Gone Digital: Little Richard, Screamin’ Jay Hawkins, Eddie Floyd, and more

It’s a new year, which means that it’s a good time for us to kick off a new column here at Rhino.com: it’s called Gone Digital, and it’s a weekly look at five recent additions to Rhino’s digital catalog. This week is – as we expect it’ll regularly be – all over the place in terms of the sort of material we’re spotlighting, but that’s Rhino for you: we’re all about variety!

•    Little Richard, THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO LITTLE RICHARD EP: To clarify the history of this EP, it’s actually a combination of two singles Richard released in 1962 – “Travelin’ Shoes” and “Crying in the Chapel” – which were subsequently combined and reissued in 1965 as the HOLE IN THE WALL EP. In fact, that’s effectively what this is, since it’s the exact same track listing as that EP, but after 55 years, doesn’t it deserve a snazzy new title?

•    Screamin’ Jay Hawkins, A HARD DAY’S NIGHT [TAKE 2]: Appropriately, the 10 songs on this compilation date predominantly from 1964, including the single “The Whammy” and its B-side, “Strange.” The remainder of the tracks, however, seemingly made their debut on the 1997 Sequel Records compilation LOTTA BOPPIN’ (AND PLENTY SCREAMIN’ TOO!) – ROULETTE ROCK ‘N’ ROLL, VOLUME 4.

•    Eddie Floyd, “Big Bird” single: You may think, “What’s the big deal about ‘Big Bird’ being available digitally? It’s been available for awhile, and on several different compilations!” This is true. But what isn’t otherwise available is the B-side, “Good Love, Bad Love,” so now’s your big chance to check that one out!

•    The Delgados, THE LAZARWALKER EP: This Scottish indie band found a fast fan in legendary UK DJ John Peel with the release of their first single, 1995’s “Monica Webster.” They followed this with THE LAZARWALKER EP the following year, but because of label woes, they ended up on a new label, Radar, for this release.

• Badfinger, SHINE ON: BADFINGER 1974: The title of this digital release is a little misleading, in that it suggests that it’s solely Badfinger’s compilation album, SHINE ON. In fact, this is a compilation, but it’s a compilation featuring the two albums released by Badfinger in 1974 – their self-titled album and WISH YOU WERE HERE – and you will be thrilled to learn that it’s the expanded versions of the albums that were reissued through Real Gone Records in 2018. Enjoy the bonus tracks!