“I Hunger For Your Touch” Collects 31 Recordings of “Unchained Melody” From Elvis, The Righteous Brothers, Many More

It began life as the theme to a 1955 B-movie that asked, “No locks!  No walls!  In the prison without bars!  What keeps men like these from crashing out?”  The film was Unchained, and the song was “Unchained Melody” with music by Alex North (A Streetcar Named Desire, Spartacus) and lyrics by Hy Zaret (“Dedicated to You”).  Though the movie – in which just a brief snippet of the song was sung by Porgy and Bess’ original Porgy, Todd Duncan – is hardly remembered today, the intensely romantic ballad  is anything but.  As such, it’s the subject of a new CD from Bear Family.  I Hunger for Your Touch: Unchained Melody offers 31 renditions of the song recorded between 1955 and 1985.  It joins the rare club of single-song CDs; other songs to have received similar treatment include “Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer” from Bear Family, and “Louie, Louie” from labels including Rhino, Ace and Jerden.

“Unchained Melody” received an Oscar nomination, losing out to “Love is a Many-Splendored Thing” from the movie of the same name.  But on the sales charts, it was an instant winner.  In addition to presenting Duncan’s original recording from Unchained, the new anthology includes many of the song’s earliest covers.  Les Baxter’s choral rendition on Capitol hit No. 2 on the U.S. pop chart, and not long after, Al Hibbler’s vocal version reached No. 3.  Mining the soulful potential of the North melody, Roy Hamilton took it to No. 1 R&B as well as No. 6 Pop.  “Unchained” was unstoppable.  Other early versions here are from rockabilly trailblazer Gene Vincent, vocalist Harry Belafonte (who sang it at the Academy Awards), and country legends Eddy Arnold and Chet Atkins.

Yet despite a steady stream of recordings continuing into the 1960s, “Unchained” didn’t achieve true immortality until producer Phil Spector and The Righteous Brothers (more specifically, Bobby Hatfield) brought it to No. 4 on the U.S. Pop chart in 1965.  It was first the B-side of the Carole King/Gerry Goffin song “Hung on You,” but DJs flipped the record, and the rest is history.  Over the years, this version kept “Unchained” on the radio, influencing nearly every version that followed and culminating in the song’s appearance in the 1990 blockbuster Ghost.  Upon its inclusion in the movie, the original 1965 recording and the Brothers’ new re-recording simultaneously resided in the Hot 100 for eight weeks!

Hit the jump for much more, including the track listing with discography and order links!

Release Round-Up: Week of September 30/October 1

Most titles this week are already out in the States, on account of Justin Timberlake’s The 20/20 Experience – 2 of 2 hitting stores on Monday. So without further ado…

Rush, The Studio Albums 1989-2007 / Vapor Trails Remixed (Atlantic/Rhino)

All of the Canadian rock gods’ albums for Atlantic in one box, with 2002’s Vapor Trails newly remixed (and available separately).

The Studio Albums: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.
Vapor Trails Remixed: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.

The Bongos, Phantom Train / Richard Barone, Cool Blue Halo: 25th Anniversary Edition / Cool Blue Halo: 25th Anniversary Concert (Jem Recordings)

The Hoboken power-pop group releases a lost classic – an album recorded with Eric “E.T.” Thorngren in 1986 – and frontman Richard Barone reissues his deluxe packages of 1987 solo debut Cool Blue Halo (and a 2012 2CD/1DVD concert in tribute of that album) through the recently reactivated Jem Recordings, which once distributed The Bongos’ earliest works. (Coming later this week: an interview with Richard Barone on Phantom Train and more!)

Phantom Train: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.
Cool Blue Halo: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.
Cool Blue Halo 25th Anniversary Concert: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.

Patti Page, The Complete Columbia Singles 1962-1970 / From Nashville to L.A. – Lost Columbia Masters 1963-1969 / Perry Como, Just Out of Reach – Rarities from Nashville Produced by Chet Atkins / The Lords of the New Church, The Lords of the New Church / Is Nothing Sacred? / The Method to Our Madness / Billy Preston, 16-Yr. Old Soul / The Grateful Dead, Dick’s Picks Vol. 21 – Richmond, Virginia 11/1/85

The latest Real Gone batch includes hits and rarities from Patti Page, long out-of-print albums by punk group The Lords of the New Church and more!

Andrew Gold, Andrew Gold/What’s Wrong with This Picture?/All This and Heaven Too/Whirlwind…Plus (Edsel)

Edsel thanks you for being a friend by packing up, in one set, all of Andrew Gold’s pop albums for Asylum and all of the bonus tracks on previous Collector’s Choice reissues. (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.)

