Jean-Michel Jarre "Planet Jarre: 50 Years of Music (2CD Deluxe Edition, EU, Columbia, 19075833792)"

Planet Jarre: 50 Years of Music is a compilation album by French electronic musician and composer Jean-Michel Jarre, released on 14 September 2018 to commemorate Jarre's 50 years in the music business.

A total of forty-one tracks were chosen by Jarre himself for inclusion, among them two new songs ("Herbalizer" and "Coachella Opening"). Jarre remastered, and in some cases "retouched", the tracks himself. During the process, he decided that he had pursued four quite different styles of composition and therefore divided the project into four "universes" - "Soundscapes", "Themes", "Sequences" and "Explorations and Early Works”. Some tracks were released in 5.1 surround sound.

Jarre's new-mix "retouched" versions for the album comprised Chronologie Parts 1 and 4, Oxygène Parts 2, 8 and 20, Équinoxe Parts 4 and 7, "Bells" and "Fourth Rendez-Vous"; as well as edits of the 2004 AERO version of "Last Rendez-vous" and the intro section of "Ethnicolor", a three-minute "Waiting for Cousteau" excerpt, and the title track from 1988’s Revolutions. (The latter was actually "Revolution, Revolutions", the title track from the 1991 Revolutions reissue, which had removed Kudsi Erguner’s sampled ney flute part and substituted an Arabian singer and orchestra.)

Two fuller 2018 remixes were also presented. 1984’s "Zoolookologie" appeared in a new trance-inspired version, and there was a reworking of the 1982 live version of "Magnetic Fields Part 2" from Les Concerts en Chine (with crowd noise removed and new synth overdubs added).

The "Explorations and Early Works" section of the album contained two previously unavailable rare or unreleased tracks. One was "Aor Bleu" (part of a suite of compositions Jarre had developed while studying musique concrete with Pierre Schaeffer at Groupe de Recherches Musicales in the 1960s, and which he’d previously revisited as part of a masterclass in Bourges during 2002). The other was one of the pieces from the super-rare Musique pour Supermarché album, 1982’s single-copy art/collectable-commerce experiment. Although the latter track was billed as a demo, it was later identified as "Part 1" from the album.

All of the other rare tracks had been released seven years earlier on the Essentials & Rarities compilation. These comprised three more GRM-era pieces ("Happiness is a Sad Song" - originally produced for "Les Fêtes de la Jeunesse" in Reims in 1968 - and both sides of Jarre’s 1971 debut single "La Cage/Erosmachine"), two tracks from 1973’s Les Granges Brulees, and "Hypnose" (actually "Hypnose (Partie 2) Instrumental", the Jarre-written-and-performed b-side of a 1973 Dominique Webb synthpop single).

The compilation's release was accompanied by the announcement of Équinoxe Infinity, a 40th anniversary sequel to his 1978 album Équinoxe, due for release on November 16, 2018.

Track listing
Soundscapes

1. Oxygène, Pt. 1 (7:39)[10]
2. Oxygène, Pt. 19 (5:01)
3. First Rendez-Vous (2:55) (remastered)
4. Millions of Stars (5:39)
5. Chronology, Pt. 1 (3:23) (new "retouched" mix/edit of second movement)
6. Oxygène, Pt. 20 (5:30) (new "retouched" mix/edit, without intro
7. Équinoxe, Pt. 2 (5:01)
8. Waiting for Cousteau (3:00) (three-minute excerpt - new "retouched" mix)
9. The Heart of Noise (The Origin) (2:36)

Themes

1. Industrial Revolution, Pt. 2 (2:22) (remastered)
2. Oxygène, Pt. 4 (3:46)
3. Équinoxe, Pt. 5 (3:45)
4. Oxygène, Pt. 2 (5:25) (new "retouched" mix)
5. Zoolookologie (3:44) (new 2018 remix/reimagining)
6. Bells (2:05) (new "retouched" mix)
7. Équinoxe, Pt. 4 (5:32) (new "retouched" mix)
8. Magnetic Fields, Pt. 2 (3:58) (remix of Les Concerts en Chine live version with new studio overdubs)
9. Second Rendez-Vous (Laser Harp) (2:20)
10. Fourth Rendez-Vous (4:09) (remastered, new mix)
11. Chronology, Pt. 4 (4:08) (remastered, new mix)

Sequences

1. Coachella Opening (3:58) (later released as "The Opening (Movement 8)" on Equinoxe Infinity)
2. Arpegiator (6:15)
3. Automatic, Pt. 1 (2:58) (collaboration with Vince Clarke)
4. Exit (5:45) (collaboration with Edward Snowden)
5. Équinoxe, Pt. 7 (3:35) (new "retouched" mix)
6. Oxygène, Pt. 8 (5:24) (new 2018 remix/reimagining)
7. Stardust (4:37) (collaboration with Armin van Buuren)
8. Herbalizer (3:26) (new previously unreleased track)
9. Revolutions (3:23) (mislabelled – actually new "retouched" mix of "Revolution, Revolutions", title track from 1991 reissue of Revolutions album)

