VIA PRESS RELEASE | The song’s official title is “Brand New Key,” although it’s just as well known as “the bicycle song,” “the roller-skates song,” and even (thanks to the Wurzels’ 1975 UK chart topper) “The Combine Harvester Song.” Whatever you want to call it, though, “Brand New Key” topped the US chart for a month at the beginning of 1972, and it remains many people’s point of entry to Melanie’s long, spectacular career.

Now, as “Brand New Key” reaches out to an entire new audience via the latest Apple Watch app ad, Cleopatra Records today release a unique version of the song, recorded live at New York City’s fabled DeMille Theatre in late 1971, just as the song commenced its headlong rush up the chart. The venue itself is noteworthy—Broadway had never hosted a straightforward rock or pop concert… but there again, Melanie’s concerts were rarely straightforward. Not with an audience as loyal and vocal.

Performing before a jam-packed crowd, themselves reveling in the unfamiliar surroundings of one of the city’s most legendary halls, Melanie was both launching her latest album, Gather Me, and celebrating her “Brand New Key”’s conquest of the airwaves—although nobody could have predicted just how successful (and career-defining) it would become.

Taken from the forthcoming (release date , July 17) live album First Nights On Broadway, “Brand New Key” opened the show, building out of a brief, but so delightful chorus of the old standard “Give My Regards To Broadway.” And, although the record had barely been in the stores for more than a few days, it was as if every person in the audience knew the song—the roar of applause that greets its opening lyric proves that.

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Supertramp is one of the many groups or artists who started in the late 1960s or early 1970s as artsy, offbeat, or even underground unknowns and, by sometime before the end of the 1970s, became multi-million-selling blockbuster album artists.

The British band released their self-titled debut album in 1970 and quickly followed up the next year with Indelibly Stamped, establishing them as a quirky and uncompromising group that created richly drawn albums of deeply thematic pieces, with indescribable music. Not quite prog, something more than jazzy or folk rock, the group’s music was something entirely new and original.

After a three-year hiatus, they released Crime of the Century, an album that was a massive leap forward, with such FM faves as “Bloody Well Right” and “Dreamer,” and a recording that immediately became an audiophile landmark as the first UHQR Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab release.

Their next album, Crisis? What Crisis? released the following year only further solidified their growing stature in the FM album rock world and set the stage for their massive commercial breakout. Even In The Quietest Moments…, released two years later and now available as one of three new Supertramp reissues, began the group’s ascension to massive breakout success, mostly due to the album’s opening track, the epic sing-song “Give a Little Bit,” which dominated FM radio at the time.

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I recently spoke with Martin Glover, AKA Youth—founding member and bassist of the legendary post-punk band Killing Joke, a pioneering producer, and one of the most influential sonic architects of the last four decades.

Beyond his work with the band, he’s shaped the sound of artists across genres—from The Orb, The Verve, and Paul McCartney to Kate Bush, Crowded House, Gina Birch, and Pink Floyd’s David Gilmour—blending experimental, dub, and atmospheric elements into a signature production style. His career bridges punk, mysticism, and radical creativity, making him one of the most singular figures in modern music.

We spoke about dimension-crossing experiences with Killing Joke, writing and production techniques, current work, and worldviews. Tune in.

Radar features discussions with artists and industry leaders who are creators and devotees of music and is produced by Dylan Hundley and The Vinyl District. Dylan Hundley is an artist and performer, and the co-creator and lead singer of Lulu Lewis and all things at Darling Black. She co-curates and hosts Salon Lulu which is a New York based multidisciplinary performance series. She is also a cast member of the iconic New York film Metropolitan.

Remembering Howlin’ Wolf, born on this day in 1910. —Ed.

Before we turn to a serious discussion of Chester Burnett aka Howlin’ Wolf, a true story about another wolf, last name Blitzer. A friend of a friend of his cousin’s friend who lives in Blitzer’s swank neighborhood in Bethesda, MD swears come one full moon night he watched a howling Blitzer lope naked across his backyard, in pursuit of a terrified deer. This friend of a friend of a cousin’s friend assumed it was just an acid flashback, but when he turned on CNN the next day he swears he saw flecks of blood in Wolf’s beard.