Patrice Rushen, Patrice/Pizzazz/Posh / Straight from the Heart/Now (Edsel)

Speaking of Edsel sets collecting an artist’s discography, “Forget Me Nots” hitmaker Patrice Rushen has two sets out featuring all of her albums for Elektra plus rare 12″ remixes.

Patrice/Pizzazz/Posh: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.
Straight from the Heart/Now: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.

Old 97’s, Old 97’s & Waylon Jennings (Omnivore)

An astounding four-track EP (previously a Record Store Day exclusive) featuring collaborative demos between the Dallas alt-country group and one of the genre’s finest outlaws. (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.)

John Martyn, The Island Years (Universal U.K.)

The U.K. folk star’s entire discography for Island is expanded and collected in a mega 17CD/1DVD swag-filled box. (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.)

Gladys Knight & The Pips, Imagination: Expanded Edition / Life: Deluxe Edition (Funkytowngrooves)

The first of several expanded Buddah/Columbia-era albums from FTG; Imagination has immortal hit “Midnight Train to Georgia.”

Imagination: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.
Life: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.

Hybrid SACDs from Audio Fidelity: America, America / Sarah McLachlan, Touch / Poco, Pickin’ Up the Pieces / Rush, Hemispheres

WE HAVE A WINNER! Record Store Day 2nd Chance: A Complete Set of Limited Edition Colored Vinyl From Omnivore Recordings!

CONGRATULATIONS TO OUR WINNER, PETE BILDERBACK!

The Second Disc’s Record Store Day 2013 Essential Releases

Raise your hand if you’ll be joining 2013 Ambassador Jack White tomorrow to celebrate Record Store Day 2013!  Yes, on Saturday, April 20, independent record stores everywhere will offer an eclectic roster of limited edition releases of all kinds – most on vinyl, but some on CD, too.  As usual, the labels participating in RSD ’13 have a number of surprises on the way, previewing future releases, revisiting past titles and even curating completely new packages.  As is our tradition here, we’re taking the occasion to count down the titles to which we’re most looking forward! I’ll take my turn first, and then after the jump, you’ll find Mike’s picks for some of the finest offerings you might find at your local independent retailer!  Around these parts, of course, every day is Record Store Day – so, after you’ve picked up your share of the year’s collectible releases, don’t forget to browse the regular racks, too…you never know what you might find!

You’ll find more information and a link to a downloadable PDF of the complete Record Store Day list here, and please share your RSD 2013 experiences with us below. Happy Hunting!

1.            Miles Davis, ‘Round About Midnight / Milestones / Someday My Prince Will Come (Columbia/Legacy)

Last year, the team at Legacy feted the famous trumpeter with Forever Miles, which collected rare sides recorded between 1956 and 1970.  This year, Davis is the recipient of three 180-gram mono vinyl reissues from his classic early Columbia Records period.  1956’s ‘Round About Midnight, Davis’ label debut, showcases the artist at the epoch of his hard bop period.  His Quintet includes John Coltrane on tenor sax, Red Garland on piano, Philly Joe Jones on drums and Paul Chambers on bass.  Davis’ muted horn makes magic on Thelonious Monk’s “’Round Midnight,” which remained in his book for years, and breathes new life into “Bye Bye Blackbird.”  For 1958’s Milestones, Davis foreshadowed the modal jazz breakthrough of the following year’s Kind of Blue with his title track as well as with another Monk composition, “Straight, No Chaser.”  The sextet recording adds Cannonball Adderley to the lineup on alto saxophone.  Milestones marked the final time Jones, Garland and Chambers would play on a Davis album.  Lastly, 1961’s Someday My Prince Will Come blended Davis originals (tributes to producer Teo Macero, Columbia President Goddard Lieberson and wife Frances) with standards including a blazingly reworked title tune from Walt Disney’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.  Though credited to the Miles Davis Sextet, only “Someday” featured all six players – Davis, Chambers, Hank Mobley and John Coltrane on tenor sax, Wynton Kelly on piano, and Jimmy Cobb on drums.  Coltrane made a cameo on tenor on “Teo” (dedicated to Macero) with Mobley playing the instrument on the album’s other songs.

These three LPs remain among Davis’ finest accomplishments.  With crispness and clarity, they pack quite a punch in their original mono sound.  Legacy has lovingly recreated the original artwork for each individually numbered release.  There’s still quite a thrill in holding these objets d’art from a master at the top of his game, restlessly conquering each stylistic shift even as he planted the seeds for the next revolution in jazz.  These small group records, which alternated with the big-band sessions teaming Davis with arranger Gil Evans, shouldn’t be missed.

