Release Round-Up: Week of June 3

Led Zeppelin, Led Zeppelin I / Led Zeppelin II / Led Zeppelin III: Deluxe Editions (Swan Song/Atlantic)

Anyone ever heard these albums? Interesting stuff. I don’t know about you, but I’d predict big things for these guys.

Led Zeppelin
1CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.
1LP: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.
2CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.
3LP: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.
2CD/3LP Super Deluxe: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.

Led Zeppelin II
1CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.
1LP: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.
2CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.
2LP: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.
2CD/2LP Super Deluxe: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.

Led Zeppelin III
1CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.
1LP: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.
2CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.
2LP: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.
2CD/2LP Super Deluxe: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.

Soundgarden, Superunknown: 20th Anniversary Deluxe Edition (A&M/UMe)

This grunge-pop classic comes back with a vengeance as a bonus-filled box set featuring demos, outtakes, rare tracks and a surround mix on Blu-ray.

1CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.
2CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.
2LP: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.
4CD/1BD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.

Morrissey, Vauxhall and I: 20th Anniversary Definitive Master (Parlophone/Rhino)

It would appear that Moz and I share the same opinion of this record: so good, the track list doesn’t need to be played with. Add an unreleased live show from 1995 on a bonus CD, and this is a heck of a set for the discerning fan.

2CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.
Vinyl: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.

The 5th Dimension, Earthbound/ Vikki Carr,  Love Again – The Lost Columbia Masters / Vikki Carr, The First Time Ever (I Saw Your Face) (Expanded Edition) / Robert Bearns & Ron Dexter, The Best of the Golden Voyage / The Sweet Inspirations, The Complete Atlantic Singles Plus / Faith Hope & Charity, Faith Hope & Charity (Expanded Edition) /Fanny, Charity Ball (Expanded Edition) / Linda Martell, Color Me Country / The Grateful Dead, Dick’s Picks Vol. 18 – Dane County Coliseum, Madison, WI 2/3/78 Uni-Dome, University of N. Iowa, Cedar Falls, IA 2/5/78 (Real Gone Music)

Another great Real Gone slate features two titles with liner notes from our own Joe Marchese – The 5th Dimension’s Earthbound and Vikki Carr’s The First Time Ever (I Saw Your Face)!

The 5th Dimension: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.
Vikki Carr/Love Again: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.
Vikki Carr/The First Time Ever (I Saw Your Face): Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.
Robert Bearns & Ron Dexter: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.
The Sweet Inspirations: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.
Faith Hope & Charity: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.
Fanny: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.
Linda Martell: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.
Grateful Dead: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.

Nat “King” Cole, The Extraordinary Nat “King” Cole (Capitol)

This new compilation – available as a two-disc deluxe edition with a host of rare and newly-discovered tracks – does a pretty darn good job of living up to its name.

Standard 1CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.
Deluxe 2CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.
Blu-ray Audio: Analogue Productions

Elvis Presley, Bossa Nova Baby: The Ultimate Elvis Party Album (RCA/Legacy)

A new Elvis compilation for your summer party features some of the usual hits plus a few tracks from the Cirque du Soleil Viva Elvis show to rediscover. (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.)

Carol Williams & The Salsoul Orchestra, ‘Lectric Lady: Expanded Edition (Big Break)

An expanded version of the debut album by Carol Williams, the first female solo act signed to the Salsoul label! (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.)

Release Round-Up: Week of May 27

Holland-Dozier-Holland: The Complete 45s Collection: Invictus/Hot Wax/Music Merchant 1969-1977 (Harmless)

The H-D-H compositions/production didn’t stop after the trio left Motown; they in fact created several labels and did an awful lot of work for them, as evidenced by this massive eight-disc box set of their works for three labels through the late ’60s and ’70s. (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.)

KISS, KISS 40 (UMe)

You wanted the best, you got the best, in the form of a double-disc hits compilation representing every KISS studio, live and compilation album with some rare tracks and an unreleased demo for collectors. (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.)

Stan Getz and Joao Gilberto, Getz/Gilberto: 50th Anniversary Edition (Verve)

The 50th anniversary edition of the landmark bossa nova classic presents the album in both mono and stereo, with the mono version appearing on CD for the first time.  It also adds two original single sides and new liner notes from Marc Myers. (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.)