Explorations and Early works

1. Ethnicolor (3:30) (new "retouched" mix/edit of introduction)
2. Souvenir of China (Live) (4:00)
3. Blah Blah Cafe (3:22) (remastered)
4. Music for Supermarkets (Demo Excerpt) (2:04) (mislabelled – actually "Music for Supermarkets Part 1")
5. Roseland (Le pays de rose) (2:03)
6. La Cage (3:09)
7. Erosmachine (2:59)
8. Hypnose (3:27) (actually "Hypnose (Partie 2) Instrumental", b-side of 1973 Dominique Webb single)
9. La Chanson des Granges Brûlées (2:45)
10. Happiness Is a Sad Song (5:51)
11. Aor Bleu (3:09)
12. Last Rendez-Vous (4:08) (new "retouched" mix/edit of 2004 AERO version)

5.1 Tracks

1. Circus
2. Équinoxe 2
3. Équinoxe 5
4. Exit
5. Oxygène 15
6. Oxygène 17
7. Oxygène 2
8. Stardust
9. Switched on Leon
10. Opening
11. Souvenir of China
12. Zoolookologie

Deluxe edition featuring all 41 Tracks on 2 CD in a 6-page digipak including a 24 page full color booklet.

Irene Cara "What A Feelin'"

What a Feelin' is the second album by American singer-songwriter Irene Cara and her most successful album to date. Released in November 2, 1983, this album is dominated by dance-pop and Euro disco songs produced by the legendary producer Giorgio Moroder, unlike her R&B-heavy debut. Many of the songs were co-written by Cara herself. The album includes the major hit singles, "The Dream (Hold On to Your Dream)" (U.S. #37), "Flashdance... What a Feeling" (her only #1 hit in the U.S.), "Why Me?" (U.S. #13), "You Were Made for Me" (U.S. #78) and "Breakdance" (which was her third and last Top 10 single in the U.S., reaching #8).

Although the album was a success thanks to its singles, it struggled to stay in the top 100 of the Billboard Top 200 Albums. Music reviewer William Ruhlmann on Allmusic speculated that it was because the album was released at the end of 1983 and the lead-off single, "Flashdance... What a Feeling" had been released earlier that spring and people had already purchased either copies of the single or the best-selling soundtrack album to Flashdance.

"Flashdance....What a Feeling" was the first, although unofficial, single from the album and the theme song to the hit motion picture Flashdance, released in April 1983. It reached #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 on May 28, 1983 where it stayed for six weeks and was also a big hit around the world. "Why Me?" was the second, and first official, single released in October 1983. The single entered the Billboard Hot 100 on October 22, 1983 and charted for fifteen weeks, peaking at #13 on December 3, 1983. "The Dream (Hold on to Your Dream)" was the third single from the album and was featured in the film D.C. Cab. It entered the Billboard chart on December 10, 1983 and peaked at #37 on February 11, 1984, staying on the charts for a total of fourteen weeks.


"Breakdance" was the fourth single from the album, released in March 1984. It entered the chart on March 24, 1984 and charted for a total of nineteen weeks. It peaked at #8 on June 9, 1984, making it her third and last top ten hit on the pop chart. "You Were Made for Me" was the final single from the album and Cara's last charting song on the Billboard Hot 100. It entered the chart on July 28, 1984 and peaked at #78 on August 11 of that year. The song stayed on the charts for only five weeks.

Bruce Springsteen "Born In The U.S.A. (Single & Video)"

"Born in the U.S.A." is a 1984 song written and performed by Bruce Springsteen, and released on the album of the same name. One of Springsteen's best-known singles, Rolling Stone ranked the song 275th on their list of "The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time", and in 2001, the RIAA's Songs of the Century placed the song 59th (out of 365). The song addresses the harmful effects of the Vietnam War on Americans and the treatment of Vietnam veterans upon their return home. It is an ironic retort to the indifference and hostility with which Vietnam veterans were met.

This song was written in 1981 as the title song for a film that Paul Schrader was contemplating making and that Springsteen was considering starring in (Light of Day starring Michael J. Fox).  Springsteen thanks Schrader in the liner notes of the album "Born in the U.S.A.".

