Weekend Wround-Up: Barbra Streisand Joined by Bennett, Wonder, Krall on DVD and BD; Pixar Compiles More “Favorites”

On February 11, 2011, Barbra Streisand joined some illustrious company, including Bono, Brian Wilson, Aretha Franklin and her “You Don’t Bring Me Flowers” duet partner, Neil Diamond.  That was the evening Streisand was recognized as the MusiCares Person of the Year, following in the footsteps of those above-named artists.  Streisand was a natural candidate for the honor, as the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences annually bestows it upon an artist with significant artistic achievement in music and commitment to philanthropy.  Part of the MusiCares tradition finds that person being celebrated by a line-up of peers and younger talent, and so that evening, Streisand was joined in Los Angeles by Tony Bennett, Diana Krall, Barry Manilow, Stevie Wonder and others, to perform many of the songs she made famous throughout her career. On November 13, Shout Factory will release A MusiCares Tribute to Barbra Streisand on DVD, with a selection of the performances from the celebratory concert.

Diana Krall was in the producer’s chair for Streisand’s 2009 album Love is the Answer, and she opens the Blu-ray/DVD with a medley of three famous Streisand songs: “Down with Love,” “Get Happy,” and “Make Someone Happy.”  The first two, of course, were co-written by Harold Arlen, one of Streisand’s most admired composers.  Tony Bennett, who has performed with both Krall and Streisand in the past, performed a rendition of Charlie Chaplin’s “Smile” (the opening track of Streisand’s 2003 The Movie Album).  Barry Manilow offered his take on Andrew Lloyd Webber and Trevor Nunn’s “Memory” from the musical Cats; both Brooklyn natives released the song as a single and made the Billboard Hot 100 and Top 10 AC charts with it.  Stevie Wonder performed Jule Styne and Bob Merrill’s “People” from Funny Girl with Arturo Sandoval, and Jeff Beck offered a scorching “Come Rain or Come Shine” (another Arlen song) with LeAnn Rimes and BeBe Winans.  The younger set was represented not only by Rimes, but by Leona Lewis (“Somewhere” from West Side Story), Faith Hill (Stephen Sondheim’s “Send in the Clowns”) and a trio of stars from Glee (Lea Michele with Fanny Brice’s signature song, “My Man,” and Matthew Morrison and Kristin Chenoweth reprising their television duet of Bacharach and David’s “One Less Bell to Answer/A House is Not a Home” in Streisand’s arrangement).   Streisand herself brings the DVD to a close with performances of “The Windmills of Your Mind” and “The Promise (I’ll Never Say Goodbye).”

A MusiCares Tribute to Barbra Streisand is due for release on November 13 and follows Shout! Factory’s last MusiCares release celebrating Neil Young.  Pre-order links are currently not available, but we will add them as soon as possible!  You’ll find the complete track listing after the jump, down below!

Last week, Walt Disney Records quietly released a second volume of modern-day classics from Pixar’s animated films.  The new Disney-Pixar All-Time Favorites follows 2009’s Disney-Pixar Greatest, which brought the studio’s output up to date as of the Academy Award-winning Up.  In addition to revisiting some of the films represented on the first compilation with newly-compiled tracks, All-Time Favorites adds songs and score cues from Toy Story 3 (2010), Cars 2 (2011) and this year’s Brave.

Randy Newman is, of course, prominently featured, singing “I Will Go Sailing No More” from 1995’s Toy Story and “We Belong Together” from Toy Story 3, while his compositions are also sung by Riders in the Sky (“Woody’s Round-Up” from 1999’s Toy Story 2), the Gipsy Kings (the Spanish-language “You’ve Got a Friend in Me” from Toy Story 3).  Newman’s scores from A Bug’s Life (1998) and Monsters, Inc. (2001) are also excerpted.  Randy’s cousin Thomas Newman is represented via score excerpts from the just-about-to-be-re-released Finding Nemo (2003) and WALL-E (2008), while another frequent member of the Pixar team, Michael Giacchino, takes the spotlight for tracks from 2007’s Ratatouille, Cars 2 and 2004’s The Incredibles.  One song and one score cue appear from Brave: Julie Fowlis’ rendition of Alex Mandel’s “Into the Open Air,” and Patrick Doyle’s “In Her Heart.”

