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Last month, just two days before the second anniversary of Prince’s death, the estate of His Royal Badness released the original version of his composition “Nothing Compares 2 U,” thereby providing us with a good excuse to spotlight the song for an installment of Single Stories. Written by Prince, “Nothing Compares 2 U” memorably found its greatest success when it was covered by Sinead O’Connor for her 1990 album I DO NOT WANT WHAT I HAVEN’T GOT, but the song was first recorded in July 1984 by Prince himself. The version that the world at large got to hear first, however, was the one which

44 years ago today, a Canadian music icon found himself officially declared to be the possessor of a gold record for a single that’s become one of his signature hits as well as one of the most successful songs of his career. “Sundown” was written by the man who sung it: Gordon Lightfoot, who’d begun his singing career in the late 1950s, secured success as a songwriter by the mid-1960s (his composition “Ribbon of Darkness” was a #1 country hit for Marty Robbins in 1965), and finally began to see some hits of his own by the time the ‘70s rolled around. Indeed, it was in 1970 that Lightfoot first

Today we celebrate the birthday of the man who put the… Actually, let’s go a different way with that and say that this man is a folk legend, one who teamed with a guy named Paul and a gal named Mary, resulting in all three of them becoming superstars. In honor of the day, we’ve put together a list of 5 things about Peter Yarrow that you may not have known before. Here’s hoping you walk away having learned a little something! 1. He made his TV debut well before Peter, Paul & Mary made a name for themselves. Yarrow was already making waves as a solo singer before becoming part of a trio with

On April 2, Emmylou Harris fans were given a gift: the news that Rhino would soon be reissuing Harris’s 1985 album THE BALLAD OF SALLY ROSE in expanded form…and, no, the fact that this news was delivered on her birthday was not coincidental. Time flies when you’re having fun, however, and here we are on the release day of THE BALLAD OF SALLY ROSE: EXPANDED EDITION, so allow us to remind you of what this new version of this classic album contains: • Newly remastered version of the original album • Previously-unreleased demos for 10 of the album’s 13 songs • Liner notes by Colin Escott THE

Right about this time last year, Rhino released a ZZ Top vinyl box set entitled CINCO: THE FIRST FIVE LPS, and its contents consisted of – spoiler alert! – the band’s first five albums. Now that the band’s fans have had 365 days or so to absorb all 10 sides of 180-gram goodness, it’s time to unveil the sequel to this set. CINCO: THE SECOND FIVE LPS features – you guessed it – ZZ Top’s second five albums, each pressed on 180-gram vinyl, with audio sourced from the original masters and artwork which faithfully reproduces the original releases. Forgotten which albums fall within this particular

Though it’s probably the least commercial of Chicago’s first five studio records, CHICAGO III still climbed the album chart (reaching Number Two) and stands today as another example of the band’s ambition and creative power. For one, it was their third studio double album in two years, and was once again full to bursting with fresh takes on members’ classical, jazz and rock influences. Chicago had been on the road for about a year before entering the studio, and the lyrics they were writing revealed the strain of their experiences. Robert Lamm’s cynicism with the music industry is immediately

Back in the dark ages, i.e. before streaming became a big deal, the most substantial way for new artists to break it big was via word of mouth, which is precisely how Damien Rice first managed to find substantial success with his 2002 album, O. Now, Rhino is reissuing Rice’s breakthrough album and not only are we expanding it, but we’re also putting it out on vinyl for the first time. You may remember O from its singles, which included “The Blower’s Daughter,” “Cannonball,” and “Volcano.” They’re all still here, of course, along with the nine other tracks from the original album, but this new

On February 2, 1968, London’s famed Marquee Club played host to the very first live performance by Jethro Tull. That’s the band Jethro Tull, mind you, rather than the inventor of the seed drill, who was reportedly not much of a singer to begin with and was certainly at a serious vocal disadvantage by that point, anyway, having been dead for 227 years. But here we are digressing again when we’re really here to tell you that, seeing as this is the band’s 50th anniversary, Rhino has opted to compile and release two new best-of sets by Jethro Tull to commemorate the occasion: 50 FOR 50 and 50TH

When Tori Amos toured behind her solo debut LITTLE EARTHQUAKES back in 1992, she performed alone, at a piano — a lone figure on a dimly lighted stage singing extraordinary songs with minimal accompaniment. Fast-forward seven years, to her 1999 album TO VENUS AND BACK, a double-disc set featuring one CD of new songs and one of live recordings. The studio disc was awash in the sounds of trip-hop and electronica, which had crested out of the underground and been absorbed and appropriated into more commercial environs, but which were still jarring to hear as the music through which Amos would

It was no surprise when Michael McDonald’s 1982 solo debut IF THAT’S WHAT IT TAKES landed in the Top Ten, yielded a Top Ten single (“I Keep Forgettin’”), and effortlessly went gold. His last records with the Doobie Brothers (MINUTE BY MINUTE and ONE STEP CLOSER) were platinum-plus sellers, and MINUTE BY MINUTE’s Grammy-winning “What a Fool Believes” was an omnipresent hit. The timing was perfect for him to venture out as a solo artist, and he had success right out of the gate. Following up that initial success was not so easy, and although 1985’s NO LOOKIN’ BACK was a collection of solid songs