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

Legacy’s long-running Playlist series now features new single-disc compilations for American Idol contestants Adam Lambert and Kellie Pickler (both featuring unreleased performances from the TV series) and a very diverse collection for Rick Derringer (“Rock and Roll, Hoochie Koo,” “Hang On Sloopy” and “Real American” on one disc?!).

Johnny Cash duets: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.
Rick Derringer: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.
Celine Dion (All the Way…A Decade of Song): Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.
The Fifth Dimension: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.
George Jones duets: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.
Adam Lambert: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.
Kellie Pickler: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.
Elvis Presley – Movie Songs: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.
Edgar Winter: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.

REO Speedwagon, The Box Set Series (Epic/Legacy)

Part of Legacy’s four-disc budget series, this title sets itself apart with a really cool gem: the inaugural release of the original studio version of live favorite “Ridin’ the Storm Out,” with Kevin Cronin’s vocal (he was replaced briefly by singer Mike Murphy following creative disputes). (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.)

Patti LaBelle, Tasty / Carolyn Franklin, If You Want Me (Big Break)

The latest from BBR: Joe’s full rundowns are coming soon!

Patti LaBelle: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.
Carolyn Franklin: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.

Swan Esther: Original Concept Album  (Stage Door)

Stage Door Records has the CD premiere of Nick Munns and J. Edward Oliver’s 1983 British musical retelling of the Biblical story of Esther, starring Denis Quilley and Stephanie Lawrence.  This special edition adds a number of never-before-released demos recorded in 1985 for the revised show’s touring premiere as Swan Esther and The King. (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.)

Real Gone Unearths 5th Dimension, Vanilla Fudge and More for Late April

Real Gone Music isn’t letting up, with six heavy-hitting reissues announced for an April 29 release, including compilations for Vanilla Fudge and The 5th Dimension, long-lost recordings by Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys and more!

We’ve already told you about RGM’s plans to release 10 tracks from the band’s famed radio-only “Tiffany Transcriptions” – four of which won’t be available on any other release – as a Record Store Day exclusive. A two-disc, 50-track set of those recordings from 1946-1947 will be available in the label’s latest release batch. So, too, will a single-disc set of Vanilla Fudge’s complete single sides for Atco Records, Yes keyboardist Rick Wakeman’s soundtrack for the 1976 Olympics documentary White Rock, an expansion of punk titans X’s 1982 album Under the Big Black Sun and jazz saxophonist Cannonball Adderley’s long-out-of-print live double album Black Messiah from 1970.

If we can allow our biases to show for just a second, our most anticipated release of this batch is handily The 5th Dimension’s Earthbound: The Complete ABC Recordings. The psychedelic group was best known for their works on Soul City and Bell, of course, but this final album of the original band’s from 1975 is ripe for rediscovery. And what better way to help rediscover this period than with new liner notes from The Second Disc’s own Joe Marchese? These liners, a perfect sequel to Joe’s work for Real Gone’s reissued soundtracks to Together? and Toomorrow and Keith Allison’s forthcoming In Action: The Complete Columbia Sides Plus, include brand-new interviews he conducted with Marilyn McCoo and Billy Davis, Jr. – and I’ll say it again: in this writer’s humble opinion, there are fewer writers who’d approach this project with as much professionalism and unencumbered enthusiasm.  This title is now scheduled for June 3, 2014 release.

So make sure you keep your eyes peeled for these new sets, all of which – save Earthbound – are due on April 29. Hit the jump for the full press release and Amazon links!

Review: Marilyn McCoo and Billy Davis, Jr., “The Two of Us” and “Marilyn & Billy”

When Marilyn McCoo and Billy Davis, Jr. departed The 5th Dimension following the release of 1975’s Earthbound, their commercial success as a duo was far from a sure thing.  Despite being a worthy follow-up to the 5th Dimension’s magnum opus The Magic Garden and a reunion with that album’s composer-lyricist-producer Jimmy Webb, Earthbound didn’t rekindle the group’s fortunes.  But McCoo and Davis knew they had one thing going for them: their union, one which is still going strong today.  That unbreakable bond did, in fact, translate into a Pop and R&B No. 1 with “You Don’t Have to Be a Star (To Be in My Show)” from their ABC Records debut as a twosome, 1976’s I Hope We Get to Love in Time.  Though that album has been released on CD in the past – more than once, actually – its two follow-ups have been out-of-print since their original issues.  Real Gone Music has come to the rescue with expanded editions of both 1977’s The Two of Us (RGM-0172) and 1978’s Columbia release Marilyn & Billy (RGM-0173).