Disney-Pixar All-Time Favorites is available in stores now, and can be ordered after the jump!   You’ll also find the complete track listing there.

Weekend Wround-Up – The Diva Edition: Midler, Streisand Releases Coming Soon

Welcome to today’s Weekend Wround-Up: The Diva Edition!

Nobody – no, nobody! – is going to rain on Barbra Streisand’s parade.  Columbia Records, the singer’s home since 1963, has announced that Streisand will remain with the label that guided her to stardom.  Speculation had arisen some months back that the singer might decamp for a new artistic residence,  but those rumors have now officially been set to rest.  “From the day [legendary Columbia President] Goddard Lieberson signed me almost 50 years ago, Columbia Records has been my recording home,” said Streisand in a statement, “and I am thrilled to continue that partnership for many years to come.”  Steve Barnett, Chairman and COO of Columbia Records, confirmed the news: “There are stars and there are superstars, and there’s Barbra Streisand…Columbia Records is proud to play a vital role in her extraordinary career. We’re looking forward to the next chapter in our long and fruitful relationship.”  Indeed, Tony Bennett is the rare artist with a longer tenure at Columbia, and unlike Streisand, he took a sabbatical from the label’s ranks in the 1970s.

After the release of 2009′s Diana Krall-produced Love is the Answer, Streisand became the only artist ever to have No. 1 records in five consecutive decades in America. Her 2011 tribute to the lyrics of Alan and Marilyn Bergman, What Matters Most, didn’t make a sixth decade at No. 1 (though she still has time!) but opened at a still-impressive No. 4 on the Billboard chart.  As her 31^st album to make the Top 10, Streisand moved into third place in that overall category of achievement, passing The Beatles!  (Frank Sinatra and The Rolling Stones are still in the lead.)  And Streisand’s other chart stats are no less remarkable.  She’s in a three-way tie at sixth place for the most charting No. 1 singles by a female performer, and is second only to Reba McEntire for worldwide No. 1 albums with thirteen.

So how is Columbia celebrating Streisand’s near 50-year tenure?  A 12-DVD box set has been promised which, according to Billboard, will feature “unprecedented access into Streisand’s professional and personal life.  The DVD set will consist of never-before-seen footage directly from Barbra’s archives.”  Rest assured, The Second Disc will report on that exciting project once official details have arrived.  But in the meantime, what Barbra Streisand albums would you like to see reissue, and in what form?  Sound off below!  I’ll start the ball rolling with a suggestion of a mono/stereo edition of 1963’s The Barbra Streisand Album, the album which started it all for the girl from Brooklyn with the big voice.  I’ll add the original recording of “When the Sun Comes Out,” the B-side of its single “Happy Days Are Here Again,” as one possible bonus track!

Which Bette Midler album has Friday Music selected for reissue this April?  Hit the jump to find out!

Weekend Wround-Up: The Smiths, The Beatles, Pearl Jam and More!

Happy Friday!  We’ve got some tidbits to tide you over till we return on Monday, with much, much more!

• If you’re eagerly awaiting that complete Smiths box set but are worried about the falling American dollar, worry no more!  Thanks to fine folks at MusicTAP for the heads-up that Rhino will be releasing The Smiths – Complete in the U.S. on October 18!  The American edition will be available in the same configurations as in the U.K.: a gigantic Limited Edition Super Deluxe Box set, a vinyl LP box, and a CD-only set.  In all forms it includes all eight of The Smiths’ long-players:  studio albums The Smiths (1984), Meat is Murder (1985), The Queen is Dead (1986) and Strangeways, Here We Come (1987); non-LP singles compilations Hatful of Hollow (1984), The World Won’t Listen (1987) and the U.S.-only Louder Than Bombs (1987) and the live album “Rank” (1988).  Read our full post here and mark your calendar for October 18, just a few weeks after the U.K. release date!

