Diana Ross' glossy 1981-1987 tenure on RCA is the subject of this 18-track collection, which includes her hit tribute to the late Marvin Gaye, "Missing You." Other highlights include her cover of Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers' "Why Do Fools Fall in Love," "Mirror, Mirror," "Swept Away" and a solo version of the chart-topping "Endless Love".

A rendition of a tango operita, commissioned by the Argentinian Ministry of Culture (this rendition anyway), was revived by violinist Gidon Kremer, who had such a love for the original LPs from Piazzolla and Horacio Ferrer that he wanted to recreate the music. Ferrer was kept on as El Duende (the Goblin) – the role that he created when he wrote the libretto thirty years earlier. Regrettably, Piazzolla had passed on prior to the remake. Nonetheless, the arrangements and orchestrations are remarkable. The suffering and the passion of Maria (the main character in the show) are perfectly portrayed by the tango. The music changes forms as her character progresses, taking on traditional tangos, modern tangos, milongas, waltzes, and other styles to reflect changes in Maria. The music is always well-composed. This is an opera for the display of modern music, and the tango of Piazzolla is modern music at its finest.

Jah Wobble is perhaps the only man who could safely assume the mantle of the UK's King Of Dub. 'I Could Have Been A Contender' is the first true major retrospective that chronicles the entirety of Jah Wobble's dazzling career. Includes three PIL classics, 'Public Image', 'Poptones', & 'Death Disco'. Remastered three CD set featuring 37 tracks total.

R.E.M. abandoned the enigmatic post-punk experiments of Murmur for their second album, Reckoning, returning to their garage pop origins instead. Opening with the ringing "Harborcoat," Reckoning runs through a set of ten jangle pop songs that are different not only in sound but in style from the debut. Where Murmur was enigmatic in its sound, Reckoning is clear, which doesn't necessarily mean that the songs themselves are straightforward. Michael Stipe continues to sing powerful melodies without enunciating, but the band has a propulsive kick that makes the music vital and alive. And, if anything, the songwriting is more direct and memorable than before – the interweaving melodies of "Pretty Persuasion" and the country rocker "(Don't Go Back To) Rockville" are as affecting as the melancholic dirges of "Camera" and "Time After Time," while the ringing minor-key arpeggios of "So. Central Rain," the pulsating riffs of "7 Chinese Bros.," and the hard-rocking rhythms of "Little America" make the songs into classics. On the surface, Reckoning may not be as distinctive as Murmur, but the record's influence on underground American rock in the '80s was just as strong.

No composer looms over modern jazz quite like Johann Sebastian Bach, whose harmonic rigour seems to have provided the basis for bebop and all that followed. Listen to the endlessly mutating semiquavers tumbling from Charlie Parker’s saxophone and it could be the top line of a Bach fantasia; the jolting cycle of chords in John Coltrane’s Giant Steps could come straight from a Bach fugue and Bach’s contrapuntal techniques crop up in countless jazz pianists, from Bill Evans to Nina Simone. Bach certainly casts a long shadow over US pianist Brad Mehldau: even when he’s gently mutilating pieces by Radiohead, Nick Drake or the Beatles, he sounds like Glenn Gould ripping into the Goldberg Variations. Which is why it comes as no surprise to see Mehldau recording an entire album inspired by Bach. However, this is not a jazz album. Instead of riffing on Bach themes, as the likes of Jacques Loussier or the Modern Jazz Quartet have done in the past, After Bach sees Mehldau using Bach’s methodology. Mehldau plays five of Bach’s canonic 48 Preludes and Fugues, each followed by his own modern 21st-century response.

One of the greatest American soul music families in the history of R&B, Gladys Knight & The Pips elevated the world of soul music to higher heights through a long string of hits beginning in the mid 1960's including such classic recordings as "I Heard It Through The Grapevine" and "Midnight Train To Georgia." The act featured the amazing Gladys Knight on lead vocals, with The Pips, who included her brother Merald "Bubba" Knight and their cousins Edward Patten and William Guest, as backup singers. The group was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1996, the Vocal Group Hall of Fame in 2001 and received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Rhythm & Blues Foundation in 1998. Presented here is a compilation of some of the legendary group's earliest recordings, recorded just a few years before they would achieve world-wide fame. Originally recorded in 1962, all selections have been newly remastered.

Now and Then is the finest collection of de Burgh's greatest hits and also features a brand new track "Live For the Day" featuring Tina Yamout, a young Lebanese singer. Chris met Tina in Beirut last year when he performed on Star Academy, the most popular pan-Arab talent show, on which Tina was a finalist. Now and Then - features classic tracks from his entire career. They include: the hit song "Don't Pay The Ferryman", his number one single "The Lady in Red", which has sold more than 8 million copies worldwide; "Missing You", "High On Emotion", "When I Think Of You", "The Words "I Love You"", "A Spaceman Came Travelling" and many more of his best-known songs.

