Release Round-Up: Week of October 15

Eric Clapton, Unplugged: Expanded and Remastered Edition (Reprise/Rhino)

The guitar god’s ’90s comeback was done on an acoustic. The Grammy-winning, best-selling album and the acclaimed episode of MTV Unplugged from which it was taken are paired up and considerably expanded, more than two decades later. (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.)

King Crimson, The Road to Red (Panegyric)

Holy crumbs, this 21CD/1DVD/2BD set is a massive tribute to King Crimson’s Red album, including new stereo and surround mixes of the album and 16 soundboard-quality live sets in a box that puts the deluxe edition concept in its place. (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.)

Paul Simon, The Complete Albums Collection / Over the Bridge of Time: A Retrospective (1964-2011) (Legacy)

American tunes shine on both this exhaustive box set of Simon’s solo career, featuring expanded editions of all of his studio albums (including the U.K.-only The Paul Simon Song Book from 1964 and both Rhino and Legacy-era bonus tracks on Graceland), as well as the double-live Paul Simon’s Concert in the Park and 2011’s acclaimed So Beautiful or So What. A single-disc compilation boils his career down to its basest elements, from Simon & Garfunkel to the present.

The Complete Albums Collection: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.
Over the Bridge of Time: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.

James Booker, Classified: Remixed and Expanded (Rounder)

One of only two releases in the short but incredible lifetime of this New Orleans pianist, the man who mentored Dr. John and Harry Connick, Jr. is the focus of a new documentary – and this, his last proper studio album, is greatly expanded and remixed for a new generation to enjoy.

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

ABBA, Ring Ring: Deluxe Edition (Polydor/Universal U.K.)

The legendary dance quartet’s first album gets expanded with a DVD of rare performances and a host of even rarer pre-ABBA songs. (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.)

Various Artists, The Organization of Pop: Music from the First Thirty Years of ZTT Records (ZTT/Razor & Tie)

A double-disc compilation – the first in ZTT’s new U.S. distribution deal with Razor & Tie – featuring hits from Frankie Goes to Hollywood, The Buggles, The Art of Noise, Seal and more. (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.)

Al Hirt, The Sound of Christmas (Friday Music/Relayer)

The trumpet virtuoso’s 1965 holiday album, expanded and remastered by Friday Music, its first time on CD in over two decades. (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.)

Basia / Deborah Cox / Taylor Dayne / Exposé / Lita Ford / The Jeff Healey Band / The Jimi Hendrix Experience / Incubus / MercyMe / Mobb Deep / The Alan Parsons Project / The Partridge Family, Playlist: The Very Best Of (Legacy)

Another wave of the ol’ reliable series from Legacy. Key points: rare original single mixes abound on Basia, Deborah Cox, Taylor Dayne and Exposé’s volumes; Hendrix’s is a converted version of the famed Smash Hits compilation, and Partridge fans will enjoy the first-ever release of “Breaking Up is Hard to Do” in stereo. All Amazon U.S. links are posted above!

Deep Purple, The Complete Albums 1970-1976 (Warner Bros./Rhino)

This ten-disc set compiles all of the band’s original Mk. II, Mk. III and Mk. IV-era studio and live albums. (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.)

Call “Echo Valley 2-6809” For 7Ts’ Latest Partridge Family Reissues

Even Reuben Kincaid might be happy with two upcoming releases from Cherry Red’s 7Ts label: two-for-one reissues of The Partridge Family’s Sound Magazine and Shopping Bag; and The Partridge Family Notebook and Crossword Puzzle.  Continuing 7Ts’ David Cassidy and Partridge Family reissue series, both two-fers are out now in the U.K. and on February 5 in U.S. stores.

1971’s U.S. Top 10 album Sound Magazine, the third LP from the TV group fronted by David Cassidy and Shirley Jones, followed its two predecessors up the charts.  Like The Partridge Family Album and Up to Date (released in 2012 by 7Ts on one CD) as well as those albums that followed, Sound Magazine featured the instrumental talents of the Los Angeles “Wrecking Crew” including Hal Blaine, Larry Knechtel, Joe Osborn and Tommy Tedesco.  Producer Wes Farrell developed a remarkably consistent team for all of the Partridges’ sunny pop records, and Sound Magazine featured songs by Farrell and Paul Anka (“One Night Stand”), Rupert Holmes and Kathy Cooper (“Echo Valley 2-6809”) and Partridge mainstay Tony Romeo (“You Don’t Have to Tell Me,” “Summer Days,” “I Would Have Loved You Anyway”).  Irwin Levine and L. Russell Brown’s “I Woke Up in Love This Morning” was the album’s biggest hit, peaking just outside the Top 10 at No. 13 in America.  The Partridge Family Christmas Album (not part of 7Ts’ program) arrived next, but the proper follow-up album Shopping Bag arrived in early 1972 and featured much of the same personnel and songwriters.  Bobby Hart teamed with both Farrell and longtime partner Bobby Hart for a couple of songs, Farrell teamed with Romeo for three more, and David Cassidy supplied his own “There’ll Come a Time.”  It was Cassidy’s third and final songwriting credit on a Partridge Family album.  Though Shopping Bag cracked the Top 20 in the U.S. at No. 18, it didn’t yield any Top 10 singles.  Tony Romeo’s “It’s One of Those Nights” did hit No. 20 Pop.  “Am I Losing You,” by Levine and Brown, only managed to hit No. 59, signaling that Partridge-mania had perhaps subsided.