As part of The 5th Dimension, Marilyn and Billy were chief practitioners of the genre dubbed by some pundits as “champagne soul.”  The members of The 5th Dimension certainly had the chops for pure R&B; just listen to Marilyn’s heartbreaking solo on “If I Could Reach You” or Billy’s wild improvisation on “Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In.”  But the group’s timeless music – penned by the likes of Webb, Burt Bacharach and Hal David, and most memorably, Laura Nyro – epitomized soul with a classy, sophisticated pop twist.  I Hope We Get to Love in Time certainly didn’t turn its back on smooth pop, though the 5th Dimension’s longtime producer Bones Howe’s jazz/orchestral stylings were downplayed by new producer Don Davis.  (Florence LaRue, Ron Townson and Lamont McLemore soldiered on as The 5th Dimension in Marilyn and Billy’s absence, recording for both ABC and Motown.)

For The Two of Us, producer Davis was out, and Frank E. Wilson was in.  In other respects, though, the LP picked up where its predecessor left off, blending melodic ballads with lightly funky up-tempo showcases.  The real-life couple complemented each other vocally as well as in every other respect; McCoo brought her expressive and pristine pop vocals and Davis his emotive and more rough-hewn R&B sound to tracks like the sparkling up-tempo single (and album opener) “Look What You’ve Done to My Heart.”  McCoo and Davis trade off on lines before uniting their voices as one tight, powerful unit.

The songs on The Two of Us are cast in a positive mold that’s easy to interpret as autobiographical.  And why not?  With her old group, Marilyn transformed Laura Nyro’s “Wedding Bell Blues” into something very personal, and in doing so created one of the best records of the 1960s. On Carl Hampton and Homer Banks’ breezy, mid-tempo “Wonderful,” Billy croons to his wife, “I never had a dream come true, ‘til the day I laid eyes on you,” while on the bubbly disco-lite of “My Very Special Darling,” they ask each other, “Darling, can’t you see that I love you?” even though there couldn’t have been any doubt.  “My Reason for Being is You” is a worthy successor to the dramatic ballads Marilyn led with the 5th Dimension, as is the lush title track written by Stephen O’Hara.  Bob Alcivar, the arranger behind many of the group’s classics, supplied a composition of his own to The Two of Us, and it’s one of the album’s most rewarding as well as most unusual.   “Nightsong” shows off the singers’ purity of tone, as their vocals glide often wordlessly over a fusion-style backing.  Art Posey and Josef Powell, who also wrote “My Very Special Darling,” contributed another jazzy track, the offbeat “The Times.”  The most personal track on the album is Davis’ own “In My Lifetime,” which, while sung by both McCoo and Davis, plays out like a love song from a husband to his wife.  Producer-arranger Wilson applies an AM-ready pop sheen to the song, but it remains intimate thanks to its vocal interplay.

If The Two of Us pales in comparison at all to I Hope We Get to Love in Time, it’s only because there’s not one track as instantly irresistible as “You Don’t Have to Be a Star.”  But it’s thoroughly enjoyable listening, and even more so in Real Gone’s deluxe edition.  Reissue producer Jim Pierson has added four bonus tracks, culled from ABC singles.  The ballad “I’m So Glad I Found You” would have fit comfortably on The Two of Us, but “There’s Got to Be a Happy Ending” allowed both vocalists to cut loose.  Even more exciting is the inclusion of a rare Billy Davis, Jr. solo single, “Light a Candle” b/w “Three Steps from True Love.”  Like his wife, Davis has a distinctive voice that is instantly familiar; hearing it in a grittier solo setting adds a new dimension – pun intended.  The rhythmic “Three Steps” is almost gospel-disco, with Davis wailing in sanctified style over the danceable beat.

After the jump: Marilyn and Billy head to Columbia Records!

Marilyn McCoo and Billy Davis, Jr., P-Funk Offshoot Parlet and More Join Dionne Warwick on Real Gone’s July Slate

The July slate for Real Gone Music has been announced, and things are really heating up!  We’ve already filled you in at length about the pair of anthologies coming your way from Dionne Warwick, We Need To Go Back: The Unissued Warner Bros. Masters and The Complete Warner Bros. Singles, two of the most ambitious releases yet from the prolific label.  But that’s not all.  Real Gone is completing their July 30 release schedule with a pair of long-awaited titles from Marilyn McCoo and Billy Davis, Jr., another pair from George Clinton’s Parlet, and two truly outré gems from Tonto’s Expanding Head Band (!) and the Brian Eno-produced Portsmouth Sinfonia.

