Real Gone Music hits its mid-Summer stride with another release schedule that vaults over stylistic boundaries with a little musical magic for listeners of every stripe and preferred musical format. Laura Nyro’s first two, beyond-classic albums, More Than a New Discovery and Eli and the Thirteenth Confession, see their rare and highly coveted MONO versions reissued for the first time ever on a 2-CD set along with non-LP single bonus tracks. And the soundtrack to one of the great action films of the ‘90s and certified cult classic True Romance finally comes out on vinyl in a limited-edition illustrated gatefold version.
Then, the label continues its painstaking exploration of Dusty Springfield’s hallowed catalog of recordings for the Atlantic label with a 17-track set containing the complete recordings she made at Sigma Sound Studios in Philadelphia with Gamble-Huff Productions including an unreleased track. The label stays in a R&B vein with the first of four promised 2-CD volumes featuring the complete singles of Warner Bros.’ highly collectible Loma imprint, 50 tracks featuring everybody from The Olympics (“Good Lovin’”) to Ike & Tina Turner to The Apollas, with over half the tracks making their CD debut. Las Vegas legend and pop standard interpreter par excellence Keely Smith’s first record on the Reprise label receives its first-ever reissue in an Expanded Edition featuring bonus tracks and pictures from the singer’s private archive. And Real Gone once again taps the august catalog the Tennessee Plowboy, Eddy Arnold, for a 20-track collection of his gospel sides.
Finally, the label revisits the catalog of the prodigiously talented Tim Buckley for vinyl releases of his last two albums, Sefronia and Look at the Fool, both featuring brand new mastering from the original tapes by Bill Inglot. And Real Gone is repressing Tom Tom Club’s first record in a limited blue and yellow starburst vinyl edition.
Can you surry? Can you picnic? Laura Nyro, to use her own fanciful word, surried onto the scene 50 years ago with the release of her debut album More Than a New Discovery. Its title was certainly apt. Throughout the course of her life, Nyro wrote and introduced some of the most beloved popular songs of all time with her singular fusion of pop, jazz, R&B, soul, Broadway, and folk sounds. Real Gone Music and Second Disc Records are proud to celebrate the golden anniversary of Laura Nyro’s debut with a landmark 2-CD collection. A Little Magic, A Little Kindness: The Complete Mono Albums Collection features, for the very first time on CD, both of Nyro’s original mono albums newly-remastered by Vic Anesini at Sony’s Battery Studios from the original master tapes. More Than a New Discovery, originally released on Verve Folkways in 1967, premiered the songs that Barbra Streisand, Blood Sweat and Tears, and The 5th Dimension would all take up the charts, including “Stoney End,” “And When I Die,” “Blowin’ Away,” and perhaps the most famous song Nyro ever wrote, “Wedding Bell Blues.” This special edition restores the original album sequence and mono mix from the very first version of the album. In 1968, Nyro moved to Columbia Records for her most acclaimed album, Eli and the Thirteenth Confession. Its songs were once again adopted by other artists such as Three Dog Night, Frankie Valli, and of course, The 5th Dimension. Featuring “Eli’s Comin’,” “Emmie,” “Sweet Blindness,” and the era-defining “Stoned Soul Picnic,” this ultra-rare album – thought by many Nyro connoisseurs to be superior to the familiar stereo version – also makes its maiden appearance on CD. A handful of bonus tracks round out this special package, including the Bones Howe-produced “pop” version of “Save the Country,” and the CD debuts of the Verve “censored” single version of “Stoney End” and the single mix of “Eli’s Comin’.” The Second Disc’s Joe Marchese provides new liner notes; the crystal-clear remastering is by Vic Anesini at Battery Studios in New York. A Little Magic, A Little Kindness: The Complete Mono Albums Collection pays tribute to one of pop’s most enduring iconoclasts. It’s a soul picnic you won’t want to miss.