Hit the jump for details on the next two-fer, plus pre-order links and discography for both titles!

I Think I Love Them: The Partridge Family’s First Two Albums Combined on One CD from 7Ts

C’mon, get happy…again!

2012 has already seen David Cassidy’s solo catalogue mined in the U.S. by Real Gone Music and in the U.K. by Cherry Red’s 7Ts label, and now 7Ts is turning its attention to none other than The Partridge Family!  A two-fer of the group’s first two albums, The Partridge Family Album and Up to Date, has just arrived in stores from 7Ts.

The made-for-TV group fronted by David Cassidy and Shirley Jones came out of the gate swinging with 1970’s The Partridge Family Album.  The November 1970 LP release on the Bell label (released in January 1971 in the U.K.) arrived soon after the Partridges’ first single.  “I Think I Love You” b/w “Somebody Wants to Love You” was issued in August 1970 in advance of the television show’s debut on September 25.  After the catchy A-side, penned by Tony Romeo, was featured on an episode of the show, the single’s ascent began, and it hit No. 1 on the U.S. chart in late November, displacing the Jackson 5’s “I’ll Be There” from the top spot.  Containing both sides of the single, The Partridge Family Album got all the way to No. 4 on the LP chart.  Though it ostensibly was the soundtrack to the television show, the album was a success on its own merits.  Like the fictional-turned-real band The Monkees before them, The Partridge Family boasted quality compositions from top-tier pop writers who were seeing their Brill Building work taking a backseat to singer/songwriters.  The fabled L.A. Wrecking Crew, including Hal Blaine on drums, Larry Knechtel on keyboards, Joe Osborn on bass and Tommy Tedesco on guitar, brought their inimitable style to the recordings spearheaded by producer and songwriter Wes Farrell (“Hang On, Sloopy,” “Come a Little Bit Closer”).  The Partridge Family Album featured songs by Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil, Mark Charron, Farrell and Romeo, among others, and Cassidy took the lead vocals on all but three of its session musician-created tracks.

After the jump: we get Up to Date!  Plus: track listings and an order link!

Cherish Is The Word: David Cassidy Reissues Arrive From 7Ts

Everyone remembers David Cassidy, the bubblegum pop king and teen idol supreme.  But Cassidy – still an active entertainer, singer, and actor today – was also a persuasive and versatile vocalist who stepped out of, and prospered beyond, the shadow of the fictional Partridge Family. Far from being simple fodder for the teenybopper crowd, the records he released as a solo artist were in many ways a continuation of the sophisticated pop sounds of the 1960.  Cassidy enlisted top-tier songwriters, arrangers and musicians, including Los Angeles’ fabled Wrecking Crew.  Cherry Red’s 7Ts label is letting everyone in on this secret with the reissue of the singer’s first two albums for Bell Records, both recorded in 1972: Cherish and Rock Me Baby.  This marks the second bit of Cassidy news to arrive this week; across the Atlantic, in the U.S., Real Gone Music is planning its own Cassidy campaign.

If David Cassidy was seeking to establish an identity of his own removed from television’s Partridge Family, one would have been hard-pressed to tell, based on his solo debut Cherish.  Cassidy, the son of Tony Award-winning actor Jack Cassidy and actress Evelyn Ward, teamed with Partridge producer Wes Farrell and the same crème of the L.A. session corps from the Partridge records for Cherish.  Wrecking Crew stalwarts like Hal Blaine (drums) and Tommy Tedesco (guitar) contributed musically, while Farrell joined Bobby Hart (sans Tommy Boyce), Tony Romeo, Danny Janssen and Cassidy himself in penning the songs.  Although Cassidy considered himself an actor first, The Partridge Family revealed a strong voice ready-made for the pop charts; his real-life stepmother and television co-star Shirley Jones was the other bona fide singer cast in the onscreen musical group.  But Cassidy sang lead on the Partridges’ No. 1 hit “I Think I Love You” plus other successful chart entries like “Doesn’t Somebody Want to Be Wanted” and “I Woke Up in Love This Morning.”  A solo record seemed inevitable, and it didn’t disappoint.

You might just cherish what we have after the jump, including the track listing for the new two-fer, and an order link!