Real Gone is heading into another Dimension for another pair of reissues – the 5th Dimension, to be exact.  When Marilyn McCoo and Billy Davis, Jr. departed the “champagne soul” vocal group to pursue success as a husband-and-wife recording career, they were quickly rewarded with the success of “You Don’t Have to Be a Star (To Be in My Show).”  The song written by James Dean and John Glover, from their I Hope We Get to Love in Time LP, reached No. 1 on both the Pop and R&B charts, winning them a Grammy Award and going Top 10 in the U.K., as well.  But while I Hope We Get to Love in Time has been reissued on CD twice – once by Razor & Tie and once by Collectors’ Choice Music – its two follow-ups have languished on vinyl.  Real Gone is bringing – at last! – The Two of Us (1977) and Marilyn and Billy (1978) to CD for the very first time.  The former has been expanded with the non-LP singles “I’m So Glad I Found You” and “There’s Got to Be a Happy Ending,” as well as with Billy Davis’s solo singles “Light a Candle” and “Three Steps from True Love.”  One bonus track adorns Marilyn and Billy, the extended 12-inch mix of “Shine On Silver Moon.”  Mike Ragogna provides new liner notes for both reissues, and both albums have been remastered at Battery Studios.  Marilyn McCoo and Billy Davis, Jr. remain partners in marriage and music today, and these albums find them in their pop-soul vocal prime.

Hit the jump to dive into the rest of the Real Gone schedule, including pre-order links!

Can You Surry, Can You Picnic? Ace, Legacy Celebrate the Songs of Laura Nyro

In Wendy Wasserstein’s play Third, a professor is sitting at her desk, cigarette in hand, listening to “Wedding Bell Blues.”  Her student enters, and recognizes the tune: “Is that the 5th Dimension?”  The professor sharply replies, “Not in my office!”  Beat.  “It’s Laura Nyro.  She wrote it.”  He replies, “Cool.  Does she have anything new out?”  Professor Nancy Gordon answers, “She died of ovarian cancer a few years ago,” and changes the subject.  Cancer would take Wendy Wasserstein, too, like Laura Nyro a quintessential New York artist.  In her mere 49 years, Nyro’s work spoke to generations of fans, captivated by her juxtaposition in song of heaven and earth.  And like Professor Gordon in the play, many fans felt that only Laura could do justice to her singular songs, despite the fact that she wrote hit records for Barbra Streisand, Three Dog Night, Blood Sweat and Tears, and yes, The 5th Dimension.  Well, now you can decide for yourself.

Laura Nyro was drawn lyrically to lonely and loving women, and two-timing, tom-catting flim flam men.  Ace Records has just compiled a new multi-artist anthology of her songs, and Sassafras and Moonshine: The Songs of Laura Nyro (CDCHD 1336) is a lustrous collection of some of the finest pop songs ever written.  And only one of those aforementioned artists appears, with the collection choosing to put the spotlight on some deliciously rare renditions from the songwriter’s catalogue rather than assembling just her most famous radio hits.  Laura’s own recordings are absent, but a new collection from Legacy Recordings fills that gap, too.  Playlist: The Very Best of Laura Nyro (88725477022) offers fourteen examples of Nyro Sings Nyro, culled from nine albums.

Laura Nyro’s songs possessed both a deep spirituality and a keen appreciation of earthly joys, often both at the same time in one three-minute recording!  Though New York-born and bred, she also frequently embraced bucolic imagery, finding something mystical in nature and in simple pleasures.  Only Nyro could have made “sassafras and moonshine” in “Stoned Soul Picnic” into something magical; and who else would have characterized her subject as having “his mean streak from the gutter, his kindness from God” than this empathetic woman?  Nyro’s imaginative, evocative wordplay wasn’t always literal; when performing her own hit “Stoney End” in 2006, Barbra Streisand joked with her audience that she never understood the words: “What is the stoney end?”  But however fanciful her lyrics could be, Nyro always imparted her meaning with vivid emotion.