• The only surprise about Apple and EMI’s Beatles 1 remaster is that it took so long to happen!  But for those interested, September 13 will bring a reissue of 2000’s massively successful Beatles 1 compilation utilizing the 2009 remasters from Abbey Road Studios.

Items on Pearl Jam and Jefferson Starship are waiting for you after the jump!

Weekend Wround-Up: Queen Sets in September, Trent is Angry and Notable Links

• Queen have confirmed their last batch of expanded studio albums – The Works, A Kind of Magic, The Miracle, Innuendo and Made in Heaven – to be released in the U.K. on September 5 from Island/UMC. Another Deep Cuts compilation will be released as well, as seen above; neither that set nor the bonus material have gotten confirmed track lists. Note that all 15 remastered studio albums will be out before the second batch of reissues hit American shelves.
• It usually pains me to agree with Nine Inch Nails honcho Trent Reznor – the musician who rallied so hard against the superficiality of the Grammys had no problem picking up an Oscar for the score to The Social Network last year – but his latest cause is a particularly worthy one. The musician took to Twitter to urge fans not to buy a recent reissue of Pretty Hate Machine that Universal put out. The set was not sourced from the remastered tapes which were released through UMe last year, nor did the bonus track on said remaster appear. Look, maybe I’m just naive, but what does a label stand to gain from reissuing a catalogue album so soon after re-releasing it in the first place?
• Another one from the “strange tales of the industry” department: the reissue of Megadeth’s Peace Sells…But Who’s Buying? sold 1,800 copies in its first week. Not sure whether that’s worthy of mention, nor if that’s even a good number for a major-label catalogue title. I’ve seen some reports damning that number, but indie reissue labels sometimes limit titles to around that quantity, and you don’t see them struggling publicly. The music business doesn’t always make sense, is what I’m trying to say.
• Let’s end on a happy note, shall we? A nice article about High Moon Records and their upcoming reissues of Love’s Black Beauty and Gene Clarke’s Two Sides to Every Story. Hooray!

The Weekend Wround-Up: Twisted Sister, Mayfield Updates and More

• Curt Smith, vocalist/bassist for Tears for Fears, is set to reissue one of his earlier solo projects this summer. Mayfield (1998) was Smith’s second album, recorded under the same name as the record (Curt is Mayfield – get it?). It’ll feature a new track, a new recording of the song “Trees.” Smith talks about the album and other projects in this interview with social networking site Flavors.
• Demon Music Group’s Harmless imprint is releasing another compilation of rare grooves mixed by one Tom Moulton. Some of the disco legend’s earliest works are covered here, some obscure (First Choice, The Quickest Way Out), others less so (the Loose Change and TJM albums were recently reissued by Big Break Records). The track list is after the jump of this post.
• Looking for some more background on the deluxe edition of Twisted Sister’s Under the Blade? Addicted to Vinyl has you covered.
• Here’s one we totally overlooked from our friends at MusicTAP: this Tuesday, Virgin is reissuing Australian rockers Sick Puppies’ latest album, 2009’s Tri-Polar. The album will be expanded with a bonus disc featuring this year’s unplugged EP Polar Opposite, three non-LP B-sides and a new track. That’s quite a package!
• And finally, some music geek-intensive notes you may have missed: check out the Library of Congress’ National Jukebox, which features rare masters owned by Sony Music from their entire catalogue (Columbia, OKeh, Victor and other labels) up to 1925. And Rhino’s famed RMAT (Rhino Musical Aptitude Test), issued to record stores across the country long ago, is back as an app! Better get those trivia muscles flexing; it looks like there’ll be a contest soon…