2.            Van Dyke Parks, Song Cycle (Reprise/Rhino)

Composer, arranger, producer, singer, musician, actor, author, historian, raconteur and bon vivant: Van Dyke Parks has carved out a niche in popular music truly unlike any other.  The renaissance man comes to RSD 2013 both with a new release (Super Chief: Music for the Silver Screen) and a 180-gram mono vinyl reissue of his solo LP debut, 1968’s Song Cycle.  As produced by the great record man Lenny Waronker, Song Cycle was a natural progression from the modular songwriting of Parks’ storied collaboration with Brian Wilson, SMiLE.  Creative, offbeat, and altogether unencumbered by any notions of conventionality, Song Cycle took in Parks’ varied originals along with compositions from Randy Newman and Donovan.  The cinematic, orchestral tour de force is played by a stellar cast of musicians including Wrecking Crew pros Hal Blaine, Tommy Tedesco, Lyle Ritz, Earl Palmer, Jim Gordon and Jay Migliori, plus Newman and The Beau Brummels’ Ron Elliott.  A kaleidoscopic journey through California pop, Song Cycle retains its power to surprise and enchant, and those hearing it for the first time in mono will be in for a mind-expanding treat.

3.            Paul McCartney and Wings, Maybe I’m Amazed (Hear Music)

Last year, Macca used the annual Record Store Day campaign to preview his deluxe Archive Collection release of 1971’s Ram with a vinyl replica single of “Another Day” b/w “Oh Woman, Oh Why.” This year, the RSD reissue of the 12” “Maybe I’m Amazed” live EP previews this year’s Archive presentation of Wings Over America.   As on the original 12” release, Side One includes “Maybe” in full and edited versions in mono, and Side Two presents the full and edited versions in stereo.  When “Maybe I’m Amazed” first appeared on 1970’s McCartney, a lush standout on a rather spare collection of homemade songs, it quickly gained popularity, but McCartney declined to officially release it as a single. It wasn’t until the 1976 live version from Wings Over America came along that McCartney relented. His ode to the lovely Linda then scaled the charts to No. 10 in the United States and No. 28 in the United Kingdom.

And Hear Music’s replica “Maybe I’m Amazed” isn’t the only offering this year to excite Beatlefans.  Universal Music is collecting three vintage Ringo Starr singles in a lift-top box.  Ringo’s Singles Collection includes 7-inch editions of “Photograph” b/w “Down and Out,” “It Don’t Come Easy” b/w “Early 1970,” and “(It’s All Down To) Goodnight Vienna” b/w “Oo-Wee.”  All singles are packaged in replicas of their original artwork!

4.            Old 97’s with Waylon Jennings (Omnivore)

Omnivore’s 2012 reissue of 1997’s Too Far To Care from Old 97’s added more than a disc’s worth of bonus tracks from the Rhett Miller-fronted alt-country band, and now the group returns to Omnivore with more previously unreleased goodies. And they’ve brought along a guest: the late, great Waylon Jennings.  Way back in 1996, Jennings joined Ken Bethea, Murry Hammond, Rhett Miller and Philip Peeples in Nashville to cut two tracks. Yet “Iron Road” and “The Other Shoe,” the two songs completed by Jennings and the 97’s, never saw the light of day…until now.  This RSD-exclusive release offers the Jennings/97’s collaborations plus the band’s demos of “Visiting Hours” (a live version of which appeared on 2011’s The Grand Theater Vol. 2) and “Fireflies” (re-recorded by Rhett Miller for his 2006 album The Believer). All four songs will be available as a double yellow vinyl 7-inch release, housed in a gatefold sleeve with art from Jon Langford and even liner notes from Rhett Miller! The package also includes a download card, offering digital files of the four tracks.  For an opportunity to hear an iconic talent paired with some of his most authentic heirs, Old 97’s with Waylon Jennings is a rare pleasure, indeed.

5.            Jimi Hendrix, Hey Joe b/w Stone Free (Experience Hendrix/Legacy)

Jimi Hendrix isn’t one to be left out – so he’s joined the “back to mono” revolution, as well, with Legacy’s individually numbered reissue of The Jimi Hendrix Experience’s debut U.K. single!  This 45 features the explosive trio of Hendrix, Noel Redding and Mitch Mitchell, backed by the trio of British songbirds The Breakaways.  Originally released in December 1966, “Hey Joe” rose to No. 6 on the U.K. chart; the U.S. release failed to chart, replacing “Stone Free” with B-side “51st Anniversary.”  This single represents the ground floor of Hendrix’s blazing, all-too-short career, and makes a fine companion to Legacy’s recent mono LP reissues of the U.S. and U.K. editions of the 1967 debut LP Are You Experienced.

