing of both titles and pre-order links, plus more on George Benson’s Collection!