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1966's BINGO!! for The Lee Kings is one of the crown jewels of Sweden's musical heritage. The Stockholm band's sole album fused hard-edged beat music, the soulful and a melodic sensibility paralleling The Hollies - their 1967 single Coming From The Ground was produced by Hollies' Allan Clarke and Graham Nash.

RPM International's double-CD, expanded edition of BINGO!! for The Lee Kings (WRETROD974) includes all their singles (in mono, from the master tapes), rarities and tracks never-before-heard on CD. Everything The Lee Kings recorded is collected.

Their complete catalogue is supplemented by a booklet with exclusive images from their film Grejen.

This is the ultimate Lee Kings and adds to RPM International's essential library of the greatest Swedish music from the era:

Doris: Did You Give The World Some Love Today, Baby expanded edition (Retro D925),
Hep Stars: It's Been A Long Long Time (Retro 935)/Like We Used To - The Anthology 1965-1967 (Retro 936),
Life: Life expanded edition (Retro D929),
Mascots: Ellpee expanded edition (Retro D952)/Your Mascots expanded edition (Retro 951), Shanes: Let Them Show You - The Anthology 1964-1967 (Retro 950),
Tages: GO! The Complete Singles (WRETRO D970)/The Studio Album Plus (Retro 874),
Turid: Stjärnor Och Änglar, Stars And Angels - Songs 1971-75 (Retro 870).

With Denmark, Finland, Iceland and Norway also covered, RPM International is the authoritative home for the greatest music from Scandinavia's past.

- EVERY A' & B' SIDE RELEASED DURING HIS GLORY ERA!
- FIRST TIME EVER COMPILED ON CD!
-  SOURCED FROM THEORIGINAL MASTER TAPES!
- INCLUDES MANY RARE/ALTERNATE MIXES!

TINY TIM was one of the most outrageous, unique, and beloved sensations ever to emerge during the 1960s. Born of that brief, inspired moment in time when the freaks almost took over, Tiny's debut LP, April 1968's God Bless Tiny Tim, is an otherworldly mission statement from the misunderstood pop culture icon who almost singlehandedly invented other.' Yet despite all this, a complete singles collection, or ever a legitimate Best of' chronicling his golden years, has never been compiled on CD. UNTIL NOW!

Featuring the Top 20 hit Tip-Toe Thru' The Tulips With Me,' The Complete Singles Collection (1966-1970) includes the original single mixes of all of his classic Reprise singles, from this peak era of his career. Also included is his debut 45 on Blue Cat and his post-Reprise era one-off single for Scepter Records, for the first time ever on CD!

This 22-track deluxe edition includes many original mono single mixes, which has been out of circulation since their original release.

The deluxe, full-colour booklet also includes rare photos and extensive and insightful liner notes by KRISTIAN HOFFMAN. Mastered by ALAN BROWNSTEIN from the ORIGINAL MASTER TAPES!

90s brings together the biggest songs of the decade featuring more than ten number ones and over thirty top ten smashes. The sixty tracks on offer highlight the variety that the 90s provided from the boy band swagger of East 17 to the sultry R&B of Adina Howard to the brit pop of Supergrass and the anthemic electro of Dario G. British icons such as All Saints, Duran Duran and The Human League share the stage with American giants The Notorious B.I.G., Cher, The Rembrandts and many more.























































[ZZA] CD3-13. JX - There's Nothing I Won't Do
[ZZB] CD3-14. K-Klass - Rhythm Is A Mystery
[ZZC] CD3-15. Perfecto Allstarz - Reach Up (Papa's Got A Brand New Pig Bag)
[ZZD] CD3-16. The All Seeing I - Beat Goes On
[ZZE] CD3-17. White Town - Your Woman
[ZZF] CD3-18. Dannii Minogue - All I Wanna Do
[ZZG] CD3-19. Louise - Arms Around The World
[ZZH] CD3-20. Cartoons - Witch Doctor

The Other Side brings together seminal tracks often less celebrated yet still immensely important in the story of popular music. This collection presents an alternative history of one of pop's most polarizing decades, The 80s, featuring tracks from artists such as New Wave's Aztec Camera and Spandau Ballet, Pop's Howard Jones and Pet Shop Boys and Rockers Jesus And The Mary Chain and The Stranglers. Megastars such as Kate Bush and Duran Duran share the bill with massively influential acts The Smiths, Talking Heads, New Order and many more.

