Legacy Recordings Adds New Line of Digital 45s to Summer Digital Release Schedule

Michael Jackson's "Billie Jean," Van Morrison's "Brown-Eyed Girl," Jefferson Airplane's "White Rabbit" & Others Newly Available Online with B-Sides & Artwork

PRNewswire
NEW YORK
07/30/2009

In commemoration of the 60th anniversary of the original 7" 45 rpm two-sided single, Legacy Recordings, the world's premier catalog label, is issuing a new line of Digital 45s, along with a variety of new Digital Audio Longplay titles, as part of its summer release schedule.

(Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20060130/LEGACYLOGO )

A 21st century virtual facsimile of the original 45 experience, Legacy Digital 45s bundle an original A-side hit with its contemporary B-side and sleeve art (when available) for online download. These titles are currently available exclusively on iTunes and will be released to all major digital music providers on Tuesday, August 4.

New Legacy Digital 45s include:

Alabama - Mountain Music b/w If You're Gonna Play In Texas (You Gotta Have A Fiddle In The Band) (Live)

  Bill Withers - Lean On Me b/w Better Off Dead
  Boston - More Than A Feeling  b/w Smokin'
  Cyndi Lauper - Girls Just Want To Have Fun b/w Right Track Wrong Train
  Hall & Oates - Jingle Bell Rock from Daryl b/w Jingle Bell Rock from John
  Dolly Parton - 9 to 5 b/w Everyday People
  Jefferson Airplane - White Rabbit b/w White Rabbit (mono single version)
  Johnny Cash - Ring Of Fire b/w I'd Still Be There
  Marvin Gaye - Sexual Healing b/w Sexual Healing (instrumental)
  Michael Jackson - Billie Jean b/w Can't Get Out Of The Rain
  The Romantics - What I Like About You b/w First In Line
  Van Morrison - Brown Eyed Girl b/w Goodbye Baby (Baby Goodbye)

  Legacy Recordings summer Digital Audio Longplay releases include:

  Aldo Nova

Available for the first time digitally, the second and third studio albums from the Canadian rock musician/composer/guitarist Aldo Nova. Originally released on Portrait, 1983's gold-certified "Subject...Aldo Nova" and 1985's "Twitch" reveal the mastery of sound that make the underrated Nova an in-demand collaborator among a variety of artists ranging from Celine Dion to Bon Jovi.

Commander Cody

Commander Cody (aka George Frayne) dropped his groundbreaking country rockabilly blues band, the Lost Planet Airmen, to go solo in 1977. Legacy makes Cody's first two solo efforts -- 1977's "Flying Dreams" and 1978's "Rock 'n' Roll Again" -- available for the first time online.

David Johansen

First released in 1981, David Johansen's third solo album, "Here Comes The Night," is a transitional missing link between the artist's frontman antics with protopunk glamrock band the New York Dolls and his emerging persona as party ringmaster Buster Poindexter. Produced by Blondie Chapin (the Beach Boys), "Here Comes The Night" introduced one track, "Heart of Gold," which would later appear on Johansen's Buster Poindexter debut album six years later.

Jazz Lee Alston

For the first time online, the 1995 American Recordings solo debut album from contemporary R&B/urban artist Jazz Lee Alston. "Part Billie Holiday, Part Alice Walker" wrote Entertainment Weekly, in its "A" review of the album, "Alston reinvigorates the rap genre with sinuous, jazzy grooves and a feminist take on life in the 'hood."

Mott

By 1976, when "Shouting and Pointing" was released, Mott the Hoople, a once-dominate force in UK glamrock throughout the early 70s, was nearing its final curtain. Calling themselves simply Mott, the band entered the studio to record this emotional swan song and fitting farewell to all the young dudes.

Pure Prairie League

The Ohio-based country-rock band Pure Prairie League traces its origins back to the mid-1960s and remains perennially active to this day. Legacy is proud to reissue a pair of albums from one of the band's peak periods in the mid-1970s: 1976's "Dance" and 1978's "Just Fly".

SoulHat

The Texas-based rock band SoulHat -- featuring Funkadelic alumnus Barry E. "Frosty" Smith on drums alongside core founding members Kevin McKinney (guitars, vocals), Bill Cassis (guitar, vocals), and Brian Walsh (bass) -- reached #25 on the Billboard Mainstream Rock chart with its anthemic "Bonecrusher," a centerpiece cut from the group's second studio album, "Good To Be Gone." Produced by Brendan O'Brien and Nick Didia, "Good To Be Gone," was originally released in 1994.

Bill Withers

Best-known for his Grammy-winning hits "Ain't No Sunshine," "Just The Two of Us," and "Lean On Me," the African-American singer-songwriter Bill Withers created a string of sophisticated R&B/soul albums throughout the 1970s. Legacy Recordings is making four of these classic Withers titles available -- 1975's "Making Music," 1976's "Naked & Warm," 1979's "'Bout Love" and 1974's "Justments." A holy grail among Bill Withers' fans, "Justments" was the artist's last album on the Sussex Records label and has never available on CD or as a digital release.

Juice Newton

In the early 1970s, pop-country then-newcomer Juice Newton signed to RCA Records, who released her first two albums -- the eponymous debut (1975) and "After The Dust Settles" (1976) -- under the name Juice Newton & Silver Spur. Following an eight-year hiatus on another label, the Grammy-winning Juice returned to RCA in 1984 to release her solo masterpiece, "Can't Wait All Night."

Steppenwolf

Best-known for the ultimate heavy metal road anthem, "Born To Be Wild," and the trippy "Magic Carpet Ride," the Canadian hard rock band Steppenwolf recorded three studio albums for Epic Records in the mid-1970's. The second of these, "Hour of The Wolf," reached #155 on the Billboard Top 200 in 1975.

Freddie Hubbard

One of the greatest trumpeters in jazz history, the late Freddie Hubbard brought a fresh and unmistakable sound and sensibility to the world of contemporary jazz in the 60s, 70s and 80s. Legacy Recordings is happy to release, for the first time in the digital realm, ten essential titles from the Freddie Hubbard catalog: 1974's "High Energy" and "Keep Your Soul Together"; 1975's "Liquid Love," "Polar AC," and "The Baddest Hubbard"; 1976's "Windjammer"; 1977's "Bundle of Joy"; 1978's "Super Blue"; 1979's "The Love Connection" and 1980's "Skagly."

Additional Legacy Digital releases TBA on an ongoing basis.

Legacy Recordings, the world's premier catalog music label, has opened its vaults to create the Legacy Digital Reissue initiative, making an incredible selection of classic albums and deep catalog rarities available for the first time in the digital realm.

Drawing from the vast resources of the Sony Music archives, spanning the entire history of commercial recordings, the ongoing Legacy Digital Reissue program offers music fans an opportunity to rediscover old favorites, experience forgotten musical rarities, and explore an incomparably rich variety of genres, artists and sounds from the last 125 years.

  For more information, please contact:

  www.LegacyRecordings.com
  www.MySpace.com/LegacyRecordings
  www.YouTube.com/SonyMusicUSA

First Call Analyst:
FCMN Contact:

Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20060130/LEGACYLOGO

SOURCE: Legacy Recordings

CONTACT: Tom Cording, VP of Media Relations of Sony Music - Legacy,
+1-212-833-4448, tom.cording@sonymusic.com

Web Site: http://www.legacyrecordings.com/