Unreleased Songs, Deluxe Editions, and the Future of Catalog Music
Picture it. It’s 2012. I’m sitting on Music Row in the office of Rolling Thunder Management trying to figure out how to get a few albums my friend Deborah Allen recorded for Capitol Records, RCA Records, and Giant Records onto digital music platforms. Spotify was just getting started. Apple Music didn’t exist yet. iTunes was king.
I started calling the “big three” labels, searching LinkedIn, digging through credits — anything to find the right person. Most calls went nowhere. Eventually, I connected with someone at Warner Music Group who could help with Deborah’s Giant Records albums and music videos. Progress. But what about her 1976 single “Do You Copy”? Unclear. Still, at least we had momentum.
The RCA albums were controlled by Sony Music. The Capitol album was caught in the EMI acquisition by Universal. One contact disappeared in the corporate shuffle. Another told me Deborah’s manager had to reach out directly. He did. Nothing. We hit a wall.
So I let it go.
Fast forward ten years.
I found the email address for a publicist at Legacy Recordings, Sony Music’s catalog arm. Deborah reached out. After some back and forth, we were introduced to Timothy J. Smith, then Director of A&R, Catalog Research and Development. He immediately saw the opportunity. Not only did he help get Telepathy and Let Me Be The First reissued digitally, he uncovered bonus material I had researched and helped assemble a digital EP around “Telepathy,” written and produced by Prince.
When I later met Timothy at the Sony Music building on Madison Avenue, something clicked: there is so much great music sitting in vaults that deserves a second life.
I went home and started building wish lists. Martina McBride. Mary Chapin Carpenter. Faith Hill. Patty Loveless. K.T. Oslin. Trisha Yearwood. Discogs became my rabbit hole. eBay helped fill in gaps. International editions. Promo-only releases. Out-of-print bonus tracks. The deeper I dug, the more I realized how much incredible material had quietly disappeared.
I even shared a detailed catalog list with Trisha. She told me it was invaluable — that many on her team are younger and wouldn’t even know to look for these releases. That conversation gave me hope that artists may eventually revisit their archives.
Recently, Reba’s team released a 30th Anniversary edition of Starting Over, including the long-rumored recording of Linda Ronstadt’s “Heat Wave” that had sat unreleased for decades. When it finally surfaced, I streamed it nonstop — it became my #2 most-played song of 2025 on Apple Music. Proof that fans are hungry for this material.
Just last night, I attended a Trisha Yearwood event at the Country Music Hall of Fame. (Thanks, Matt!) She mentioned that she tends to “over-cut” albums — recording more songs than make the final tracklist. Music sitting in vaults. Waiting.
And here’s the thing:
Artists, the appetite is real.
Some may say, “If it wasn’t released then, there was a reason.” Maybe. But time has a funny way of reshaping art. Sometimes the years are kinder than we think.
If revisiting your catalog feels overwhelming, there are people who specialize in this work. Timothy has since launched Super Visible Multi Media after leaving Sony in February of last year, helping artists like Kristen Hall, Bill Quateman, and Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes, estates of artists like Jim Reeves and Freddy Fender, among others bring unreleased or out-of-print music to digital platforms.
The vault doesn’t have to stay closed.