Synopsis:
For over a quarter century, the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame has honoured music's most influential
figures at prestigious black-tie induction ceremonies where performers and audience alike let down
their hair and rejuvenate themselves through exciting, once-in-a-lifetime performances. Rock And
Roll Hall Of Fame Live captures the excitement of those ceremonies with the most incredible
combinations of talent ever assembled on a single stage. The biggest names in rock n roll perform in
intimate settings, jamming in combinations not seen anywhere else. Now on vinyl!

Eine lieblich-ansteckende Melodie, sexy Vintage-Sounds und ein positives Lebensgefühl - so klingt "Fade Out Lines" von The Avener. Und auch das Musikvideo holt euch die kalifornische Sonne und die Goldenen 50er nach Hause. Im Video ist eine Frau und ein Mann zu sehen, die leichtfüßig durch einen sommerlichen Tag spazieren. Der Song ist im Übrigen ein Rework von Phoebe Killdeer und The Short Straws Original-Track "The Fade Out Line".

Silk Degrees, released on Columbia Records in 1976, is Boz Scaggs' seventh album.
A massive success, peaking at #2 & spending 115 weeks on the Billboard 200.
It has been certified five times platinum by the RIAA and remains Scaggs's best selling album.

A new Golden Age' collection is always a special event at Ace. The success of our first Special Country Edition in the Golden Age Of American Popular Music' series virtually guaranteed that there would be a follow-up at some point. Here it is at long last, mastered from the best possible sources and with an equally strong line up of names and tracks.

Virtually all 28 of our featured artists were household names in country in their day, and the majority of them still are over 50 years
later.

There's a generous helping of uptempo hillbilly and borderline rockabilly among the straight ahead country to preserve the musical variety.

The booklet is crammed with in-depth annotation and copious illustrations with at least one image for every one of its 28 selections.

Originally released on Island Records in 1979, Suicide's second single features two non-LP
tracks including Dream Baby Dream,' their best-known song and often covered by Bruce
Springsteen. This first-time vinyl reissue and first-time domestic release comes with original
sleeve design. Limited edition red vinyl.

a gatefold heavy card board sleeve and heavy vinyl !! remastered and recut from original masters !!! the artwork will be true to the original (including textured covers and embosses where appropriate) and will feature lyrics, and additional sleeve notes and artwork !!!

Yo-Yo Ma Plays Ennio Morricone is a 2004 album of recordings from Morricone's various film scores by brilliant cellist Yo-Yo Ma and Ennio Morricone. The album was recorded with the Roma Sinfonietta Orchestra and Gilda Buttà on piano. Morricone functioned as orchestrator, conductor and producer. The album stayed 105 weeks on the Billboard Top Classical Albums.

Yo-Yo Ma Plays Ennio Morricone positively diverges from most of the other interpretation albums in its collaborative aspect: the music's original creator, Morricone, had as much to do with this album as did Ma and his creative team.

Followers of the Sonic Pieces catalogue will already be familiar with the individuals of F.S.Blumm and Nils Frahm as well as their acclaimed work as a duo. But even though they're making use of familiar instruments their new album Tag Eins Tag Zwei manages to add a new tone to their already unique language. By trading their post-processed sound sculptures that made up the two preceding albums in for intimate pieces of improvisation, this collaboration merges into the most soothing and life affirming recording the two have produced so far.

Guitars and toys are flowing next to piano and harmonium like an organic combination, shaping nine suits that abnegate any common categorization. Involving classical, jazz and folk influences it's the genuine use of tricks and delays that lift these improvisations above the ordinarXy and makes them both incredibly relaxing and exciting at the same time. It is almost ironic that by capturing accidental moments of free playing, Frank and Nils are succeeding at an even more impressive scale than their already highly satisfying previous output.