Casual home demos were made later that year, following the completion of The River Tour. A more formal solo acoustic guitar demo was made on January 3, 1982 at Springsteen's home in Colts Neck, New Jersey during the long session that constituted most of the Nebraska album released later that year. Acoustic versions of several other songs that eventually appeared on the Born in the U.S.A. album were also on this demo, including "Working on the Highway" and "Downbound Train". However, Springsteen manager/producer Jon Landau and others felt that the song did not have the right melody or music to match the lyrics, and also did not fit in well with the rest of the nascent Nebraska material. As a result, the song was shelved. (This version surfaced in the late 1990s on the Tracks and 18 Tracks outtake collections.)

In March 1982, Springsteen revived the song with a different melody line and musical structure. A full E Street Band version was recorded, with much of the arrangement made up on the spot, including Roy Bittan's opening synthesizer riff and what producer Chuck Plotkin nicknamed Max Weinberg's "exploding drums". The famous snare drum sound on this record, notable for its gated reverb, was obtained by engineer Toby Scott running the top snare microphone through a broken reverb plate with a fixed four-second decay and into a Kepex noise gate. This is the version that appeared on the Born in the U.S.A. album, a full two years later. The studio recording also originally ended with a lengthy jam session, which was later edited for the song's commercial release.


In a 1986 speaking engagement at the University of Georgia, Max Weinberg (drummer for the E Street Band) stated that "Born in the U.S.A." was his all-time favorite song that the band had recorded. Later, in a separate question and answer session, Weinberg explained that it was his favorite because the song was not written in advance for the various instrumental parts. After a grueling studio session while members of the band were in the booth at the sound board, one member of the band at a time returned to the recording area joining in to make up their own new parts to the song that had been intended as an acoustic guitar-only song. Even Springsteen came out and started singing vocals. It sounded so good that they did it again and recorded it. Without reviewing the recording, Springsteen said, let's do that one more time. So they recorded the second take (or the third time the unwritten version had ever been played). That second studio take was the CD release on the Born in the U.S.A. album.

The music video for "Born in the U.S.A." was directed by noted filmmaker John Sayles. It consisted of video concert footage of Springsteen and the E Street Band performing the song, poorly synchronized with audio from the studio recording. Released on November 28, 1984, there supposedly had not been enough time to mix the audio from the concert.


This footage was intermixed with compelling mid-1980s scenes of working-class America, emphasizing images that had some connection with the song, including Vietnam veterans, Amerasian children, assembly lines, oil refineries, cemeteries, and the like, finishing with a recreation of the album's cover, with a grizzled Springsteen posing in front of an American flag.

Bruce Springsteen "Dancing In The Dark (Single & Video)"

"Dancing in the Dark" is a song written and performed by American rock singer Bruce Springsteen. Adding uptempo synthesizer riffs to his sound for the first time, the song spent four weeks at number two on the Billboard Hot 100 and sold over one million singles in the U.S. It was the first single released from his 1984 album Born in the U.S.A.; it became his biggest hit and helped to propel the album to become the best-selling album of his career.

Directed by Brian De Palma, the video was shot at the Saint Paul Civic Center in Saint Paul, Minnesota, on June 28 and 29, 1984. The first night was a pure video shoot, the second was on the opening date of the Born in the U.S.A. Tour. Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band performed the song twice during that show to allow Brian De Palma to get all the footage he needed. The video is a straight performance video, with Springsteen not playing a guitar, allowing him to invite a young woman from the audience, performed by Courteney Cox, to dance along with him on the stage at the end. Although De Palma had told him that it was she whom he was supposed to select, Springsteen thought she was just a pre-selected fan attending and did not know until afterward that she was a professional actress, brought in from New York City, who had already played in As the World Turns. In September 1985, the video won the MTV Video Music Award for Best Stage Performance and was nominated for Best Overall Performance.

Bonnie Tyler "Free Spirit"

Free Spirit is the eleventh studio album by Welsh singer Bonnie Tyler. It was first released in 1995 by EastWest Records in Europe, and by Atlantic Records in the United States.

Tyler's three previous albums, Bitterblue (1991), Angel Heart (1992) and Silhouette in Red (1993), were released in Europe by Hansa Records. She signed to EastWest Records in 1994 and travelled to Los Angeles to record Free Spirit. Dieter Bohlen, Tyler's producer under Hansa, took her leave very personally, describing Free Spirit as "one of the most expensive flops in the history of EastWest."

Tyler first released the album in Europe through EastWest Records and in the United States through Atlantic Records. She recorded the Alan Parsons Project song "Limelight", which was used as an Olympic theme by ZDF, and featured on EastWest's Atlanta '96 - The Sound of Winners compilation album, in association with the 1996 Summer Olympics, which took place in Atlanta, Georgia. The song appeared on a re-release of Free Spirit in March 1996.


The Free Spirit Tour began on 1 April 1996, where Tyler performed 22 shows in Germany.