As for Howlin’ Wolf, he’s only one of the greatest blues musicians to ever walk Planet Earth. The Wolf could do it all: sing, play guitar and harmonica–hell, I betcha he could have rocked the blues on the hornucopian dronepipe had somebody handed him one. Thousands of people have paid homage to Howlin’ Wolf over the years, but my favorite encomium comes from the late Cub Koda of Brownsville Station, who said, “No one could match Howlin’ Wolf for the singular ability to rock the house down to the foundation while simultaneously scaring its patrons out of its wits.” Howlin’ Wolf and Wolf Blitzer have a lot in common.

There are better Howlin’ Wolf albums out there, but listeners have long been drawn to 1971’s The London Howlin’ Wolf Sessions on the basis of its who’s who cast of renowned musicians. Session attendees included Eric Clapton, long-time Howlin’ Wolf guitarist Hubert Sumin, Steve Winwood, sessions pianist extraordinaire Lafayette Leake, Charlie Watts, Ian Stewart, Ringo Starr, Bill Wyman, Klaus Voormann and some other guys whose names elude me at the moment.

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | Platinum-selling, Mercury Prize-winning, NME God Like Genius-certified giants of British independent music Suede announce Antidepressants: Expanded. The deluxe version of their critically acclaimed tenth album is due for release on July 10th via BMG. Alongside today’s announcement, Suede have released a brand new song titled, “Emotionally Unavailable.”

In addition to “Emotionally Unavailable,” Antidepressants: Expanded also features “Medication,” a pulsating new track previously unheard by UK audiences, as well as rarity tracks: “Dirty Looks,” “Sharpening Knives,” and “Overload.” The album also includes Antidepressants (Demos), 11 recordings of scratch tracks, demo takes and early mixes, giving fans the chance to hear how the rapturously received Antidepressants was made. The album will be released digitally and on 3CD.

“It seems to me that contemporary life has a kind of powder-keg feel,” says Suede frontman Brett Anderson. “A taut atmosphere, like there’s something explosive about to happen, a latent anger, a lurking darkness, a frustration that requires suppression. We are all striving for connection in a disconnected world.”

Antidepressants debuted at #2 in the Official UK Albums Chart and received top tier recognition in critics’ end of year lists, named by The Guardian, MOJO, Uncut Magazine, Record Collector, The Sun and more as an essential album of 2025.

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Remembering Trevor Bolder, born on this day in 1950. —Ed.

Despite what you may have heard or read, Glam Rock didn’t begin with Marc Bolan, David Bowie, or any other early seventies English rocker. It began long, long before that, during the Cretaceous Period, when dinosaurs ruled the Earth. Forget those plain and lumbering creatures you see on the Science Channel—those were the workaday dinosaurs. The real creatures, like Glittersaurus Rex and Giganotosaurus Glamii, were fashion queens and totally outrageous.

They knew theirs was a final age of decadence and lived it to the hilt, wearing mascara, eyeliner, feather boas, and fabulous neckpieces like the one Edgar Winter sports on They Only Come Out at Night. And glitter, of course—the terminal age dinosaurs adored glitter. On their faces, on their claws, and even on their thigh-high 8-inch platform boots, which made it impossible for them to run and are the reason they went extinct. Their elegy, if they can be said to have one, was uttered by David Bowie, who said, “If those dinosaurs were the spearhead of anything, it wasn’t necessarily the spearhead of anything good. Any era that allowed dinosaurs like them to become rampant was pretty well lost.”

But we’re not here to talk about dinosaurs, but about one of the greatest albums of all time. And not just Glam albums, but albums period. 1972’s The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars was a concept album recorded by rock’s premiere changeling—a skirt-wearing longhair oddball ex-mime named David Bowie, who decided that outrage was the name of the game and that the most fabulous route to stardom lay in dressing up like a mincing androgynous intergalactic space fop, come to spread the news of imminent apocalypse and the gospel of hazy cosmic jive.

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Remembering Jackie Wilson, born on this day in 1934. —Ed.

Singer Jackie Wilson landed a slew of hit singles in the 1950s and early ’60s with a sophisticated strain of R&B that crossed over to the pop charts. In 1967, he managed a sizable comeback with the song for which he is now likely best remembered, “(Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher and Higher.” The coinciding LP Higher and Higher, finds Wilson in strong form throughout with typically dynamic backing from members of the Funk Brothers.