The result delivers a perfect example of how immediacy can be the most powerful approach to creating music. Based on a remarkable understanding of each other's phrasing the pair of sessions that comprises this album shows two vivid artists at the peak of their game: Unconditional spontaneity.

Followers of the Sonic Pieces catalogue will already be familiar with the individuals of F.S.Blumm and Nils Frahm as well as their acclaimed work as a duo. But even though they're making use of familiar instruments their new album Tag Eins Tag Zwei manages to add a new tone to their already unique language. By trading their post-processed sound sculptures that made up the two preceding albums in for intimate pieces of improvisation, this collaboration merges into the most soothing and life affirming recording the two have produced so far.

Guitars and toys are flowing next to piano and harmonium like an organic combination, shaping nine suits that abnegate any common categorization. Involving classical, jazz and folk influences it's the genuine use of tricks and delays that lift these improvisations above the ordinarXy and makes them both incredibly relaxing and exciting at the same time. It is almost ironic that by capturing accidental moments of free playing, Frank and Nils are succeeding at an even more impressive scale than their already highly satisfying previous output.

The result delivers a perfect example of how immediacy can be the most powerful approach to creating music. Based on a remarkable understanding of each other's phrasing the pair of sessions that comprises this album shows two vivid artists at the peak of their game: Unconditional spontaneity.

Double CD / Double LP Edition including the 2012 self titled debut album by Moon Ate The Dark and the 2nd follow-up album simply called "II".

With their second album Moon Ate the Dark is taking the next step of contemporary piano composition. Moving on from their well-received debut album in 2012, Moon Ate the Dark II is based on an extraordinary playful and varied approach to melodies and drones with dedication to subtle, yet complex details.
The combination of Anna Rose Carter's piano, violin and keyboard playing and Christopher Bailey's electronics, amplifiers as well as organs and synthesizers creates something less shadowy than their first album in favour of a more melodic, still thoughtful endeavour that manages to virtuously move on the thin line of nostalgia and optimism.

While the shorter pieces of the record are mostly based on lively piano tunes completed by forceful electronic components, the attentive ‚Sleepy Vipers' is dragging the listener into drones and violin that slow the pace to create an engaging high mark in the duo's recordings underlined by the excellent production that will grip the listener until the very last notes of the wonderful closing track ‚Lo'. Moon Ate the Dark II is an impressive achievement and evidence of how diverting a meeting of two parts can be if they match as perfectly as this.

With their second album Moon Ate the Dark is taking the next step of contemporary piano composition. Moving on from their well-received debut album in 2012, Moon Ate the Dark II is based on an extraordinary playful and varied approach to melodies and drones with dedication to subtle, yet complex details.
The combination of Anna Rose Carter's piano, violin and keyboard playing and Christopher Bailey's electronics, amplifiers as well as organs and synthesizers creates something less shadowy than their first album in favour of a more melodic, still thoughtful endeavour that manages to virtuously move on the thin line of nostalgia and optimism.

While the shorter pieces of the record are mostly based on lively piano tunes completed by forceful electronic components, the attentive ‚Sleepy Vipers' is dragging the listener into drones and violin that slow the pace to create an engaging high mark in the duo's recordings underlined by the excellent production that will grip the listener until the very last notes of the wonderful closing track ‚Lo'. Moon Ate the Dark II is an impressive achievement and evidence of how diverting a meeting of two parts can be if they match as perfectly as this.

Otto A Totland's modern compositional elements are most widely recognized as half of the Norwegian duo Deaf Center, where his melancholic, intricate piano work provides haunting relief to the beds of noise and deep strings from Erik K Skodvin. Pinô is the first full-length release by Totland, though his solo work has been released once, as the 5-minute A-side of Sonic Pieces 7inch Harmony From the Past. Otto's previously brief vignettes are now expanded into a fully personal realization of his own style.
Initial track Open fills itself with heavy, knowing pauses that quickly become overwhelmed with the desire to understand what's to come. Each silence leads into quick flutters of keys, preparing the listener for a vast terrain of giddy beauty, bleak depths, and true contentedness. Pinô quickly recalls deep winter; in front of a fireplace for days on end, you lose how far along you've ventured into the 18 tracks without any idea how far is left to go. The experience feels inevitable, with no other option but to curl up somewhere cozy and appreciate the sense of timelessness that Totland has created. His album is a haunting modern compositional treasure, expressed through instrumentals completely unique to Totland and captured masterfully by Nils Frahm at Durton Studios.
With Pinô, Otto A Totland appears out of the Norwegian landscape, sharing an achievement that will provide a relief during the brooding winter darkness. Though a highly personal endeavor, the recognizable continuation of Totland's compositions will attract fans of Deaf Center, and the cinematic and classical components of his solo work will hold sway for those familiar with Harold Budd or Dustin O'Halloran.