Though her songs were intensely personal, they stylistically reflected a varied pool of influences, making them quite adaptable for recordings by other singers.  A full nine of the twelve titles from her 1967 debut album, More Than a New Discovery, are heard on Sassafras and Moonshine.  Rock, folk, soul, jazz, doo-wop, Brill Building pop, theatre music and even gospel all figured into her special, idiosyncratic brand of music.  Artists in nearly all of those genres get a chance to “spread their wings and fly” on Ace’s new compilation.  And Nyro likely would have approved that Sassafras and Moonshine overwhelmingly consists of recordings from female artists.  It appropriately, leads off with “Sweet Blindness” in the 5th Dimension’s irresistibly rollicking arrangement from Bob Alcivar, Ray Pohlman and Bill Holman, as produced by Bones Howe.  The group became closely identified with Nyro, recording eight of her songs including the blissful pop perfection of “Wedding Bell Blues.”  Here, that most famous of Nyro’s works is performed by Bobbie Gentry in a much more plaintive arrangement with gentle flute, piano and strings billowing over Gentry’s languid vocal.  Other hit versions, too, have been overlooked in favor of illuminating might-have-beens like Esther Marrow’s “And When I Die” and The Friends of Distinction’s “Eli’s Comin’” rather than the familiar singles by Blood Sweat and Tears, and Three Dog Night, respectively.

The 5th Dimension only appears once on Sassafras and Moonshine, but their influence is felt throughout, most especially on the Staples Singers’ recording of the dreamy “Stoned Soul Picnic,” which closely follows Bones Howe’s production template.  Howe didn’t limit his Nyro activities to the 5th Dimension, however; his recording for the post-Diana Ross Supremes of “Time and Love” has also been selected for inclusion by the Ace team.  (Howe actually intended the track for Diana Ross, whose vocal was later issued.  Motown recycled the backing track for Mary Wilson and company.)  The boisterous “Save the Country,” another 5th Dimension favorite, is sung here with grace by the young Thelma Houston.  Houston brings gospel fervor to Nyro’s invitation to “come on down to the Glory River” to “wash you up and wash you down, gonna lay that devil down!”

Hit the jump for more, plus order links and track listings!

UPDATE: “The Essential 5th Dimension” Details Confirmed

Back on March 1, we reported on Arista and Legacy’s The Essential 5th Dimension (88697 82702-2), compiling 36 of the group’s most delectable tracks in a format similar to 1997’s Up, Up and Away: The Definitive Collection (Arista/BMG Heritage 07822-18961-2). With The Essential’s release on Tuesday, we can finally confirm what’s different about this release: one different track, a new sequence and fresh remastering. Read on for a recap of the original post with newly updated information!

For a golden period in the late 1960s and early 1970s, few groups had as winning a streak as The 5th Dimension. Jimmy Webb wrote an entire album for the group, The Magic Garden, after having supplied them with their first hit, the five-time Grammy winner “Up, Up and Away.” The 5th Dimension appeared to be the muse of Laura Nyro, as well, turning Nyro’s brilliant and idiosyncratic material like “Wedding Bell Blues,” “Stoned Soul Picnic” and “Sweet Blindness” into hit gold. The group discovered Burt Bacharach and Hal David late in the game, yet recorded the definitive version of the team’s little-known song “One Less Bell to Answer,” which Keely Smith had debuted in 1967. Their 1970 recording hit No. 2 on the pop charts and is well-remembered today. They took a mini-medley from the Broadway musical Hair all the way to the top when “Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In (The Flesh Failures)” spent 16 weeks on the chart, six of them at No. 1. Neil Sedaka, Ashford and Simpson and Tony Macaulay all benefitted from the group’s “champagne soul” stylings. Even Frank Sinatra sought them out as an opening act and as guest stars on his well-regarded television special Francis Albert Sinatra Does His Thing. The original quintet disbanded in 1975 after the release of Earthbound, a reunion album with Jimmy Webb on the ABC label which unfortunately still remains unavailable on CD. There were a couple of Motown albums in 1978 from the group’s new lineup and another unsuccessful comeback effort in 1995. But it’s the classic 1967-1974 period that has been collected by Legacy on The Essential 5th Dimension, which was released on March 15.