To insinuate that Jackie Wilson is today a neglected figure would be ludicrous given how “(Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher and Higher” has endured as a musical staple. It feels safe to say I’ve heard this tidy platter of pop-soul uplift at least 50 times while shopping for groceries alone, a number that can be doubled (probably tripled) when taking oldies station rotation into account.

To be clear, Wilson has other killer songs in his body of work, and to expand on his importance, he’s a crucial figure in bringing an admittedly smooth and erudite strain of R&B to wider acceptance. In turn, he helped lay the groundwork for soul music of a refined variety. But here’s another flat fact: Wilson hasn’t been well served in the vinyl reissue market, perhaps in part because none of the full-length albums he cut have grown into consensus classics.

Wilson recorded over two dozen albums between 1958 and 1976, but only a small number made a dent in either the R&B or the pop charts. But just as germane to the issue is how that many LPs is a surefire recipe for an uneven discography, especially considering Wilson’s penchant for Broadway show tunes and straight schmaltz (a tendency spanning back to the ’50s that necessitated his comeback).

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | Curtis Mayfield’s Super Fly soundtrack pioneered socially aware soul in the early ’70s with its groundbreaking, orchestral-funk arrangements and unflinching lyrical commentary. Today, new audiophile editions are available from Rhino High Fidelity on reel-to-reel and vinyl.

Super Fly (Rhino High Fidelity R2R) was duplicated in real time from a 1:1 copy of the original analog master tape. The result is a master-quality listening experience that captures the full dynamics of the recording. The 15 i.p.s. half-track 1/4” tape is produced to the IEC equalization standard on premium RTM LPR90 tape stock and stored on a 10.5” metal reel. The Reel-to-Reel edition is limited to 350 copies worldwide and available exclusively at Rhino.com.

Super Fly (Rhino High Fidelity) was cut from the original master tapes by Kevin Gray and pressed on 180-gram black vinyl at Optimal in Germany. It comes in a glossy gatefold sleeve with newly written liner notes. The album is limited to 5,000 individually numbered copies and available exclusively at Rhino.com and select Warner Music Group stores internationally.

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Celebrating Nancy Sinatra on her 86th birthday. —Ed.

The pairing of singer Nancy Sinatra and singer-songwriter-producer Lee Hazlewood made for one of the 1960’s most delightfully unusual pairings, though the collaboration was a relatively short one, consisting of a slew of singles and a sole LP…until they reunited for a follow-up in 1972. Nancy & Lee Again is that album.

It might seem like the delayed nature of Nancy & Lee Again’s reissue is to some extent down to neglect on the part of the rights-holders, but please understand that the duo’s 1968 debut Nancy & Lee wasn’t given a standalone new edition until last year, also by Light in the Attic, the label that has, along with the Nancy Sinatra Archival Series, returned a fair portion of Hazlewood’s solo catalog to print since early last decade.

The main reason for Nancy & Lee’s belated appearance is due to the easy availability of the contents on compact disc, the entire record included on Rhino’s 1989 compilation Fairy Tales & Fantasies: The Best of Nancy & Lee. Plus, secondhand copies of the LP were easily findable (in varying degrees of condition, of course) in thrift shops, if not necessarily music stores. Unlike Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass’ Whipped Cream & Other Delights, Nancy & Lee wasn’t ubiquitous, but like Herb Alpert Presents Sergio Mendes & Brasil ’66 and The Association’s Greatest Hits!, it was quite a common find.

As these comparisons should help make clear, the descriptor of unusual isn’t interchangeable with strange. Now, anybody familiar with “Some Velvet Morning” and to a lesser extent, “Sand,” knows that pop psychedelic strangeness was part of Sinatra and Hazlewood’s stylistic bag. But weird took a back seat to playful C&W duets and proto-Vegas Middle-Of-The-Road-isms, with the palatability of both modes, and especially the latter, intensified by the combination of Sinatra’s youthful verve and Hazlewood’s buzzsaw tones and general eccentricity, a quality that was only laid on thick when it benefitted the song.

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