Takeshi Nishimoto comes from a background as a guitarist, receiving classical training from some of the world´s premiere guitar players, while on the other hand he has been steadily growing into the more electronic music scene with a bunch of albums on CCO as I´m Not A Gun alongside John Tajeda. Takeshi appeared solo on record first in 2007 through CCO offset label Büro and returns now with his second album, this time for sonic pieces.
Although you could say Lavandula is a guitar solo record - that really does not do it justice if you dive deeper into the sounds that resonates within it. At times, Takeshi uses some really fine electronic methods to bend and shape the guitar and background atmospheres, like the beautifully perceived Strassenlaterne. Other times it feels like you are in the middle of a still picture from a forest lake in the Japanese countryside, slowly waking up together with the sun. The track Tone Water on the other hand sounds like Squarepusher´s classic acoustic masterpiece, Music is Rotted, One Note played on the Guitar instead of Bass and comes off as a fresh change of direction in the middle of the album.
Lavandula is a very personal and beautiful late summer album that brings to mind the film music of Gustavo Santaolalla (21 grams, Babel, Biutiful) or Tape´s classic albums for Häpna, but traveling through Japanese, North American and European traditions. A great record to bring while traveling, wake up to in the morning or simply enjoy in a quiet evening.

The Incredible String Band is the debut album by the Folk band of the same name, released in 1966. It is the only one of the band's albums to feature the original trio line-up with Clive Palmer as well as Robin Williamson and Mike Heron.

They recorded the album at the Sound Techniques studio in Chelsea, London in one afternoon in May 1966, with Joe Boyd as producer. Boyd insisted on focusing on the group's own self-written material, rather than the traditional songs and tunes which they had also been performing, and with each performer singing his own material.

The album showcased the trio's abilities on a variety of instruments, although the instrumentation is relatively orthodox compared to the band's later work. All three members played guitar and sang, with Palmer also playing banjo and kazoo and Williamson playing mandolin, banjo, tin whistle and fiddle/violin.

Delain have announced an eight-track EP titled Lunar Prelude. It's set for release on February 19, 2016, via Napalm Records, and features two new tracks, four live cuts, an alternative take on Don't Look Back and an orchestral version of Suckerpunch.
A statement from the band reads: 'Our latest album The Human Contradiction has taken us on a great ride, performing hundreds of stages around the globe for all of you. We barely managed to catch our breaths from our most recent tours, yet we've already got some new music that we simply can't wait to share. In preparation of our next full length studio album, we'd like to present to you Lunar Prelude - a collection of several brand new tracks, a new version of a familiar one, and live versions of some our favourite The Human Contradiction tracks.'
Delain will head out on the road across North America with Nightwish in early 2016. They made guitarist Merel Bechtold a permanent member in October.
For fans of: Within Temptation, Nightwish, etc

Radio plays on The Classic Rock Show, Team Rock Radio, Spark FM, Phoenix FM
Reviews / articles / features in: Classic Rock, Metal Hammer, Prog, Maximum Volume, The Independent Voice, Big Cheese, Planet Mosh, Black Velvet, Fireworks, Metal Forces, Metal Rules (USA), Rock Gig Reviews, Uber Rock, Demonzone, Devils Gate Media, Hapfairy's World, Metal Hobbit Speaks, Birmingham Live, Midlands Metalheads & more!

the original track that has been used for will smith "men in black" !!!