Though it was directed by Tony Scott, the 1993 film True Romance displayed all the signature themes and images of its writer, Quentin Tarantino, from its grisly violence to its B-movie homages to its gleeful amorality. And the same could be said of the soundtrack; alongside composer Hans Zimmer’s riff on Carl Orff (which itself was an homage to another violent road movie, Badlands), True Romance offered a playlist that smacked of Tarantino in its embrace of rockabilly (Charlie Sexton, Chris Isaak), grunge (Soundgarden), honky-tonk (Shelby Lynne), and romantic machismo (Robert Palmer’s take on [Love Is] The Tender Trap).Vinyl would seem a natural for such a “warped” soundtrack; yet, outside of a very limited South Korean edition of dubious origin, the soundtrack to True Romance has never made it to LP. So how does a reissue label rectify this grievous oversight? With a bang! Real Gone Music and Wargod are proud to announce the first-ever legitimate release of the True Romance soundtrack on vinyl, housed inside a gatefold album jacket featuring commissioned, custom artwork by Rafał Wechterowicz. This artwork is exclusive to this album’s initial manufacturing run and will never be reprinted. What’s more, our release of True Romance comes in pillow feather white with blood red splatter vinyl limited to 2000 copies! Consider this our own homage to one of the greatest cult classic films of all time…don’t miss out on this limited edition.
Having issued collections of her lost 1971 Jeff Barry-produced sessions (Faithful) and her entire 1970-1971 U.K. sessions (Come for a Dream), we have made chronicling the hallowed late ‘60s/early ‘70s period of Dusty Springfield’s career something of a mission here at Real Gone Music. And we have saved what just might be the best for last—this collection brings together, for the first time ever, all of the historic recordings made by Dusty at Sigma Sound Studios in Philadelphia with Gamble-Huff Productions for Atlantic Records. The 17 selections cover the ten 1969 recordings issued on Springfield's 1970 album A Brand New Me—including the hit title song—plus 7 additional tracks from 1970 including the single "I Wanna Be a Free Girl," outtakes not issued until the 1990s on various compilations, and a previously unreleased track, “Sweet Charlie .” Additionally, because former iterations of this material have not been sonically quite up to snuff, each track on The Complete Philadelphia Sessions – A Brand New Me (Expanded Edition) is newly-remixed from the original multi-track masters by Ted Carfrae! Liner notes by Joe Marchese and rare images from Dusty’s own collection complete this invaluable look at the seductive Ms. Springfield’s foray into the Philly Soul sound. Put this together with our other Real Gone Dusty retrospectives and you have the full picture of Dusty’s recordings from 1969-1971 that immediately followed her Dusty In Memphis pinnacle!
It didn’t have any hits to speak of. Its roster of artists was obscure to say the least. And it only released about 100 singles and a half dozen albums in the four short years (1964-1968) of its existence. But in the five decades that have passed since Loma Records existed as a little-known imprint of Warner Brothers Records, it has become a highly-coveted label—maybe the most coveted label—among ‘60s soul and R&B collectors. Why has Loma has become such a hot property? Well, it has not been well anthologized in the digital age—witness the fact that over half of the tracks on this 50-song set have never appeared on CD, and nothing piques collector interest like scarcity. But there is a deeper story here. While Loma was started by WB chief Mike Maitland as a purely commercial venture designed to accommodate the flood of recordings being made by artists and producers off roster, label head Bob Krasnow—veteran of such hallowed indie labels as Del-Fi, Autumn, and King—recognized that Warner’s holdings were severely lacking in soul and R&B, and brought a certain focus to Loma’s “throw it at the wall and see if it sticks” approach. Which, given the times, was not a bad approach at all. The post-Beatles rising tide of pop music really did lift all boats, prompting an incredible outburst of creativity in the recording industry across all genres. That’s why, alongside the hitless wonders on these 50 tracks, you will find legends like Gene Page, Jerry Ragavoy, and James Brown producing and arranging. And why you will also find some legendary artists, like Ike & Tina Turner, Little Jerry Williams (a.k.a Swamp Dogg), and Smiley Lewis, as well as artists like The Olympics (whose complete output for Loma appears here, including the original version of “Good Lovin’”) and The Apollas that are treasured by ‘60s soul collectors. The Complete Loma Singles: Vol. 1 is the first of four 2-CD collections containing the complete singles output for Loma that we have planned here at Real Gone, and we have brought ‘60s rock and soul guru Alec Palao on board to write the liner notes and co-produce. Remastered by Mike Milchner at SonicVision, all but one single of this material comes from original tape sources, and we have rounded up some rare photos to complete the package. Big, big news for collectors, with more to come!
