Between The Lines 1977

When The Temptations left Motown in 1977 the group weighed offers from Warner Bros. and Philadelphia International before settling for Atlantic. The album seemed doomed from the start. Temptations lead Dennis Edwards had already left the group and was replaced by Louis Price. This album was released in late 1977 and was a fixture of the cutout bins by the early '80s. Ron Baker, Norman Harris, and Trammps member Earl Young, collectively known as Baker-Harris-Young, produced this album. They were known for their grittier variant of Philly soul/disco but often they play it too safe here. The fact that The Temptations did their vocals in New York rather than Philadelphia does diminish the Philly credentials a bit.

Minneapolis Genius is the first collection of studio recordings by 94 East, the band name given to a number of tracks recorded by Pepé Willie and Prince with occasional other musicians (it is misleading to consider it an "album", as the tracks have been rearranged many times for reissues under different titles). The collection contained one song with writing input by Prince, Just Another Sucker, and Prince appeared as a musician on all tracks, stemming from recording sessions between 1975 and 1979 (the cover subtitle incorrectly labels the sessions as "the historic 1977 recordings"). Prince had no input into the final release, however, and was upset at its release, leading to a heated discussion between Prince and Pepé Willie in First Avenue in Minneapolis upon its release.

UK four CD round up of British doo-wop pop legends The Darts covering their recordings for the Magnet label between 1977-81 Disc One is their #9 charting self-titled album. The second disc features the Everyone Plays Darts LP which hit #12 in the summer of 1978. Among the six bonus tracks is the #18 hit 'Don't Let It Fade Away'. Disc Three has the #38 charting album Dart Attack. Dating from 1979 it includes the hit singles 'Get It' (#16), 'Duke Of Earl' (#6), 'Can't Get Enough Of Your Love' (#43) and 'Reet Petite' (#51). The fourth and final disc is the rare Darts Across America album, originally released only in the USA. Now restored to it's original LP art and coming with 13 bonus cuts. The 20 page booklet contains detailed liner notes by History Of Rock editor Michael Heatley in discussion with vocalist Griff Fender and pictures of all the relevant record sleeves. The band remain in the Top 500 Chart acts of all time in the UK and still regularly play one off shows across the country.

Definitive boxset of Eddie The Hot Rods’ sojourn with Chris Blackwell’s Island Records featuring the 3 albums Teenage Depression, Life On The Line and Thriller plus separate discs for BBC sessions, In Concert recordings and a rare Fan Club LP from 1977….LTW’s Ian Canty does anything he wants to do, well he wanted to write this review anyway…

Lake is a German-British rock music group that formed in 1973 in Hamburg, Germany. In 1975 they were joined by lead singer James Hopkins-Harrison, who gave them their signature sound for the remainder of their recording career. The band achieved modest success in Europe from the mid-1970s through the early 1980s, particularly in Germany where they were named artist of the year by the German Phono Academy in 1977.

Reissue of this near legendary recording of Beethoven’s Leonore (the first version of what later became Fidelio). This recording from 1977 was the first recording of this opera, and since then remains a benchmark. Featuring the best singers of the time: Eberhard Büchner, Edda Moser, Edith Mathis, Theo Adam, Karl Ridderbusch, and the Staatskapelle Dresden conducted by Herbert Blomstedt.

By the time RCA Records and producer Felton Jarvis arrived to start recording some of his shows on August 21, 1969, Elvis Presley had already conquered Las Vegas. As another piece of his comeback that started with the 1968 ELVIS television special and continued with his first Memphis recordings since the mid-1950s, Elvis had been performing to sold-out crowds in the newly-opened International Hotel's main showroom since July 31. With a grueling two-shows-a-night, seven-days-a-week, schedule, Elvis had performed over 40 triumphant concerts in just three weeks. He was starting the last week of an engagement that, outside of four shows for small studio audiences during his TV special, represented his first live concerts in nearly nine years.