A1 Watch That Man (4:25)
A2 Aladdin Sane (1913-1938-197~) (5:07)
A3 Drive-In Saturday (4:31)
A4 Panic In Detroit (4:26)
A5 Cracked Actor (2:59)
B1 Time (5:13)
B2 The Prettiest Star (3:27)
B3 Let's Spend The Night Together (3:06)
B4 The Jean Genie (4:06)
B5 Lady Grinning Soul (3:52)

'Lioness' is Sivert Høyem's 6th solo-album. It has 11 songs all written by Sivert, and co-produced by Sivert and keyboard player Christer Knutsen. The album is mixed by Tchad Blake (The Black Keys, Sheryl Crow, Pearl Jam, etc.). Mastering is done by Greg Calbi at Sterling Sound.

In February Sivert will be touring in Norway, starting in Oslo Spektrum on Sat. Feb. 13th. Live dates are also planned in Holland, Germany, Switzerland and Greece (April-May next year). These countries are also the key markets for this album.

Sivert has also written the theme song to the new TV series Occupied which is based om an idea by famour author Jo Nesbø. The TV series has started to air in Norway and will also air on Arte in Germany, France, Austria, Switzerland, Holland, Belgium , Liechtenstein and Luxembourg from mid/late Nov, DR in Denmark and Sky Arts in the UK from Jan.

'Lioness' is Sivert Høyem's 6th solo-album. It has 11 songs all written by Sivert, and co-produced by Sivert and keyboard player Christer Knutsen. The album is mixed by Tchad Blake (The Black Keys, Sheryl Crow, Pearl Jam, etc.). Mastering is done by Greg Calbi at Sterling Sound.

In February Sivert will be touring in Norway, starting in Oslo Spektrum on Sat. Feb. 13th. Live dates are also planned in Holland, Germany, Switzerland and Greece (April-May next year). These countries are also the key markets for this album.

Sivert has also written the theme song to the new TV series Occupied which is based om an idea by famour author Jo Nesbø. The TV series has started to air in Norway and will also air on Arte in Germany, France, Austria, Switzerland, Holland, Belgium , Liechtenstein and Luxembourg from mid/late Nov, DR in Denmark and Sky Arts in the UK from Jan.

Lee Hazlewood was a late bloomer. Following a meandering career as a disc jockey, producer, songwriter, label executive and solo artist, Hazlewood hit the jackpot at the ripe age of 37 with These Boots Are Made For Walkin',' the song Nancy Sinatra took to the top of the charts on both sides of the Atlantic.
Its success convinced MGM Records that Hazlewood was a bankable star, and they signed him as an artist in his own right the same year. But as a self-described "non-singer" whose cult 1963 debut, Trouble Is A Lonesome Town, was little more than a happy accident, they'd perhaps gotten the wrong end of the stick where Lee was concerned.

In three years on the label, Hazlewood delivered three albums and sundry odds and ends, beginning with 1966 album The Very Special World Of Lee Hazlewood. The LP found Hazlewood gunning-in as much as he ever did-for commercial success, blending country, pop, novelty, mariachi, and lounge music into something unusually of-the-moment.

Lushly orchestrated and-like the album that preceded it-half-sung, half-spoken in a way that Hazlewood made all his own, the album collected solo versions of songs made famous by Sinatra and others ( Sand,' Boots,' So Long Babe,' Summer Wine'-included as a bonus duet with Suzi Jane Hokom) alongside some of his career-best solo compositions, among them the Morricone-like opener, For One Moment.' It's a record of extremes: When A Fool Loves A Fool' is as light and throwaway as anything he ever laid down, while the wistful My Autumn's Done Come' (sample lyric: "Let those I-don't-care days come in, I'm tired of holding my stomach in") is as raw and honest.

Despite MGM's best efforts, Hazlewood proved difficult to market without a Sinatra to temper his baritone drawl, and you'd suspect Hazlewood wasn't taking it quite as seriously as they might have hoped anyway. By 1967, Hazlewood had founded the LHI imprint and was busy building his own empire-one we've been lovingly archiving for the past few years. We now present this missing link in the story, plus follow-ups Lee Hazlewoodism: Its Cause and Cure (1967) and Something Special (1968). Welcome, then, to Hazlewood's magnificent MGM years.