You can’t get any more popular in American entertainment than Keely Smith was in the early ‘60s. Having blown the doors out in Las Vegas, winning a Grammy, having hit after hit and lighting up television screens playing straight “man” to husband Louis Prima, she’d navigated the tricky waters of a professional and personal divorce, striking out on her own and starting her own record label, Keely Records, in partnership with close friend and mentor Frank Sinatra, under the auspices of his Reprise label. A groundbreaking businesswoman, as well as recording artist, Keely recorded 5 classic albums for Reprise. Because she’d seen enough show business shenanigans to last a lifetime, a generation before it became standard practice to do so, she retained the rights to her masters. Those albums have NEVER come out legitimately on CD anywhere in the world. Now, Real Gone Music, in concert with Keely & her family, is very proud to announce that the label is going to answer the pleas of pop fans worldwide and release ALL of Keely’s Reprise albums on CD for the first time in deluxe packages featuring bonus tracks, rare photos, and new liner notes. Little Girl Blue, Little Girl New was Keely’s first release for her new label Reprise, and she celebrated her newfound freedom in grand style by putting out a concept album jointly supervised by Keely with Frank Sinatra. Reassembling the topnotch, high flying creative team of their Capitol years, the entire package was fashioned as two distinct records, from the song choices to the album artwork itself. It featured two different front covers, one lachrymose, one cheery. The first side, “Little Girl Blue,” offered such lovelorn fare as “Here’s That Rainy Day,” “Willow Weep for Me, and the title tune, while the second side, “Little Girl New,” was epitomized by the spirit of its closing track, “Blue Skies.” Taken as a whole, Little Girl Blue, Little Girl New is a uniquely powerful listening experience and stands as one of the first concept albums ever recorded by a female artist. We’ve added Keely’s first Reprise single (produced by Don Costa), “Going Through the Motions” b/w “When You Cry” (mixed to stereo for the first time ever!), to the original stereo album for this Expanded Edition, which is remastered by Mike Milchner at SonicVision from original tape sources and also features fresh liner notes and rare photos. Oh, and one more thing…the whole thing is arranged and conducted by the great Nelson Riddle!
Eddy Arnold is no stranger to our Real Gone roster; we’ve put out his hits (Complete Original #1 Hits), his only session with Lee Hazlewood and his last session with Chet Atkins (Each Road I Take—The 1970 Lee Hazlewood & Chet Atkins Sessions) and his holiday sides (The Complete RCA Victor Christmas Recordings). But there remains one aspect of his remarkable career that we have yet to address: his inspirational recordings. And it’s an important one; his first non-45 release was a box (Eddy Arnold’s Sacred Songs) containing three seven inches of spirituals, and he recorded a number of religious-themed records for RCA. For When It’s Round-Up Time in Heaven—The Great Gospel Recordings, we’ve snagged two of the best for this 20-track compilation: 1954’s When It’s Round-Up Time in Heaven and 1963’s Faithfully Yours. These two beautifully-recorded albums have been remastered by Maria Triana at Battery Studios in New York, and come with notes by Joe Marchese examining the role religion played in Eddy’s life and in his art. Sure to uplift your soul!
