[UPDATE]: Four new titles have been added to the queue of Neil Diamond reissues that will now include the 1976 Robbie Roberston-produced classic, Beautiful Noise, You Don’t Bring Me Flowers, The Movie Album: As Time Goes By, and an expansion of the single disc All Time Greatest Hits, previously released in July of 2014 with 23 tracks (see below). Thus far, a lot of the ’80s and ’90s albums have not been announced. Perhaps there is a second wave coming, or they, like the two albums just noted, just haven’t been mentioned yet. I’m going with a second wave.
As to the 2CD expansion of All Time Greatest Hits, which already has a great set of tunes, I just wonder what will fill the second disc. There are left off tracks like “Stones”, “Brooklyn Roads”, “Longfellow Serenade”, “Stargazer”, “Desiree”, “Be”, and others. This might be a nice collection to get a hold of.
Track Listing – All Time Greatest Hits
01. Cracklin’ Rosie
02. Forever In Blue Jeans
03. Song Sung Blue
04. Sweet Caroline
05. Holly Holy
06. Red, Red Wine
07. Hello Again
08. Beautiful Noise
09. America
10. September Morn
11. Love On The Rocks
12. Shilo
13. You Don’t Bring Me Flowers (Original Solo Version)
14. Morningside
15. Soolaimon
16. Play Me
17. Kentucky Woman
18. Girl, You’ll Be A Woman Soon
19. Solitary Man
20. I’m A Believer
21. Brother Love’s Traveling Salvation Show
22. Cherry Cherry
23. I Am…I Said
Neil Diamond fans, here they come!
As predicted in the past, after the signing with Universal/Capitol Records, carrying over all Columbia Records titles, it’s been speculated that we could get Universal-branded CDs of all of Neil Diamond’s Columbia works. And that is finally happening.
Neil Diamond’s relationship with Columbia Records had been a long and fruitful one. With multiple multi-platinum releases beginning with 1973’s excellent Jonathan Livingston Seagull, followed by the Diamond’s first Columbia Records-branded Pop effort, Serenade, released in 1974 (Jonathan Livingston Seagull was a soundtrack). From there is was one platinum effort after another until Neil Diamond’s popularity began to wane, evident with the lowered sales of Primitive from 1984. After Primitive, and with the exception of his holiday sets, his works have been Gold status sellers (sales of 500,000 units). You can chalk it up to new, disinterested audiences largely immune to the Neil Diamond mystique.
On November 24, Universal will reissue:
- 12 Songs (2005)
- Dreams (2010)
- Home Before Dark (2008)
- Hot August Night/NYC (2009)
- Jonathan Livingston Seagull (OMPS) (1973)
- Love At The Greek (1977)
- September Morn (1979)
- Serenade (1974)
- The Bang Years 1966-1968 (2011)
- Beautiful Noise (1976)
- All Time Greatest Hits (2CD Deluxe Edition) (2014)
- The Jazz Singer (1980)
- The Movie Album: As Time Goes By (1998)
- You Don’t Bring Me Flowers (1978)
While there are no details at this time, my guess is that these will have been remastered. I say this because there is a trickle of titles, with much still not planned (as yet). They are likely not Deluxe Editions, or extras-laden. But still, new possible remasters work for me.
It should be noted that, as of July 1, these titles have been released as digital MP3 product.
I’ll update this as I retrieve more news.
[#8230;] Catch up here! [#8230;]
I picked up 3 of these titles today and nowhere in the liner notes does it say “remastered” the spines are also just reproductions of the original red on white Columbia discs. Instead of reading “Columbia” they now feature the iconic Capitol Records logo. I guess we will have to wait for remastered sound on these classic titles.
Well, that just blows. Which titles did you pick up?
Seagull, Serenade, Beautiful Noise, Love At The Greek, Flowers, Sept Morn amp; Jazz Singer. The face of the discs themselves now have colored graphics with colors and fonts matching the albums but these are just straight reissues under the Capitol Label.
As I thought they might be. Damn. How hard could it have been?!
I agree. I mean they’re going to do it eventually… why not now? If they have remastered all the songs for the 2 disc All-Time Greatest Hits then why not just remaster the individual albums. Also of note… the old Columbia CDs listed the song writers on the disc itself that is not the case with the reissues and the songwriting credits are no where to be found inside the skimpy booklets either.
Neil. Good enough to rebrand, but not money enough to remaster for Deluxe Editions.
I chose the new 2014 CDs.but I can’t get to it to buy he has been my favorite for 58yrs we have sorta grown old but he looks better than me
They are very cheap via Amazon if you want to check them out.
I bought the reissue of Serenade. It’s rubbish and a disgrace to one of Neil’s best albums ever.
It’s as though the printing was done on an ordinary photocopier. They didn’t even bother to reproduce the phrase (“A Serenade, a hymn of sorts, at most a small potion for the soul.”) that was included on the cover of the original leaflet. There’s no mention at all of Neil Diamond being the composer of the songs. The whole thing looks horribly cheap and hastily done.
Very sloppy work from Capitol, an unworthy reissue of one of Neil’s best albums ever and done without any respect for Neil Diamond and his work. I expected more from Capitol’s “strategy to release [Neil’s] extensive back catalog”.
If all reissues are like this one: stay away from them!
How sad!