The three years spent on MGM Records between 1966 and 1968 were golden ones for Lee Hazlewood.
He spent them working with his muse, Suzi Jane Hokom, writing a still-unreleased book, The Quiet Revenge of Elmo Furback, competing with Phil Spector from their respective studios, and coming up with the formula for the "boy/girl' songs for which he'd become famous. In fact, the unflattering portrait on the cover of Something Special did little to hint at how hip this late-flowering talent (he was in his late 30s when These Boots Are Made For Walkin'' made him a star songwriter) had become.

The common strand on the MGM trilogy is one of the unexpected happening. They were an ill fit for a major label-experimental, difficult to pigeonhole, and unpredictable. Those descriptors apply nowhere more aptly than Something Special. Where 1966's The Very Special World Of Lee Hazlewood and 1967's Lee Hazlewoodism: Its Cause And Cure had employed an arranger, Billy Strange, and a full orchestra, Something Special stripped things back and brought in a flavor of jazz and blues, complete with gravelly-voiced scatting courtesy of collaborator Don Randi. This sat alongside tracks like Little War' and Hands,' the kind of late night, acoustic balladeering Hazlewood would later seize for his career-highlight LP, Requiem For An Almost Lady. The sound was that of a stripped-down nightclub jazz/blues/folk combo, fully rejecting the psychedelic music going on all over the world.

The album made clear that forging a career as a serious star was not at the top of Hazlewood's agenda, and at the third opportunity, he'd let the listener in on the joke. Tellingly, Hokom recalls Hazlewood saying the MGM albums were his expensive demos. I'm sure that MGM thought that they would be successful.' Little chance of that with Something Special-it was originally released only in Germany. The same year, Hazlewood founded the LHI imprint, and began building his own empire, one we've been lovingly archiving for the past few years. We now present this missing link in the story, three albums that generated some of Hazlewood's best-and most varied-work.

Zum RSD erstmalig auf Vinyl: zeitgenössische Instrumentalmusik für Cello und Streicher von Sir John Tavener!
'The Protecting Veil' ist eine Komposition für Solo-Cello und Streichorchester des zeitgenössischen, britischen Komponisten John Tavener (1944-2013). Fertiggestellt im Jahre 1988 erscheint es nun erstmals auf Vinyl.
'The Protecting Veil' ist in Klang und Stilistik einzigartig und basiert auf dem sogenannten Schutzmantelfest der orthodoxen Kirche, das 8 Stationen im Leben der Mutter Gottes ehrt.
Die Eröffnungssequenz repräsentiert Maria's überirdische Schönheit und ihren beschützenden Schleier musikalisch durch ein ekstatisch aufsteigendes Cello-Motiv. Im Folgenden widmen sich die einzelnen Kompositions-Teile den verschiedenen Stationen ihres Lebens, über Maria's Totenklage am Fuße des Kreuzes (Cello-Solo ganz ohne Begleitung) und die Auferstehung Jesu bis hin zu ihrem Tod.
Am Ende geht die Schlusssequenz noch einmal auf ihre Schönheit und ihren Schutz ein und endet mit einer musikalischen Darstellung einer - Mutter Gottes, die ob einer zerrütteten Welt ihre Tränen vergießt'.
Zum Record Store Day erscheint diese außergewöhnliche Komposition auf schwerem 180g Vinyl mit goldverziertem Artwork

This is YMO's first live recorded album and their second number 1 album in Japan. Several concerts were recorded for Public Pressure, all in 1979 (The Venue in London, Greek Theater in LA, Bottom Line in NYC, Sun Plaza in Nakano).

This album contains first class recordings, clear and sparkling; YMO is arguably at its best with an audience. Akiko Yano is a welcomed addition to YMO, as she completes the band with sublime vocals.

This live album has a much more relaxed approach to the music, as it feels like they're jamming on stage and clearly enjoying themselves!

