Magic in The Summer

Devon based Cosmic troubadours Magic Bus mark their 10th anniversary with their fourth album The Earth Years, their first visit to our planet since 2017’s Phillip The Egg…

Although former New Christy Minstrels singer Barry McGuire scored a fluke novelty hit with the Bob Dylan-styled folk-rock protest anthem "Eve of Destruction" in the summer of 1965, neither he nor producer Lou Adler's startup label Dunhill Records seems to have had a long-term plan for his solo career beyond trying to score another hit single. Naturally, Dunhill quickly issued an Eve of Destruction LP, filling the tracks with McGuire covers of recent folk hits and more originals by P.F. Sloan, who'd penned the hit. Sloan also wrote the follow-up singles "Child of Our Times" and "This Precious Time," neither of which made the Top 40. By the end of the year, Dunhill had another McGuire LP, This Precious Time, again mixing Sloan songs with other people's hits like "Do You Believe in Magic" and "Yesterday." That is the first of two McGuire albums combined on this two-fer CD reissue.

This 5-DVD Collector's set features all 26 uncut, original broacast episodes from the second season of the Monkees. DVD speial features incude 5.1 Audio, commentary tracks with all four Monkees, an exclusive interview and vintage TV commercials. Includes episodes 33-58 and the bonus "33 1/3 Revolutions Per Monkee".

Signed to Philadelphia International Records (PIR), The Three Degrees made a double debut in the UK singles chart in April 1974 with their own “Year Of Decision”, and “TSOP (The Sound Of Philadelphia”), on which they were co-credited with MFSB. Both songs were written by PIR supremos Kenneth Gamble and Leon Huff, who also wrote the trio’s next single, the chart-topping “When Will I See You Again”. After several more hits on PIR, including “Take Good Care Of Yourself”, they signed to the Ariola label.

Looking at the cover, which shows Michael and none of his four brothers, one wouldn’t get the idea that this three-disc set is two-thirds Jackson 5 material. While Michael obviously features prominently in the Jackson 5 songs on The Motown Years, he gets one disc to himself. Altogether, this box collects all the essential J5 and Michael singles and more, including 'ABC', 'Never Can Say Goodbye', 'I Found That Girl', 'I Am Love', 'The Love You Save', 'Ben', 'Rockin’ Robin', and 'I Wanna Be Where You Are'. Released in the U.K., it retails for the price of a single disc and is a convenient way to scoop up a large quantity of high-quality ‘70s pop-soul.