The list of ‘60s and ‘70s singer-songwriters is long and full of legends; but perhaps the most talented of that very talented bunch was Tim Buckley. Certainly when it came to singing Buckley was at the very top; his range was unmatched, capable of covering several octaves and acres of emotion in one breath, from sweet, tenor tenderness to hoarse, cracking anguish. And his songwriting showed a similar wide range; in the course of eight short years Buckley went from baroque, psychedelic folk rock to jazzy, even avant-garde ravings to blue-eyed soul. This extreme eclecticism, of course, worked against Buckley commercially; by the time his fans caught up to his latest stylistic change he was off on another. But it’s also one of the reasons why his reputation has steadily grown in the years since his untimely death in 1975; countless listeners only familiar with his early Elektra albums have found themselves floored by his later output. Which is where we find ourselves with 1973’s Sefronia and 1974’s Look at the Fool, the last two records Buckley released during his lifetime and probably the two most controversial albums of his career. Long-time fans decried these records as sellouts, and indeed their soft ‘70s funk feel is jarring to those used to his more adventurous work. But Buckley proves himself to be one helluva R&B singer on these albums, which deserved a much larger audience than they got (by this time Buckley was on Frank Zappa and Herb Cohen’s label DiscReet). Now, Real Gone Music is proud to present both Sefronia and Look at the Fool on vinyl for the first time since the late ‘80s, in versions newly remastered from the original master tapes by Bill Inglot. These releases mark a significant upgrade in sound from what’s heretofore been available, and to celebrate, we’re offering each of these records in two different versions: for audiophiles, a limited edition of 400 copies in 180-gram black vinyl, and for collectors, a limited edition of 300 copies in colored vinyl (salmon pink for Sefronia and crimson for Look at the Fool). It’s high time these albums were reappraised; these vinyl releases show them at their very best.
The Talking Heads spawned a number of worthy side projects and spinoffs—David Byrne & Brian Eno’s My Life in the Bush of Ghosts, Jerry Harrison’s The Red and the Black—but none were as funky, danceable, and flat-out fun as Chris Frantz and Tina Weymouth’s Tom Tom Club. Conceived as something of a larkish break from the grandly realized intellectual and artistic pretensions of the Heads’ Remain in Light record, the duo’s self-titled 1981 debut was recorded in Barbados with Weymouth’s sisters and Adrian Belew and Steven Stanley from the Remain in Light band, and not only spawned a couple of hit singles in “Genius of Love” and “Wordy Rappinghood” but also became, in its own way, enormously influential. This was the sound of downtown New York talking, listening, and rapping to the burgeoning hip hop movement, a hybrid heard in a whole host of acts in the ‘80s and ‘90s, from Madonna to Mariah Carey to the Beastie Boys and beyond. Weymouth and Frantz went on to record several more albums under the Tom Tom Club moniker, but this remains the classic; Real Gone Music is proud to offer Tom Tom Club in a blue and yellow starburst vinyl edition limited to 700 copies. Fun, natural fun!
JULY 7, 2017 RELEASES FROM REAL GONE MUSIC (all releases single CD unless otherwise noted)
LAURA NYRO: A Little Magic, A Little Kindness—The Complete Mono Albums Collection (2-CD Set)
DUSTY SPRINGFIELD: The Complete Philadelphia Sessions – A Brand New Me (Expanded Edition)
THE COMPLETE LOMA SINGLES: Vol. 1 (2-CD Set)
KEELY SMITH: Little Girl Blue, Little Girl New (Expanded Edition)
EDDY ARNOLD: When It’s Round-Up Time in Heaven—The Great Gospel Recordings
TIM BUCKLEY: Sefronia (Limited Salmon Pink Vinyl Edition) (LP)
TIM BUCKLEY: Sefronia (Limited 180-Gram Vinyl Edition) (LP)
TIM BUCKLEY: Look at the Fool (Limited Crimson Vinyl Edition) (LP)
TIM BUCKLEY: Look at the Fool (Limited 180-Gram Vinyl Edition) (LP)
TOM TOM CLUB: Tom Tom Club (Limited Blue & Yellow Starburst Vinyl Edition) (LP)