Honorable Mentions: Frank Zappa’s “I’m the Slime/Montana” 7-inch (Zappa Records/Universal) is newly remastered from the original 1973 analog source.  “I’m the Slime” is presented in a single edit, and “Montana” is a 2013 edit with 25 additional seconds.  Grateful Dead’s Rare Cuts and Oddities 1966 compiles, well, rare cuts and oddities from that year in early Dead history!  Originally released on CD in 2005, it’s making its vinyl debut on two 180-gram platters for RSD!

After the jump: Mike has another five titles for ya!

Omnivore Reveals Record Store Day Exclusives from Big Star, Waylon, Old 97’s, Three Hits

With Record Store Day just a little over three weeks away, Omnivore Recordings has unveiled an eclectic slate of three vinyl platters suiting the label’s deliciously omnivorous tastes.  Two artists are familiar to fans of the label, while the third makes an Omnivore debut.  All of the titles, of course, will be offered via your local brick-and-mortar independent music retailer on Saturday, April 20 to mark the sixth annual event.

Without further ado…hit the jump to dive into tasty treats from Big Star, The Old 97’s with special guest Waylon Jennings, and North Carolina’s own Three Hits!

Short Takes: Sex Pistols to Reissue Another Single, Waylon’s Last Works Due in Fall

• The Sex Pistols’ controversial single “God Save the Queen” is getting repressed for its 35th anniversary on May 28. Universal Music Catalogue in the U.K. will re-release the single, a month after repressing “Anarchy in the U.K.” for Record Store Day and four months before reissuing the band’s Never Mind The Bollocks Here’s The Sex Pistols. It is unknown if the single, released alongside the Queen’s Silver Jubilee in 1977, will feature “No Feeling,” the original B-side on the extremely rare A&M pressing of the single, or “Done You No Wrong” from the subsequent Virgin reissue. (It’s worth noting that band frontman John Lydon has spoken out against the single release, saying it “undermines what The Sex Pistols stood for.”
• The Los Angeles Times reports that the final recordings from country legend Waylon Jennings will see a release on September 11. Goin’ Down Rockin’: The Last Recordings features 12 unreleased tracks partially recorded by Jennings and bassist Robby Turner before his death in 2002, augmented with newly-recorded overdubs by former collaborators including Tony Joe White (who co-wrote one track on the album). Time Life’s Saguaro Road Records will distribute.

Release Round-Up: Week of February 28

Pink Floyd, The Wall: Experience and Immersion Editions (Capitol/EMI)

The latest Pink Floyd box, featuring live tracks and demos from the vault will make you lose your marbles! (Editor’s note: I am so sorry for typing that.)

The Ventures, The Ventures Play Telstar and The Lonely Bull / “Surfing” / (The) Ventures in Space / The Fabulous Ventures / Walk, Don’t Run Vol. 2 (Sundazed)

Five classic Ventures albums, remastered in stereo on CD and vinyl.

Willie Nelson and Waylon Jennings, Live at the US Festival 1983 (Shout! Factory)

The first two CD sets in Shout! Factory’s new series of live sets from the infamous California festival.

Shelby Lynne, Just a Little Lovin’ (Analogue)

Country singer Lynne’s 2008 tribute album to Dusty Springfield gets an SACD and audiophile vinyl reissue.

The Story of US: Shout! Factory Starts Series for ’80s Music Fest (UPDATED 2/8)

Following a pair of DVD releases, Shout! Factory has announced the release of several performances on CD from the famous US Festival in California.

Spearheaded by Apple Computer co-founder Steve Wozniak, the US Festival intended to be a celebration of technology and culture, with a temporary stage and open-air venue paid for by Wozniak himself just for the purposes of the festival. (Initially called the Glen Helen Pavilion, the San Manuel Amphitheater, where the festival was held, remains the largest of its kind in the country.) For two blisteringly hot weekends – Labor Day of 1982 and Memorial Day of 1983, performers including The Ramones, The Police, The Cars, Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers, The Grateful Dead, Fleetwood Mac, INXS, The Clash, Van Halen, U2 and David Bowie would take the stage.

Despite the historical value of the performances, which captured many up-and-coming New Wave bands and traditional rock acts toward their peak, the festival was a failure, with at two reported deaths at the 1983 festival and Wozniak and promoters losing some $24 million. Setbacks aside, the performances remain a worthy footnote in rock history, and Shout! Factory aims to memorialize these moments, first through DVD and now on CD.

Performances by Willie Nelson and Waylon Jennings at the 1983 festival’s “Country Day” – held a week after the festival proper – were both released on DVD last November, and now they’re being released on CD on February 28. Both sets capture two country veterans at their peaks, with solid set lists from each performer (and guest appearances from Jennings on Willie’s set).

A month later, on March 27, the label will release a CD/DVD combo of the set from Australian metal group Quiet Riot, fresh off the success of breakthrough album Metal Health just months before.

Hit the jump to check them out!