The Essential 5th Dimension contains 36 of the group’s finest moments. These reflect a true embarrassment of songwriting riches, not to mention sophisticated arrangements, both vocally and musically. All of the above-mentioned songs are included, of course. But you’ll also hear tracks such as the hit cover of The Mamas and The Papas’ “Go Where You Wanna Go,” great Neil Sedaka songs (“Puppet Man,” also recorded by Tom Jones, and “Workin’ on a Groovy Thing”) and Jimmy Webb perennials (“The Worst That Could Happen,” recorded before Johnny Maestro and the Brooklyn Bridge, plus “Carpet Man,” “Paper Cup,” “The Girls’ Song” and “Orange Air”). There’s of course, plenty of Laura Nyro, who’s represented by songs both ubiquitous (“Wedding Bell Blues,” “Stoned Soul Picnic”) and unfamiliar, though no less great (“Black Patch,” “Blowing Away”). The great Bones Howe, who went on to helm Tom Waits’ earliest LPs, was seated in the producer’s chair for every LP after the debut album, Up, Up and Away. (That LP was produced by Johnny Rivers and Marc Gordon.) Howe created a smooth and instantly recognizable sound for the group, aided by the stellar arrangements of Bob Alcivar and others. The Wrecking Crew lent able support as the house band. But the stars were the five individual singers whose distinctive blend was capable of both pure pop and impassioned soul: Marilyn McCoo, Billy Davis, Jr., Florence LaRue, Lamont McLemore and Ron Townson. How does The Essential differ from its 1997 counterpart? Hit the jump for the revised track listing and more!

Up, Up and Away: Tracks on “Essential 5th Dimension” Revealed

For a golden period in the late 1960s and early 1970s, few groups had as winning a streak as The 5th Dimension. Jimmy Webb wrote an entire album for the group, The Magic Garden, after having supplied them with their first hit, the five-time Grammy winner “Up, Up and Away.” The 5th Dimension appeared to be the muse of Laura Nyro, as well, turning Nyro’s brilliant and idiosyncratic material like “Wedding Bell Blues,” “Stoned Soul Picnic” and “Sweet Blindness” into hit gold. The group discovered Burt Bacharach and Hal David late in the game, yet recorded the definitive version of the team’s little-known song “One Less Bell to Answer,” which Keely Smith had debuted in 1967. Their 1970 recording hit No. 2 on the pop charts and is well-remembered today. They took a mini-medley from the Broadway musical Hair all the way to the top when “Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In (The Flesh Failures)” spent 16 weeks on the chart, six of them at No. 1. Neil Sedaka, Ashford and Simpson and Tony Macaulay all benefitted from the group’s “champagne soul” stylings. Even Frank Sinatra sought them out as an opening act and as guest stars on his well-regarded television special Francis Albert Sinatra Does His Thing. The original quintet disbanded in 1975 after the release of Earthbound, a reunion album with Jimmy Webb on the ABC label which unfortunately still remains unavailable on CD. There were a couple of Motown albums in 1978 from the group’s new lineup and another unsuccessful comeback effort in 1995. But it’s the classic 1967-1974 period that will be collected by Legacy on The Essential 5th Dimension, scheduled for release on March 15, the same date when the label drops The Essential Paul Revere and the Raiders.

The Essential 5th Dimension contains 36 of the group’s finest moments. These reflect a true embarrassment of songwriting riches, not to mention sophisticated arrangements, both vocally and musically. All of the above-mentioned songs are included, of course. But you’ll also hear tracks such as the hit cover of The Mamas and The Papas’ “Go Where You Wanna Go,” great Neil Sedaka songs (“Puppet Man,” also recorded by Tom Jones, and “Workin’ on a Groovy Thing”) and Jimmy Webb perennials (“The Worst That Could Happen,” recorded before Johnny Maestro and the Brooklyn Bridge, plus “Carpet Man,” “Paper Cup,” “The Girls’ Song” and “Orange Air”). There’s of course, plenty of Laura Nyro, who’s represented by songs both ubiquitous (“Wedding Bell Blues,” “Stoned Soul Picnic”) and unfamiliar, though no less great (“Black Patch,” “Blowing Away”). The great Bones Howe, who went on to helm Tom Waits’ earliest LPs, was seated in the producer’s chair for every LP after the debut album, Up, Up and Away. (That LP was produced by Johnny Rivers and Marc Gordon.) Howe created a smooth and instantly recognizable sound for the group, aided by the stellar arrangements of Bob Alcivar and others. The Wrecking Crew lent able support as the house band. But the stars were the five individual singers whose distinctive blend was capable of both pure pop and impassioned soul: Marilyn McCoo, Billy Davis, Jr., Florence LaRue, Lamont McLemore and Ron Townson. What’s the scoop on The Essential? Hit the jump for the full track listing and more!