The mid-to-late '60s were strange days for Lee Hazlewood. Having struck gold as songwriter and vocal foil for Nancy Sinatra, he signed up to MGM as an artist in his own right, and between 1966 and 1968, produced three ambitious solo albums that were eclectic, idiosyncratic, and most of all, unpredictable.
It was a happy time for Lee; his music was hot on the charts, he was fully immersed in his collaboration with his muse, Suzi Jane Hokom.

The second of his MGM trilogy-1967's peculiarly named Lee Hazlewoodism: Its Cause And Cure-took on countrified French ye-ye ('The Girls In Paris'), a tale of a young bullfighter built on Spanish guitar and choral cowboys ('Jose'), a string-drenched song about the passing of time ('The Old Man And His Guitar'), and a western epic about a Native American tribe ('The Nights'). And that was just the first four tracks. Elsewhere, the honky tonk madness of 'Suzi Jane Is Back In Town,' the Byrds-like jangle of 'In Our Time' and-in the bonus tracks-an instrumental named 'Batman' confirm this to be one of Hazlewood's most far-ranging, far-out LPs ever.

It's the result of two main factors: ambition-to top Phil Spector, primarily-and cash, which paid for orchestras, plush studios, and the inestimable talents of arranger Billy Strange. 'I think the big sound of those records came out of the Spector thing,' says Hokom, in the new liner notes. 'If you can have a big sound and you have money to burn... it was a flamboyancy.'

Released before the Nancy & Lee LP-a bona fide hit for Reprise Records-Hazlewoodism was a tougher nut to crack, a record that confused by combining po-faced delivery with unabashed comical touches. By 1967, Hazlewood had founded the LHI imprint, and was busy building his own empire-one we've been lovingly archiving for the past few years. We now present this missing link in the story, plus predecessor, The Very Special World Of Lee Hazlewood and follow-up, Something Special. Welcome to Hazlewood's magnificent-and mad-MGM years.

The three years spent on MGM Records between 1966 and 1968 were golden ones for Lee Hazlewood.
He spent them working with his muse, Suzi Jane Hokom, writing a still-unreleased book, The Quiet Revenge of Elmo Furback, competing with Phil Spector from their respective studios, and coming up with the formula for the "boy/girl' songs for which he'd become famous. In fact, the unflattering portrait on the cover of Something Special did little to hint at how hip this late-flowering talent (he was in his late 30s when 'These Boots Are Made For Walkin'' made him a star songwriter) had become.

The common strand on the MGM trilogy is one of the unexpected happening. They were an ill fit for a major label-experimental, difficult to pigeonhole, and unpredictable. Those descriptors apply nowhere more aptly than Something Special. Where 1966's The Very Special World Of Lee Hazlewood and 1967's Lee Hazlewoodism: Its Cause And Cure had employed an arranger, Billy Strange, and a full orchestra, Something Special stripped things back and brought in a flavor of jazz and blues, complete with gravelly-voiced scatting courtesy of collaborator Don Randi. This sat alongside tracks like 'Little War' and 'Hands,' the kind of late night, acoustic balladeering Hazlewood would later seize for his career-highlight LP, Requiem For An Almost Lady. The sound was that of a stripped-down nightclub jazz/blues/folk combo, fully rejecting the psychedelic music going on all over the world.

The album made clear that forging a career as a serious star was not at the top of Hazlewood's agenda, and at the third opportunity, he'd let the listener in on the joke. Tellingly, Hokom recalls Hazlewood saying the MGM albums were his 'expensive demos. I'm sure that MGM thought that they would be successful.' Little chance of that with Something Special-it was originally released only in Germany. The same year, Hazlewood founded the LHI imprint, and began building his own empire, one we've been lovingly archiving for the past few years. We now present this missing link in the story, three albums that generated some of Hazlewood's best-and most varied-work.

Though Cash had been at Columbia for several years by the time this LP was originally released, he recorded and released such a tremendous amount of music between 1955 and 1958 at Sun Studios in Memphis, that Sun Records was releasing his work long after he had defected to a new label. Featuring 12 fantastic recordings with his Tennessee Two and others, including The Ballad Of A Teenage Queen', his wonderful take on Goodnight Irene', and the immortal Big River'. Repressed in a beautiful limited edition picture disc LP on DOXY.