Sixto Diaz Rodriguez (July 10, 1942 – August 8, 2023), mononymously known as Rodríguez, was an American musician from Detroit, Michigan. His music career initially proved disappointing in the United States, but unknown to Rodriguez his albums became extremely successful and influential in South Africa, where he is believed to have sold more records than Elvis Presley. His work also found a following in some other countries in Africa, and also in Australia and New Zealand. Because information about him was scarce, it was incorrectly rumored there that he had committed suicide shortly after releasing his second album. In the 1990s, determined South African fans managed to find and contact Rodriguez, which led to an unexpected revival of his musical career. This was told in the 2012 Academy Award–winning documentary film Searching for Sugar Man and helped give Rodriguez a measure of fame in his home country.

Forrest Gump (1994) is one of the most successful films ever made, winning Tom Hanks his second successive Best Actor Oscar (he won the previous year for Philadelphia) as well as claiming the Best Picture Oscar and many other awards and nominations, including several for music. A unique fable of American life from the 1950s to the 80s, the film blends comedy, drama, war, romance and groundbreaking special effects into a social and political portrait of the passing years, all seen through the eyes of the intellectually challenged but immensely likeable Forrest Gump. The soundtrack is a double album featuring 31 classic pop tunes plus a suite from Alan Silvestri's rich orchestral music, represented more completely on the companion score album.

The Motets of Willaert have a mysterious reputation as they were originally performed only in clandestine circles for a few initiates until Alfonso II d’Este had a collection published in 1559 (Musica Nova, Venice). Singer Pur are a world renowned a capella singing group with a large audience and following. They have won many international competitions, and have appeared on numerous TV shows. The ensemble is stylistically diverse performing music from the medieval right up to the avant-garde.

A fairly standard trawl through Lene Lovich's back pages, rounding up all the hits and near misses that punctuated her four years at Stiff Records, backed up by more choice album cuts than one might remember there being. For obvious reasons, the Stateless debut album predominates here, with the manic flurry of "Lucky Number," "Say When," and "I Think We're Alone Now" positively refusing to leave your head once you've heard them again. Moving on, the enthralling "Bird Song" reminds you what Kate Bush once seemed capable of accomplishing (at least until Hazel O'Connor came along and devalued the whole thing), while a delicious cover of Frankie Valli's "The Night" still out-dramas any other version you could name. Lovich's later years, however, still sound as unremarkable as her early releases were astonishing, with the annoying "New Toy" single, and 1982's barely memorable "It's You (Only You)" closing the chronology in disappointing fashion. For anyone uncertain about rushing into Stateless itself, however, this is where you test the water. You'll be plunging in at the deep end soon enough.

Like everything on Memphis Slim's album Goin' Back to Tennessee or Alvin Youngblood Hart's "Tallacatcha" (a Western swing performance worthy of Bob Wills), Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown's 1975 Barclay album Down South in the Bayou Country completely transcends any and all attempts to confine this diverse artist within the artificial parameters of blues or any other preordained category. Consisting mostly of songs written by Hoyt Garrick, Jr., Charles Gressett, and David Craig with additional tunes by J. Loyd and Joe Stampley, this pretty parfait of country & western, Southern rock, cowboy hoedown, and electric Cajun soul music was recorded during February and March 1974 in Bogalusa, LA. Gatemouth, fresh from his tenure as Deputy Sheriff of San Juan County, NM, sounds particularly pleased to be active at the center of a project so completely infused with authentic Southern sensibilities. Perhaps the most satisfying track off of the original album is "Loup Garou." This hoodoo funk ritual with background vocals by Geraldine "Sister Gerry" Richard sounds as if it might have been influenced by Dr. John's "Loop Garoo," which had appeared on that artist's Atco album Remedies in 1970.

The Norwegian vocalist Karin Krog is described by the Penguin Guide To Jazz On CD as "one of Europe's most stylish and significant jazz singers." This duo session recorded with John Surman in 1976 began a professional relationship with Surman that has continued to this day. Available now for the first time on CD the session is notable for Krog's expressive and technically astute voice, her advanced musical ideas and Surman's use of acoustic instrumentation (saxes and clarinet) combined with electronics (moog and other synthesizers).

Definitely Maybe is the debut studio album by the English rock band Oasis, released on 29 August 1994 by Creation Records. It was an immediate commercial and critical success in the UK, having followed on the heels of singles "Supersonic", "Shakermaker" and "Live Forever". The album helped to spur a revitalisation in British pop music in the nineties and was embraced by critics for its optimistic themes and supposed rebuttal of the downtrodden fatalism evident in the dominant grunge music of the time. Definitely Maybe is regarded as a seminal record of the Britpop scene, and has appeared in many publications' 'best of' lists. The album is also popular among audiences: in June 2006, NME magazine conducted a readers' poll in which it was voted the greatest album of all time.

72 Tracks. Whitney Houston, Aretha Franklin, Toni Braxton, Billie Holiday, Bonnie Tyler, Nina Simone, Britney Spears, Celine Dion, Gladys Knight, Jennifer Rush, Anastacia, Dionne Warwick, Alison Moyet, Etta James, Rita Ora, Bette Midler, Alicia Keys, Chaka Khan, Leona Lewis, Pink, Eartha Kitt, Avril Lavigne, Sarah McLachlan, Carly Simon, Aaliyah, Delta Goodrem, Labelle, Gossip and more, and many more…